New stuff this week

ROBERT RANDOLPH & FAMILY BAND
DEREK TRUCKS
ROOTS
JASON MORAN
PAUL THORN
MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW 6
BROKEN HEARTS & DIRTY WINDOWS
LAURIE ANDERSON she’s back!
DANZIG- he’ back!
SARAH HARMER
GRIFFIN HOUSE
CYNDI LAUPER
OZZY OSBOURNE
EMINEM
RJD2 CD/LP
CHEMICAL BROTHERS CD/LP
HERBIE HANCOCK
MANU KATCHE
MARILYN CRISPELL
FRED HERSCH
TERJE RYPDAL

GENE PICK : JASON MORAN – Ten

At 35, Moran has been working with his Bandwagon trio for 10 years now — hence the record’s title, Ten — and together, they play anything but jazz as usual. You get three incredible virtuosos in Moran, electric bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet Waits, who’ve built the kind of rapport you only get in 10 years of playing together as a unit. They’re the kind of virtuosos who choose to be different: the kind who know music inside-out, so they turn it outside-in. It’s mighty impressive, and original to boot.

Most of all, this music makes sonic sense. It reads like a laundry list of crazy ideas, but it sounds like something that can be immediately perceived as both familiar and new. Give it a first listen, and maybe a second or third, – by PATRICK JARENWATTANANON, npr.org

NEW PICK 1: DEREK TRUCKS – Roadsongs

This two disc LIVE album was recorded over two nights at Chicago’s long-standing rock palace Park West in 2009, with a full horn section added to the group’s six-piece lineup. The band’s first full-length live album since 2004′s Live At Georgia Theatre, features some classic DTB arrangements and extended guitar riffs, including an awe inspiring 14-minute rendition of Coltrane’s “Afro Blue,” and Derek’s scorching guitar work on the gritty DTB original “I’ll Find My Way”.The album represents the culmination of sixteen years of relentless touring and musical progress, a journey that began in small Southern blues clubs, and has led to theaters, stadiums and arenas around the globe. For all those who have experienced the DTB’s walk-in, crawl-out concerts, the group’s new double-album Roadsongs stands as the most accurate document to date of the group at its synergistic, versatile height, onstage and under the lights.

The band consists of Derek Trucks on guitar, bassist Todd Smallie, percussionist Count M’Butu, drummer Yonrico Scott, keyboardist Kofi Burbridge and singer Mike Mattison; with the addition of trumpeter Paul Garrett, saxophonist Mace Hibbard, and trombonist Kevin Hyde for these special performances.

NEW PICK 2: ROBERT RANDOLPH & Family Band – We Walk This Road

From Robert Randolph’s artist notes:

This record is a celebration of African-American music over the past one hundred years and its social messages from the last thirty. Although we cover a whole timeline of different eras on We Walk This Road, what ties these songs together remain their message of hope, their ability to uplift. We connected the last one hundred years of African-American music in the way people used to: You write your own songs, you cover other people’s material, you re-work older songs. We had some amazing people come in to help. Leon Russell came by to hang out and wound up playing piano on the last track, “Salvation.” Ben Harper plays guitar and sings on “If I Had My Way.” The base of that song came from Blind Willie Johnson, and it was really difficult to get right. It was a country tune for a while. I had honestly given up on it. But Ben came down and said, “Let me get in there! I know just what to do!” He went in there and smoked the choruses, and I thought, “Now we’ve got a tune.” It’s one of my favorite songs on the record. We Walk This Road was done in our belief in what we all need right now: young voices saying something positive without preaching in hopes of inspiring people. When you stick to what you believe in, and with the roots of where you come from, things will always work out.

NEW PICK 3: BROKEN HEARTS & DIRTY WINDOWS: Songs Of JOHN PRINE

An album featuring twelve newly-recorded and re-imagined versions of classic John Prine songs, by an enviable roll call of some of today’s greatest musicians and songwriters, including: Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, Conor Oberst, My Morning Jacket, Josh Ritter, Justin Townes Earle, The Avett Brothers, Old Crow Medicine Show, Drive-By Truckers and others. That Prine’s perspective flourishes so vividly in these modern re-castings is testament to not only the sheer power of his songs, but to the subtly defiant undercurrent that runs throughout his music. This is a most amazing album released on John’s own label.

1. Justin Vernon of Bon Iver – “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)”
2. Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band – “Wedding Day In Funeralville”
3. My Morning Jacket – “All The Best”
4. Josh Ritter – “Mexican Home”
5. Lambchop – “Six O’Clock News”
6. Justin Townes Earle – “Far From Me”
7. The Avett Brothers – “Spanish Pipedream”
8. Old Crow Medicine Show – “Angel From Montgomery”
9. Sara Watkins – “The Late John Garfield Blues”
10. Drive-By Truckers – “Daddy’s Little Pumpkin”
11. Deer Tick featuring Liz Isenberg – “Unwed Fathers”
12. Those Darlins – “Let’s Talk Dirty In Hawaiian”.

NEW PICK 4 : ORGONE – Cali Fever

“Sounding much like a cross between The Dap-Kings and Breakestra (with whom they share several members), L.A.’s Orgone keeps the hotness of the recent retro-soul revival coming; lead singer Fanny Franklin fits in very nicely between Sharon Jones and Amy Winehouse. As befits the band’s name, Orgone’s sound is quite organic, rooted in soul, funk, boogaloo, and jazz, with a classic appeal that’s nevertheless contemporary…the entire album is one non-stop groove. If smooth, soulful funk with jazzy arrangements makes you sweat, you just found your new favorite band.” – XLR8R

NEW PICK 5 : ROOTS – How I Got Over

Seasoned and wise frontman that Black Thought is, The Roots’ best songs have always been those in which the band most strongly flexed their instrumental muscle, and those moments are frequent and many on How I Got Over. “Radio Daze” is a stellar jam, built on deep and spindly basslines, while the title track lays down some psychedelic soul a la Curtis Mayfield, and as such, is entirely irresistible. “Doin’ It Again” and “The Fire” deliver back-to-back doses of John Legend, the former in typical Roots rave-up fashion, while the latter struts with a mid-tempo groove. And then of course there’s “Right On,” which is the funkiest Joanna Newsom will ever sound.

As with The Roots previous few albums, How I Got Over presents a fairly amusing paradox. There’s an serious-minded tone to Black Thought’s verses, even when he kills it with wordplay like “got immunized for both flus, I’m still sick.” And yet, The Roots can lay down a groove like no other, offering a bit more of a hedonistic contrast to otherwise sobering truths and with a more eclectic palate than ever. Perhaps it’s not always a celebration, but How I Got Over is nonetheless an unforgettable party. – Jeff Terich treblezine.com

NEW PICK PICK 6 : MADLIB MEDICINE SHOW 6 – Brain Wreck Show

Madlib follows #5: History of the Loop Digga: 1990-2000 with the sixth installment in his Madlib Medicine Show, his psych-prog-avante-freak-out-funk rock mix Brain Wreck Show. Madlib’s been pegged as a “jazz guy” as far back as 2000, when he – as his alter ego Quasimoto – released the song “Jazz Cats.” His releases with the fictional “jazz group” Yesterdays New Quintet didn’t help matters. But, no matter how many jazz records are thrust at him by money-hungry record dealers, he most often – at least lately – gravitates to the rock side of the spectrum. That’s late 60s to late 70s psych-prog-avante-freak-out-funk rock mind you; from the Tropicalia of Brasil to the Krautrock of Germany to the fuzzy sonds of mid 70s Nigeria, the Beat Konducta’s rock tastes know no cultural bounds. Actually, we’re not sure if they know any bounds. This – an introductory mix entitled the Brain Wreck Show (admission, he wrote on the CD master, “One Brainticket” – an homage to one of his favorite Krautrock bands) – should serve to give its listeners a delightfully freaky funked up experience into the rock side of Madlib’s collecting conscious. The Madlib Medicine Show series is a combination of Madlib’s new hip-hop productions, remixes, beat tapes, and jazz, as well as mixtapes of funk, soul, Brazilian, psych, jazz and other undefined forms of music from the Beat Konducta’s 4-ton stack of vinyl.