Category Archives: Album Reviews

Wendy & Lisa: Fruit At The Bottom (1989) Revisited

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Despite massive record industry buzz, Wendy & Lisa’s 1987 debut album, rush-released after they were asked to leave Prince’s Revolution, failed to set the world on fire.

It was time for a rethink, and time to sell some albums. They were sober, sane and serious, and it seemed as if ‘pop’ stardom might be just around the corner if they could just combine some catchy songs with their exemplary musicianship.

But which way to go on the sophomore release? The first album hinted at a Bangles/Fleetwood Mac/Joni Mitchell direction. In the end they went pretty much Full Prince – with varying degrees of success, though once again Fruit At The Bottom demonstrated what a superb multi-instrumentalist Wendy Melvoin was blossoming into.

Released in March 1989, the album was also a chance for Wendy and Lisa to demonstrate just how influential they had been on Prince’s music. They dusted off the Linn LM-1 drum machine (‘Are You My Baby’ even starts with almost the same snare fill as ‘The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker’, via Weather Report’s ‘Teen Town’?) and Wendy got busy with some slap bass and funky, sometimes varispeed rhythm guitar.

Aided by trusted engineer (and Prince veteran) Susan Rogers, who recorded and mixed all the basic tracks at Avatar Studios in New York, lots more time was taken over the drum sounds and Wendy and twin sister Susannah’s (also a Prince veteran and his ex-fiancée) vocals.

The lyrics were far more sexual/sensual than before too, but let’s be blunt – it was very difficult for two highly photogenic gay artists wanting to prove themselves as musicians and not kowtow to a mostly male music industry wanting ever more salaciousness (see the ladies’ slightly uncomfortable interview on GMTV, when they seemed to have arrived from a different universe).

It was also quite a big responsibility for Wendy to suddenly become frontwoman in a touring band (they were very good at London’s Town & Country Club in May 1989, one of the coolest gigs of that year).

Listening to the album again recently, it’s clear that they frontloaded it with three great singles, and took a lot of time over these (Prince even had a bash at remixing ‘Lolly Lolly’). ‘Satisfaction’ even briefly gatecrashed the UK charts, peaking at #26.

But the rest of the album – with the exception of ‘I Think It Was December’ – sounds worryingly like a succession of B-sides, despite Lisa’s always interesting chord changes and synth textures. There’s far too much minimalist/mid-tempo filler with rather hippy/drippy lyrics: ‘Everyday’, ‘Someday I’, ‘Tears Of Joy’, ‘Always In My Dreams’.

It’s quite a shock to hear Wendy’s dirty guitars on ‘From Now On’ but the track doesn’t quite cut through and lacks a good chorus, despite the fine efforts of drummer Carla Azar.

What a shame they couldn’t fashion seven or eight tracks of killer dancefloor material, with one or two ballads. Despite a great review in Q magazine which compared the album to Stephen Sondheim and Bill Evans, FATB stalled at #47 in the UK and failed to chart in the US.

Still, Melody Maker’s Caroline Sullivan interviewed them at length and they appeared on ‘Rapido’ and ‘Top Of The Pops’. They also became quite the live draw in Europe with a great band including Azar, guitarist Chris Bruce and Susannah.

But it was their third album Eroica, released in summer 1990, that probably best showcased their formidable skills and wide influences. But by then the game was up in terms of mainstream success.

Rumours abound that there’s a 1992 album in the vaults somewhere produced by Trevor Horn, after they had worked successfully together with Seal and on the ‘Toys’ soundtrack. C’mon Universal Music, let’s hear it…

Sting: Bring On The Night @ 40

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Sting’s Bring On The Night, released 40 years ago this month, seldom makes it into the pantheon of ‘classic’ 1980s live albums (usually including Stop Making Sense, Alchemy, Under A Blood Red Sky, No Sleep Til Hammersmith, Exit…Stage Left).

But it probably should if you like brilliant playing, good singing and an interesting setlist, apparently with no post-production ‘sweetening’ too (even Rush admitted to some studio retakes after the event).

Former Police live mixer and occasional road manager Kim Turner spent most of 1985 recording Sting’s world tour (this writer was at a Royal Albert Hall gig of January 1986).

The result was probably his most underrated album, out of step with pretty much anything else released in 1986, the one that let his superb Dream Of The Blue Turtles band loose. Sting was obviously fond of it too, designing the cover and writing copious notes on each song which even allowed for a little self-criticism (‘Children’s Crusade’).

In a contemporary interview, he claimed that he shared all the album’s songwriting royalties with the band, so much did he value their contributions. With good reason: you could set your watch to Kenny Kirkland’s vamps and countermelodies. Sting worked very hard with backing vocalists Dolette McDonald and Janice Pendarvis (demonstrated on the tour doc directed by Michael Apted, of which more another time…) and their voices mesh beautifully.

Drummer Omar Hakim is at his absolutely peak with delicious, flowing fusion and funk playing, fresh from classic albums with Weather Report, John Scofield and Dire Straits. Bassist Darryl Jones gets on with his work fairly anonymously, but embellishes the back end of ‘Consider Me Gone’ with a few remarkable bebop lines.

Some Police material is improved. An atmospheric ‘Tea In The Sahara’ gets the tempo right, Kirkland resplendent in Herbie mode and Sting doing a decent Andy Summers impression. ‘Low Life’ grooves along tastily while The ‘One World’/’Love Is The Seventh Wave’ medley is brilliant, with its weird key changes and Sting’s Wes Montgomery-style guitar break.

He apparently always hated the chorus on the Police version of ‘Bring On The Night’ so it gets a makeover here with some major-seventh chords and nice, breezy R’n’B feel. Kirkland’s epic solo is one of the great piano statements of the 1980s.

The B-side ‘Another Day’ is effervescent and funky (in a different key to the studio version) despite some of Sting’s most depressing state-of-the-world lyrics ever.

But a lot of the softer stuff is underwhelming: ‘Moon Over Bourbon Street’ barely registers, while ‘I Burn For You’ comes sans Omar’s blowout from the doc. ‘Been Down So Long’ is a light-hearted, corny blues with ill-advised ‘sexy’ Sting vocals, despite another beautiful Hakim performance. ‘We Work The Black Seam’ adds little to the leaden studio version.

In general, the album maybe could have done with more up-tempo reggae, and it’s surprising the A&M bosses didn’t demand the inclusion of some bigger Police hits.

Many critics were quick to label the album as ‘fusion’, but if you listen to what Branford Marsalis is actually playing, his chief influences seem to be King Curtis and Grover Washington Jr. The Wayne Shorter/Coltrane licks only really come out on ‘Children’s Crusade’.

Upon its June 1986 release, Bring On The Night only hit #16 in the UK, didn’t chart in the USA (?) but 18 months later won a Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male.

Meanwhile Sting was becoming the Sting we know today. He had presented Quincy Jones his Grammy for Record Of The Year (‘We Are The World’) in February 1986. In June, he duetted with Mark Knopfler at the Prince’s Trust Wembley gig and did the Artists Against Apartheid Clapham Common gig organised by Jerry Dammers. He then reformed The Police for the Conspiracy Of Hope Amnesty tour leading, of course, to the disastrous ‘Don’t Stand So Close To Me ‘86’ single.

The next stop was the Bahamas to record …Nothing Like The Sun, another career high point and a return to the bass. He would never record with Omar Hakim or Darryl Jones again…

Rosie Vela: Zazu @ 40 (And Being A Steely Dan Fan In The 1980s)

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‘Models who make records usually should not but I’ll make an exception for Rosie Vela’, began Max Bell’s four-star review of Zazu in the January 1987 edition of Q magazine.

In general, us Brits liked Zazu (peaking at #20 and going silver), the album released 40 years ago this month which reunited the Steely Dan troika of Donald Fagen, Walter Becker and Gary Katz for the first time in nearly six years.

It was weird being a Steely Dan fan during the 1980s. Your correspondent got in around 1984, obsessed with his dad’s Steely Dan Greatest Hits cassette and Aja vinyl, and by 1986 was a megafan who’d only just twigged that Gaucho had been released a full six years earlier.

We were excited when Becker produced China Crisis, but apart from The Nightfly, Fagen seemed to have gone AWOL (he later admitted that he ‘came apart like a cheap suit’ during the decade).

But imagine our surprise when Zazu was advertised in the first issue of Q magazine, and then Rosie was interviewed in issue four.

I probably bought Zazu on the strength of the ‘Magic Smile’ single around January 1987 (but have just checked and no longer own it on any format…).

Texas-born Roseanne Vela had been a first-call model in the late ‘70s and briefly appeared in Michael Cimino’s ‘Heaven’s Gate’, all the while working on her own demos. Jerry Moss at A&M loved them and enlisted Joe Jackson to produce her debut album (he subsequently pulled out).

You can read more about Vela and the background to Zazu in Anthony Robustelli’s book ‘Steely Dan FAQ’, but for our purposes: is it easy to hear why Fagen, Katz and Becker was so drawn to the project?

Not really. But the positive things first:

With her husky voice and sometimes through-composed songs with odd chord movement, she offered something completely different to other mid-‘80s female singer/songwriters.

‘Magic Smile’ still sounds great (#27 in the UK) and ‘Boxs’ is good too. It’s very surprising that ‘Fool’s Paradise’ wasn’t a single though. It sounds like the nearest thing to a hit with its synth lick reminiscent of ‘A Hazy Shade of Winter’.

Fagen plays a nice little intro to ‘Interlude’, and Becker doubles his solo on guitar, a cool touch (Becker also plays the weird little synth additions to ‘Tonto’).

But there’s lots of bad too.

Katz helms a surprisingly cold album which leads a little too heavily on Rick Derringer’s lead guitar, some non-more-‘80s snare drum sounds and way too much DX7 from Fagen. With hindsight, maybe Jackson’s more organic approach would have worked better (Becker’s better still).

‘Sunday’, ‘Taxi’, ‘2nd Emotion’ and ‘Tonto’ are totally unmemorable songs. The closing, almost-gothic title track could have been good though with some more real instruments.

In general Katz renders some superb musicians – Tony Levin, Jimmy Haslip, Jim Keltner – pretty anonymous. In some ways Zazu is the ultimate 1986 album (Robustelli compares it to Gaucho and Aja in ‘Steely Dan FAQ’ – it’s impossible to hear that).

The cover art and photo are poor too – whose idea was it to portray this gorgeous woman in black and white?

Vela did ‘Magic Smile’ on Letterman – a brave performance that didn’t quite work. The album and single completely flopped in the USA.

But of course the main thing about Zazu is that it got Becker and Fagen back together again. Next up for Fagen was the ‘Century’s End’ single and The New York Rock and Soul Revue, both interesting. Kamikiriad was just around the corner.

China Crisis: Chasing The Demos

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Musicians often talk about demos having a charm and freshness that are missing from the final versions.

It’s the ‘chase the demo’ syndrome – capturing an initial burst of inspiration often gets lost in translation when recording in a posh studio with almost unlimited potential for overdubbing.

It’s unlikely that Paddy McAloon’s demo of ‘Bearpark’, with its primitive drum machine, crap synth and lovely, understated vocal, could ever really be improved upon (and probably why Prefab Sprout never recorded it).

Meanwhile, David Bowie famously claimed to prefer his demo of ‘Loving The Alien’ to the finished version. Conversely, when you hear Love and Money’s Strange Kind Of Love demos, you can totally appreciate the hoops that producer Gary Katz put James Grant through to get the best possible vocal and guitar performances.

But it’s pretty rare for a band to release an official album of demos, part of what makes China Crisis’s Demos so interesting. It shows how the band were arguably not particularly well served by record company nor producers (Walter Becker notwithstanding). Virgin never seemed sure if they were Culture Club or OMD.

(Maybe the fact that they became a ‘proper’ band around 1983 was not a great commercial decision too, as excellent as their rhythm section was. Perhaps they’d have been more popular as a ‘synth duo’…)

Most of the tracks on Demos are ‘mood pieces’ without vocals. They all pretty much work as instrumentals, and also reveal Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon as top-notch melody writers and gifted synth sculptors.

The early Eno-influenced stuff is fun but the Flaunt The Imperfection era is fascinating. ‘Wall Of God’ was originally almost an ambient piece. ‘Black Man Ray’ is pure-pop comfort listening. No wonder everyone who heard the demo said ‘Hit!’. Arguably the finished version doesn’t add that much.

Meanwhile ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’ is Erik Satie meets ‘The Love Boat’, sans that lovely middle eight which was presumably put together by Becker.

The What Price Paradise stuff shows how that album was botched. They clearly got the wrong producers in (Langer and Winstanley). ‘Victims of a cruel medical experiment’, to quote the memorable Q review!

The demo of ‘Arizona Sky’ is altogether more agreeable than the final version, but shows that even then the chorus never quite worked. ‘Safe As Houses’ is charming, as is ‘Best Kept Secret’, originally without the shuffle groove.

The Diary Of A Hollow Horse stuff is all full-band demos, possibly completely live in the studio with a few keyboard overdubs. Again they demonstrate that Virgin arguably cocked up that fine album.

‘St Saviour Square’ works well without all of the ‘Aural Exciter’ rubbish used on the final version. ‘Sweet Charity’, ‘Singing The Praises’, ‘Red Letter Day’ and ‘In Northern Skies’ have complete arrangements and full lyrics – in fact it sounds like they kept Kevin Wilkinson’s drums from those demos and rerecorded everything else.

‘Stranger By Nature’ is a completely different – and inferior – song to the album version, and in straight 4/4, while the title track works superbly as an acoustic guitar ballad. Becker possibly missed a track there.

Demos is a great listen and merely confirms that China Crisis were one of the most underrated and commercially underperforming acts of the ‘80s.

Randy Crawford: Secret Combination @ 45

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In 1981, when jazz, pop and R’n’B were fusing to create a very agreeable kind of high-gloss yacht rock, us Brits went for the WEA gang (David Sanborn, Patrice Rushen, Manhattan Transfer, George Benson, Al Jarreau et al) in a big way.

But Georgia-born Randy Crawford probably sold the most records. In her own modest way, she was one of the great stars of 1980s soul, and her beautiful, flawless voice and joyful presence added a lot to the decade.

‘Street Life’, her collaboration with The Crusaders, went top 5 in autumn 1979, and movingtheriver will never forget first hearing her version of ‘Imagine’ on the radio a few years later.

But Secret Combination, released 45 years ago this month and produced by Tommy LiPuma, was Crawford’s biggest album success here, hitting #2 (though weirdly it didn’t cross over in the US, only making #12 on the Billboard R’n’B chart).

This writer’s dad didn’t buy much 1980s soul but Secret Combination was around all the time early in the decade. It seemed so lush and exotic, sheer luxury soul/pop with gorgeous arrangements/electric piano by Leon Pendarvis and the slinky Abe Laboriel/Jeff Porcaro/Dean Parks/Lenny Castro rhythm section.

But listening back today, it does seem overshadowed by three all-time classics (‘You Might Need Somebody’, ‘Rainy Night In Georgia’, ‘Rio De Janeiro Blue’), with too much filler and too many ballads (a clue is the huge amount of credited songwriters).

But even the most humdrum tracks are enlivened by striking bits of arrangement, like the superb strings/flutes and unexpected post-chorus key change on ‘That’s How Heartaches Are Made’ (also listen out for a rare Porcaro flub – wonder why they left it in…).

Crawford was a star of the 1981 Montreux Jazz Festival, documented on the classic Casino Lights live album, and then she toured the UK in early 1982 including a famous televised gig at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (sadly currently missing from BBC iPlayer).

Her next two albums – Windsong and Nightline – repeated the Secret Combination formula (with similar issues in the songwriting department) and were fairly successful in the UK too, and then she had that freak (self-penned) massive hit ‘Almaz’ in 1986.

Kevin Eubanks: Face To Face @ 40

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You know you’re doing something right when the boss takes an interest.

GRP Records was just coming into its own when label co-founder Dave Grusin co-produced, arranged and played keyboards on brilliant guitarist Kevin Eubanks’ fourth solo album Face To Face, released 40 years ago this month.

Part of the so-called Young Lions generation, Eubanks’ first major gig had been with Art Blakey. His playing was a turbo-charged fusion of Wes Montgomery, George Benson and John McLaughlin, and by 1986 he was a seriously hot property.

Face To Face remains probably his best solo album to date and one of GRP’s best too – but it’s still not on Spotify and bloody hard to find on CD… It apes the kinds of albums Verve and CTI were making in the 1960s with Montgomery and Benson, mainly jazz, Latin and pop covers with rich string arrangements and high production values.

But this one also benefits from some fantastic bass playing from Marcus Miller and Ron Carter (but hardly any drums – Buddy Williams is almost inaudible and the rhythmic energy comes from the percussion, guitar and bass).

As the 1980s progressed, mastering engineers were looking for new ways to push the bass front and centre in the mix, and here Miller obliges with one of the hottest slap tones ever committed to vinyl – the version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Moments Aren’t Moments’ and title track are almost comical examples.

Grusin writes a new middle eight for the Bacharach/Bayer Sager classic ‘That’s What Friends Are For’, inspiring an absolutely brilliant Eubanks solo, while Carter and the guitarist duet beautifully on Charlie Parker’s ‘Relaxin’ At Camarillo’ and Montgomery’s ‘Trick Bag’.

Elsewhere the delicious version of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s ‘Wave’ may be its best cover version bar none. The three Eubanks originals are cool too, marrying his love of bebop, funk and McLaughlin. The mixture of his steel-string acoustic guitar and Miller’s bass is original and exciting.

Sadly Face To Face proved a bit of a false dawn in terms of Eubanks’ tenure on GRP and subsequent solo career, though his brief period on Blue Note in the 1990s has some fans. He also spent a long time on TV in Jay Leno’s ‘Tonight Show’ band, and guested fruitfully with artists like Dave Holland, Greg Osby and Will Downing.

But arguably his solo career has been hampered by a lack of memorable original compositions, not a problem on Face To Face. Happy birthday to one of the great guitar albums of the 1980s.

Phil Collins: Face Value @ 45

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Producer Steve Lillywhite recently named Phil Collins as the best drummer he’s ever worked with, pretty high praise considering Lillywhite has also shared studios with Simon Phillips, Carter Beauford, Mel Gaynor, Mark Brzezicki, Jerry Marotta and Stewart Copeland.

And Phil’s excellent drums were all over his seriously impressive (and very long for 1981, clocking in at over 47 minutes) debut solo album Face Value, released 45 years ago this month, and a record that has fascinated this writer since the age of eight.

But by 1981 Phil had nothing to prove from a drumming perspective. It was the quality of the material and arrangements that bowled people over. And yet Face Value is so much part of the furniture these days that it’s easy to forget just how expertly crafted it is.

Many of the album’s songs started life as primitive home demos, featuring rhythm box, piano and vocals, Collins having a lot of time on his hands after separating from his first wife (‘I Missed Again’ was originally a mid-tempo shuffle with the working title of ‘I Miss You Babe’).

A few other tracks were developed in the studio with various muso friends, including L Shankar on violin, Eric Clapton and ex-Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson, and then there were the two famous cover versions (three if you count Phil’s almost-silent rendering of ‘Over The Rainbow’ at the end – the very first ‘secret’ track?).

The resulting material was an embarrassment of riches. Phil threw everything but the kitchen sink at Face Value: singer-songwriter balladry, Motown, Earth, Wind & Fire, jazz/rock, Beatles beats. Even a touch of Barry White (but no prog…). And all of it pretty much works.

He took full advantage of Townhouse Studios’ famous stone-clad drum room and the superb technical skills and easygoing manner of co-producer Hugh Padgham.

‘In The Air Tonight’ arguably changed the music business forever (as, arguably, did the cover – was this the first album that had the artist’s handwriting on the front?). Had there ever been a quieter album opener? Or UK #2 single (#19 in the States)?

Just a spectral Roland CR-78 rhythm box playing a loose approximation of Phil’s beat from Peter Gabriel’s ‘Intruder’ (and at exactly the same tempo) and a few synth chords (starting in D-minor, the saddest of all keys…). And then the massively compressed, mid-song fill is always louder than you think it’ll be.

In fact, compared to modern ‘pop’ music, the whole album has an enormous amount of space. Even the silence between each track (apart from the mid-record medley) seems unusually elongated and very deliberate, possibly because of the huge variety of musical styles.

Atlantic (Phil’s label in the US) boss Ahmet Ertegun said something interesting about ‘In The Air’: for years afterwards, it was always his go-to track for demonstrating a sure-fire hit – rather an extraordinary statement, when you think about it.

Phil was also becoming a more-than-useful pianist – check out his lovely voicings on ‘Hand In Hand’ and impressive rhythm playing (just the black keys!) on ‘Droned’.

The success of Face Value was a huge gamechanger for his Genesis colleagues. The ‘funny guy’ behind the kit who had always felt a bit like an outsider was now calling the shots. Newfound respect from Messrs. Rutherford and Banks. There would be no more drummer jokes.

The album revolutionised Virgin Records too. Its massive success (UK #1, US #7) was almost as seismic as Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells had been five years before, ushering in the label’s mega-selling pop era of Culture Club, Human League et al.

‘Phil and Peter Gabriel are delightful people. Nothing’s too much trouble for them and it’s also true that because they’d both bother to go into the office to see everyone, the staff would work their balls off for them.’ Richard Branson, 1999

If Phil’s solo career had only ever consisted of Face Value, his legacy would have been assured. (In fact many, including this writer, believe he hasn’t produced much solo stuff of worth since…)

(Postscript: my 1980s WEA CD sounds great but is apparently a bootleg, with a few funny misspellings inside the inlay card – ‘Sharokav’ on violin – and a weird Eric Clapton pseudonym: ‘Joe Partridge’…)

Essential 1980s Jazz/Rock Albums (Part 2)

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Continuing our look at some of the finest jazz/rock albums of the 1980s. You can find part 1 here.

Jaco Pastorius: Twins (1982)
A classic double album (an edited version was released as Invitation) recorded live in Japan just after the bass pioneer left Weather Report. Jaco’s brand of fusion took in jazz, Cuban, soul and R’n’B – no guitars here, but brilliant bass playing and powerful solos from Toots Thielemans, Lew Soloff, Jon Faddis and Bob Mintzer.

Frank Gambale: Live! (1989)
The Australian guitarist’s outrageous live debut was recorded at the Baked Potato in LA, and it finally showed just what he’s capable of – electrifying, original solos. His compositions are memorable too and there’s fantastic Latin/fusion drumming from Joey Heredia.

Steve Khan: Casa Loco (1983)
An album which still amazes musicians the world over. Arguably guitarist Khan, bassist Anthony Jackson, drummer Steve Jordan and percussionist Manolo Badrena have never done better work – that’s saying something considering who they’ve all played with.

Bill Bruford’s Earthworks: Dig? (1989)
Both of Bruford’s 1980s Earthworks albums were really good but this gets the nod due to Django Bates being given free reign, contributing superb keyboard solos, a cool reimagining of Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ and classic composition ‘Dancing On Frith Street’.

Paquito D’Rivera: Why Not! (1984)
An underrated album from the Cuban alto sax and clarinet star, also featuring Claudio Roditi on trumpet, Michel Camilo on keys and a wonderful performance from drummer Dave Weckl on the opening ‘Gdansk’.

Lyle Mays: Street Dreams (1988)
The Metheny Group keyboard player chucks in everything he knows on this big-budget project – ambient post-jazz, widescreen fuzak, big-band swing and Fagen-style fusion, and it’s all good. Some, like this writer, may also prefer the more red-blooded guitar playing of Bill Frisell to Metheny.

Pat Metheny Group: American Garage (1980)
No one is too sure if this came out in late 1979 or early 1980 but it’s this writer’s favourite Metheny album, though the guitarist himself seems to have almost disowned it. He loosens up and allows some rock and Steely Dan influences, driven along by Danny Gottlieb’s superb drums.

Level 42: A Physical Presence (1985)
A lot of it’s not strictly ‘fusion’, of course, but any album featuring such brilliant live versions of ‘Mr Pink’, ‘Foundation And Empire’ and ‘88’ has to make this list.

Mark King: Influences (1984)
The Level 42 mainman amazes with his 18-minute fusion classic ‘The Essential’, plus an eerily assured tribute to early Return To Forever called ‘There Is A Dog’. Plus he played almost everything on it.

John Patitucci: On The Corner (1989)
Both of the bassist’s 1980s solo albums were good but this gets the nod courtesy of the sheer variety of grooves from drummers Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl and Alex Acuna, and the leader’s exciting solos and excellent compositions, all memorable.

John Abercrombie: Getting There (1988)
A rare excursion into jazz/rock for ECM Records, the guitarist’s most dynamic ‘80s album featured Michael Brecker on sax, a hefty ‘rock’ mix courtesy of James Farber and arguably drummer Peter Erskine’s heaviest recorded performance to date.

Joni Mitchell: Wild Things Run Fast (1983)
She littered the album with influences from the Police but the main driver was the brilliant jazz/rock musicianship of bassist Larry Klein, drummers Colaiuta and John Guerin, saxist Wayne Shorter and keys player Russell Ferrante. ‘Moon At The Window’, ‘Be Cool’, ‘Ladies Man’ and ‘You’re So Square’ smuggled fusion into the album charts.

Miles Davis: Star People (1983)
Blues, blazing jazz/rock, chromatic funk and general weirdness combine for arguably Miles’s most exciting album of the decade, featuring all-time great guitar from Mike Stern and John Scofield.

John Martyn: Glorious Fool (1981)
John’s music was now bringing in influences from Weather Report, Latin and spiritual jazz, and Phil Collins, keyboard player Max Middleton, percussionist Danny Cummings and bassist Alan Thompson made for a fantastic rhythm section.

Bruford: Gradually Going Tornado (1980)
Any album featuring ‘Gothic 17’, ‘Land’s End’, ‘Joe Frazier’ and ‘Palewell Park’ has to be on this list. Epochal work from bassist Jeff Berlin, keys man Dave Stewart and the drummer himself.

Bubbling under:
Terje Rypdal: The Singles Collection (1988)
Power Tools: Strange Meeting (1987)
Stanley Clarke: If This Bass Could Only Talk (1988)
Terri Lyne Carrington: Real Life Story (1989)
Chick Corea Elektric Band: Eye Of The Beholder (1988)
Bill Frisell: Before We Were Born (1989)
Loose Tubes (1984)
Players (Jeff Berlin, Scott Henderson, Steve Smith, T Lavitz) (1986)

(PS. If you like the sound of any of these albums, please consider buying them on physical formats to best support the artists and their families.)

Essential 1980s Jazz/Rock Albums (Part 1)

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1980s jazz/rock generally gets the side-eye these days.

But it wasn’t all the Chick Corea Elektric Band prancing around the stage in tracksuits or pitiful WAVE-style smooth jazz.

The 1970s jazz/rock pioneers were mostly going strong and if some were too tempted by synths and drum machines, the best music was made by sticking pretty rigorously to the tried-and-tested real drums/bass/guitar/keys lineup favoured by Miles, Weather Report, Return To Forever et al.

So here’s a selection of 1980s jazz/rock albums that have consistently gripped movingtheriver, most of which he queued up to buy at the HMV or Virgin Megastore, or found in an Our Price bargain bin. (These are not proggy or funky. So no Herbie, Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn or David Torn, but there are elements of R’n’B/Latin/soul/whatever mixed in with the jazz).

Bireli Lagrene: Foreign Affairs (1988)
Just 21 years old when he recorded it with producer Steve Khan, the French guitarist’s second Blue Note album is a cohesive gem and massive improvement on the debut, with terrific contributions from keyboardist Koono and drummer Dennis Chambers.

Ornette Coleman: Virgin Beauty (1988)
One of the most ‘accessible’ albums of the master’s career, with memorable melodies, a brilliantly expressive bassist (Al McDowell) and some decidedly odd guest appearances from Jerry Garcia.

Tribal Tech (Scott Henderson/Gary Willis): Nomad (1988)
Recorded in April 1988 but not released until early 1990, guitarists were rightly wowed by Henderson’s brilliance, a mixture of Michael Brecker, Allan Holdsworth and Stevie Ray Vaughan, while the rhythm section is groovy and propulsive and both Henderson and Willis’s compositions are excellent. And ‘Tunnel Vision’ may feature the perfect guitar solo…

John McLaughlin: Mahavishnu (1984)
OK there are some question marks in the keyboard and sax departments, and a few mediocre tracks, but Billy Cobham has rarely sounded better and John contributes three or four classic compositions and a few brilliant solos to this reunion album of sorts.

Marc Johnson’s Bass Desires: Second Sight (1987)
Wonderful interplay between guitarists John Scofield and Bill Frisell, plus some classic compositions including Scofield’s surf-rock-meets-jazz ‘Twister’, Frisell’s Monk-like ‘1951’ and Johnson’s moving ‘Hymn For Her’.

Larry Carlton: Last Nite (1987)
Guitarists of all stripes were blown away by Carlton’s playing in the 1980s, and here’s the best evidence, captured live at LA’s Baked Potato club with Alex Acuna, Abe Laboriel and JR Robinson.

Human Chain: Cashin’ In (1988)
This Brit jazz/rock classic, released on EG Records, had elements of the Canterbury sound, West Coast cool jazz, English folk music and 1980s Weather Report, featuring Django Bates’ fantastic keys and French horn and some weirdly impressive guitar and fretless bass from Stuart Hall (who he?). Also injects a healthy dose of much-needed humour to the ’80s jazz world.

Hiram Bullock: Give It What U Got (1988)
All the fun of the fair from this gifted but troubled guitarist: raunchy funk/rock, instrumental Steely Dan, Brecker Brothers horns, classic fusion and an Al Jarreau guest appearance on a Sam Cooke tune, but all shot through with jazz chords and Hiram’s lyrical playing.

Ronald Shannon Jackson: Mandance (1982)
Ornette-style harmolodics and Mingus-like ensemble work meet NYC punk-jazz on the drummer’s intriguing and powerful album, recorded live in the studio, featuring future Living Colour axeman Vernon Reid.

Weather Report: Sportin’ Life (1985)
It was a toss-up between this and Night Passage, both classics, but this gets the nod courtesy of the newly-minted rhythm section of Omar Hakim and Victor Bailey, plus a few classic Wayne Shorter tunes including ‘Face On The Barroom Floor’ which reportedly Joni Mitchell was particularly smitten by.

Wayne Shorter: Atlantis (1985)
Wayne again, fronting this fascinating, complex song-cycle featuring Alex Acuna on drums and Joni’s husband Larry Klein on bass. Takes some time to digest, but like a good wine gets better every year.

Allan Holdsworth: Secrets (1989)
A toss-up between this and Metal Fatigue, this gets in because of his delicious guitar tone and the inspired contributions of drummer Vinnie Colaiuta – ‘City Nights’, ‘Spokes’, ‘Peril Premonition’ and ‘Joshua’ are musical landmarks. Fiery, exciting, unmissable.

Steps Ahead: Modern Times (1984)
Messrs Brecker, Erskine, Mainieri, Gomez and Bernhardt were embracing some new technology but they never let it overshadow the mostly excellent compositions with telling solos, particularly from Brecker.

John Scofield: Still Warm (1985)
Take your pick between this, Blue Matter and Loud Jazz, all fantastic pieces of work, but Still Warm gets the nod courtesy of its dynamite rhythm section (Darryl Jones and Omar Hakim) and arguably John’s best writing of the ’80s.

Mike Stern: Upside Downside (1986)
Produced by Hiram Bullock and featuring a crack band including Dave Weckl on drums, it showcases Stern’s finest/fieriest playing on record to date and also one of Jaco Pastorius’s last notable appearances. Still the best Stern solo album and quite extreme in its own way.

(If you’re new to any of these albums and they float your boat, please consider buying physical copies to best support the artists and their families.)

Protest Songs @ 40: Prefab Sprout’s Best Album?

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Speedily recorded 40 years ago this autumn at Newcastle’s Lynx Studios, Protest Songs was intended to be the no-frills, lo-fi, rush-released, ‘answer’ album to Prefab’s Steve McQueen.

Fans who attended the Two Wheels Good UK tour of October and November 1985 were given leaflets advertising its release on 2 December for one week only.

But then ‘When Love Breaks Down’ reached #25 at the third attempt, earning the band spots on ‘Top Of The Pops’ and ‘Wogan’, and the album was shelved (though apparently a few hundred white labels ‘escaped’ from CBS and are out there somewhere…)

Protest Songs was eventually held back until June 1989, but proved well worth the wait and reached a respectable #18 on the UK chart. This writer would put it right up there with Steve, From Langley Park To Memphis and Jordan, maybe even above them…

The album was produced by the band and – apart from the last-minute addition ‘Life Of Surprises’ – mixed by Richard Digby Smith, once a staff engineer at Island Records who served his apprenticeship under the likes of Arif Mardin, Phil Spector, Muff Winwood and Chris Blackwell.

Protest also showed that Patrick Joseph McAloon was turning into a really decent keyboard player (he later claimed that every song on Langley Park was written on keyboards) and that – massively helped by drummer Neil Conti – Prefab were becoming a really good live band.

But most importantly Protest is a moving, razor-sharp suite of songs. Paddy was operating at the absolute top of his game, with some of the anger which had initially been so attractive to Thomas Dolby (also detectable in this recently discovered interview).

The only thing tongue-in-cheek about it is its title. These were not protests against nuclear power or war, but rather against deprivation and, just six months on from the miners’ strike, the general media condescension about provincial English life (particularly in the McAloon brothers’ native North East) under Thatcher.

‘Til The Cows Come Home’ may be the killer track. If you’re in the mood, it can be a real heartbreaker. The superb lyrics deftly change perspective mid-thought and allude to how unemployment affects generations:

Aren’t you a skinny kid?
Just like his poppa
Where’s he workin’?
He’s not workin’…

Why’re you laughin’?
You call that laughin’?
Wearing your death head grin
Even the fishes are thin…

He can’t have his coffee with cream

Meanwhile ‘Diana’ was revamped from the ‘When Love Breaks Down’ B-side (Deacon Blue definitely listened to THAT), slowed down and with a few new chords added. Conti expertly marshals proceedings with his tasty Richie Hayward-style half-time groove.

‘Dublin’ showcases Paddy’s lovely sense of chord movement, with a little influence from bossa nova (here’s Paddy playing a different studio take). ‘Life Of Surprises’ and ‘The World Awake’ are shiny, synth-laden, mid-period 4/4 Prefab but with stings in their tails:

Never say you’re bitter, Jack
Bitter makes the worst things come back

You don’t have to pretend you’re not cryin’
When it’s even in the way that you’re walkin’…

The hilarious ‘Horsechimes’ investigates school-day piss-taking, with a large dollop of Salingeresque satire. Meanwhile it’s hard to think of a more perfect marriage of words and melody than ‘Talking Scarlet’ (also drastically slowed down from the early demo), while ‘Pearly Gates’ closes out the album in moving style, like a dimly-remembered hymn from school days, a rare 1980s ‘death disc’.

The only partial misfire is the jaunty ‘Tiffany’s’, with its comically poor guitar solos, but its inclusion was totally understandable. Happy birthday to a classic.