Blogs

I got into Bad Books after years of listening to Kevin Devine, a Brooklyn indie/punk musician who is one of my favorite songwriters. The group is a side-project featuring Devine and members of the band Manchester Orchestra, whose singer is Andy Hull. This is the second of their two albums, and it's a great listen.

Both Kevin Devine and Manchester Orchestra have albums I like just as much (and some more) than this one, but Devine and Hull are playing a show together in SF next month, so it feels like a good time for Bad Books. Plus, it’s just a tight 11-song indie record.

Also, unlike others, it’s free of profanity, meaning I won't have to do any on-the-fly lyric censorship during the show. I’ll have my three-year-old son in the booth (it’s take-your-kid-to-work day at UC Davis) and I’m sure he’ll be trying to stir up a ruckus in there, so I’ll need to keep my attention on that.

Jazz from soul and folk tonight. Soul jazz from the early 60’s: Hank Crawford * Gene Ammons * Lou Donaldson. Leadbelly songs by Clifford Jordan and Sandra Douglass. Then some early Pat Metheny, followed by 1990’s work: Eva Cassidy * Winston Walls & Brother Jack McDuff * Abbey Lincoln.

Davis Enterprise film critic Derrick Bang reviews Miles Ahead.

Coming up at 3 pm today, Gary Chew has some Miles on Third Streaming.

Jazz After Dark program featuring Miles Davis re-broadcasts Saturday at 9 pm, and Gary's show rebroadcasts immediately after.

Jazz After Dark archive.  Just click and play!

In 1990, experimental avant-garde jazz saxaphonist John Zorn released the album Naked City, a fun, schizophrenic and noisy collaboration with Fred Frith, Joey Baron, Yamatsuka Eye, Bill Frisell, and Wayne Horvitz.  Naked City (as the group became known) was about the most far out you could get, and Zorn’s exploration of what he “could come up with given the limitations of the simple sax, guitar, keyboard, bass, drums format” became the pinnacle of avant coolness. The result was a post-modern hybrid that cut up sequences as he saw fit and treated all genres equally: jazz, grindcore, country & western, and much more were allowed to coexist, even in the same song.  The album has 26 cuts, several that clock in at under 30 seconds. Naked City is melodic and dischordant, familiar and unpredictable, sweet and explosive.  

Miles Ahead, the new biographical movie about Miles Davis starring Don Cheadle in the title role, opens this week in theaters in Sacramento. A fitting time for Jazz After Dark to feature Miles Davis. Nine Grammy awards, 48 studio albums, 36 live albums: Miles Davis was one of the most influential and creative musicians of all time. We’ll hear selections from some of Miles’ work recorded 1951 – 1958: Bags' Groove * Miles: The New Miles Davis * Blue Moods * Dig * Porgy & Bess * Steamin' With The Miles Davis Quintet. Then work by others celebrating some of his signature pieces. Eddie Jefferson vocalizing So What, Al Jarreau on Heaven and Earth, and two by Shirley Horn: You Won’t Forget Me, with Miles in a rare performance as sideman, and then Shirley’s version of Summertime. Finally, Maids of Cadiz from the last Miles Davis album, Miles Davis and Quincy Jones Live at Montreux.

The Sacramento Bee's Jack Ohman won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for cartooning on Monday, April 18th. In January 2015, he appeared on Davisville for an interesting interview about subjects ranging from the deaths at the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris (they had just happened), to his work as a writer and cartoonist, the role of a cartoonist, leaving his longtime home in Oregon for California, drawing Gov. Brown, his sense of Davis, and the humor in fly-fishing. Ohman has now earned a distinction shared by the likes of Garry Trudeau, Tom Toles and Pat Oliphant.

Groove! is the first studio album by Boulevards, following his self-titled debut EP released only last year. Boulevards (the stage name for singer/songwriter Jamil Rashad) is a funk artist that updates the classic sounds from legends like Rick James and Prince for a new generation. The production merges modern synths with old-school bass lines in a generation-spanning mix of sounds and styles, while the lyrics evoke images of romance on the dance floor, especially on the seductive "Tender." The aptly named Groove! is full of tracks designed to get people moving, from the energetic "Move & Shout" to the hypnotic "Got to Go," a holdover from Boulevards debut EP. In addition to funk, hip hop makes an appearance on "The Spot" as well as "Patience," an irrisestibly funky beat and defenitely the standout track on the album. Overall, while the album isn't groundbreaking, it feels fresh and fun, with enough contagious beats and delightful grooves to warrant a listen. For funk fans, Groove is a welcome callback to classic funk that updates the genre in interesting and exciting ways.