Jim Suhler and the Monkey Beat at The Kessler

Jim Suhler and the Monkey Beat.

Jim Suhler and the Monkey Beat

The Kessler

Dallas, TX

November 28, 2015

They say you can’t go back home again, but Jim Suhler returned home Saturday night. He returned to The Kessler just a few blocks from his parents’ old home on Clinton in Oak Cliff; his dad collected tickets at the door when  The Kessler was a movie theater.

Jim Suhler and the Monkey Beat decided The Kessler would be a great venue to do a show and record a live blues-rock album.

Suhler, who also plays guitar for George Thorogood and the Destroyers, played cuts from his Panther Burn album (Underworld Records, 2014), Tijuana Bible (Underworld, 2009) and Bad Juju (Lucky Seven Records, 2001); as well as some covers like Jimi Hendrix’s Are You Experienced.

Thrilling fans with his slide guitar and vocals, Suhler got help from keyboard player Shawn Phares, bass Chris Alexander, drums Beau Chadwell and extra keys and accordion from Tim Alexander.

Earlier in the night, guitar-singer Charley Crockett opened up accompanied by trumpet player Charles Mills Jr. He played songs from his Stolen Jewel album (2015) as well as an upcoming album In the Night.

Apparently, both acts are fans of late Houston bluesman Lightnin’ Hopkins. Charley Crockett joked that he uses the Lightnin’ Hopkins style of guitar tuning.

And Jim Suhler sang a song in honor of Lightnin’: Po’ Lightin’ dead and gone, left me here to sing this song.

Ladies and Gentlemen...Nigel Hall (Feel Music, 2015)

Nigel Hall (Photo: visitphilly.com)

Nigel Hall has come out with an album, long-in-the-making Ladies and Gentlemen…Nigel Hall (Feel Music, 2015). He did it in collaboration with famed producer Eric Krasno who has worked with a diverse group of people like Norah Jones, Justin Timberlake, and Aaron Neville.

When Krasno first contacted him, Nigel Hall -- originally from Washington, D.C. -- was making a name for himself as a keyboard player and vocalist in the northeast in places like Boston and Maine. Nigel Hall knew the reputation of Krasno so he didn’t believe it was Krasno on the phone and thought it was a friend playing a trick on him.

But it was Krasno; and Krasno flew Nigel into New York for the first time he ever flew on a plane. They went straight from the airport to the studio and pulled an all-nighter. Over the next few years Nigel Hall would work with groups like Lettuce and Warren Haynes and on breaks he would reunite with Krasno and continue to work on music. They brought in people like Questlove (drummer of The Roots), Adam Deitch (drummer of Lettuce), Ivan Neville (son of Aaron Neville and leader of Dumpstaphunk), Ryan Zoidis (Nigel Hall’s best friend and saxophonist of Lettuce), Charlie Hunter, James Carey and Maurice 'Mobetta' Brown.

The album was crafted and sat in the vault for years; Krasno telling Nigel Hall to be patient and wait for the right time. Now is the right time. The result is a soulful album with an old-school feel.

The album opens with Gimme a Sign, a head-bopper listeners can sing along to, with some harmonizing background vocals. Nigel Hall is a student of music and his love for Motown comes out in Gimme a Sign as it does later in Never Gonna Let You Go, and I Just Want to Love You.

I Just Want to Love You, a duet with Nigel Hall’s close friend and collaborator Alecia Chakour is actually a re-make of a Stanley Clarke-George Duke tune but it has the feel of The Temptations’ The Girl’s All Right with Me.

There are a few old-school R&B numbers that bring the feeling of a smoky nightclub in Mississippi; songs like Lay Away, Latimore’s classic Let’s Straighten it Out, and Call on Me.

The Nth Power: Abundance (2015)

The Nth Power came out with a strong showing for its first album Abundance. The album is a showcase for lead singer Nick Cassarino, the drumming Nikki Glaspie and the bass playing of Nate Edgar. Really, it showed how a group of diverse people and players could get together and support a project.

It is not a religious album but it has a spiritual feel and returns to themes of God in the lyrics and in the song titles (Walk on the Water, Holy Rain, Altar Call.)  And, the voice of lead singer Nick Cassarino rages like someone who was raised in the church.

After the band warms up on the instrumental, Intro, they tear into Only Love, a song heard on their tour with lyrics like, “Can I still hear God? Can I still obey?” A nice R&B tune.

Walk on the Water opens with a Nick Cassarino acoustic guitar and Weedie Braimah’s percussion drums. The song is a medium to slow groove and once again Nick Cassarino’s vocals. A lead singer is like an actor; he has to believe his lines or his audience wouldn’t believe his performance. Likewise, a lead singer must believe the lyrics; and Nick Cassarino believes these lyrics and sings with conviction! (It helps that he wrote most of the songs.)

Nick Cassarino sings his heart out on Could it Be supported by drummer Nikki Glaspie on the high hat. Nick Cassarino passes it on to keyboard player Nigel Hall and there is great interplay between drummer Glaspie and Nigel Hall. Towards the last third of the song, Nick Cassarino, who is also the guitarist brings in his rock guitar.

Right Now, another one of those songs the Nth Power worked out on tour, comes in with Weedie Braimah’s congas and Nikki Glaspie drums. It has a funky Latin feel with some excellent bass playing by Nate Edgar.

Holy Rain is a slow jam which wishes for more peaceful times with some professional drumming by Nikki Glaspie and once again lead singer Nick Cassarino sings with the inflection of a church singer.

The bands’ name Nth Power comes from the preponderance of the letter N in their names – drummer Nikki Glaspie, lead singer Nick Cassarino, bass player Nate Edgar and keyboard player Nigel Hall. No ‘N’ in his name, but Weedie Braimah is on percussions.

One of the N's, Nigel Hall, has since moved on, so if you see them on tour, say Hi to new keyboard player Courtney Smith.

Christian Scott: Stretch Music (2015)

Christian Scott

Christian Scott has introduced an album and a concept called Stretch Music (Stretch Music, 2015) which might be described as music that is expressly not jazz but yet contains all the classic elements of jazz.

That idea is exemplified by the song West of West with the rock guitar of Matthew Stevens is a funky, danceable tune, but it has all the classic jazz elements of a recognizable beginning and end and an improvised middle.

Scott, also known as Christian Scott Atunde Adjuah, opens the album Sunrise in Beijing which starts sounding like a daytime soap opera with a Lawrence Fields piano. It continues with some vigorous drumming by Corey Fonville, adding alto saxophone by Braxton Cook, and  flute by Elena Pinderhughes; and Christian Scott’s trumpet soars above it all!

The song Twin – Scott himself is a twin with an identical twin brother – features some African drums, a Caribbean steel pan and the horns of the New Orleans marching band.

Perspective has that West Coast, cool jazz feel. With Warren Wolf on vibes, it puts the listener in a relaxing mood. That mood continues later on, on the track Tantric.

Of a New Cool is a head-bobber with persistent drumming that advances the song with some soulful alto sax, piano and vibes.

Christian Scott, 32, is considered one of the bright, young minds in music. Originally from New Orleans, but having lived in both Los Angeles and New York, he is of good pedigree having attended the prestigious New Orleans Center of Creative Arts and Boston’s Berklee College of Music. He has actually put out over 10 albums and received a Grammy nomination for Rewind That (Concord, 2006).

He is married to Isadora Mendez and is currently enjoying great press for his latest album and on a grand European and Asian tour.

He has played with people like Esperanza Spalding and Prince. But the greatest tribute to Christian Scott is that when Marcus Miller was re-making the late Miles Davis’ Tutu album – Marcus wrote all but two songs on the album – he chose Christian Scott to play the role of Miles Davis on trumpet.

Track Listing, Personnel

1. Sunrise in Beijing

2. Twin

3. Perspectives

4. West of West

5. Liberation over Gangsterism

6. Corner

7. Of a New Cool

8. Runnin 7s

9. Tantric

10. The Last Chieftain

11. The Horizon

Christian Scott - Trumpet, Sirenette and Reverse Flugelhorn.

Elena Pinderhughes - Flute

Braxton Cook - Alto, Straight Alto

Corey King - Trombone

Cliff Hines - Guitar

Lawrence Fields – Piano, Fender Rhodes

Kris Funn – Bass

Corey Fonville ‒ Drums, SPD-SX pad (tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10)

Joe Dyson Jr. - Pan African Drums, SPD-SX (tracks 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

Special Guests:

Matthew Stevens - Guitar (tracks 4, 5, 7, 10)

Warren Wolf - Vibes (tracks 3, 7)

Erykah Badu at TBAAL

Erykah's One-Woman Show. Photo by Ray Winbush

Erykah Badu

TBAAL

Dallas, TX

October 31, 2015

 

Erykah Badu attended an arts high school that is famous for turning out a lot of great musicians. But – back then when she was known as Erica Wright (or Apples) – she was in the dance program, not the music program.

She returned to her dance and theater roots in her three-day, theatrical performance run in Dallas.

She put on a series of five-minute variety skits. There were twists and turns, quiet moments, upbeat moments. The performance was as quirky as the rollout of the show with alternate and subtitled names: Live Nudity, Meditate on Deez, One-Woman Show, One-Human Show.

Though it was a theatrical performance, there were musical interludes with a breath-taking rendering of her song Out of my Mind, Just in Time. She was backed by members of her band who were off-stage. The show was appealing to music-heads: 

• keyboard player R.C. Williams was heard playing more of a jazzy style rather the usual hip-hop fare
• drummer Cleon Edwards was in a more complementary, story-telling role unlike the ubiquitous Youtube drummer video clips which have become musical versions of ESPN slam-dunk clips;
• then there was Braylon Lacy playing bass behind the curtain; the listener was left to guess, was that an upright bass? Or electric bass?

The show was at times funny, at times it was like when your best friend told a not-so-funny joke but you laugh anyway. In the end, the show became a little more serious with issues that resonated with her core audience; issues like racism and economic inequality.

There have been mixed reviews, all the way from good to bad. But the bad reviews should be tempered by what was overheard from exuberant audience members in the lobby – they were gushing about what a great show it was!