Going 'Beyond Genre': Jai Uttal, Damon Fowler, Russ Hewitt and more
Dust & Tears is the self-released 22nd album in 33 years by Jai Uttal. These nine tracks, co-written with his wife Nubia, were inspired by poets and prophets from hundreds of years ago. Utall lived and studied with the Bauls of Bengal in 1973 Bangladesh. He takes liberally from the Bible, from the 16th Century Indian Bhakti poet Mirabai, from Hinduism’s Krishna, from Jewish history and from poet/playwright/philosopher/priest Vidyapati [1380-1460]. Vocally, he resembles Bob Marley. The mix is infused with tantalizing percussion. File it under world music. It’s positively intoxicating.
Jai Uttal by Jeffrey Newbury
Total Triple-Threat Rock Star Guitar Hero Damon Fowler could’ve easily been the third son of Geraldine Allman. His music is right in that zone. With the release of his ninth solo album, Live At The Palladium (Landslide Records), he’s cemented his rep as a blues-rock standard-bearer. The 10 in-concert tracks righteously keeps the crowd noise to a minimum and the jamming up to blast levels. The eight originals — highlighted by the more-than-awesome “Old Fools, Barstools, and Me” — bespeak a loud elegance both in compositional prowess and etched-in-fire electric soloing. The two covers — Guy Clark’s “The Guitar” and Little Walter’s “Up The Line ”— are discreet picks from a cat who can do no wrong. Great band. Great jams.
The self-released Chasing Horizons by guitarist Russ Hewitt is all over the map. A rhythmic fusion of Samba, Rumba, Flamenco, and the folkloric Cuban strain known as “Montuno” (with ex-Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman), Chasing Horizons defies genre and categorization. The title track, in a 7/8 time signature, features Nuno Bettencourt of Extreme. Other tracks get even friskier with 5/4 and even 9/8 grooves. (Most rock’n’roll, for instance, is in 4/4 or common-time.) Ain’t nothin’ common about this! With the Bucharest All-Star Orchestra sawing away (but not too out front), and cats like Tri Nguyen on Vietnamese zither, Walfredo Reyes, Jr. (Santana) on drums, Bob Parr (Brian Setzer/Cher/Barry White) on bass and keyboards plus Rafael Padilla (Shakira/Gloria Estefan) on percussion, four years in the making, Russ Hewitt has made his masterpiece.
Oh the rarities! Irish label Atomicat always has a combo of stars, wanna-be’s and even those in the never-was category on its pre-’63 comps. The Rockin’ Spot Volume #4 is subtitled “Cheryl” after the title track by The Elgins, a Bronx doo-wop group. The 28 tracks with the rarest of the rare being The Maharajahs, some Los Angeles kids whose entire career output are the two songs they recorded in 1958, one of which, “Sweet Loretta,” is here, rescued from obscurity and deservedly so. From rockabilly’s Billy Lee Riley & His Little Green Men out of Memphis on Sun Records and an early Bobby Darin rock’n’roll effort called “Pity Miss Kitty” in 1960 from a long out-of-print album called For Teenagers Only to Gene Vincent and Wynonie Harris (who directly influenced Elvis), this one’s a keeper.
Ghost Cat (Intakt Records, Switzerland), by Christoph Irniger, is more than just Euro Jazz. It’s prog-rock, world music, folk music, ambient in spots, and avant-garde in other spots. Irniger plays a mean tenor sax, leading this amazing quintet through corridors of sound that’s like an amusement park funhouse. The circuitous route they take to get from Point A to Point B is where the fun lies. Irniger produced, arranged, and wrote five of the six. Bravo!
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