Portinho Trio
Vinho Do Porto
MCG Jazz
Musical artists who go by one name are an arrogant lot. Portinho is a drummer who goes by one name, but surprisingly, there aren't any 8-minute drum solos on this album. Instead, the Portinho Trio sounds like a perfect balance of drums, piano, bass, and trombone. The band plays samba-oriented jazz tunes with a mean swing and tight precision. The arrangements are fun. And guess what? Portinho deserves to do the single-moniker thing. He's just plain good. The recording is balanced like the band. Songs like "Doce de Coco" serve as a good test for the levels of your system. Each instrument sounds like it's the same volume, yet they all stand out. Frequency range is good, with solid bass and up-front high-hat sticking.
George Duke
Dukey Treats
Heads Up
Dukey Treats is an album made to recall the golden age of funk and soul. It does, but it doesn't quite succeed enough to make you wish that time hadn't passed. There are treats like the title jam, with Duke on keys, Byron Miller on bass, and Ndugu Chancler on drums, all bringing the funk to the nth degree. But there's a little dookie spread about, too, as some songs feel tired and the title groove is one of only two featuring the original Dukey Stick band. The sonics are appropriately funky, with badass bass on tracks like "Mercy." Listen to the drums on "Everyday Hero;" the sound moves back-and-forth along the soundstage, making it seem like a guy with a 10-piece is right in front of you so you can pick out the location of each drum.
Get Help
The End Of The New Country
Midriff Records
Get Help originated as a multi-instrumental duo who planned to license music on the cheap. Along with random jingles, they had a bunch of full songs. Those songs were tweaked to become The End of the New Country. Get Help has songs that remind you of early R.E.M. and some that remind you of Sugar. Most of these tracks are an easy listen and a few are excellent. But the songs never feel like an album. If these two guys focused on making a cohesive album and perhaps got themselves a drummer, they could be really good. The recording of the album sounds airy, with no depth. The faraway vocals are an aesthetic choice, but everything else sounds like it's coming from down the block, too. Many tracks sorely lack bass. The sound is much improved, though, by a surprisingly wide soundstage.
Ill Ease And The Racket
Turn it Loose Ionik Recordings
This album is repetitive. It repeats. The vocals do-especially the vocals. It's easy to see how Ill Ease and the Racket could gain a following among those looking for something that rocks while being almost trancelike in it's single-line repetition of melodies that sound like they're being sung by a stoned pre-pubescent Beck. Elizabeth Sharp's one-woman project is promising upon early listening, but ironically, Turn it Loose never turns it loose and the album drones as it moves forward. It does have excellent-sounding electric guitar throughout; you can alternately hear strings and distorted crunch. The sound is a bit muffled and dynamics aren't great. But there's some nice use of the stereo mix, as in the pretty "Hate the Game," which features a running left-channel jingle and vocals and guitar that switch staging position throughout.
Bob Mintzer Big Band
Swing Out
MCG Jazz
Big bands can be loud, swinging, intricate, and groundbreaking. Mostly, they're big. But the Bob Mintzer Big Band impresses with its subtlety. Mintzer arranges the songs, whether standards or new tunes, in intricate ways that allow each instrument's voice to be heard in an effective way. For instance, "Beyond the Limit" uses horns as a rhythm section, creating a sort of a capella sound. The variety of moods and tempos on this album is an unexpected treat from a big band. They go from full bore to tone down at a moment's notice. This is a case where the album's recording quality actually makes the album better. Soundstage is great, accenting the layered arrangements. Dynamics are excellent, too, creating more impact when the band crescendos or stops and starts. The recording is subtle, sure, but it has no problem with big either.
S.M.V.
Thunder Heads Up
Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller, and Victor Wooten comprise a three-headed bass monster named S.M.V. If you were allergic to electric bass, this band's album would kill you. Albums produced in that same factory would render you comatose. Excellent musicianship and forays into frequencies above those produced by standard basses allow this trio to not sound like a band with two basses too many. Tracks like the ballad "Milano," which features Clarke bowing an upright, show the possibilities of an all-bass sound. Thunder impresses with its more surprising tunes, whereas the more straight-forward funk-jazz jams can get a bit fatiguing, as could be expected with a recording of such singular focus. The sound is crisp with good staging. There are lifelike highs including cymbals and wind chimes. Oh yeah, and there's bass-a lot of it-in every frequency range known to man. Pick any track and your system's low-end power and response will be put to the test.
Harmonious Wail
Resist Temptation
Range Records
Harmonious Wail is a gypsy jazz ensemble with Django lineage passed through the Squirrel Nut Zippers business model. Resist Temptation sees the band apply a whistful sound to covers of Tom Waits, The Velvet Underground, and other rock-leaning song crafters. These songs are taken over by the Wail so well, that they blend right in with the band's originals on the album. There's no Django here, but the musicians are subtly solid. Maggie Delany-Potthoff's vocals serve as the left-up parking brake slightly slowing this hatchback. She tries way too hard to fit into genre and ends up feeling syrupy. Resist Temptation sounds pretty good. The mix is nice, with guitar, bass, and harmonica all coming in at nice volumes. "Lung Shan Temple Chant" would be a good measure of whether your midrange is muddy or too subdued. It's progression of subdued mandolin, guitar, and fiddle would sound muffled without a forward midrange.
Ry Cooder
I, Flathead (The Songs of Kash Buk and the Klowns)
Nonesuch/ Perro Verde Records
I, Flathead is a novella about Kash Buk, a salt flat speed racer. Ry Cooder wrote it, and he also created an album "by" Kash Buk and his band. The book is written with a dry style that's pretty darn engaging. The album rocks that style and a bunch of others as well. You start to wonder what's coming next. "Pink-O-Boogie" swings, and it features a hilarious word that makes commie sound so modern. "Filipino Dancehall Girl" sounds like something you might've heard years ago at a Filipino dancehall. Some of these songs are hit-and-miss, but when thematically tied to the book, they all work. If you're interested in salt flat racing or just immersing yourself in a simpler time, this is an interesting two-pronged experience. I, Flathead is recorded simply, but it sounds not bad. You almost hear ambient noise in the vocal recordings, but the effect works. When you can hear the steel on the guitars and the crack in Cooder's voice, you don't miss soundstage all that much.