Roots in Acoustic Folk Music with a and to Let My
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cians. Say a Prayer; A Town Called Walker; Song; The Scientist Writes a Letter;and six others. I.R.S. IRS -42050, JAZZ © IRSC-42050, IRSD-42050 (40 min). Performance:Unique len (drums).Endicott; Slam; God Bless Recording:Very good the Child; Duck's Revenge;and five oth- ers.COLUMBIAFC 40830, © FCT Tom Verlaine remains the most origi- 40830, © CK 40830 (50 min). nal instrumentalist to emerge from the whole late -Seventies New Wave fer- Performance:Excellent ment, but his solo albums increasingly Recording:Very good tend to blur in the mind. This latest has The title "Crystal Stair" derives from all the requisite virtues and vices: su- Mother to Son,a 1926 Langston Hughes perbly sympathetic back-up playing, poem that encourages perseverance, maddeningly oblique lyrics, totally un- which is exactly what jazz musicians predictable song structures, and gor- need to have in ample supply these days geous layered guitar work by the star. when the lure of higher material reward Still, Verlaine's studied unconvention- for other endeavors is stronger than ality is very nearly becoming his own ever. Terence Blanchard and Donald kind of formula, albeit a formula with Harrisonare commendably uncom- its roots in the ozone. promising in their approach to jazz. "flash Light" is an attractive enough Part of a new breed of jazz purists, they album, but Verlaine's estimable talents Diane Schuur: raw talent carry on a tradition that has its roots in might better be expressed in the context their home town of New Orleans, and if of a working band. One where he wasn't STEVE GADD:TheGadd Gang.Steve they needed encouragement to stay on also singing might be nice. S.S. Gadd (drums, congas, percussion, vo- the less -popular, acoustic side of the cals); Cornell Dupree (guitar); Eddie fence, they undoubtedly found it during JESSE COLIN YOUNG:TheHigh- Gomez (bass); Richard Tee (organ, pi- their stay with Art Blakey's Jazz Mes- way Is for Heroes.Jesse Colin Young ano, Rhodes piano); other musicians. sengers. I suspect that further encour- (vocals, acoustic guitar, fretless bass); Watching the River Flow; Strength; agement will come from the reaction to vocaland instrumentalaccompani- Way Back Home; Morning Love;and this, their fourth album as co -leaders. It ment.The Highway Is for Heroes; Eri- three others.COLUMBIAFC 40864, © reflects continued inspiration and the ca; Young Girls; The Master;and five FCT 40864, © CK 40864 (37 min). kind of growing maturity that is bound others.CYPRESS661 115-1, 661 115- to lead to the top of those stairs. C.A. 4, © 661 115-2 (42 min). Performance:Mellow Recording:Very good Performance:Dreamy DIANE SCHUUR:And the Count Ba- Recording:Very good The Gadd Gang's membership is an sieOrchestra.Diane Schuur (vocals); indication of its quality. Session leader Count Basie Orchestra (instrumentals). In his first album in five years, Jesse Steve Gadd is a prolific recording artist Deedles' Blues; Travelin' Light; I Just Colin Young, former leader of the Six- who has played percussion for Bonnie Found Out About Love; Caught a Touch ties folk-rock configuration the Young - Raitt, Ashford and Simpson, Ron Car- of Your Love;and six others (eight oth- bloods, comes across as something of a ter and Carla Bley. Cornell Dupree's ers on CD). GRP 0 GR 1039, © GRC curiosity. In an attempt to reconcile his mean blues guitar serves as a perfect 1039, 0 GRD 9550 (42 min). roots in acoustic folk music with a complement to the sassy piano and sound for the Eighties, Young has, he organ playing of Richard Tee. And the Performance:Raw talent says in the promotional material, "giv- bassist is none other than the versatile Recording:Excellent remote en myself permission to be an artist, Eddie Gomez. All but Gomez recorded Judging by her new album with the and tolet my vision create music together a decade ago as members of a Count Basie Orchestra, Diane Schuur instead of letting my intellect control classy jazz -fusion group calledStuff. might well become a major-league vo- it." That's shorthand for saying he's Here they are joined by such topflight calist some day, but she will have to thrown discipline to the wind. There are musicians as Ronnie Cuber, who plays tone down considerably. No, she does a couple of simple, bouncy tunes (When a gritty baritone saxophone, and trum- not scream as unmercifully as Jennifer You Dance, T -Bone Shuffle) that getthe peters Jon Faddis and Lew Soloff. Holliday does, but there are times when blood flowing (and then apply a tourni- The foundation for the set is solid you wish Schuur would exert more con- quet just as quickly), but a number of blues -based jazz that brings back fond trol over her fine voice. Like Holliday, the tracks, including the title song,Be- memories of the Sixties without sound- Schuur seems to have fallen victim to fore You Came,andThe Master,strike ing dated. The mood is established im- an undiscriminatingaudience-the moody, troubled poses. mediately by the strutting indigo treat- yuppie whoopers and their tone-deaf Stylistically, Young aims for some ment of Bob Dylan'sWatching the Riv- colleagues who measure greatness in Suzanne Vega(Erica)and airily arrives er Flow,which opens the set, and is reaf- terms of decibels and media attention. at the suggestion but not the quirky bril- firmed at the end by a romping rendi- This sort of thing has been the downfall liance. He also hits hard at Kenny Log - tion of the Bill Doggett oldieHonky of many potentially great artists. I hope gins, achieving neither Loggins's inten- Tonkthat segues into an all -too -brief Schuur eventually finds the way from sity nor joyous release. Here and there, fragment of Ray Charles's wonderfulI her current overheated delivery to a for old times' sake, perhaps, he even Can't Stop Loving You.Everything in more personal style. Singing a program makes a half-hearted stab at social con- between hits the mark with just as much of songs both familiar and new, includ- sciousness. Mainly, however, this is a punch. Here's hoping the Gadd Gang ing three selections written and pub- predictable progression from Young as stays together for a while. P.G. lishedbyproducer Morgan Ames, California hippieto Young asdis- Schuur is at her best here when she ren- placed, disillusioned dreamer, Eighties DONALD HARRISON AND TER- ders slower -paced ballads, likeWell Be style-a man desperate to make a con- ENCE BLANCHARD:Crystal Stair. Together AgainandTravelin' Light, in nection in his life and in his music, and Terence Blanchard (trumpet); Donald which she exercises some control. But pathetically unsure of how he got so far Harrison (saxophones); Cyrus Chestnut the band sounds good, and there is astray. A.N. (piano); Reginald Veal (bass); Carl Al- much to like on this album. C.A. 144 STEREO REVIEW JANUARY 1988.