2010: This Too Shall Pass

Where does the time go, he asked rhetorically. Belated New Years greeting, TNLD faithful.

We kick off another year of sporadic posting with something new from TNLD favorites OK Go. (Who told you this was a jazz blog?) Like most of their videos, it's a tasty slice of joy.

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass from OK Go on Vimeo.

Recommended reading (before or after viewing, because it's your choice) is this fascinating um, essay by lead singer Damien on why fans can no longer embed the group's YouTube videos.

We’re stuck between two worlds: the world of ten years ago, where music was privately owned in discreet little chunks (CDs), and a new one that seems to be emerging, where music is universally publicly accessible. The thing is, only one of these worlds has a (somewhat) stable system in place for funding music and all of its associated nuts-and-bolts logistics, and, even if it were possible, none of us would willingly return to that world. Aside from the smug assholes who ran labels, who’d want a system where a handful of corporate overlords shove crap down our throats? All the same, if music is going to be more than a hobby, someone, literally, has to pay the piper.

OK, 2010, here we go!

Show: Sachal Vasandani at Jazz Alley

Is it just me, or does referring to someone as a "crooner" feel like a putdown? Come to think of it, it probably is me.

Back in the college, I auditioned for a spot in the chapel choir. As a nervous sophomore transfer student  - and an admittedly poor site reader - my approach was on the tentative side, rather than the hammy imitation of the Bugs Bunny opera singer I'd learned to do in high school. This started as a gag to do for my friends; much to my surprise, choir teachers loved it. "Why don't you sing like that all the time?" one asked me. Anyway, after I'd stumbled through my Chapel Choir audition piece, the director muttered something about me being "more of a crooner." It was something in the tone of his voice, but I found myself wanting to leap across the room and choke him.

This memory resurfaced the other night at singer Sachal Vasandani's show at Dimitriou's Jazz Alley.The man introducing Vasandani described him as "a great crooner. These words were followed by an audible gulp, after which he hastily added, "...uh, and a first-rate jazz artist." It was the kind of recovery you might hear from a guy on a blind date who announces that Ugg boots are the least flattering footwear ever foisted on the feminine gender, only to look down and see a pair of chestnut brown Sundance IIs, the toe of one tapping ominously. "But they look great on you! Now what's taking so long with that table?"

Or anyway that's how I heard it.

The good news for the capacity crowd that greeted Vasandani - emerging from the back of the house, all movie-star handsome in a sharp suit and tie, gliding to the stage under the adoring gaze of a follow spot - is that the he is, in fact, both a great crooner and a first-rate jazz artist. He can also belt it out when called upon, and scat with smooth assurance.

He's also a gifted songwriter, capable of both adding to and re-interpreting the traditional jazz repertoire. A case in point is "Escape," a new introduction to "There's a Small Hotel." "Escape" not only stands on it’s own, while also allowing you to appreciate the original from a new angle.

Vasandani is touring in support of a new release, "We Move," on the excellent Mack Avenue label. The CD's production is quite lush, at times too much so for me. (I wouldn't be surprised to hear the title track turn up in the background of Grey's Anatomy.) On stage with his excellent young trio (Jeb Patton, piano; David Wong, bass; and the occasionally too loud Jeremy Brown, drums), Vasandani seemed to be having a high old time and exuded the charm and ease of classic Bobby Darin. The droning influence of Vasandani's fellow Chicagoan Kurt Elling, in evidence on both "We Move" and Vasandani's debut recording "Eyes Wide Open" was all but absent. To me that's a good thing.

On the cusp of his 30s, Vasandani is still working out who he is as an artist, incorporating influences as diverse as Sinatra, Jon Hendricks, Joni Mitchell, and Sade. The mix isn't perfectly distilled yet, but he and the trio consistently served up the good turtle soup. Mic dynamics proved to be an issue throughout the night, but I’m not sure whether this was his problem or something that should have been worked out during the sound check. Whichever, it was definitely a distraction.

The crowd (which included a lot of the under-30s everybody in the jazz intelligentsia is so exercised about) seemed to eat it up, but at the end of the set there was no encore. This struck me as odd, but then Seattle-ites are notorious for their polite equanimity.

Where ever the road leads him, Vasandani merits watching. As we passed by the autograph line on the way out, a swoony woman in her 40s standing next to the singer called out to her mortified teenage daughter, “Get over here with that camera and take my picture!”

A certain Canadian crooner whose name rhymes with “poo-flay” would do well to take note.

(Image pilfered from Mack Avenue Records.)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Show: Sachal Vasandani at Jazz Alley - Seattle - November 11, 2009

Set list:
That Old Black Magic
Escape/There's a Small Hotel
Don't Worry About Me
Please Mr. Ogilvy
Medley: Royal Eyes/There Are Such Things/My Dear
All The Way
Ring Road (Back to You)
Monk's Dream
Every Ocean, Every Star
We Move
No More

Viddie: September

Earlier this month I realized that I'd let the entire month of September go by without blasting Earth Wind and Fire's "September," which is just wrong (and a sign of how little I listen to commercial radio these days, even in the car). So there was something cosmically satisfying in the fact that a college friend of mine posted the video above on Facebook.

Who is Pamplamoose? Hell if I know. The Bay Area twosome have a dedicated following on the hipsternet and have posted similarly delightful light-handed covers (Single Ladies, Mrs. Robinson, for example) on their YouTube channel, along with songs of their own. On his music blog Pampelmoose, Dave Allen, the bass player for Gang of Four says:

Artists like Pomplamoose who embrace the social web are not a subset of savvy marketers, they are disrupters and re-purposers who break the record companies business models. This is a good thing.

All of which seems a little ponderous to contemplate on a drizzly Friday. One thing I'm sure of is that one mark of good cover is that it reminds you of what was great about the original (like when EWF covered the Beatle's "Got To Get You Into My Life," for example). And adding a dancing granny never hurts.

So enjoy the video. And while you're at it, enjoy the original.

TNLD Podcast 02: Rhythm and Ribs Flashback

Drum roll, please…

The New Low Down podcast is back!

This time around we take a trip back in time to the 2007 Rhythm and Ribs Festival in Kansas City, MO. Why? Because I was there, microphone in hand.

And why now? Sadly, the 2009 edition of the festival was canceled. But TNLD wishes the organizers the best of luck in 2010.

Also in this podcast, new summer mood music from The Sons of Brazil, Kansas City's longest-gigging Brazilian jazz combo. Their sunny 2009 release While You Were Out is available for order from Stan Kessler's website.

Listen now:



Download the podcast | Subscribe on iTunes

You'll also be interested to know that my friend Michael Byars, who appears in this podcast, has a weekly new music podcast of his own called The Mailbox. TNLD says check it out!

Notes on TNLD Podcast
I plan to get these podcasts onto a regular schedule, which will take a little doing. The logistics of equipment and editing and feeds and so on, have proven to be a big time suck, particularly when I've got paying work to do. So while that's all getting sorted out, I thank you for your patience.

Comments please
I would love to hear any feedback you have, either in the comments or emailed to lowdown@newlowdown.com.

Finally a loudly hollered thank you to Jake Blanton for our theme music. Jake, wherever you are, you are awesome (but you already know that).

New: Ben Allison's "Think Free"

"Think Free," bassist/composer Ben Allison's next album drops officially on October 13, but the whole shebang is available for download and/or streaming on the Palmetto Records site.

[Palmetto's embeddable player doesn't seem to work on my browser, but here goes:]


The album is the third in a cycle that started with "Cowboy Justice" (2006) and "Little Things Run The World" (2008). "I wanted a band that rocked," Allison says, and he clearly got his wish. The first two albums featured a fusion (note the lower-case f) of the rock and jazz idioms, marked by the pairing of Steve Cardenas's guitar with Ron Horton's trumpet over the rhythm section. Think Free continues the theme with Shane Endsley replacing Horton, but Allison ups the ante by adding violinist Jenny Scheinman to the mix. It's a brilliant choice.

The first two albums were direct, often angry responses to the George W. Bush era (with titles like "Tricky Dick" and "Man Sized Safe," Allison didn't exactly qualify as a Bush Ranger). Think Free carries a lot of the same rage, but it seems to be resolving into something more hopeful. By the time you reach "Green Al," the final track, you get the sense that things may be looking up. Let's hope.

New: Ghosty's "A Mystic's Robe" EP

Just finished listening to Ghosty's new three-song EP "A Mystic's Robe."

TNLD verdict: two thumbs up (one for each hand, see?). It's everything you depend on from the Kansas City band: Peerless pop construction, beautiful harmonies and tasty lyrics. My only complaint would be that there isn't more.

It's available for streaming or download now. Do yourself a favor and lend your ears.

Related post: TNLD interview with Ghosty's Andrew Connor

Learning to listen

Darcy Jame Argue has an excellent post on Jelly Roll Morton, but this passage struck a chord with me.

Listening to pre-WWII records is an act of imagination, and the further you go back, the more imagination it takes -- in order for you to really hear what's going on, your "mind's ear," so to speak, needs to fill in a lot. This is something that I think people who were born before 1960 or so don't fully grasp, because those people have completely different expectations when it comes to recorded music -- the technology was maturing at the same time they were. (I mean, the Beatles didn't fully embrace the radical concept of stereo until after the White Album.) Obviously, this is a vitally important skill that anyone who's serious about music needs to develop, but it doesn't come naturally to most. It takes a considerable amount of practice and effort to develop.

TNLD says read the post, then follow the links.