NRBQ alive and well

I had the good fortune on Wednesday October 22 to see the Q live at Shank Hall (Milwaukee), thanks to a heads-up from my Louisville connection. Of course, I have seen them many times over the years, and the good news is that Wednesday's experience ranks near the top, honestly. The venue was good (great mix in the sound), the place was full of loyal fans, the band's energy and synergy was high level, and the single, long set was a lot of fun—favorites old and new, a Monk tune, and plenty of silliness.

My opinion, shared by many, is that this band is always experienced best live. There's no substitute for a show, and the live experience helps any listener better "understand" the recordings. A recent review of the Brass Tacks CD asserted that the band has become a brand, no matter its iteration or lineup. Longtime fans may not agree with this claim, but Wednesday's show proved that the essential aspects of the NRBQ sound survive nicely. I've seen the band a couple of times with guitarist and vocalist Scott Ligon. No one needs to apologize for his contributions—he brings it just fine.

Suzanne Vega

When younger music listeners ask me about my preferences, I usually list Suzanne Vega among my favorites because I hold hope that her music can reach across generations. These are the things I like most about Vega's art: well-crafted pop songs, intelligent writing, interesting production values and a distant, almost-spoken vocal styling.
I own five of her CDs and all of them are unified works. A listener can select / download individual cuts to playlists, but the pleasure of experiencing the entire album is special to Vega's music.
For example, from 1990's Days of Open Hand, I recommend "Book of Dreams" and "Fifty-Fifty Chance." Yet the whole album delivers on repeated listens.

Lou Reed list

Several weeks ago, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Jim Higgins listed, in order of personal preference, 31 solo albums by Lou Reed. Each album is ranked, with a sentence-long comment. Find the list here.

I have a conflicted appreciation for the rock icon. As a music reviewer in college, I was awed by The Blue Mask (1982) and its followup Legendary Hearts (1983.) As manager of a record store, while attending grad school, I tried to collect Reed's solo stuff, only to shed much of it later. The newest release I still own is Magic and Loss (1992), which is powerful elegy.

I am pleased that Higgins has positive things to say about Growing Up in Public (1980) because I think this effort has staying power for its good writing, albeit its dated sound.

Charlie Haden 1937-2014

Jazz music and American music will miss the contributions of Charlie Haden. "Haden is the ultimate timekeeper, bending and stretching the pulse like a true relativist, but never once forgetting his duties. This, coupled with a heartbeat tone, has placed him at the centre of literally hundreds of important sessions." (Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 1998) "By abandoning conventional bass positions and the usual ideas of harmonic bass lines, (Haden) has found for himself and his instrument the pitch in which a piece and the improvisors are playing, his bass forms a percussive-melodic part that participates much more directly in the music, rather than functioning as a contributing "accompaniment'." (Martin Williams, liner notes for The Shape of Jazz to Come, 1960)

Along with Richard Davis and Dave Holland, Haden is among my favorite bassists. I saw him live, and I like to think that the Midwest was always part of his music. In the jazz idiom I enjoy his early stuff with Ornette Coleman (and later with the group Old and New Dreams), his collaborations with fellow midwesterner Pat Metheny, and his standards group, Quartet West. Rejoicing, ECM 1983, is a particular favorite, and I recommend it often.