Robert Baird

Recording of October 2016: Lovers
Recording of the Month
Robert Baird  |  Sep 22, 2016  |  2 comments
Nels Cline: Lovers
Nels Cline, electric & acoustic guitars, lap steel, effects; Charles Pillow, C & alto & bass flutes, oboe, English horn, B-flat clarinet, alto saxophone; Steven Bernstein, Taylor Haskins, others, trumpet, flugelhorn, trombone; Julian Lage, guitar; Yuka C. Honda, celeste, Juno 60; Devin Hoff, contrabass, bass guitar; Alex Cline, drums, percussion; Kenny Wolleson, vibraphone, marimba, percussion; Michael Leonhart, arr., conductor; many others.
Blue Note 8002505102 (2 CDs). 2016. David Breskin, prod.; Ron Saint Germain, eng. DDD? TT: 90:02
Performance ****½
Sonics ****½

There's an old saying about music written for films and the stage: It's so lush and tuneful that it's almost too schmaltzy to be heard without accompanying visuals. Add to that the suspicion that many so-called "out" jazz cats—guys with outsize reputations as loud, atonal shredders of the brainiac variety, blinding talents who prefer endless effects and generally play unhinged and far away from the melody—are really, under all the noise, big softies. There you have the story of Lovers.

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Jungle Boogie
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 18, 2016  |  3 comments
And as the Beatles later mused, he’d done it alone.
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Crushed
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Sep 09, 2016  |  0 comments
A new CD/MP3 by Los Angeles-based Omnivore Records, a reissue label that’s growing more interesting with each release,
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Rudy in Birdland
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 29, 2016  |  4 comments
Art Blakey’s A Night At Birdland, Vol. 1 remains a landmark of both bebop and the earliest live recordings of jazz in a club setting.
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Roscoe's Return
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 20, 2016  |  1 comments
Eric "Roscoe" Ambel has even owned a much beloved but now sadly shuttered bar in the East Village called Lakeside Lounge, from which he salvaged the name for his record label.
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Ribot vs The Sound of Philadelphia
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 19, 2016  |  1 comments
The entire seven-track session slides into a groove after a few songs and stays comfortably there.
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Recording of September 2016: . . It's Too Late to Stop Now . . . Volumes II, III, IV & DVD
Recording of the Month
Robert Baird  |  Aug 18, 2016  |  3 comments
Van Morrison: . . It's Too Late to Stop Now . . . Volumes II, III, IV & DVD
Exile/Columbia/Legacy 88875134742 (2 LPs, 3 CDs, 1 DVD). 2016. Van Morrison, Ted Templeton, orig. prods.; Donn Landee, orig. eng.; Myles Wiener, Biff Dawes, Jack Crymes, Gabby Garcia, asst. engs.; Guy Massey, new remix; Andrew Sandoval, compilation prod.; Vic Anesini, remastering. ADA/ADD? TT: 3:33:58
Performance *****
Sonics ****

In the otherwise silly 2002 film The Banger Sisters, one line has always stood out. When the children of a groupie turned suburban Phoenix housewife (Susan Sarandon) question Suzette (Goldie Hawn), who's still living the groupie lifestyle, about their mom's hidden past and how she knows about the Doors, there's this exchange:

Daughter: "How would she know about Van Morrison . . . all of a sudden?"

Hawn: "Jim Morrison, not Van Morrison. Jeez."

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Europe's Best Vinyl Shopping?
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 13, 2016  |  3 comments
The vinyl LP shopping in Amsterdam is as good as anywhere I’ve ever been outside Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
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Case/Lang/Veirs
Robert Baird
Robert Baird  |  Aug 12, 2016  |  0 comments
This is easily the best thing any of the three have done in many years.
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Bill Lloyd: Power Pop Icon
Interviews
Robert Baird  |  Aug 02, 2016  |  1 comments
In writing for magazines, there's a basic rule: Don't become the subject. And in writing about the arts, it's best to remember that you aren't in the music business or the film business: you're in the publishing business. Despite this, there are arts writers who fancy they're a part of the world they write about. All famous musicians are their "friends." The music business values their opinions. They're caught up in the delusion that the Rolling Stones sang about so deliciously in "Star Star," the closing number on Goats Head Soup.
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