New album: You Are Everything
Artist: Steve Kilbey & Martin Kennedy
Label: Time Being
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
"You Are Everything" is the third album from the duo of Steve Kilbey (The Church) and Martin Kennedy (All India Radio).
Even though he's made 15 great to brilliant albums with The Church, Steven Kilbey is mainly known to the masses in America as the co-writer/singer of that band's international hit single "Under The Milky Way." Truth is, The Church have a loyal cult following that has allowed them to create vital music into the 21st century (see their "Untitled #23" album).
Kilbey also routinely releases on average around three solo/collaborative albums per year, and his latest effort with instrumental wizard Martin Kennedy is one of the best.
Though the union of these two musicians is considered a side project, the quality of the music sounds as focused and relevant as anything these two have ever done.
Kennedy's main band, All India Radio, is described on the band's website (allindiaradio.com.au) as "Australia's masters of hypnotic chilltronica," and it's hype you can believe in. The pairing of Kennedy's kaleidoscopic instrumental swirls with Kilbey's film noir vocal style is a match made in audio heaven.
Album openers "I Wouldn't Know" and "Everyone" waft in like mist on the beach, but it's "Lorelie" that crashes in like a giant wave.
"Lorelie" is packed with wall-of-sound backing vocals, a surging musical bed and a dramatic lyric. It would be easy to say "Lorelie" has cinematic qualities, but it's hard to imagine a contemporary movie that wouldn't be overshadowed by this song.
"East Side West Side" is a bit of a curve ball, with Kennedy bringing techno flourishes to the fore. Although it's unusual to hear Kilbey's wirey croon tangle with this type of music, it does work.
"All The World" is propelled by a laconic industrial throb that is overpowered by Kilbey's multi-layered vocals and sweeping keyboard passages. The driving "Can't Get Free" is well placed and moves the plot of the album along until the last song, "Finale," puts a bittersweet bow on the proceedings.
Hopefully this isn't the last we've heard of the Kilbey/Kennedy collaboration but, if so, at least we have three wonderful albums to cherish.
Classic album: Saxophone Colossus
Artist: Sonny Rollins
Label: Prestige
Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Jazz great Sonny Rollins has recorded many landmark albums, and none are more deserving of that title than "Saxophone Colossus."
Recorded in 1956, the album contained "St. Thomas," an island flavored number which many consider to be Rollins' signature tune. Then as now, Rollins' earthy, distinctive saxophone style displays as much character as any vocalist ever has.
With seemingly endless reserves of improvisational fuel to burn, Rollins weaves joyous melody lines around the work of drummer Max Roach, pianist Tommy Flanagan and bassist Doug Watkins, turning "St. Thomas" into a jazz standard that's worshiped and feared by musicians more than 50 years later.
Another Rollins composition — "Strode Rode" — approaches the genius of "St. Thomas" in its construction and execution, with Watkins' bass work driving the song with virtuoso abandon.
Readings of Kurt Weils' "Moritat" ("Mack The Knife") and DePaul/Raye's "You Don't Know What Love Is" wouldn't normally be within 20 feet of each other, but in the hands of Rollins and his superb band they simply smolder with cool.
The third masterpiece on the album — Rollins' "Blue 7" — clocks in at over 11 minutes, but you'd never know it.
Without ever having to dip into the dreaded realm of free jazz or noodling, Rollins' leads his the way with breathy, fluid solos that inspire the same from Flanagan. The interplay between the musicians here is beyond telepathic, as if they're all sharing one brain.
Rollins went on to become a colossus of modern music and even garnered some mainstream attention when he laid down the saxophone part on the Rolling Stones' hit "Waiting On A Friend."
At age 83, he still performs and records with the verve of a younger man, wowing audiences and Grammy voters all along the way. For more information on Sonny Rollins, visit SonnyRollins.com.
Jon Dawson's album reviews appear every Thursday in the Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon's book "Making Gravy In Public" at Amazon.com or jondawson.com.