With spring now pretty much sprung, the air feels more conducive to new blooms,
new ideas, new habits, new people, and new music. Here are some great new
records to help you find your way into the great wide open.
Marcelle Gauvin: The Edge of the Pond (Whaling City Sound,
whalingcitysound.com)
The lovely Marcelle Gauvin returns to compact disc with The Edge of the
Pond, a collection of jazz standards and other classics pivoting on the
singer's considerable talent and supported by a stellar cast of musicians.
Covers of chestnuts like Frank Loesser's "I Believe in You" and Sammy Cahn's
"Dedicated to You" showcase Gauvin's tuneful romance, while Jobim's "Double
Rainbow," Horace Silver's "Doodlin'," and Thelonious Monk's brilliant "Monk's
Dream" demonstrate Gauvin's tastefulness in material, and also provide her band
enthusiastic opportunities to step forward. Brian Torff and drummer Alan Hall
can veer from funk to finery in no time flat. Pianist John Harrison lays down
ivory filigree for Gauvin to send her poignant notes through and around, while
tenor saxophonist Dino Govoni knows how to turn a plain passage into pretty
prose with just a few select notes.
Like other terrific jazz vocalists, including Rachelle Ferrell, Nancy Wilson,
and Claire Martin, Gauvin is a passionate interpreter who seems to feel her
material from the inside out. "You Stepped Out of a Dream" features, amid
Govoni's fleet sax runs, a singer who obviously believes strongly in true love.
Gauvin's voice is pure and poignant, vivacious and tactile. In short, it's
absolutely everything it needs to be, including beautiful.
Gauvin returns to Chan's (267 Main Street, Woonsocket) for her CD release
party this Saturday, April 20 at 8 p.m. Call 765-1900 for reservations.
The Jason Colonies Band: Bitter Sweet (Jasoncolonies.com)
On-the-rise locals the Jason Colonies Band finally squeezed out their debut
recently and the results are excellent. The band -- a trio with Jeff Moffitt on
bass, Felix Guiffra on drums, and Colonies on acoustic guitar and vox -- has a
nice low-key swagger to accompany its vigorous tunes. Led by Colonies's
impassioned singing and his casual melodies, the band has a Dave
Matthews/Grateful Dead sort of rubbery acoustic sound, with lots of personality
("This One," "Kine's Song"), some sexiness ("Plead"), and enough earnest
sentiment ("Deny") to make the girls swoon.
Recorded and mixed at Boo Recording Studio in Kingston, engineered and mixed
by Dave Prout and produced by Colonies, the album has a rootsy feel and an
organic sound. Though they've left behind some high-end along the way on drums
and vocals, the arrangements are good, with Colonies's guitar taking over much
of the mix. His playing is buttressed by the presence of various guest lead
players, including Dale Dejoy, Jeff Shea, and Clay Chipman, all of whom are
given lots of lead breaks in which to explore. (Chipman seems to be the man
onstage.) In fact, lots of Bitter Sweet contains moments built for
jamming, which makes the Colonies Band an exciting prospect live.
As a songwriter, Colonies takes his cues from guys like David Crosby, Robbie
Robertson, Gregg Allman, Matthews, Bob Weir, and a slew of other largely
acoustic-based melodicists. He could work a bit on the strength and clarity of
his melodies -- many of the hooks don't work as effectively as they should --
but with experience and practice, that kink should work itself out naturally.
The other thing is that the tempos of many of these songs run too closely
together. It's good to have a cohesive listen that stems from one man's
imagination, which this is; it's another to run the songs together without
sufficiently distinguishing one from the next by virtue of style or tone.
Still, it's a terrific album, one that goes a long way in explaining why the
band is one of the hottest new outfits on the local circuit.
The Jason Colonies Band plays on Saturday, April 20 at Champions at the
Towers on the corner of routes 1 and 138.
The Ravers
They may not look like a real ska-rock steady-reggae band, but the Ravers sure
sound like one. Carey Bowman doesn't exactly fit the classic profile for a
Jamaican-style front man either, but if you close your eyes, you'd think he
grew up in Trenchtown, for Pete's sake. Either that or he's listened to a lot
of Bob Marley. I mean, a lot. "Come and Get It" sounds so much like
Marley it'd almost be enough to jumpstart "Marley lives" rumors. Comparisons
aside, though, the Ravers flip through a wide and excellent range of
entertaining styles, from Skatalites-Treasure Isle style ska ("Stuck In the
Middle," "Hot Knives,") to lover rock ballads ("Cold Cold Day"), and even a
nice pop-reggae sound, complete with Adam Aleicho's fuzzed out guitar solo
("Real World").
The band, which also includes Steve Cerilli on keys, Doug Ernest on drums, Ray
Gennari on bass and horn, singer Michele Smith, and Scott Brown on sax, works
together beautifully; they sound like studio vets, given the polished and
professional sound of this debut.
And speaking of sound, the recording was facilitated by Scott Rancourt over at
Dream Edit Studio in Newport, mixed by Gennari, and mastered by Steve Rizzo at
Stable Sounds in Portsmouth. Everyone did a terrific job putting this package
together. In the end, it sounds to me like one of the premier reggae issues of
the year.
WANDERING EYE. Grandevolution plays at Cats in Pawtucket on
Friday night (the 12th). Doors are at 8 p.m., and it's free, 21-plus show. The
lineup also includes Heretic Fork, Shake Dog Shake, and the
Curtain Society. Grandevolution (geocities.com/grandevolution) will
certainly play their new single "Away," from their debut. And speaking of that
debut, it'll be released officially on April 23. There's a serious show at the
Met on Saturday (the 13th), with Suicide Liquors, Motormags, and
a band called Chubby. I can't vouch for the latter, but the two former
groups are boss. Over at the Blackstone you can catch up with Becky
Chace and her fine band. Better Kind sets the stage for Ms. Chace;
the show starts at 9 and will cost you a fin. And to complete the weekend
trifecta, your best bet is to head over to the Met Café to see an early
punk and old school show with the Krays, the Midnight Creeps, and
Citizens Unrest. New York Rel-X headlines. The gig starts at 7
p.m. and costs $7, and you can be of any age to enter, which means it'll be
nuts 'cuz there ain't many of those shows going on anymore.
E-mail me with music news at big.daddy1@cox.net.
Issue Date: April 12 - 18, 2002
