vinyl Archive
11 Mar 2019
They Showed Us: ‘The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands’ at 40
By the beginning of 1968, the concept album was very much in vogue; the form was in its ascendancy, with high-profile releases like the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds (released May 1966), the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (released May 1967), The Who Sell Out (December ‘67) and the Moody Blues’ Days of Future
08 Mar 2019
Way Out West with Sonny Rollins, Part Four
Continued from Part Three… You were 26 years old when you made Way Out West, but you had recorded nearly a dozen albums by that time. In those days, did you view recording sessions as a means of documenting a live performance, or was working in the studio different from playing live? I started recording
07 Mar 2019
Way Out West with Sonny Rollins, Part Three
Continued from Part Two… Lester Koenig’s original liner note essay on the back of the Way Out West record sleeve explains that you had never played or recorded with Shelly Manne or Ray Brown before the session. How did you come to know of each of them and choose them for the Way Out West
06 Mar 2019
Way Out West with Sonny Rollins, Part Two
Continued from Part One… Subsequent CD-era reissues of Way Out West have included various previously-unreleased outtakes from the late-night recording sessions, but for the 2018 vinyl reissue, another unheard recording of “There is No Greater Love” has been added to the second LP. This alternate take gives the number a slightly more subtle reading, but
05 Mar 2019
Way Out West with Sonny Rollins, Part One
With its unusual cover photo and its non-standard trio format, Sonny Rollins’s 1957 album Way Out West stands apart from the jazz releases of its era. Sixty years after its release, Way Out West is widely recognized as an important landmark in both the career of the Harlem-born tenor saxophonist and in the history of
31 Dec 2018
Musoscribe’s Best of 2018
Even having shifted my focus these last few years toward interviews and feature writing, I still manage to listen to and review quite a few albums. In one form or another, I covered some 170 albums of new music in 2018. It’s no surprise that a few have risen to the top, deemed worthy of
22 Dec 2018
A Vinyl Roundup to Round Out 2018
So much good music has found its way into my ears in 2018. As the year winds toward its close, I’d like to share words on a few of these with you. All titles noted below are on vinyl (LP or 7′ 45 RPM single). Wes Hollywood – Dynamite It was more than six and
17 Dec 2018
Album Review: Semisonic — Feeling Strangely Fine (20th Aniv. Edition)
Certain music becomes an exemplar of the time in which it was made and released. If the artist involved is lucky, that music not only evokes memories of that period, but also withstands the test of time. To qualify for the latter, the music must somehow avoid at least some of the trappings of its
09 Nov 2018
Album Review: Dave Brubeck — Time In
The opening solo piano strains of “Last Waltz,” the opening track on Dave Brubeck’s 1966 LP Time In are lovely enough. But they suggest that the album is going to be a somewhat staid, fussy and classically-leaning collection of songs. Certainly, there’s nothing wrong with that; Brubeck has always been a master of many styles.
08 Nov 2018
Notable Vinyl Releases, Part Three
These quick reviews cover an assorted lot: two compilations, a reissue and a 45rpm single all in needle-hits-groove physical format. Warren Zevon – My Ride’s Here If you only know a few things about Zevon, it’s that he did “Werewolves of London,” that he had a celebrated sardonic sense of humor (imagine a rock-oriented Randy