JJ Grey & Mofro, Brighter Days, The Live Concert Film, DVD

JJ Grey is genuine. He takes pride in his days growing up in rural Florida. His music reflects the roots and soul of the swampland world he came from. And he's translated it all into music that has the real ring of truth.

That's what I get out of digging on his live DVD Brighter Days (MVD 5729). The main part of the film is vivid concert footage of him and his band Mofro live in Atlanta, 2011. He is on top and the band is a solid killer. It convinced me that his kind of swamp soul is the real deal.

Otherwise there are nice segments where Grey explains his upbringing and his music and how they relate, plays some acoustic tunes and shows you around his Florida stomping grounds.

Grey is the man and this is dope. I mean it.

Tom Dempsey/Tim Ferguson Quartet, Beautiful Friendship

It's not exactly the norm for a quartet to be fronted by a guitarist and a bassist. While that happens to be perfect for this blog, it's also something very worthwhile when it's the Tom Dempsey/Tim Ferguson Quartet and the album is Beautiful Friendship (Planet Arts 301226).

What we have here is a first-rate straight-ahead jazz gathering running through some standards, jazz standards and originals. Tom Dempsey plays a harmonically well-healed guitar. His comping is beautiful to hear. And his solo work has that endlessly variable play-all-night feel to it. He can invent plenty of nice choruses if called upon, I suspect, though all of the numbers are relatively short.

Tim Ferguson has that propulsion that drives a band along swingingly, that drummers love. He takes solos that have imagination in that post-Paul Chambers sort of mode.

Tenor-soprano artist Joel Frahm has good sense, great tone and solo ideas that stand out. He manages not to sound like anybody in the process. Then Eliot Zigmund. You may remember his work with Bill Evans. He is a model of the interactive, small-band swinger.

Those are the pieces. The whole fits quite well together. Standards and originals flow and the solos say something. Well done!

TriPod

TriPod? Yes. Here we have a trio in the realm of such ensembles as Morphine--sax, bass and drums with vocals. But they don't precisely sound like Morphine. It's a prog-fuse, song-centered hard fullness created by the presence of Clint Bahr on 12-string bass and lead vocals (a twelve-string bass is composed of the standard four strings on an electric bass, plus two-octave strands per regular string...so 4+8=12), Steve Romano on drums and percussion, and Keith Gurland on alto and tenor, clarinet, effects and backing vocals. All this on their self-titled album just out on MoonJune (MJR004).

The music is somewhere in the realm of King Crimson progressivity, in its own special way. There are hard-edged, intricate arrangements, prog song niceties and a program that combines the two elements in judiciously balanced contrasts.

Clint Bahr's bass playing has a fullness that might make you think there's a guitar in there as well, but there isn't. He's playing the 12-string so that the bass and chordal possibilities come out strongly. Keith Gurland's saxophony is well-suited for the music and gives the music the second melodic voice in the ensemble that fleshes it all out. Steve Romano plays a LOT of drums as is fitting, and that sounds great too.

The songs-vocals put it all in focus. This is some heavy prog that should not be missed if you like the edgy Crimsonian thrust as I do.

And Clint's 12-string bass alone is a listen in itself. It's first-rate prog-fuse in any event.

Brick and Mortar and Love, A Trust Gang Film, DVD

Brick and Mortar and Love (MVD Visual 5697D) is all about the rise and fall of a record store. Since Record Store Day was this past Saturday, I thought it would be apt to get a review in this week.

X-tacy Records, a Louisville, Kentucky institution for a quarter of a century, is the focal point of the story. But of course it applies to all independent record stores today.

The film covers what the store meant to music aficionados, local artists, plain folks or not-so-plain.

The story covers the origin of the store, the people who worked and went there, its function as community center, gathering place for music lovers, live venue, indie music outlet, and local music promoter.

As a product of the rise of internet sales, downloads and economic downturn the store comes on tough times. The story is all about how they try and stay alive.

It's an object lesson I suppose for anyone in a similar position (as I was), and why it is important that we keep these institutions going.

The film tells a tragic tale in the end. It's well done.

Dylan Ryan Sand, Sky Bleached

Drummer Dylan Ryan's Sand trio recording Sky Bleached (Cuneiform Rune 357), with Timothy Young on electric guitar and Devin Holt on electric and acoustic bass, is one of those avant jazz-rock goodies that stirs the soul.

Ten numbers, some penned by Holt, some a collective effort, one by the late Paul Motian, have character, electricity, notable compositional sign posts and very cool playing.

The sort of fused outness that includes memorable motives, kicking rhythmic figures, the occasional odd time-signature, and well-crafted performance-improvisations prevails.

It doesn't quite sound like any trio. Each player stakes out a musical territory that belongs to him and collectively they get a nice leveraged sound.

There are psychedelic moments, harmonically cool structures, and plenty of good drumming, guitaring and bass-ing.

Highly recommended.

Yagull, Films

According to my press sheet, Yagull is an "acoustic power project." That is an interesting way to put it and so I quote it straight off. It's the baby of guitarist Sasha Markovic. The new CD Films (ZOZE 12001) has 15 ambiently mellifluous numbers, a cross between Oregon and an instrumental Moody Blues in some ways, in other ways just original music, well played by Markovic on acoustic plus Lori Reddy on flute, Eylon Tushiner, saxophones, and Sonia Choi on cello. There are unusual versions of "White Room" and "Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath." Otherwise these are Markovic-penned.

The music has some of the mellow qualities of new age, but there's more to it melodically-harmonically. And I found it nice listening after I got used to what it was about.

Eric Hofbauer, American Grace, Solo Guitar

Guitarist Eric Hofbauer has done some interesting work in the past for sure but his American Grace (Creative Nation 022) solo acoustic set gets things really moving. There are very cool versions of classic music like the Beatles' "Dear Prudence," the standard "I Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry," and Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" (complete with a version of the famous trumpet break from the first recording). Then there are original compositions-improvisations, too, well worth your ear-time.

What is striking, memorable, and sets this music apart is the originality and artistry of Eric the guitarist. There is some finger picking, some line weaving, chordal comps and a sound (must be an unamplified archtop semi-hollow) nicely percussive and punctuated.

It's a bit of a tour de force in plectorial artistry. You need to hear it. Eric Hofbauer has it all going on here.