The Headhunters - Platinum

The Headhunters - Platinum
2011, Owl Studios

It wouldn't be unfair to call The Headhunters the godfathers of Jazz Fusion.  Originally Herbie Hancock's backing band for his 1973 masterpiece album Head Hunters, The Headhunters have continued on over the years as periodic collaborators with Hancock as well as an individual band.  On hiatus throughout the 1980's and most of the 1990's, The Headhunters reunited with Hancock in 1998 for The Return Of The Headhunters.  The Headhunters have continued on their own since then, blend jazz, funk, African and Caribbean styles with traditional and electronic instrumentation to create a singular sound that has been copied, imitated and sampled by numerous acts over the years.  Led by long-time members Mike Clark and Bill Summers, the Headhunters return on June 7, 2011 with Platinum, a collection of twelve thrilling tracks with special guests such as Snoop Dogg, Killah Priest, Jaecyn Bayne, Private Pile, Bernie Maupin, Patrice Rushen and George Clinton.

Platinum opens with "Mission Statement", and bassist Gary Mielke nearly steals the show right out of the box, oozing funk in a driving line that electrifies the entire song.  Jaecyn Byrne takes the mic with a rap about his goals as an artist that's both poetic and sharp.  "Salamander" is a funk-driven instrumental with a wicked trumpet/sax pairing.  There's a danceable yet mellow groove here that's inescapable.  Snoop Dogg, Killah Priest and George Clinton all have input on "D-Funk (Funk With Us), a vibrant blend of funk and jazz in a modern setting.  "Tracie" dips into Latin Jazz and Meringue in an enjoyable instrumental that you won't be able to sit still for.  "Paging Mr. Wesley" steps back into a late 1970's and early 1980's pop/jazz/disco sound for a catchy and danceable instrumental.

Things get truly interesting on "M. Trane", a sax-led instrumental sonically inspired by John Coltrane that's fired along by deceptively cool percussion work.  Saxophone plays a bit too heavy a role here, but it's otherwise a fine piece of ensemble work.  "Apple Tree" finds Jaecyn Bayne returning to mic with another song about aspirations.  Once Bayne runs out, the Headhunters take things on to a new phase of instrumental jazz expressionism that is better experienced than described.  "Palm Nut" is an extended instrumental that gets a bit lost in its own voluminous nature at times, but always returns to a solid theme.  Entertaining and well played the experimental free style jazz number benchmarks on tradition, while constantly casting out for new horizons musically. 

"Congo Place" is a solid offering, and leads into the alternating frenetic and lyric passages of "Headhunting".  Pretty at times, raucous at others, "Headhunting" uses trumpet and a trio of saxophones to smooth out the edges in between energetic and occasionally chaotic passages and runs.  "Skizness" brings Private Pile to the fore with a purely entertaining rumination on state of being.  The Headhunters wrap things up with a more straightforward pop/jazz sound on "Soul Glow".

Platinum is very, very good.  It's also likely to be one of the most over-rated albums of 2011.  The mix of names, sounds, styles and history is of the sort to appeal to GRAMMY voters and to institutional critics who have "head everything".  Consequently, don't be surprising if Platinum is named on a host of year-end lists and perhaps even nominated for awards.  It may even deserve such nods by the end of the year, but strip away the novelty and reverie and this is a very fine effort that is worthy of praise but perhaps not to the extent it's likely to receive.  The Headhunters can still create jazz fusion gold, but there are times on Platinum where the level of inspiration falls just a little bit flat.  When all is said and done, however, Platinum will likely be one of the Top-25 selling Jazz albums of 2011, and for good reason.

Rating: 4 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about The Headhunters at www.owlstudios.com.  Platinum drops on June 14, 2011.  You can pre-order the album from Amazon.com as a CD or Download from Amazon.com.

Review: A Beautiful Curse - As It Should Be

A Beautiful Curse - As It Should Be
2009, CTM Entertainment

A Beautiful Curse started out as a project intended to write music for movies & television, but has grown into something more organic over time. Musician and producer Kenny James (George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, 24-7 Spyz, The Samples) began this project in 2004 while producing works for various Indie films. After meeting guitar player Brian Skeel (Contingence), the two hit it off and started working together. By 2007 Skeel was a vested member of A Beautiful Curse, but something was still missing. In 2008, the band discovered vocalist/pianist Savannah Kocher. Within a month of finding her, Kocher was inducted as a member of A Beautiful Curse. The synergy the trio discovered had much more life and vitality to it than just a writing project. It soon became clear that A Beautiful Curse would have more facets than that. Cut to 2009, and the release of As It Should Be, a stunningly ambitious and divergent album that thrums with its own inner life.

As It Should Be opens with On The Other Side, a dark and vaguely Middle Eastern sounding tune that owes serious homage to early Sarah McLachlan recordings. Vocalist Savannah Kocher has the same ethereal air that infused McLachlan's early work. The sound here is a bit more of the electronic age, creating a stark tapestry against which Kocher's voice plays perfectly. At about the five minute mark the song kicks into overdrive, with a heavy guitar-driven segment reminiscent of Evanescence and A Beautiful Curse begins to displays some Prog tendencies you might not have previously guessed at. The mix of crushing Rock/Metal and Ethereal, near-Ambient Rock is quite unusual. The Soul Divine kicks off with some headphone worthy sounds reminiscent of the great albums of the 1970's and develops into another Ambient/Prog Rock/Trance hybrid. Fans of Pink Floyd will dig the vibe here. A Lot Like Diamonds is more in the dance club realm, carrying a sparse and halting melody line surrounded by much percussion and electronic sound. Kocher is entrancing on vocals, but the song just doesn't seem to have a lot to say, and while the rhythmic nature of the arrangement has a lulling effect, the song gets bogged down in its own complacency.

A Mind Of It's Own features a distinctive arrangement of rhythms and sounds supporting the free-form rap of Kenny James. This is one of the more interesting songs on the disc, featuring a roving bass line that sounds like it could have come from an early Police album. This Is My House takes us back to the 1980's in a Jan Hammer-inspired instrumental that will get your feet moving. Delicate brings slow jams into the 21st century with a sound Barry White would approve of. This was perhaps my least favorite song on the disc, but it accomplished what I presume the artists were trying to achieve. A Beautiful Curse closes out with Everything Is Changing, a bit of electronic dance craft that sticks to formula over creative force. Unlike much of the album, this feels like something of a cookie cutter track, created perhaps to fill out the album but not really offering much for listeners to dig into.

A Beautiful Curse suffers from trying to be too many things. Hard rock? Check. Lyric/Ambient Rock? Check. Electrohouse/Dance? Yep. Rap? Got that too. R&B? Yes. The difficulty becomes that by the end of As It Should Be the listener has no real idea who or what A Beautiful Curse wants to be. The band is at their best with Kocher on vocals and with the mix of Electronic and Rock genres. This is an album constructed for the age of downloads, with single songs that will play well to multiple genres, but it will be hard to build a long-term fan base from such divergence in sounds. When a band aims to be flavor of the month they may well get what they aim for, but nobody wants old flavors once they're used up, and A Beautiful Curse has too much talent to just be flavors of the month. Hopefully over time the band will pick a direction that at least becomes a primary sound and dabble elsewhere. As It Should Be is a strong collection of songs, but it's too scattershot to really be called an album.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about A Beautiful Curse at http://www.abeautifulcurse.com/ or www.myspace.com/abeautifulcurse. You can purchase a copy of As It Should Be at Amazon.com.

Review: Parliament - The Mothership Connection Live 1976 (DVD)

Parliament – The Mothership Connection Live 1976
2008, Shout! Factory

George Clinton, Bernie Worrell, Bootsy Collins and the rest of P-Funk were at the height of their musical prowess in 1976. In the era of Mothership Connection and The Clones Of Dr. Funkestein, P-Funk were a genre all their own. On Halloween night, 1976, Parliament rolled into the Houston Summit and proceeded to pull off a legendary performance. This particular concert video has been out of print for a long time, although bootlegs have abounded over the years. It features fourteen songs packed into one hour of the most outrageous Funk you've ever heard. Shout! Factory offers up the re-release of The Mothership Connection Live 1976 just in time for the holidays!

Let's be honest, if you have a bootleg of this show then you might not want to lay down money for the DVD, but at a list price of $14.98, how can you not? The video and audio quality here are better than anything you'll find on a bootleg, although the lack of bonus materials is disappointing. The highlight here is the raw power of Give Up The Funk (Tear The Roof Off That Sucker), but several great tracks abound. Cosmic Slop and Standing On The Verge Of Getting It On are virtuosic performances. Mothership Connection (Star Child) is worth the price of admission on its own, and Dr. Funkenstein is like stepping into a time machine where all is right with the world and always will be. P-Funk closes out the set with Night Of The Thumpasorus Peoples and Funkin' For Fun, just to make sure you didn't miss the point.

There are some bands whose shows are fun -- you save the ticket stub in a box of memories and 20 years down the road you know you were there and that's about it. Then there are bands like Parliament, where 20 years on you can still remember the set list and the dude how spilled beer down your back and the lyrics of the song at the exact moment the lead singer's sweat dripped on you as you crashed the stage. While videos rarely capture this kind of live energy, P-Funk is not your every day band. If you saw Clinton, et. al. in the mid-1970's then you want this DVD as a keepsake. It will take you back and then some. If you're a fan of P-Funk and never had a chance to see them live, or only saw them in the past five years or so, then you need to check The Mothership Connection Live 1976. It's magic on stage. For real.

Rating: 5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Parliament at http://www.georgeclinton.com/. You can purchase The Mothership Connection Live 1976 at Amazon.com.