ISSUE #24 MMUSICMAG.COM REVIEWS REISSUEHOLE MNobody’sILES DAVIS Daughter QUINTET [Universal] Live in Europe 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 2 [Columbia/Legacy] The first album released under the Hole moniker since 1998’s Celebrity Skin is really frontwoman Courtney Love’sWhat a difference a couple of years makes. The Miles Davis Quintet second solo album—co-founder,documented on the first volume of this series—recorded in 1967 in songwriter and lead guitaristvarious European locales—was, by many accounts, the quintessential Eric Erlandson isn’t involved,Miles Davis outfit, as well as one of the most incendiary and innovative nor is any other previous Hole member. So it’s Love andjazz three ensembles ever. With Wayne Shorter on saxophone, Herbie Hancock ringers on 11 new songs—10on keyboards, Ron Carter on bass and Tony Williams on drums, this of which Love wrotewas with a collective that still causes swoons of reverence from acolytes. collaborators like Billy Corgan,Critics Linda hailed Perry theand newfirst volume as the most important historical jazz guitarist Micko Larkin. (Perry gets full credit on one tune, “Letter to God.”) release of 2011. But by mid-1969, the hard post-bop that marked Davis’ Much of the riveting intensityprevious of the epoch group’s had 1990s run its course. His ears had been taking in the new heyday appears to havehard left alongrock withand her psychedelic former Daniel Jackson soul of the day, and Davis was not to be bandmates, but there areleft fl ashes behind. here ofBitches the snarling Brew , as era-definingToo often, though, thea recording slower songs as trip any,her up. was While still once fury Love deployed to suchmonths devastating away effect when back inthe the trumpeterday. they were and showcases his new for band,harrowing often displays dubbed of naked emotion,the She spits out her vocals with vengeful disdain on “Skinny Little Love sounds more dispassionate these days. The production Bitch,” overdriven guitars“third roiling atopgreat an elastic quintet”—Shorter,bassline that doesn’t help—the Chick songs have Corea an airless, sanded-downon keys, feel that speeds up as the song Daveraces toward Holland a climatic on pile-up bass at andthe doesn’tJack fiDeJohnette t with her visceral persona.on drums—played Courtney Love’s tumultuous the end. She shifts tempos andshows attitude captured on the more oncontemplative these tracks, history previously suggests that available she has a compellingonly on bootlegs.story to tell, and “Pacifi c Coast Highway,”Fiery, taking stockfree as and layers often of acoustic quite and freaky,perhaps theshe does. quintet—which It’s just not the one never she’s telling recorded on Nobody’s electric guitars chug alongin behinda studio her. together—is still bridgingDaughter. –Ericgaps, R. Dantongiving new voice to earlier material (“Milestones,” “I Fall in Love Too Easily”) and suggesting COURT YARD HOUNDS A side project of new offering suggested that its creator was a few strides closer to a future still Dixieunimaginable Chicks’ Martie tocrafting most something (“Miles truly Runs monumental the in bothVoodoo musical andDown,” social terms. Court Yard Hounds“Bitches Brew”).Maguire While and Emily the Thisthree cold andCDs private reveal set isn’t it,the although group’s that’s probably ability due tomore to [Columbia] Robison, Court Yard personal circumstances than anything related to talent. Wainwright continually rebootHounds itself, delivers the wrote DVD, All Days filmed Are Nights in whileBerlin his mother, in November Kate McGarrigle, of was ’69, is nothingmuch-anticipated short of astounding. dying of cancer, The andprofusely there is a quiet,sweating complex sadnessMiles evenand in its insight—both musical and personal—into the sisters who have less autobiographical material. There’s nothing here except piano for so long ceded centerhis stage charges to Chicks singerdon’t Natalie simply Maines. speak and vocal,a new and languageWainwright doesn’t to one project another—they his words in the way Though steeped in familiarcreate instrumentation, it on the the albumspot. offers –Jeff little Tamarkin we’ve come to expect from him. Instead of serenading the person of the barn-burning brashness that made the Chicks famous (save in the farthest corner of a packed theater, he’s singing to himself in perhaps the gutsy “Ain’t No Son”). Instead, its delicate folk-pop an otherwise empty room. –David Styburski prettiness perfectly suits Robison’s more-than-capable voice and the jumble of emotions, sunny and melancholy, that emerge in a song Ozomatli’s music has been called a collision cycle inspired by her 2008 divorce. Maguire’s weeping fi ddle and OZOMATLI of styles, a cultural mash-up, and a 20-car ‘Whileseamless the harmonies three are CDs welcome reveal as always, the andgroup’s her one turnability on to continually pileup of genres. It’s also some of the most lead vocals (“Gracefully”) is so warmly affecting that listeners may joyfully energetic music you’ll ever hear. On wish she stepped to the mic more often. Court Yard Hounds ably its fi fth album, the L.A.-based band stirs its rebootdemonstrates itself, that, the whether DVD, with filmed their fellow Dixiein ChickBerlin or without,in November of ’69, isblend of salsa, ska, samba, funk, and hip-hop these ladies’ talent runs deep. –Katie Dodd in ways few groups could conceive. Imagine Fire Away tossing the English Beat, Herb Alpert and the nothing short of astounding.For The a dozen profusely years, the sweating[Mercer Street/Downtown] Miles Tijuana Brass, Caetano Veloso, and Sly and RUFUS arrangements on Rufus the Family Stone into a magical blender and Wainwright’s albums got you get some sense of Ozomatli’s eclectic approach. High points and his chargesWAINWRIGHT don’t simplybusier speak and his a sometimes new language on their latest, to Fireone Away , include “Are You Ready?,” a horn-and- All Days Are Nights: Songs naughty, occasionally percussion-driven blast of salsa-fl avored ska; “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah,” for Lulu angry declarations of gay an exultant Latin pop anthem fi tted with shrieking sax; and “Gay Vatos [Decca]another—they createpride got it louder.on the Each spot.’ in Love,” a rockabilly-tinged tune with a soaring chorus. Even when

70 MAY 2010 ISSUE #24 M MUSIC & MUSICIANS MAGAZINE

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