Tom Terrell
Tom’s Contributions
April 2000 Grooves
New Day, New Groove
Teodross Avery
Long time we 'na heard from saxophonist Teodross Avery. He got lost in the great young lions boom/bust of the mid-'90s. Three woodshed-years later, Avery has flipped from neo-traditionalist jazzbo to jazz-hip hop futurist. New Day, New Groove reveals that...
April 2000 Grooves
Santessa
Santessa
Very little info here folks: the singer is unknown (from Brooklyn, London, can't remember), the CD is a white label advance produced by Stuart Matthewman (Sade/Sweetback). No matter, Santessa's self-titled debut is the only trip-hop record that's gonna matter...
January/February 2000 Grooves
Catalyst: The Funkiest Band You Never Heard
Catalyst
The prime directive of major labels is to seek out new sounds, categorize them, market/sell "brand" bands to the consumer. That's what happened during fusion's golden age (1969-79; formula: electric Miles Davis = fusion. Mahavishnu Orchestra-Weather Report...
January/February 2000 Grooves
Programmed
Carl Craig/Innerzone Orchestra
Remember when the pop label rocket scientists were hailing electronica as the next thing? It sucked 'cause they pushed U.K. techno acts rather than Detroit originators like Carl Craig. Craig's brilliant new album Interzone Orchestra: Programmed (Astral werks...
January/February 2000 Grooves
Monsters and Robots
Buckethead
"Knock, Knock. Who's there? Count. Count who? One-two-three-four." Nothing better than a corny joke; clears the air of the seriousness. That's the problem with the new generation-they're too damn earnest about their shit to free their inner cornball so their...
January/February 2000 Grooves
Jungle
Ballin' the Jack
All those Young Americans decked in WWII mufti, throwing wack lindy moves to what they call "swing" music. Cheese-corny reality: bar bands playing skizzed-up versions of jump blues honks. Ballin' the Jack's script for "keeping-it-real" swing reads just as...
January/February 2000 Grooves
Voyage of Dreams
Jepthe Guillaume and the Tet Kale Orkestra
For years, producers of house, R&B, jazz have co-opted Afro-Caribbean instruments/rhythms in service of their quest for the perfect groove and peak. Most of these efforts are as vicariously shallow as a tourist listening to the radio at Club Med. They taste...
January/February 2000 Grooves
The Now Sound of Ursula 1000
Various Artists
These be some flavalicious jazzy-exotics indeed: The Now Sound of Ursula 1000 (Eighteenth Street Lounge Music, ELS022, 56:19) is a smooveadelic cocktail designed to ooze you into a feely-touchy-diddy-boppin' state of mind. Standouts: "The Shake"'s Henry...
December 1999 Books
The Jazz Pictures
Carol Friedman
Of all the art forms, music remains the most ethereal, ephemeral, elusive. Before the phonograph, it was passed on musician-to-musician, archived in notations or memories. It was inevitable that this vibrational art would inspire/challenge photographers...
December 1999 Grooves
Utonian Automatic
Isotope 217
Chicago's Isotope 217 (Jeff Parker, guitar; Rob Mazurek, cornet; Dan Bitney, drums; Matthew Lux, bass; John Herndon, percussion; Bundy K. Brown/John McEntire, uncredited keyboards, programming, effects) are rocking some heady spirit-cosmic groove variations...
December 1999 Grooves
Brasil 2mil-The Soul of Bass-O-Nova
Various Artists
Brazilian music (samba, bossa nova, MFB) has always danced jazzy-hot. In the '90s, it's all about Afro-Brazilian ciphers (jazzy rapture). Dunno if the unknown-to-most-of-us new wave artists featured on Brasil 2mil-The Soul of Bass-O-Nova (Six Degrees Records...
December 1999 Grooves
The New Tea
Conundrum
What does one call a rock band that thinks like a world music band and plays like a jazz band but Conundrum? Founded by Boston-based engineer/keyboardist/percussionist Cyrus Sink 'round about '95, this music collective draws from the bags of long-forgotten...
December 1999 Grooves
Asphodelic
Various Artists
Asphodelic, the new compilation from Left-Coast label Asphodel, walks on the electro-jazz rhythm oblique far side of the spectrum. Don't be put off by Asphodelic's fuzzy/woozy drum 'n' bass ambients-you'll miss stunners like the exquisitely "fake" MIDI jazzy...
December 1999 Grooves
The Funky Precedent
Various Artists
The Funky Precedent flexes all kindsa (16 tracks) way underground freestyle strategies like the salsa-hip hop-ska-funk-jazz dubaphonic belly-laff of Ozomatli's "Cumbia de los Muertos" (important: proceeds from The Funky Precedent benefits Fremont High School...
December 1999 Grooves
DJ Logic Presents Project Logic
DJ Logic
Two things you should know by now: 1) the Technics 1200 direct-drive turntable is the last great jazz instrument of the 20th century and 2) "DJ" (master level: turntablist) is just another word for jazz improviser. Check the karmic come-back: brass 'n' drum...
December 1999 Grooves
Step Off!: A Collection of Trip Hop and Dub
Various Artists
While few of DJ Logic's peers are as versatile, intuitive and free, they ain't half-stepping either. Call 'em hip hop-abstract colonists-studio turntable authors remake/remodeling years of funk/pop grooves, jazz vamps, wild style beats and classic loops...
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