Darts & Arrows, Eyes of the Carnival

It is by no means an easy thing for the music variously dubbed jazz-rock/fusion/prog/jamband to lay right, to sound naturally grooving, to be able to pair down and get leverage before it launches out. There are outfits that can play incredibly difficult technical things yet never really get rocking. This I most definitely would not say about the combo Darts & Arrows on their album Eyes of the Carnival (self released).

Here we have 30-plus minutes of an EP that gets that leverage. Like early Soft Machine and at the same time middle-period Gary Burton, they establish grooves and stay there as a foundational premise. The compositional matrix laid down, mostly penned by guitarist Bill MacKay with one by keyman Ben Boye (that one balladic), sets the possibilities and then the players open up to them.

Bill MacKay's guitar and Ben Boye's keys have leverage and sound as soloists too. They aren't trying to wow you with chops and more chops, but rather say something musical and at the same time express a sound. They do it well. They don't take long solos either. In fact sometimes it's more about the tune and playing it with feeling, opening up to it. But that is fine if they do it right. They do.

Kyle Hernandez on bass and Quin Kirchner on drums are in that same way concerned with feel and less with "wow" technique.

And so in the end you react like you have been hearing real music in a zone that in other hands sometimes loses the music-first thread. Nobody here is going to cut the greatest technical players. But what they do sounds very right. In the end the music satisfies. Good tunes played with conviction. That's very cool with me.

Greg Allman, I'm No Angel, Live On Stage, DVD

The Greg Allman Band from the '80s was a unit devoted to Greg's thing, a kind of mini-Allman Brothers sextet that could nevertheless get the juices flowing.

We look back now and recognize that the Allmans and the Dead remained a one-two punch for jamband innovation far beyond the initial incarnations and still going today in various guises.

We may take for granted the vocal prowess of Greg but we should most definitely not. Check out the DVD I'm No Angel: Live on Stage (Cherry Red CRDVD 182) for nearly an hour of his band at the Cannery in Nashville, 1988. He gives you that Southern rock blues vocal style--that he defined over the years. The band is in very good form, the sound excellent and there are plenty of good visuals.

And the guitarist. . . appears to be Dan Toler and he has it! Toler takes some beautiful solos throughout, blues with that added scale-ar rock something, fundamental of the Allman style.

A nice set!

Ozric Tentacles Return with 25th Year Celebration Album

Originally posted on July 10, 2008

The Band Ozric Tentacles celebrates its 25th year with a stunning release [Sunrise Festival (Snapper)] that combines the old fashioned blow-out space jam with very effective use of synthesizers and Ed’s phenomenal psychedelic-metal guitar presence.

It was recorded live at the Sunrise Festival June 2007 in Bearley, England. There’s a CD and a DVD of the show in a nice booklet form. It rocks! Anyone into the outer echelons of the jamband scene needs this one! Cascades of sound wash through your consciousness in wave after wave. It’s really well done. Get it.

Ween's Album "La Cucaracha"

Originally posted on January 4, 2008

I don’t quite know what to make of the band Ween and their CD “La Cucaracha” (Rounder). I know they have been respected as a jamband for a number of years, but on this album they are all over the place, a little in the way of the band Cake. It’s a kind of pop-rock amalgam and there are pseudo-country tunes, quirky pop numbers and generally they do things that are melodically memorable.

There is a cut that makes the whole album worthwhile, however, called “Woman and Man.” It’s an extended Santana-flavored jamband number with nice guitar soloing. I’d love to hear more of that from them.