Rickie Lee Jones: Reviews

Rickie Lee Jones
Reviews Rickie reviews a few of her favorite recordings

	New York Tendaberry (Laura Nyro) New York Tendaberry, if I was teaching a music class, I would have everyone listen to this first, and then come and talk about it. This is a fine weave of Broadway drama and soul friendliness, with her very feminine and odd lyrics, poetry, yes, that's what it was. She, when she hit the mark, made planets roar. I respected that she sang a little out of tune. I felt that made her, somehow, more authentic.
	Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker (Gerry Mulligan) Features the perfect My Funny Valentine.
	Sketches of Spain (Miles Davis), of course.
	The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (Bruce Springsteen) was a good record, though I don't own it.

COLEMAN HAWKINS

The record I bought at the salvation army store in Olympia when I was 16 years old was called The High and Mighty Hawk. I had never heard of Coleman Hawkins, but I wanted to expand my knowledge, so I just bought covers that looked interesting...

It became one of the important records of my life, with his version of My One and Only Love being the inspiration for me to record it nearly twenty years later, in 1991 or so, on Pop Pop. He is my favorite saxophone, a little earlier than the popular revolutionaries that became much more famous than he. But he was one of the first innovators, an improviser that stayed melodic, beautiful tone, very personal, very rich.

VAN MORRISON

I first heard Astral Weeks in Eugene Oregon around 1971, after a rock festival I had been to near Olympia, where Wishbone Ash headlined. I met some people there and drove down to Eugene with them, and I remember the first time they put Astral Weeks on the record player. I had never heard anything, ANYTHING like it. I read the poem on the back, and listened to the fantastic lyrics with the most intimate and bold voice I had ever heard, with this jazz instrumentation, something I had never been into, and I was swept away. Many years later I would use that bass player, Richard Davis, on one of my own records, imagine that. It is still daring, still innovative, no one has yet come near to it's very new and exciting approach.

Veedon Fleece is a tonic, a spell, he takes you into his journey with writers, into Ireland, into things he's thinking as he walks around. And so you become quite personally involved with him. He is a bold aritist, no doubt, and for me, these are his most daring and successful records. though this whole record does not hold up entirely, the recordings that are great are profound, and well worth it. And of course, songs I don't care for someone else might like alot , so... Linden Arden stole the Highlights, I promise, is like nothing you have ever heard. He seems to pull this stuff out of the stars.

	STEELY DAN
Goucho (Steely Dan) Well, a stiller record than other Steely Dan records. But the humor is high, and the playing has not been rendered lifeless by too many fixes. Thoughtful melodies, not so commercial as aja, which I did not like. Third World Man, fine song.

Of course, the best Steely Dan record is
Royal Scam
This is them at their highest. There is no low point on this record.

DJANGO REINHARDT

Django was a very important guy. He had only three fingers and he was a gypsy. I'm infatuated with his lifestyle and he will always symbolize that hot jazz thing from Paris. All of his records are thick with that feeling. Django did a lot of records with the greatest of all gypsy violinists Stephan Grapelli. Their chemistry was magic. I have them in the back of my mind quite often when recording or performing. They are the reason for me ever using the bandeleons.

"Swing in Paris" contains virtually every note Django strummed in Paris between 1936-1940, the years when swing was adjusting to the bebop sound. I have it in a five disc set, 110 cuts worth! Obviously this is a collector's dream, finding Django in so many different settings, perfect for anyone who likes swing. It comes out of London and includes a 27 page book about the man, the time, and his music.

THE BLUE NILE

These reviews wouldn't be complete without including the Blue Nile. There was a time when I listened to the Blue Nile nearly every day! With this important record they bridged the chilly gap between English electronic attitudes of the 1980's and the great, passionate, poetic heart of so much that came before. I love their approach to the synth and drum machine. Their work is always passionate, and intense. And most of all, Paul's beautiful singing.

TAJ MAHAL

I practiced to this record (GIANT STEP) as a teenager. There is something about Taj and his kindness and intelligence that made the blues and the stories more interesting to me. Where most of the blues I had experienced before seemed to be about death and sex, Taj's songs were about fishing, walking, oxen, and children's songs. Half of this double CD is Taj accompanying himself on guitar or banjo, or by slapping his hands on his thighs. Jessie David joins him on the second CD, "Giant Step," on his lyrical guitar.

Editor's Note: Taj and Rickie took the stage together quite a few time during their H.O.R.D.E. tour performances. For those of us who were lucky enough to catch those shows they were pure and enduringly splendid!

	Lord Buckley, if you can find anything by him you must listen.
	I listen to Sly and the Family Stone,
	Curtis Mayfield
	and Soul Coughing.

	Sometimes I listen to Ram,(Paul McCartney)
	and once in while I put on Salty Dog (Procol Harem)
	or John Barleycorn Must Die (Traffic)...
That's about it for me. I like instrumental music by people whose names I will never remember. Instruments from places I have never been.

MOVIES

Some favorite movies...

I wanted to mention that A Taste of Honey - an English movie from the 60's of hopeless life on the docks of Liverpool, I think.

American History X an American movie of the 90's of hopeless life on the beach Venice, Ca. follows a couple Venice High Neo Nazi teenagers, black gangs,lots of murder. (but no women being defaced....can you believe it?).

To Kill a Mockingbird, West Side Story, (we know them).

Lady in White, a great scary film for kids at Halloween. Not too scary, but scary. No red-eyed wolves like in Never-ending Story. But there is a killer loose, and two children meet a ghost who helps them find the killer. It takes place at Halloween, and in the end the ghost is reunited with a long lost loved one. It's kind of like Traces of the Western Slopes with a happy ending. Lucas Haas, a great actor, is here as a little kid.

Speaking of Lucas Haas, his first film (I think) The River, a short from Flannery O'Conner's collection, is stunning. If you ever get to see it, it's only about ten or fifteen minutes long. He's about seven in it, I think. I was deeply moved.

That's my film review. Stay away from films that use women to gratify violent sexual images. Don't support them.

OK? Thanks.

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