_ MUSIC ) vcoumnv I
fries. .. _
I Stretchheas: 23 Skinner
' (Blast First) The weird
bunch ride again. but
they've learnt a few new
tricks since the unleashing ofthcir Five Fingers. . .
album. The B-side ofthis
El’. the cutely named ‘Houscwife Up Yer Fuckin Arse Music' retains their familiar abrasive sound (the most psychotic this side ofold Butthole Surfers records)
andcomplainsloudly
: about the YearofC‘ulture: butonthe A-sidethey
é weighin withagenuine
groove. the shrieks of
vocalist P6 replaced by
; sampled shouts of 'Africa‘ and, just to show they
haven‘tforgottenthcir
roots. ‘fast and bulbous‘. What with a segue into a gloriously tacky run- through of the Rhoda signature tune and then another segue into a dark minute of percussion only. a listen through this EP is a mood-altering experience. Pester your local record emporium. (AM)
I Ego Minelield: Fearol Felling (Danceiine)/33rd Hurricane: What's That Noise (Good Council) Two new bands from Donegal. Of the two. I prefer Ego Minefield. despite the name. ‘Fear of Falling' is spirited and a bit chanty. though they hold that tendency in check. and the dance mix on the flipside sweeps away any impressions of solemnity. Meanwhile. 33rd Hurricane have important
pronouncementstomake. E Theylunge out ofthe
speakers. crying ‘D'you know there‘s people dying out there'?‘. and leave me grateful that they didn't
when you can do it. (AM)
ROCK & BLUES 36 JAZZ 38 FOLK & WORLD 40 CLASSICAL 42
At the end at a year that saw a hearty resurgence in the lortunes at that
one black sheep - or should that be black stallion? - returned to the ow stable a-kickin’ and a-buckin’. ‘0’ magazine’s round-up ol the best country albums oi 1990 may have pinned down newcomers and pigeonhoIe-shakers Clint Black and Garth Brooks, but it also gave prominence to Texas’ linest, Joe Ely.
Ely’s third decade in the biz was marked by his triumphai, boot-shaking live album, ‘Live at Liberty Lunch’. Here, Ely’s maverick bent towards the rootsy roots at country rock- like a cleaner, less hirsute Steve Earle— gets lull reign, replete with the kind at guitar breaks that would give Nashviliian purists a dose at the sweats.
It is such ‘perversity’ that has both helped and hindered his career ever since his solo debut in 1977. Two years on lrom that, perhaps recognising a renegade stance in Ely akin to the prevailing punk ethos, The Clash invited the Joe Ely Band to support them on their European tour. The boy lrom Lubbock, Texas met a hail oi projectile phlegm and Ely and the country establishment- and commercial acceptance —would never be willing bedlellows again.
In the mid-80s Ely’s career wandered into the wilderness. The band lractured and MCA declined to pick up the option when his eight-year contract expired. Two albums on Demon came and went, and while the stars at New Country-
catch-all genre they call country music, 1
Earle, Lovell, Yoakam, Lang — rose to prominence, Ely seemed tell by the wayside along with Parton, Begley and all the other 1970s anachronisms.
But in 1990 he returned to the tray. At the Cambridge Folk Festival in July he was in line, uncompromising lorm, and the same live vigour sparkles on ‘Liberly Lunch’. As the man says, ‘Il people have enough time to get out at their houses to see a hand, I’m going to give it every ounce that I’ve got, lor every single show. You can count on it.’ (Craig McLean)
Joe Ely supports Robert Cray at the Playhouse, Edinburgh on Sun 20.
V JAZZ
i
l
Guitar greats
instrument; it was only with the sadly inadequately recorded innovations ol
. Charlie Christian, notably in his spell
with the Benny Goodman band in the late 1930s, that the instrument really began to register as a lront-Iine solo voice.
Both bebop and the more mellow
l Cool styles liberated the guitar as a jazz
instrument, and Kessel was one at the players who were able to capitalise on
Lubbock to death 5
Bold as brass
Joe Alexander finds the
big band sound alive and : well and livingin , Copenhagen. but finds a i dearth ofconcert
l have the cash to make this “J ’ - . 3 intothe overblown epicit ‘5 ; ; mm qgvelopmem' bum gs a Penormmg : presentatlons [O 586 j threatens ,0 be. The m, E i ; muSIcian (including a stintwith the ; . _ I ‘ h [rack ,5. mg. {my 0m, .— i i Oscar Peterson Trio) and in the studio. ' Scottish jazz fans throug ‘ exploits the current vogue ‘2 1 i His style. which could occasionally E the winter_ for buffaloes. lt plods. but —J i i seem a little lightweight (possiblythe : gracefully. mesh “BC the i ; legacy of too much dull studio work), g _ hm“ “5“” NC“ in“ : ‘ combined a distinctly boppish leel with Both musical fashion and economic
I The Sandmen: Bullan EP (Sand) lndie-dance meets hippy-goth. The Sandmen give it loads of wah-wah and blab on about coming together. tying it up as
neatly asthey can withthe kindofpropulsion which gives the impression that
they might have been
thinkingof how lobrcak into the Mondays market
asdiscreetly as possible. Or maybe that's Just the
wayl'mperceivingeycry singlcthcsc days. Next.
(AM)
34'lhel.is! ll ii
.latiiian i‘Nl
MUSIC
Barney Kessel The guitar has now become lirme 2 established as a major contributorto l the instrumentalvocabulary olmodern jazz, but when guitarist Barney Kessel began to make his mark on the West Coast jazz scene back in the 1940s— his iirst job with a name band was in an outlit lronted by Chico Marx-the instrument was still in its inlancy in jazzterms.
The banjo had been the lavoured string instrument in early jazz, and the swing bands at the 1930s had adopted
guitar largely as an additional rhythm
a heavy underpinning from the blues, both still detectable today.
Kessel is probably best known here as one-third ol the Great Guitars trio with Herb Ellis and Charlie Byrd, but will be appearing in a duo with Ayr-based guitarist Martin Taylorthis time around. Taylor deputised lor Byrd on the last Great Guitars tour, and admits that he is looking lorward to playing once again with a player who inlluenced his own direction when he iirst began exploring jazz on the instrument. (Kenny Mathieson) Barney Kessel and Martin Taylor play the Renlrew Ferry on Fri 18.
realities ran against the once-powerful tide of big-band music a long time ago. but these facts 5 have never deterred the remarkable Danish Radio Big Band. The golden age of the big bands ended with the Second World War. but if the number ofoutfits carrying the music forward diminished. there were many flag-bearers who ensured that it did not simply survive. but also developed.
Trumpeter and arranger Thad I Jones was undoubtedly in that mould, and his spirit still presides over the 2()-strong Danish Radio Bigj