LATEST ADDITIONS

It's almost laughable to think they were complaining about “commercialization” of the Newport Jazz Festival back in 1960 given what's happened to the venerable jazz festival, not to mention Wynton Marsalis doing ads for Movado and corporate sponsorships of bands, and festivals. We've got McCartney hawking some mutual fund or other, the Stones selling their music for commercials (I'm waiting for “Start Me Up” in a laxative ad). It's reached the point where nothing surprises, nothing shocks, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it except shake you head, and even that's really a waste of energy, so as they say, just lie back and enjoy it.

Henry James, in another of his sour moods, once characterized then-President Theodore Roosevelt as "the mere monstrous embodiment of unprecedented and resounding noise." Thankfully, the Master died before hearing Cheap Trick. We think we know this record, and the Trick, too. A generation of rockers have dined out on the chops served up on the original (and brutally truncated) 1979 Epic release. The party crowd (i.e., all of us) has shaken sufficient booty, tail, and keister to make it one of the essential rock albums. And why not? The noise quotient is high enough for blare-oriented ideologues and the giddy fun intrinsic to the band's power-pop attack gets everybody else. The Tricksters make damned sure of that.

BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS
Live!
Produced by Steve Smith and Chris Blackwell
Engineered by Steve Smith
Mixed by Phill Brown
Island/Tuff Gong ILPS 9376 (LP), 422-846 203-2 (CD)

Music:11
Sound:8

Before Bob Marley cut Live! at the Lyceum in London, Marley's producer Chris Blackwell remembers how the fanaticism surrounding the singer was escalating. “At his shows he was doing 'No Woman, No Cry' and the audiences were singing so enthusiastically. I thought, 'Boy, I've got to record this live', because it sounded so incredible.”

ERIC DOLPHY
Live at the Five Spot Vols. 1 & 2; Memorial Album
Original Recordings Produced by Esmond Edwards
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
Reissue produced by Eric Miller
Digital transfers and editing by Dave Luke
Original Jazz Classics OJC 133, OJC 247, OJC 353 (CD)

Music: 10
Sound: 8