VIA PRESS RELEASE | Mercury Studios announces a new feature documentary, Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn, directed by the unheralded composer’s great great great granddaughter, BAFTA-winning filmmaker Sheila Hayman. It will be available as a DVD+Blu-ray package on May 17, 2024.

Take a celebrated musical genius, a rival sibling, an unknown manuscript, and one sensational revelation and what have you got? Fanny: The Other Mendelssohn—a captivating feature documentary starring global Decca artist, Isata Kanneh-Mason. The film also follows Fanny’s many modern champions, including pianist Sarah Rothenberg, whose pioneering recording of Fanny’s “Das Jahr” features in the story.

Anyone who has been to a wedding has enjoyed the musical genius of Felix Mendelssohn. His Wedding March is the most-played classical composition of all time. But Felix was not the only genius in the family: his sister, Fanny was also a brilliant composer. Yet most people have never heard of her, and even now only a few of her 450 works are published or performed.

Fanny as composer was equal to any of her contemporaries, male or female: technically brilliant and boldly ground-breaking. Yet she was 40 before she dared to defy Felix’s disapproval, and publish her music under her own name. Tragically, the resulting joy and recognition were short-lived. Less than a year later, Fanny died, followed shortly by Felix—his already poor health exacerbated by grief.

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There are certain jazz albums that transcend the genre and become timeless classics. Eastern Sounds by Yusef Lateef is one of those albums. It is a stirring, meditative musical excursion of sound, that could be considered a precursor of world music, or even a more nuanced, textured, and varied early new age recording, without the negative baggage of that now almost nearly forgotten musical genre.

The closest album that it shares some musical and spiritual sensibilities with is Something Blue from Paul Horn, released the year before this 1961 release. Both albums are almost musical mantras of sound, but are also very accessible releases that don’t stray too far from mellow jazz.

Lateef had been exploring these kinds of sounds on previous albums as a leader, most notably on Prayer to the East from 1957, but Eastern Sounds galvanizes all of the elements that make Lateef’s take on this sacred jazz sound work so well. While the album starts off with the subtle swing of “The Plum Bossom” and readings of the love themes of the epic films Spartacus (Alex North) and The Robe (Alfred Newman), it’s the other six tracks that reflect more of the contemplative side of this groundbreaking album.

Lateef is supported by the rhythm section of Barry Harris on piano, Lex Humphries on drums, and Ernie Farrow on bass. Farrow also plays rabat (spelled various other ways through history), a lute-like instrument that blends perfectly with Lateef’s work here on tenor saxophone, oboe, and especially flute, the Chinese globular xun.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | March 19, 2024: “Vol. 6 – 1995” of On Record, a comprehensive series of award-winning books celebrating popular music from 1978–1998, has just been published.

Marking more than 50 years as one of America’s foremost popular music writers, G. Brown has interviewed well over 3,000 musicians in every genre, from superstars including Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, and Kurt Cobain to scores of one-hit wonders, all of whom recounted their escapades and reminisced about what their time on the charts meant to them personally and musically. Over the decades, Brown also amassed an archive of close to 15,000 rare promotional photos.

Each volume of the On Record series presents nearly 200 archival images and 100 interviews with an array of performers, from the late Jerry Garcia and Dave Matthews to Bono and Mick Jagger. Beautifully crafted, these books belong in the library of every music fan and music institute. Proceeds from book sales benefit Colorado Music Experience, a non-profit cultural and educational organization dedicated to preserving musical legacies.

“In his On Record series, G. Brown makes stories of recorded music come alive by digging into the experiences of the artists—and through his writing, he reveals their humanity. What a gift these books are to music lovers,” says Jesse Collin Young, singer, songwriter and founding member of the Youngbloods.

“Vol. 6 – 1995” mines the explosion of alternative rock, ranging from big names (Alanis Morissette, Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers) to up-and-comers (Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, Oasis), in addition to the year’s top pop, classic rock, R&B, country, jazz and new age releases.

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Today, bassist-cellist-composer-bandleader Ron Carter is described without overstatement as a jazz ambassador, but flash back to the early 1960s and he was but one of many skilled young players on the scene. As talent attracts talent, Carter’s debut album Where? is as notable for its sidemen as it is for spotlighting an artist destined for greatness. On March 29 Craft Recordings brings out a fresh edition of this 1961 album on 180 gram vinyl as part of their ongoing Original Jazz Classics reissue series. Where? remains a pleasurable listen, its appealing air of the casual enhancing subtle inventiveness.

Initially released on Prestige Records’ New Jazz subsidiary (it is this edition that Original Jazz Classics and now Craft Recordings have reissued), Where? has been described as a likeably minor effort. While not wrongheaded, it’s an assessment that perhaps overlooks the value that accrues as time is spent with the recording. The lack of desperation to impress and the avoidance of safe choices do come into focus.

Glancing at the personnel, a curious party could be forgiven for thinking that either Prestige or Carter stacked the lineup to ensure an immediate impression. The beautifully unique Eric Dolphy is here on alto saxophone, bass clarinet, and flute. A more subtly distinctive explorer of jazz’s essence, Mal Waldron is the pianist. The ever dependable Charlie Persip is the drummer and the equally reliable George Duvivier is on bass as Carter plays cello on three tracks.

But Where? connects somewhat like a workshop session as Carter brings two originals (opener “Rally” and “Bass Duet”) to a program that’s rounded out with a pair of jazz standards (Hammerstein and Romberg’s “Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” and Sy Oliver’s “Yes, Indeed”) and two by Randy Weston, a pianist-composer noted as a contemporary of the musicians in the band (the title track and closer “Saucer Eyes”).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Acclaimed archival label Light in the Attic (LITA) continues their partnership with legendary singer, actress, activist, and icon Nancy Sinatra with a definitive reissue of her bestselling sophomore album How Does That Grab You?. Originally released in 1966, on the heels of her hit debut Boots, the LP offers an enticing blend of pop covers and Lee Hazlewood-penned originals, including Sinatra’s iconic rendition of “Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down),” the classic “How Does That Grab You, Darlin’?,” and her earliest duet with Hazlewood, “Sand.”

Pressed on orange cream-colored wax at Record Technology, Inc. (RTI) and presented in a beautiful, expanded gatefold jacket, the special limited vinyl edition of How Does That Grab You? will be available exclusively for Record Store Day (April 20th) at participating independent retailers. Additionally, the album will be available in CD and digital formats on April 19th. All formats feature audio freshly remastered from the original analog tapes by GRAMMY®-nominated engineer John Baldwin, with the vinyl and CD editions being accompanied by a 20-page booklet (featuring a new Q&A with Nancy conducted by the reissue’s GRAMMY®-nominated co-producer Hunter Lea, and never-before-seen photos from Nancy’s personal archive). Plus, limited-edition How Does That Grab You? autographed test pressings and merch will be available exclusively at Nancy’s Bootique at NancySinatra.com beginning May 7th.

In celebration of the release, LITA is hosting a live streaming event on Nancy’s YouTube channel on Thursday, April 18th beginning at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET. The event will feature the album being played in its entirety (including a first listen of the previously unreleased track “If Things Don’t Start Picking Up”) and a chat with Nancy.

How Does That Grab You? marks the latest release in LITA’s ongoing Nancy Sinatra Archival Series, a partnership with the celebrated artist, which honors her musical legacy through lovingly curated reissues, including her 1966 debut Boots, 1968’s Nancy & Lee, and 1972’s Nancy & Lee Again (both with Lee Hazlewood), as well as the broadly-acclaimed 2021 career-spanning retrospective Start Walkin’ 1965-1976 and its 2023 companion Keep Walkin’: Singles, Demos & Rarities 1965-1978. The series also includes a wealth of limited-edition merch and other special releases.

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The UK-based dub behemoth Creation Rebel returned last year with Hostile Environment, an album as pleasurable to the ear as it was an unexpected development. Smartly sustaining the positive energy, the On-U Sound label is releasing High Above Harlesden 1978–2023 as a 6CD boxset and digital download, plus corresponding vinyl reissues of the group’s debut and its follow-up Dub From Creation and Close Encounters of the Third World (both 1978), Rebel Vibrations (’79), Starship Africa (’80) and Psychotic Jonkanoo (’81). Along with a 36-page booklet, the boxset offers the contents of those five records, along with Hostile Environment and a handful of bonus tracks. It’s all out on March 29.

The Creation Rebel story is pretty well established. The roots are in vocalist Prince Far I’s 1978 album Cry Tuff Dub Encounter Chapter 1, where members of Creation Rebel are part of the credited support band the Arabs. As Creation Rebel they backed Prince Far I in live performance and served as the foundation for Adrian Sherwood’s debut production, released not by On-U Sound but as the first release on Hitrun, the label co-founded by Sherwood and Peter “Dr. Pablo” Stroud.

Engineered by Dennis Bovell, that release is Dub From Creation, an assured and wonderfully bent dub excursion where the core stylistic competency of the participants is elevated by sheer inspiration. Reflected in Stroud’s nickname, the presence of his melodica establishes a similarity to Augustus Pablo, but more importantly, the album’s gradual progression brings stranger atmospheres. After the unusually fast pace of “Mirage,” the record gets farther and farther out until finale “Vision of Creation” makes it emphatically clear Dub From Creation is far more than an exercise in standard dub style.

Scarce for decades and extremely pricey as an original, Close Encounters of the Third World was the second Creation Rebel album to be released chronologically. Something of a vocal-heavy offshoot from the stronger Rebel Vibrations, the standalone vinyl reissue Close Encounters is very welcome even as the album is the least of the group’s records in terms of impact.

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PHOENIX, AZ | LANY and the “Beautiful Blur Tour” made their 24th stop at the Arizona Financial Theatre in downtown Phoenix. This is a large venue tour for LANY, taking to the 5,000 capacity theatre in Arizona.

While formed in Los Angeles, the name for the band is an acronym for Los Angeles New York—the inspiration for the name an idea that covers the entire country from LA to NY. The three-piece band formed in 2014 when the members met in Nashville. Merging from separate solo projects, LANY was formed amongst front man Paul Klein, guitarist Les Priest, and Jake Goss on the drum kit. The indie-pop band began releasing music on Soundcloud and immediately gained traction. They supported several large bands touring in 2015, and were off to the races.

The show was opened by a newer musical group The Junior Varsity. Initially releasing music in 2021, TJV has gained attention through their first two EPs, “Junior Varsity” in 2021 and “Side B” in 2022. Mixing pop, rap, hip-hop, and punk, the band pulls from a lot of different sounds. With the ability to draw from so many different genres, the band delivers a very unique and diverse performance—they’re here to prove something and totally bring the energy to kick off the show.

Between the break, a big white sheet went up fully covering the stage. Arizona’s Financial Theatre is quite large, so it’s rare to see the entire stage covered from top to bottom with just a sheet. Intro music brought attention to the stage, and using a spotlight, displayed the silhouette of every member of LANY as they launched into “You!” from their 2021 album Mama’s Boy.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | I didn’t think we needed another book on Lou Reed or the Velvet Underground until I read Sweet, Wild and Vicious. A voracious listener and gifted writer, Jim Higgins contextualizes Reed’s life and aesthetic in a way that illuminates the world he created between the headphones. His recordings—by turns brilliant, confounding and daring—finally get the book they deserve. It’s nothing less than an essential addition to our understanding and appreciation of Reed/ Velvets.
—Greg Kot, Sound Opinions co-host

From the time he began recording with the Velvet Underground in the 1960s until his death in 2013, Lou Reed released nearly 50 original albums. In Sweet, Wild and Vicious: Listening to Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground, out April 19 via Trouser Press Books, Jim Higgins delves into each one, with descriptions, details, analysis, and appraisals that will amplify and expand fans’ understanding and appreciation of them.

This listener’s guide is personal as well as definitive, a thoughtful consideration of Reed’s entire career from the perspective of a devoted follower able to separate the highs from the lows. The paperback is available for pre-order directly from the Trouser Press Books website, and the eBook via Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple, and elsewhere.

“After two albums (Songs for Drella and Magic and Loss) permeated with death and dying, on Set the Twilight Reeling Lou Reed plugged in, turned up the guitar and returned to his childhood with ‘Egg Cream,’ a stunning ode to the New York fountain drink made from seltzer, milk and U-Bet chocolate syrup.

Over a bed of noisy rhythm guitar, Reed rhapsodizes about his boyhood favorite, which tasted just like silk. A man notorious for recounting illicit thrills of methamphetamine and heroin surprised everyone with this unexpected tribute to prepubescent pleasure. But this is Lou Reed, not the Wiggles: Becky’s wondrous egg creams helped him deal with knife battles and ‘kids pissing in the street.’ If asked to cast my ballot, ‘Egg Cream’ is the last great Lou Reed song.

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Does anybody out there actually LIKE Blood, Sweat & Tears? I mean, is it even POSSIBLE? Actually I know it’s possible because my friend Rick Piel likes them, openly admits it, and I’m doing my best to forgive him. Then again, what’s NOT to like about them? The bloviating brass? The rearguard horn arrangements of swingin’ Fred Lipsius? The big-boned vocal cords of the burly Mr. David Clayton-Thomas? The occasional classical flourishes? Hell, the real question is why doesn’t EVERYBODY love them?

Well, part of the answer lies in the fact that Blood, Sweat & Tears were the epitome of unhip. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing—the Carpenters were so unhip that the renowned music critic Richard M. Nixon labelled them “Young America at its best.” But BS&T thought they were hip, when in fact they made the exploding dicks in Three Dog Night sound downright groovy by comparison.

And they didn’t help their own case by being the first rock band to wow the squares at Las Vegas, which automatically made them square by association. You are who you play for. Nor did they up their street cred any by agreeing to do a US State Department-sponsored tour of the Eastern bloc. Doing the bidding of the Nixon Administration didn’t win them any friends in the counterculture, and the counterculture let them know it—Abbie Hoffman and his Yippie pals showed up at a BS&T gig at Madison Square Garden after the band’s return to throw shit at them, and by shit I mean the kind you make with your butt.

But BS&T’s hip cred—which basically went out the window when band co-founder and certifiably hip personage Al Kooper walked out the door and the Broadway-ready David Clayton-Thomas walked in after the band’s 1968 debut LP—isn’t really the issue here. What made Blood, Sweat & Tears such a nauseating proposition was the horn-heavy band’s diabolical commitment to a big, brassy sound that combined fugitive elements of rock, jazz, R&B and (gak!) classical. The fusion was inarguable innovative—but then again so was the weaponization of anthrax—and made them the envy of every high school jazz band instructor from San Jose to Saigon.

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