HIGH BIAS -- reissues

High Bias refreshed

SOULIVE
Get Down!
(Velour)
Originally recorded in 1999 in its own studio and sold only at shows, Get Down! would qualify as NYC trio Soulive's debut album if it had been given wide release. The record finds the soul-jazz trio at its most raw and basic, and that's a good thing. While the group's recent, more experimental forays have been brave and necessary to its continued artistic good health, its music is arguably at its best when it's kept simple. All this band needs is a guitar, a Hammond organ and a trap set, and it's a non-stop party. Extremely cool groovers like "Cash's Dream," "Rudy's Way" and "So Live!" get as funky as all git-out without sacrificing melody or the band's justifiably famous talent with improvisation. Guitarist Eric Krasno is in particularly fine form here; his bravura solo on the cover of "Boogaloo" Joe Jones' "Right On" is inspiring and discouraging all at once—aspiring pickers will immediately grab their axes, then wonder why they should even bother trying. Krasno, organist Neal Evans and drummer Alan Evans would re-record many of these songs on its "official" debut Turn It Out, but the Soulive story truly starts here. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Ramsey Lewis, Medeski Martin & Wood, Jimmy Smith

WEATHER REPORT
Live and Unreleased
(Columbia/Legacy)
Every genre of music has its turning point, that moment when things start to go horribly wrong. Usually that moment comes in the hands of a specific artist, one with a vision of the music that altered, may have even expanded and improved on what came before, but ultimately changed things for the worse. In the 60s, for example, the British band Cream created the power trio, introducing heavier sounds, extended soloing and improvisation to rock. While much of the band's work holds up today, it can still be blamed for all the masturbatory, self-indulgent wankery to follow, especially since it wallowed in a bit of that itself. Point being, a band may have a great idea (Nirvana) that spawns a genre (alternative rock) that gives rise to the worst the industry has to offer (Bush, the Toadies, Splender) and makes one wish the band had never had the idea in the first place.

Such is the case with Weather Report and fusion. The combination of rock and jazz had its detractors before the Report reached its commercial and creative apex, but after it the music lost whatever critical cache it might once have had. Though it wasn't seen as such at the time, the big sin committed by keyboardist Josef Zawinul and saxophonist Wayne Shorter (both of whom were involved with Miles Davis' electric experiments) and their various rhythm sections was to add pop melodies to their compositions and arrangements. The tunes of Shorter and Zawinul (especially the latter) sport actual, honest-to-God hooks in a fashion that hadn't been as prominent since the heyday of the Dave Brubeck Quartet. This isn't to say the songs the pair wrote are simplistic, mind you—they certainly aren't. But the melodies are easy to catch hold of for the non-jazz fan; only the musicians' instrumental interplay adds complexity. There's nothing inherently wrong with this approach, and Weather Report has made some undeniably high quality music using it. However, the band's many followers focused on the hooks aspect of the music, and not the improvisational aspect, thus giving rise to that bastard child of jazz fusion, fuzak. You know what we mean—jazz and rock instrumentation used for instrumental music that goes down so easily it's like a cup of lukewarm cocoa spiked with too much whipped cream. Commercial radio stations call it "the Wave," and it's been the bane of jazz for 20 years now. Kenny G, Grover Washington and David Sanborn owe their careers to it.

While it seems unfair to blame Weather Report for the Creed Taylors of the world, when one listens to the two hours of music found on Live and Unreleased, one can't help but point fingers. After all, when the Report is at its most laid-back, you might think you've suddenly found yourself in a Starbucks. Even onstage, with the added energy that comes from live performance, tunes like Shorter's "Plaza Real" (recorded in 1983) and Zawinul's "Black Market" (recorded in 1977) sound like aural wallpaper, with easy hooks and a vibe so mellow you can smell the patchouli, even if it's being worn by guys who normally don a suit and tie for a stockbroker's job. The overlong "Cucumber Slumber," from 1975, is like an instrumental Earth, Wind & Fire track, minus the soul. At its worst, the Report makes jazz for squares, fusion for people who don't like improvisation, "hot" music for people afraid of fire.

Fortunately, there are better tunes here and enough genuinely hot playing to almost offset the lame tracks. Most of the songs feature the late bassist Jaco Pastorious, and it takes a pretty soaked wet blanket to stifle his energetic virtuosity. Cuts like Zawinul's "Fast City" (from 1980) and his own "Teen Town" (from 1977) simply smoke, with Pastorious in top form. (The set's compilers also generously include a '77 performance of his solo bass showcase "Portrait of Tracy," a delight for Jaco fans.) Other musicians contribute as well: bassist Alphonso Johnson drives Shorter's "Freezing Fire," from 1975, with a remarkably Jacoesque bass line, recorded a year before Pastorious came to prominence. Drummer Omar Hakim and percussionist Jose Rossy enliven the otherwise ponderous 1983 performance of "Where the Moon Goes." While the sound of Zawinul's many synthesizers and his delay-drenched Rhodes piano can get tiresome, when he's on, he's on, and Shorter gets in plenty of hot solos and tasteful fills as well.

But it's difficult to separate Weather Report's best material from its worst, especially when the latter is seemingly responsible for so much (and let's be perfectly blunt here) crap. So while Live and Unreleased is a good sampler of the breadth of the group's career, it's probably more of a special treat for fans than a primer for newcomers. Michael Toland [buy it]

For fans of: Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, MFSB