modern harmonic Archive
07 Dec 2020
Album Review: The Whit Boyd Combo — Party Girls OST
Admittedly, it requires a certain kind of sense of humor to appreciate such a thing, but as fate would have it, I’m just such a person. So as out-there as the context might be, I now count myself as a fan of what has been (somewhat arbitrarily) dubbed the Whit Boyd Combo. As the liner
08 May 2020
Album Review: Nancy Priddy — You’ve Come This Way Before
In 1967, a young singer named Nancy Lee Priddy was part of a group of musicians assembled to assist in the making of Songs of Leonard Cohen, the debut release by the Canadian songwriter, poet and novelist. Priddy provided backing vocals on three of the album’s tracks, “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” “So
02 Aug 2019
Album Review: Eddie Senay — Step by Step
Clarence Avant was a Detroit entrepreneur, a figure who wanted to bring to the world Detroit music beyond that which Berry Gordy was doing. In the early ’70s his Sussex label did just that, releasing some astoundingly good albums by the likes of Dennis Coffey and Bill Withers. Instrumental funk was more or less Sussex’s
12 Sep 2018
Album Review: Iceberg Slim — Reflections
If I told you that a key inspiration for the slice-of-street hip-hop of Ice-T was an earlier recording artist going by the name of Iceberg Slim, you’d likely develop some immediate preconceptions as to what the earlier iceman sounded like. But I’m here to tell you that you’d probably be way off base. Iceberg Slim
10 Sep 2018
Album Review: Nick Ingman — Big Beat
Cratediggers and/or musical Anglophiles of a certain stripe will recognize the name DeWolfe Music. Established over a century ago, the British music production company carved out a unique and important niche in the music business, creating what is today known as library music. No, not something you’d listen to in your local library, but sort
21 Jun 2018
Album Review: Little Willie John — Fever
Little Willie John’s time in the spotlight was relatively brief; his album-making career on King Records lasted only from 1956 to ‘62. His debut LP, Fever, founding him roaring out of the gate: a dozen songs, all killer, no filler. Albums weren’t the primary musical format in ‘56, so Fever is to some extent a
20 Jun 2018
Album Review: The Vettes – Rev-up
Man, those Wrecking Crew guys and gals were a busy bunch. Of course in their 1960s heyday, the loose studio aggregation wasn’t known by that label – ace bassist (and guitarist) Carol Kaye argues the name is a later-day Hal Blaine invention – and in fact their were rarely if ever credited on the records
19 Jun 2018
Album Review: Johnny “Guitar” Watson – s/t
When one thinks of the bluesy masters of the electric guitar, the name Johnny “Guitar” Watson is sure to be mentioned. Watson’s second guitar LP mines a variety of styles; “Posin’” feels a bit like Philly soul, with massed backing vocals and Watson’s blues-shouted lead vocal. But when the master of the Stratocaster launches into
18 Jun 2018
Album Review: Mel Henke — 77 Sunset Strip-per
For a lot of Americans in the late 1950s and ‘60s, jazz wasn’t something they went to clubs to hear. If they heard it at all, jazz was often presented in the context of television and film theme music. The brash, hard-swinging sounds of big band jazz lent an exuberant (and wordlessly carefree) vibe to
17 Apr 2018
Album Review: The Cyrkle — ‘The Minx’ Original Soundtrack
Here’s as unlikely a pairing as you’re likely to encounter, even within the context of 1960s pop culture. The Cyrkle were an American pop group whose greatest claims to fame were twofold: one, they recorded and released a single, “Red Rubber Ball,” written by one Paul Simon. Two, they were part of the package of
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