Shingo Yuji, Introducing

Not every guitarist sounds like every other guitarist, thankfully. Shingo Yuji, an up-and-coming talent, doesn't. His debut, Introducing Shingo Yuji (Yujipan Music) gives you some well played, well thought-out modern contemporary jazz. It's a trio affair for most of the album, with Dave Robaire and Dan Schnelle on bass and drums, in that order. They fit right in and get things swinging. Saxophonist Walter Smith joins on sax for the first two cuts and he adds a solid contemporary style to the mix.

The album mixes Shingo's creative and interestingly varied originals with a couple of modern standards and a traditional Japanese melody.

Shingo has his own fairly electric sound, full and driving. He gets a lot of velocity by hammering on his lines, yet he does NOT sound like Allan Holdsworth in what he plays or his tone. He also does on occasion some quite unusual and pleasing things with finger picking.

It's an promising first effort. He's an original in the bud, ready to flower.

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!

Ike & Tina, On the Road 1971-72, DVD

Without a doubt Ike and Tina Turner were doing some of the most exciting live soul around with their review in the later '60s-early '70s. Nadya and Bob Gruen got themselves a Sony video recording unit and followed them and their road ventures/adventures during 1971-72. The results are available as a DVD now: On the Road 1971-72 (MVD Visual MVD 5276D).

It's a cinéma vérité sort of affair. There are a few more formal sorts of conversations to be had but otherwise it's all about raw reality slabs (before that became stylized, fake and vapid with reality shows) of Ike and Tina at home, in the studio, in rehearsal, travelling with the band, in the dressing room and of course, on stage. It's not in sterling sound and the video equipment gave slightly primitive results, but you get some smoking live segments and a sense of how it felt to be on the scene then.

It's valuable footage, creatively conceived, and the music is great. It's a chance to go back and dig what they put across, what the road was about, what they were about. Yeah!

Hugo Carvalhais, Particula

Now that (one hopes) the hurricanes and storms that disconnected me from the internet are a thing of the past, I can begin to catch up with recordings that I do not want to neglect for all the right reasons.

Portuguese bassist-composer Hugo Carvalhais and his album Particula (Clean Feed 253) is one of those. Hugo has been coming into his own for some time now. This album most definitely constitutes an arrival.

It's a quintet of interesting players on display: Hugo on contrabass and electronics, Emile Parisien, soprano, Gabriel Pinto, keys, Dominique Pifarely, violin, and Mario Costa, drums.

The compositions set up beautifully the sort of long-form contemporary avant improvisational excursions that make great use of instrumental colors and soloists' personalities. But they do not do so as more conventional "head" structures usually do. They go a long way in providing the motifs and moods that recur in the ensemble during solos. Hugo sounds great and the rest of the ensemble make worthy sounds as well.

This is innovative, electronically expanded ensemble jazz of a high order. Check it out by all means.

Ken Silverman, Visionaries

Ken Silverman is a guitarist that tends to lead more than follow. So when he does a solo guitar album it's not what you expect in the general run of things. At least that's very much the case with the new album Visionaries (SoundSeer 1002).

There are nine segments, each dedicated to a guitarist, artist, or musico-cultural force that has had impact on Ken Silverman's artistry in some way. So we have dedications to Blind Lemon Jefferson, Robert Fripp, Syd Barrett, and so on, each musical segment showing Ken's reaction/interaction with that influence. Acoustic and electric guitars, the oud, charago and synthesizer come in and out of the thread of expression as needed.

And in the end we get something valuable, original yet eclectically so, very unexpected at times and very confirming-affirming at others.

It's music! It taps into visions and in the process has a vision of itself. It's artistry that commands respect and attention.

And it's music that guitarists will find fascinating. And non-guitarists too.

Larry Graham and Graham Central Station, Raise Up

Those who were there or funk-o-philes of today will know Larry Graham and Grand Central Station as one of the best of the bands who came out of the Sly and the Family Stone mode--group vocals, tight band, solid song orientation. . .and Larry's patented funk bass guitar, which was an innovation that everybody copied.

Well they are back with a new album, Raise Up (Razor & Tie). And they are still doing it. The horns and rhythm stomp it off in fine fashion, Larry hits some slapping bass guitar grooves worth hearing and the vocals are right down the pipe. Prince guests on vocals for a few cuts and that sounds good, too.

Funk may be making a resurgence. And of course it never left in any event. This one doesn't break out into any new territory especially, though understandably the modern studio sound is there, and it has that groove in abundance. You dig the funk, you'll dig this one.

Théo Ceccaldi Trio, Carrousel

An improvising trio of violin, electric guitar and cello is a most unusual configuration. It can work in any number of different ways. Or, if things are not just right, it can be a flop. Thankfully that is by no means the case on the Théo Ceccaldi Trio album Carrousel (Ayler 129). In fact, just the opposite.

The trio is comprised of Théo on violin, Guillaume Aknine, electric guitar, and Valentin Ceccaldi on cello.

They segue effortlessly between some intricate, original sounding fused-new music compositional parts--penned mostly by Théo--jazz-style improvisations and avant excursions. Each member has something definite to say instrumentally, and as an ensemble they are peerless for developing a sound and proffering it creatively.

It's some fine chamber jazz that will give you much to ponder and appreciate. Grab it and you'll be glad, I think.