CD REVIEWS: Fast ’n’ Bulbous, Najma Akhtar and Gary Lucas, Bill Frisell, Eldar, The Microscopic Septet

Fast ’n’ Bulbous
Waxed Oop
Cuneiform
www.cuneiformrecords.com
It’s debatable whether or not the music of Don Van Vliet, better known as Captain Beefheart, ever sounded as compelling as it does here, played by a group of avant-rock and jazz musicians who not only pay tribute to the composer and cult-rocker’s idiosyncratic genius, but celebrate his influence and legacy. Lead instigator Gary Lucas, who played guitar in the final incarnation of Beefheart’s Magic Band, steers the proceedings deftly on electric and National steel guitars, and saxophonist Phillip Johnston leads a horn section that assumes the role of lead vocalist on songs that range from backwoods country to R&B to avant-blues to swamp-rock to pure Beefheartiana. Given the choice, I’d rather listen to the witty, joyous Fast ’n’ Bulbous than Beefheart himself.

Najma Akhtar and Gary Lucas
Rishte
World Village
www.worldvillagemusic.com
On paper this collaboration doesn’t exactly sound promising. Najma Akhtar is a classically trained Indian vocalist who specializes in traditional ghazals (Urdu love poems) and Bollywood soundtracks; Gary Lucas is known for his unique guitar style that draws equally from American roots, avant-rock, and experimental music, most notably in the employ of Captain Beefheart and Jeff Buckley. But music isn’t heard on paper, and as it turns out Akhtar’s heavenly, soaring voice and Lucas’s chameleon-like guitar sound beautiful together on this curious, haunting duet album. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, given the musicians’ affinity for modal drones, found in Indian music and American blues and folk, and showcased here in a stunning rendition of Skip James’s “Special Rider Blues.”

Bill Frisell
Disfarmer
Nonesuch
www.nonesuch.com
With ace collaborators Jenny Scheinman (violin), Greg Leisz (steel guitar, mandolin), and Viktor Krauss (bass), guitarist/composer Bill Frisell paints an evocative portrait of mid-twentieth-century rural America, inspired by the compellingly stark photographs of Arkansan outsider artist Michael Disfarmer. It’s no big surprise that Frisell could pull off such a project; he’s that most cinematic of composers, a rare stylist whose distinctive touch resonates with echoes of generations of Americana. Scheinman, in particular, is his foil here; the two are musical siblings in their devotion to American tradition and to warping that tradition through a contemporary lens. The quartet even tackles a version of “That’s Alright, Mama,” which has one foot in bluegrass and the other in the avant-garde.

Eldar
Virtue
Masterworks Jazz
www.sonymasterworks.com
It’s hard to believe that Eldar is only twenty-two years old, so assured is the pianist, composer, and leader on this trio album, his fourth for Sony, featuring formidable guest soloists such as saxophonist Joshua Redman and trumpeter Nicholas Payton. The Kyrgyz-born Eldar Djangirov, who now calls New York City home, boasts virtuoso chops and an eclectic musical palette that in a single number, such as “Blues Sketch in Clave,” variously recalls Bill Evans, prog-rock, Pat Metheny, and Medeski, Martin and Wood. Bassist Armando Gola may be the secret ingredient here pushing Eldar to jazz-funk heights. If occasionally the effort begins to veer toward the ear-candy fusion sounds of Spyro Gyra or the Yellowjackets, Gola lays down the funky bottom and Eldar’s integrity as a composer and accomplished musician outs itself, especially on more lyrical numbers such as “Estate” and “Iris.” And that’s virtue enough.

The Microscopic Septet
Lobster Leaps In
Cuneiform
www.cuneiformrecords.com
Since its founding in 1980 by saxophonist/composer Phillip Johnston, the Microscopic Septet has been the missing link between experimental music and jazz as it originally was known—popular music intended for dancing and celebration. That spirit is revived here, on the group’s reunion album, its first recording of new music in twenty years. With its front line of four saxophones backed by a piano trio, the group is a swinging, versatile organism, reveling in the sound of chromatic harmony and the sheer joy of blowing. The Micros, well-known for their serious whimsy (and for composing the theme song to the National Public Radio talk show, Fresh Air), pull off the near-impossible task of melding jump blues, swing, Afro-Cuban, and free jazz on a recording that is equal parts fun and timeless virtuosity.

Freedy Johnston
Rain on the City
Bar None
www.bar-none.com
The first album of original songs by Freedy Johnston in eight years was most definitely worth the wait. Rain on the City reminds us why we fell in love with the bard of disappointment upon first hearing Can You Fly back in 1992. He was alt-country before there was alt-country; Americana before there was such a chart; depressed way before No Depression. The Kansan-by-way-of-Hoboken, New Jersey, lets us know what fun it is to listen to a latter-day Buddy Holly who hides tales of tension and heartbreak in joyful rockabilly tunes with catchy melodies and heartfelt vocals, such as “It’s Gonna Come Back to You,” or in the unplugged, Phil Spector-like romance-by-way-of-Bruce Springsteen “The Other Side of Love.” The perfect antidote for an overdose of Valentine’s Day. [JAN/FEB 2010]