Take 6 - Live (2000)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding. Recorded live at the Blue Note in Tokyo, Japan, October 4-6, 1999.

Not much to say about this one. If you like Take 6 (I do), you'll like this live recording (I do). And if you wonder if they can bring the close a cappella harmony vocals in a live setting, the answer is yes.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: My top picks today are If We Ever Needed The Lord Before (We Sure Do Need Him Now), How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You, and Mary.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. I once had tickets to see the group and something came up so I gave the tickets to a friend. That was most likely in 2017.

Previously revisited for the blog:

The Standard (2008)	Join the Band (1994)
Beautiful World (2002)	He Is Christmas (1991)
Greatest Hits (1999)	So Much 2 Say (1990)
Brothers (1996)	Take 6 (1988)

Patrice Rushen - Signature (1997)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

I picked this CD out of a used bin at some point during the past few years and I was pleasantly surprised to hear Rushen putting out a mostly instrumental smooth jazz album featuring guests such as Kirk Whalum and Gerald Albright. Rushen produced and arranged the tracks and wrote all but three of them. Fans expecting 1980's pop/R&B may be disappointed, but not this guy. And while there's plenty of synth work on the album (it was the '90s, after all), I'm very pleased with the fact there's a heaping helping of acoustic piano on the tracks. I had never heard of this album before purchasing it, but I'm very glad I ran across it - it's been in fairly regular rotation since its purchase.

The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the category of Best Contemporary Jazz Performance, eventually losing to Into the Sun by Randy Brecker.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Jazz: #9

Tracks: My favorites are the originals Almost Home, Wise Ol' Souls, Arrival. and the beautiful ballad Days Gone By. We're also treated to good covers of Sade's Sweetest Taboo and The Stylistics' Hurry Up This Way Again. 

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I recently saw Rushen perform live and she included track 10 from this album, Arrival, in her setlist. She put on a spectacular show and, while I knew she was a good player, I had no idea how good until I saw her live - simply amazing.

Joni Mitchell - Ladies Of The Canyon (1970)

Note: the CD I listened to was the 1996 reissue, released using HDCD encoding.

Joni Mitchell albums, to me, are becoming much like Beatles releases, in that whichever album I'm listening to at the time, I believe is the best release by that particular artist. This beautiful thing certainly qualifies. Comforting while simultaneously thought-provoking. Wow. And I'd rather listen than write, so I'm tapping out now.

Press of the time:

• Robert Christgau (A-): "Joni's new dependence on piano implies a move from the open air to the drawing room--or at least living area--that's reflected in richer, more sophisticated songs."
• Billboard: "a delightful set of 12 fine cuts"
• CashBox: "sensitive, poetic lyrics, evocative melodies and fine voice and guitar playing"
• Rolling Stone: "An album of departures, overheard conversations and unique triumphs for the hymnal lady who mingles the random with the particular so effectively."
• RPM Weekly: "excellent MOR programming material"
• Stereo Review: Recording of Special Merit
• High Fidelity: "I can't recommend anyone more highly."

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #27
• CashBox: #18

Tracks: 12 beautiful songs, delightfully delivered, perfectly sequenced.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: This was one of several early '70s Mitchell albums that helped me get through some emotionally tough spring/summer months in 2023.

Previously revisited for the blog:
The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975)
Court And Spark (1974)
Blue (1971)

Joni Mitchell - The Hissing of Summer Lawns (1975)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

I recently told a buddy from high school, "I've finally reached a point where I dig some of Joni Mitchell's music." His response was "I've been unable to make that leap yet" which is a perfectly valid response and I've probably said something similar at some point. But this album title was just too attractive to me (see personal memory, below) so when I was lucky enough to find a used copy of this album awhile back, I didn't hesitate. I've been listening to it fairly regularly since its purchase. I don't really understand it, but I love it and I'm sorry it took me so long to delve into the thing. Repeated active listening is greatly rewarded.

And the backing musicians are top-shelf: Robben Ford, Victor Feldman, Larry Carlton, Wilton Felder, Joe Sample, Graham Nash, Chuck Findley, James Taylor, et. al.

Mitchell was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for the album, eventually losing to Linda Ronstadt for her album Hasten Down The Wind. Rolling Stone magazine ranked the album at number 258 in the 2020 edition of its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (Mitchell’s 1971 release Blue came in at #3, Hejira ranked #133, and Court and Spark is #110). 258 sounds about right to me. In the book 1001 Albums To Hear Before You Die (2005), Louise Sugrue writes that the album is "as baffling as it is beautiful" and I'll just leave it at that.

Press of the time:

• Billboard: "probably her most consistent effort yet"
• CashBox: "This is an album of definite progression"
• Rolling Stone: "a great collection of pop poems with a distracting soundtrack"
• Record World: "allow yourself to be engulfed by it"
• Stereo Review: "you'll have to deal with it privately, as you would read a book"
• Robert Christgau (B): "Mitchell's transition from great songwriter to not-bad poet is meeting resistance from her talent and good sense, but I guess you can't fight 'progress.'"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #4
• CashBox: #5

Tracks: from Joni's liner notes:

This record is a total work conceived graphically, musically, lyrically and accidentally - as a whole. The performances were guided by the given compositional structures and the audibly inspired beauty of every player. The whole unfolded like a mystery. It is not my intention to unravel that mystery for anyone, but rather to offer some additional clues:

"Centerpiece" is a Johnny Mandel-Jon Hendricks tune. John Guerin and I collaborated on "The Hissing Of Summer Lawns." "The Boho Dance" is a Tom Wolfe-ism from the book, "The Painted Word." The poem, "Don't Interrupt The Sorrow" was born around 4 a.m. in a New York loft. Larry Poons seeded it and Bobby Neuwirth was midwife here, but the child filtered thru Genesis at Jackson Lake, Saskatchewan, is rebellious and mystical and insists that its conception was immaculate.

The closest thing to a 'hit single' was the album's lead track, In France They Kiss On Main Street, which peaked at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #32 on the Easy Listening chart. In addition to that cut, my other top picks are Edith And The Kingpin, Shades Of Scarlett Conquering, and Harry's House/Centerpiece. I'm not wild about The Jungle Line and its aggressive Moog sounds and "warrior drums of Burundi," mostly because it doesn't fit in with the rest of the album. Regardless, I've got no problem playing the thing from top-to-bottom as intended by the artist.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I'll confess that I was drawn to this album more for its title than its reputation. I grew up in the Chihuahuan Desert and on still summer days it seemed that the grass actually hissed due to the hot, arid air. I know that I'm just nostalgic for my younger days but with rich lyrics like this how can I resist:

See the blue pools in the squinting sun
And hear the hissing of summer lawns.

My mind spends a lot of time in 1975, so this relaxing, folky music is a welcome addition to the soundtrack of my daydreams. With a forecast of 104° and a heat index of 107° today, I'll have no problem finding some hissing lawns this afternoon.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Blue (1971)

Bee Gees - Their Greatest Hits: The Record (2001)

Note: these CDs released using HDCD encoding.

From Wikipedia:

Their Greatest Hits: The Record is the career retrospective greatest hits album by the Bee Gees, released on UTV Records and Polydor in November 2001 as HDCD. The album includes 40 tracks spanning over 35 years of music. Four of the songs were new recordings of classic Gibb compositions originally recorded by other artists, including "Emotion" (Samantha Sang), "Heartbreaker" (Dionne Warwick), "Islands in the Stream" (Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton), and "Immortality" (Celine Dion). It also features the Barry Gibb duet with Barbra Streisand, "Guilty", which originally appeared on Streisand's 1980 album of the same name. It is currently out of print and has been supplanted by another compilation, The Ultimate Bee Gees.

Regarding the "new recordings of classic Gibb compositions," either skip 'em or, better yet, listen to the originals. I prefer the later disco music so things get going for me at track 15 on disc 1, but it's a decent 2 disc set (would have made an unbelievable 16 track single disc of top ten hits). Like most 2 disc greatest hits compilations, this thing falls apart at the end. Oddly, in addition to singles by the trio, there's a solitary solo track from Robin. Thanks for the (kinda sorta) chronological sequencing, Polydor. It shows the growth of the group and how they adapted their music to what was popular at the time.

Billboard, December 8, 2001, p. 53

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #49

Tracks:

Song	Album	Year	Pop	AC
New York Mining Disaster 1941	Bee Gees' 1st	1967	14
To Love Somebody	Bee Gees' 1st	1967	17
Holiday	Bee Gees' 1st	1967	16
Massachusetts	Horizontal	1967	11
World	Horizontal	1967
Words	(single release)	1968	15
I've Gotta Get a Message to You	Idea	1968	8
I Started a Joke	Idea	1968	6
First of May	Odessa	1969	37
Saved By The Bell	Robin's Reign	1969
Don't Forget to Remember	Cucumber Castle	1969	73
Lonely Days	2 Years On	1970	3	28
How Can You Mend A Broken Heart	Trafalgar	1971	1	4
Run To Me	To Whom It May Concern	1972	16	6
Jive Talkin'	Main Course	1975	1	9
Nights On Broadway	Main Course	1975	7	16
Fanny (Be Tender With My Love)	Main Course	1976	12	9
Love So Right	Children Of The World	1976	3	14
If I Can't Have You	(b-side)	1978
Love Me	Children Of The World	1976
You Should Be Dancing	Children Of The World	1976	1

Song	Album	Year	Pop	AC
Stayin' Alive	Saturday Night Fever	1977	1	28
How Deep Is Your Love	Saturday Night Fever	1977	1	1
Night Fever	Saturday Night Fever	1978	1	19
More Than A Woman	Saturday Night Fever	1978		39
Emotion		1994
Too Much Heaven	Spirits Having Flown	1978	1	4
Tragedy	Spirits Having Flown	1979	1	19
Love You Inside Out	Spirits Having Flown	1979	1	15
Guilty	Guilty	1980	3	5
Heartbreaker		1994
Islands In The Stream		2001
You Win Again	E.S.P.	1987	75	50
One	One	1989	7	1
Secret Love	High Civilization	1991
For Whom The Bell Tolls	Size Isn't Everything	1993	109	29
Alone	Still Waters	1997	28	8
Immortality (demo)		1996
This Is Where I Came In	This Is Where I Came In	2001		23
Spicks And Specks	Spicks And Specks	1966

Nothing from the Sgt. Pepper movie??!?

Notable Top 40 omissions: My World (#16 in 1972), Alive (#34 in 1972), Boogie Child (#12 in 1977), Edge Of The Universe (#26 in 1977), He's A Liar (#30 in 1981), and The Woman in You (#24 in 1983). Plus, I'd love to hear Barry take his turn on Grease (#1 for Frankie Valli in 1978).

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I was born in 1966 so some of these songs have been around almost my entire life. That's too many memories for this space, but I will say my favorite Bee Gees track wasn't recorded by Barry, Robin, and Maurice, it's the Yvonne Elliman version of If I Can't Have You.

Okay, I'll share one. One day my sister came home with the Spirits Having Flown LP. Instead of listening to it in her room on her stereo, we listened to it on Dad's BIC 1000 turntable in the study. All the hits are front-loaded on side one of that album. We listened to both sides and then I begged my sister to spin side one again. She agreed. And we didn't get in trouble for messing with Dad's stereo (that would come later for me, as he came home early one afternoon as I was blaring Freeze-Frame loud enough to be heard across the street 😈).

Previously revisited for the blog:
Saturday Night Fever: The Original Movie Soundtrack (1977)

Bob James - Playin' Hooky (1997)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

In which Mr. James gets together with some great guests and produces something a little different than his usual solo stuff. To my ears, the guests seem to push James a little and I'm digging the results. The collaborations hearken back to his '70s works while still sounding contemporary in the '90s (if that makes any sense). But it's all smooth and works great after a long day in the cubicle farm.

Notable names include: Steve Gadd, Fareed Haque, Dave Samuels, Boney James, Paul Brown, Chuck Loeb, Nathan East, and Rick Braun.

Playin' hooky from where? Fourplay? Or maybe his usual output?

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart.
• Billboard Contemporary Jazz: #4

Tracks: My top picks are Playing With Fire, Mind Games, and Hook Line & Sinker. The only track I'll skip is the awkward take on Gershwin's 1922 tune, Do It Again.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Rameau (1984)
Two of a Kind (1982)

Tom Scott & The LA Express - Smokin' Section (1999)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

Not the best Scott album, but there are a few memorable tracks among the drum machines.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: Did not chart
• Billboard Contemporary Jazz: #8

Tracks:
Best: TCB In E, the ten minute album closer recorded live at the Blue Note, Tokyo
Good: If I Could Cry, Just Takin' A Walk, The Beat Is On, I'll Still Be Lovin' You (yes, a cover of the Restless Heart song - reborn as a AC slow jam with vocals from Phil Perry)
Middlin': Smokin' Section, Lonely One, A Short Visit, Lost Again
Skip: Cruisin' Bayou

There's one track I couldn't categorize: track 5, Ode To Billie Joe with vocals by Patty Smyth. As you can imagine, it doesn't really fit on a smooth jazz CD, but Smyth's voice is perfect and the lyrics are still eerie as hell and I can't say I enjoy it but I want to listen to it over and over anyway.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
Night Creatures (1995)
Reed My Lips (1994)
Target (1983)
Apple Juice (1981)

Dave Koz - The Dance (1999)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

Definitely of its time; Koz plays it safe and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, I'm fairly confident that I've heard almost all these tracks on a jazz station at some point. Koz unapologetically goes straight for the candlelight dinner/champagne/roaring fire couples but I knew that going in. Even though he doesn't really need the help, Koz has plenty of guest artists on this album: Burt Bacharach, BeBe Winans, Luther Vandross, David Benoit, Montell Jordan, Chris Botti, Jonathan Butler, Marc Antoine, Nathan East, Jeff Lorber, and members of Take 6. Each track has its own producer depending on the guest artist, so it's amazing the album is as cohesive as it is. Not as good as Lucky Man, but a nice addition to the smooth jazz/instrumental pop shuffles on my office computer's playlists.

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #190
• Billboard Contemporary Jazz: #3
• Billboard R&B: #67

It also fared well on the year end charts for 2000:

Billboard, December 30, 2000, p. YE-85

Tracks: My picks for this one include Together Again, Can't Let You Go, Love Is On The Way, and The Bright Side. The only tracks to skip are the lackluster Know You By Heart and the below average covers of The Dance and Wham's Careless Whisper featuring Montell Jordan (but I can't really blame Koz for wanting to record that famous sax lick). The track where Koz almost stretches out and varies his formula slightly is the brief Cuban Hideaway, which features multiple sax overdubs over an Afro-Cuban-lite groove.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

Previously revisited for the blog:
December Makes Me Feel This Way (1997)
Lucky Man (1993)

Joni Mitchell - Blue (1971)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

If I'm in a blue funk and want to wallow around in it for a while, this is my go-to album. An album all about relationships, I usually have one of two thoughts while listening: 1) I'm not alone; Joni is miserable, too, or 2) as bad as I feel, I'm not nearly as messed up as Joni. Either way, it makes me feel better.

Probably one of the most perfectly titled albums ever. The music is beautiful in its raw simplicity, with unusual chord progressions that work wonderfully with the lyrics and melodies. Most people my age (5 years old at time of release) are unfamiliar with this album unless introduced to it by someone else; it isn't getting any airplay on the radio. I can't remember how I came across it, I'm just glad I did. There's nothing else like it.

Even with lack of a top 40 single, this album was a critical and commercial success. Read a few of the accolades by clicking here.

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked Blue at #3.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #15

Tracks:  In my mind, there's only one 36 minute track here.

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  Wallowing.

Roxy Music - Avalon (1982)

Note: this release was received as a gift as an LP, later replaced by a CD. This CD released using HDCD encoding.

Roxy Music was decidedly a more popular group in the UK than in the US, so it's not surprising that I hadn't heard of the group before my friend Jim gave me this album. The single was More Than This (it bubbled under the charts at 102 and the video received modest airplay on MTV), but the song that grabbed me immediately was the gorgeous title track. Initially, that track was the only one that got played at my place. After a few months, I ventured beyond the title track and found a lush album of rich, meticulously crafted tunes. There's not a weak track in the bunch. I never went back to discover the group's earlier catalog and I didn't keep up with Bryan Ferry's solo career; I just knew that nothing could measure up to this album.

I'm not alone in my admiration, this album is consistently found in lists of top albums of the '80s. A favorite line comes from a retro-review in the Spin Alternative Record Guide, where it received a 9 out 10 rating: "1982's Avalon remains one of the all-time great makeout infernos." Musical genius Nile Rodgers has often claimed that Roxy Music was the inspiration for Chic. If you need more of an endorsement than that, you're at the wrong blog, buddy.

Update: In its 2020 list of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Rolling Stone ranked Avalon at #336.

Press of the time:

• Trouser Press: "Avalon has the emotional brilliance of other Roxy Music LPS, and is even more chilling"
• Robert Christgau (A-): "minor triumph" 
• Smash Hits (8 out of 10): "Stately, sad and scrumptious all at the same time."
• Record Mirror: "More than 'Avalon' there is nothing."
• Stereo Review: "coolly intense"
• Rolling Stone (★★★½): "takes a long time to kick in, but it finally does, and it's a good one"

Album chart peaks:

• US Billboard 200: #53
• Billboard Rock: #41
• CashBox: #32
• CashBox CD: #18
• Rolling Stone: #15

Tracks:  The title track continues to be my favorite cut from this album and is one of my favorite songs of the '80s. Stunning, beautiful, and relaxing. Other top tracks include More Than This, The Main Thing, Take A Chance With Me, and To Turn You On.

For more information on the brief life of the CD longbox,
go visit The Legend of the Longbox.

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None

The B-52's - Time Capsule: Songs For A Future Generation (1998)

Note: this CD released using HDCD encoding.

They're connoisseurs of trash in a world full of it.
-Rolling Stone magazine review of 1980's Wild Planet

An excellent greatest hits compilation. This group were always a singles band rather than an albums band (some of their albums/EPs were downright nasty), so a greatest hits package is probably the best bet for most people. The B-52's are one of those groups that few people actually listened to during the early '80s, but thanks to the constant playing of Rock Lobster during retro or flashback weekends on radio, middle-agers everywhere think they personally are responsible for the discovery of the band's brand of party rock. Admittedly, I probably fit in that group since the first album by this group that I purchased was 1983's Whammy!. The group is a campy combination of kitsch and trash with bizarre lyrical puns delivered in speech-song. Bizarre enough not to have a Top 40 hit until 1989, a full 12 years into the band's existence.

There's more than a little irony in the fact that The B-52's are now considered a retro group since they've always been a retro group. From the initial sounds of the group in the opening strains of Planet Claire (which is shameless lifted from Henry Mancini's theme to Peter Gunn), the band is a hodge-podge of yesterday's tomorrows and cultural references from the '50s and '60s: beach party movies, space age sci-fi, miniskirts & go-go boots, Farfisa organs, film noir, surf rock, etc, but no matter - this music is fun.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: #93

Tracks:

Track	Year	Hot 100	Rock	Dance
Planet Claire	1979			24
52 Girls	1979
Rock Lobster	1979	56		24
Party Out Of Bounds	1980			5
Strobelight	1980
Private Idaho	1980	74		5
Quiche Lorraine	1980
Mesopotamia	1982			13
Song For A Future Generation	1983			9
Summer Of Love (Original Unreleased Mix)	1985
Channel Z	1989		1
Deadbeat Club	1989	30
Love Shack	1989	3	1	7
Roam	1989	3	6	10
Good Stuff	1992	28	1
Is That You Mo-Dean?	1992
Debbie	1998			32
Hallucinating Pluto	1998

The early music is fun dance stuff, most notably Strobelight. My favorite tracks are the later songs from their collaboration with Nile Rodgers and Don Was (tracks 11-16 here): Good Stuff, Is That You Mo-Dean?, Channel Z, Deadbeat Club, Roam, and, of course, Love Shack, which I like so much it's been my phone ringtone on more than one occasion. I could do without Quiche Lorraine, the mix of Summer Of Love, and the two new songs, Debbie and Hallucinating Pluto, which, as legendary critic Robert Christgau writes, aren't "fit to shine the spaceship of 1992's visionary Is That You Mo-Dean?"

Personal Memory Associated with this CD:  This disc was a gift from my wife during a summer when we went and saw the group.

Previously revisited for the blog:
Funplex (2008)
Love Shack (1989)
Bouncing Off the Satellites (1986)
Whammy! (1983)
Party Mix/Mesopotamia (1981/1982)