New album: While You Were Sleeping
Artist: Jose James
Label: Blue Note
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Jose James’ fifth album “While You Were Sleeping” features more musical genres than most radio stations.
Aided by a band that includes keyboard wizard Kris Bowers (who also has a burgeoning solo career), James shows off his wide ranging tastes on a collection that weaves together the sounds and textures of jazz, rock, hip-hop and even psychedelia. Not since the mainstream ascendance of Beck has a new artist arrived with a fully-formed vision and been able to maintain it. “While You Were Sleeping” encapsulates everything James does well, which is actually a little bit of everything.
On “Angel,” guitarist Brad Williams successfully channels the acid-drenched ghost of Funkadelic guitarist Eddie Hazel. The fuzzy, distorted guitar provides an interesting counterpoint to James’ soulful vocal. “UR The 1” takes the idea of a broken beat maybe a hair too far, but James vocals are so flawless the awkward drumming is forgivable. The brilliant, moody title track recalls the sublime sides of Zero 7 and Air.
The curve balls keep coming in the form of “Dragon,” a hypnotic duet with Becca Stevens and “4 Simple Truths,” which is a successful marriage of jazz and hip-hop. The song with the heaviest hip-hop vibe is radio single “Every Little Thing,” which doesn’t exactly mesh with the rest of the album but should stand out among most of the computer-generated sludge currently polluting the airwaves.
Along with Anthony Hamilton, Jose James is one of the most interesting vocalists working today. Here’s hoping his well-crafted, soulful work is appreciated.
Classic album: Quadrophenia — Live In London 2013
Artist: The Who
Label: Universal Music
Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5
Before The Who became known to a younger generation as the CSI theme song guys, they had a hand in creating punk rock, progressive rock and rock opera. “Quadrophenia” — their 1973 landmark rock opera about a teenagers coming to grips with becoming adults — stands as their masterpiece.
When The Who tried to tour “Quadrophenia” upon its release in 1973, chaos ensued. Whereas their previous rock opera “Tommy” was easy to lug around the world as a four-piece rock band, “Quadrophenia” was different. While songs such as “The Real Me” and “I’m One” were fairly straightforward, most of the songs featured multiple guitar and keyboard parts from Pete Townshend — not to mention the myriad of horn parts played in the studio by bassist John Entwistle.
The band attempted to perform the songs as a four-piece with the keyboard/horn parts on a backing tape. Although it should have been noticeable from miles away, it turns out this was a horrible idea. Just a few shows in the band stopped performing the whole album, only keeping the songs that could be cranked out by The Who in their usual steam-hammer fashion that their live reputation was built on.
Fast forward to 1996/97 and technology allows the band to tour “Quadrophenia” properly for the first time. After The Who’s well received 2006 album “Endless Wire” made the top ten, it was hoped the band would make another new album, but instead they decided to stage a new, modern version of “Quadrophenia.”
While their time would have seemingly been better spent making a new album (they are hovering around the age of 70), the resulting 2012/13 “Quadrophenia” tour was a critical and financial success. The London performance captured on this album/dvd/blu-ray release is equal parts aggressive and nuance.
Deceased bassist John Entwistle and equally deceased drummer Keith Moon both make appearances, and with Roger Daltrey in fine voice after having pre-cancerous tumors removed from his throat and Pete Townshend beating his guitar like a rented mule, this new presentation actually works. The guitar barrages Townshend unleashes on “I’ve Had Enough” and “5:15” still evoke the idea that it’s really fun and necessary to sometimes break stuff.
Longtime Who keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick is mysteriously AWOL, and his beautiful intro to “Love, Reign O’er Me” is sorely missed. Otherwise, The Two of Townshend and Daltrey still have enough juice left to leave an audience buzzed.
Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092, @jondawsonhq or jon.dawson@kinston.com. Purchase Jon’s books at www.jondawson.com.