Utne Reader Music Reviews: March-April 2009

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A Twist on Tradition
Watts by Jeff “Tain” Watts (Dark Key)

The “Marsalis mafia” of young musical neoconservatives who took jazz by storm in the ’80s keep making vibrant, piquant music that both challenges and enriches tradition. (If only the political neocons had half as much sense and historical scholarship.) On Watts, drummer “Tain” Watts delivers original compositions that variously enable saxophonist Branford Marsalis and trumpeter Terence Blanchard to joust over rugged post-bop and revel in their New Orleans heritage. Watts is a creatively turbulent timekeeper who pays heed to the tom-tom and bass drums as much as to the cymbals and snares. He turns himself up in the mix and completes the quartet with stentorian superbassist Christian McBride as a worthy rhythmic foil. —Britt Robson

Rustling Up Roots
River of Time by Jorma Kaukonen (Red House)

As a cofounder of Jefferson Airplane, Jorma Kaukonen saw Haight-Ashbury up close and personal. River of Time shows him to be less an acid casualty than a wizened craftsman, however, and this wonderfully intimate, hand-sewn quilt of blues, country, and other roots music chestnuts and originals is geared more for a winter snuggle than for a summer of love. Covers of Merle Haggard and the Grateful Dead pale in comparison to the loving strings and vocal incantations Kaukonen uses to call forth the bucolic spirituality of his mentor, the Reverend Gary Davis, on “There’s a Bright Side Somewhere,” and Mississippi John Hurt, on “Preachin’ on the Old Campground.” Kaukonen captures the essence of this music without being mawkish or flippant, instinctively nestling into the right blend of modesty and authority. —B.R.

Utne Reader Approved

What happens when a German-born trumpeter collaborates with a Senegalese singer and player of the kora, a gourd guitar? In the case of Sira (ObliqSound) by Ablaye Cissoko and Volker Goetze, magic strikes and a rare cross-cultural gem is created.

On Ray Guns are not Just the Future (Blue Note), the party-girl/synth-geek duo the Bird and the Bee deliver quirky lounge ballads, awkwardly charming dance-floor invitations, even a paean to David Lee Roth. Sexy and infectiously catchy pop.

Parish Bar (Compass) by Jeb Loy Nichols captures the loose-limbed versatility of a guy who grows his own food on a Welsh farm, makes woodcuts in honor of heroes like hip-hop pioneer Afrika Bambaataa, and isn’t afraid to mate country and disco.

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