Sam Morrison: Cosmic Trip
MOD Reloaded
A few years ago I went with my great friend, the late Mike Gaughn, to see a contemporary big band at Birdland. He told me that while he thought they were excellent, they really weren’t doing anything new.
Well, Sam Morrison is doing something new with Cosmic Trip. The overall feeling is of an ultramodern vibe, music that mixes Morrison’s soprano sax, alto flute and mastery of synthesizers with fantastic electronic beats and rhythmic invention, with Morrison’s reeds riding over absolutely gargantuan bass and percussive impact.
The album features Morrison, former sax player with Miles Davis and other jazz greats, and Bill Laswell on “EFX” (I take that to mean “effects”) and “mix-translation,” which sounds to me like some very wild sonic manipulation. I’m not surprised, given Laswell’s history with Material and other avant bands.
Cosmic Trip was recorded by Sam Morrison at Livingston Manor, New York, and Truth or Consequences in New Mexico. It was mixed at Orange Music, West Orange, NJ, engineered by James Dellatacoma and mastered by Michael Fossenkemper at Turtletone Studio.
Morrison’s reed instruments are either pure-sounding or processed through an array of delays and other sonic treatments. His playing is melodic, sometimes grounded and sometimes out there, virtuosic in a way that makes labels like “jazz” and “fusion” sound dated, though there’s certainly a tip of the hat to Miles, Herbie and other pioneers of post-fusion music. (I had forgotten that Laswell co-wrote and produced Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit.”) Morrison’s is the kind of music-making that simply is, transcending genres.
Sam Morrison. Courtesy of Roberto Cifarelli.
The percussion melds straight-ahead rhythms with some very innovative and funky beats and syncopation, often at the same time. The level of musical inventiveness is remarkable. The soundstage, as befits the album title, is vast, wide and deep, and the deliberate manipulation of the sound field adds to the state-of-the-art sonic vibe, with synth bloops and blips coming from everywhere. Yet the overall aural landscape is uncluttered – the music breathes. The individual sounds have remarkable clarity, and the tonality leans toward crisp and energetic, with that killer bass. (I can’t wait to play some of the cuts as demo tracks at my next audio show.)
The album has a sonic and musical personality I find compelling. The leadoff track, “High Blood Pressure,” sets the tone with its massive bass, spellbinding sax playing, heavy funky rhythm, and that otherworldly soundspace. “Jailbreak” juxtaposes a simple sequencer bass line with a complex sax melody that had me wondering how Sam Morrison could even write, let alone play such a cool thing. “Home Alone” is just waiting for some hip-hopper to sample its clean, cutting groove. “Escape From Paradise” features amazing bass with a warmer tonal balance, unexpected chord changes – I could almost hear this as a big band arrangement – and state-of-the-art synthesizer sounds.
It sounds like music with no limits. And really, on Cosmic Trip, there aren’t – listen to the way the bass “drums” move around the stereo field on the title track, or the delay and reverb effects on the soprano sax in “Big Rumble.” The syncopated clashing-yet-meshing percussion on “Funkaduck” is just brilliant (T. Xiques contributes agogo here), and the kind of stilted shuffle of “Trippin’,” which also has the weirdest bass line I’ve heard in a while (and I say that as the highest compliment), makes it feel like the song is constantly trying to catch up with itself, which is one of the greatest grooves I’ve ever heard. Morrison’s playing is dazzling throughout. This is one spaceship that never runs out of fuel.
Anne Bisson: Guilty Pleasures
Camilio Records
Anne Bisson is well known in the audiophile community for her excellent-sounding records, and for her numerous performances at audio shows where she often plays her albums through a high-end system, then sings without a mic to show listeners the difference between live, unamplified, and recorded music. So, it’s no surprise that her eighth and latest album, Guilty Pleasures, would sound exceptional. But that should not overshadow the fact that she’s also a wonderful singer and interpreter of songs. For this album of covers, she said (I’m quoting from her website) she had no restrictions on choosing the material and “went all in on her long-time heart crushes and picked songs that have been part of her DNA from her childhood.”
She certainly has eclectic tastes. The selections run the range from songs you can imagine a singer of her stature doing, like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” and “Autumn Leaves/Les feuilles mortes” (in a duet with Canadian singer Bruno Pelletier) to surprising choices like Elvis’s “In the Ghetto” and…Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” arranged for jazz quartet. Bisson plays acoustic and electric piano (a real Fender Rhodes!) and the other musicians on the album include Samuel Jacques on piano, Jacques Roy playing electric and acoustic bass and acoustic guitar, Guillaume Picard on drums, and Julie Trudeau playing cello on “The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.”
Anne Bisson. Courtesy of the artist.
Bisson’s audiophile roots are evident on this recording, done in something called FORS Master Sound, using the FORS Super High-Quality mastering process developed by Q-Tec, Inc. in Japan. FORS stands for “Faithful Original Signal,” which is said to correct for anomalies the digital signal undergoes during transmission. The disc itself (I listened on CD) is called an Ultimate High-Quality CD (UHQCD), developed by Japan’s Memory-Tech Corporation and uses a “photopolymer” rather than the standard polycarbonate stamper to produce the disc. Guilty Pleasures was recorded and mixed at Studio Opus by Jacques Roy with Steeve St-Pierre, and mastered by Bernie Grundman. A variety of Neumann, AKG, DPA Gefell, Telefunken and other high-end mics were used. The CD packaging is deluxe, with a booklet containing lyrics, credits, and technical data.
And yes, the sound is superb. Anne Bisson’s voice is warm and sweet. I like the fact that the balance is like the classic recordings of the 1950s and 1960s where the vocalist is up front in the mix and the musicians, while there, are in the background as accompaniment. (Don’t you tire of contemporary recordings where the singer has to compete with the snare drum?) Though this is an “audiophile” recording, the instruments do not sound “hyper real” and etched in space, but rather, natural and flowing. That’s not to say the instruments are fuzzy or anything – the piano has great clarity and weight, there’s plenty of detail to give you the sense of reality that good recordings provide, and the tonal balance is rich and inviting. You’ll find yourself focusing on the music.
As it should be. While some of the songs might work better for some people, and those won’t necessarily be the same songs as other people might have as their favorites, I applaud Bisson for indulging in these guilty pleasures rather than giving us yet another Great American Songbook album. Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon” works surprisingly well in a jazz combo setting, and Bisson really brings home the poignancy of the lyrics. (I think Neil Young would love this.) “Autumn Leaves” is heartfelt and touching. “In the Ghetto” has a sparse arrangement as opposed to Elvis’s bombast, and it’s equally effective.
The same goes for Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” where Anne Bisson turns it into something meditative and reflective. In fact, all the songs on the album benefit from her intimate approach. She even manages to make that hoary old bar band song, “Wild Horses,” into something fresh. Of course you must be wondering about her interpretation of “Comfortably Numb.” At first I found it a little strange – since I’ve played this song in bands and have indulged in the iconic Epic Guitar Solo ending – but ultimately the slow pace and her deliberate delivery frame the song with a perfectly appropriate starkness that highlights the harrowing quality of the lyrics. Contrastingly, I cannot think of a more beautiful way to end an album than her rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” In lesser hands, this would sound saccharine. When you hear Anne Bisson sing it, it’s hard not to get choked up.
Rhino Makes Some Noise:
The Velvet Underground’s Loaded and The Stooges’ Fun House, Reissued
Rhino High Fidelity
Am I the only one who finds it ironic – and delightful – that Rhino High Fidelity is offering audiophile vinyl reissues of some of the raunchiest rock music ever recorded? Who needs The Royal Ballet when you’ve got the Velvet Underground’s Loaded and the Stooges’ Fun House? Give me James Osterberg’s (aka Iggy Pop) caterwauling and Mo Tucker’s primal drumbeats any day.
It’s also ironic that these two albums, both from 1970, were either ignored, or reviled, or both, when they first came out, and now they’re viewed as icons of proto-punk, or metal, or indie, or whatever the critics including myself might inaccurately want to call it.
I am also kind of amazed that these albums sound so good. While I’ve heard some of the songs many times over the decades, I’d never heard either album in their entirety until now. I own lots of Velvets and Lou and Stooges albums, but not these. So I expected something like the distant grungy low-fi sound of the Velvets’ White Light/White Heat or the lousy mixes (Bowie’s and Iggy’s) of Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power. Not so. Very definitely not so. Loaded was recorded at Atlantic Recording Studio and Fun House at Elektra Sound Recorders, so these are pro-recording-studio productions.
Both reissues were cut from the original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray at Cohearent Audio. Both are pressed on ruler-flat 180-gram vinyl at Optimal Media in limited editions of 5,000 and are beautifully packaged with new and extensive liner notes. I was not able to compare these reissues with original pressings, as they go for absurd prices, so I compared them with versions on Qobuz.
Loaded has more of a pop flavor than I expected from the people who brought you “Heroin” and “Waiting for My Man,” though it does contain the absolute stone classics “Sweet Jane” and “Rock and Roll.” The Velvets’ personnel at this point included Lou Reed, Doug Yule, Sterling Morrison, and Moe Tucker. The first cut, “Who Loves the Sun,” sounds like their failed attempt at a hit single, more like the Association or People than punk. The overall production of the album is in fact pretty good, with lots of background vocal harmonies. The sound is flat spatially, with a lot of the era’s hard left and right-panned instrumental separation, and limited dynamics, but there’s clarity here, and a solid tonal balance. I’ll bet a week’s pay the electric bass is going through a tube amp. The guitars are mostly not super-fuzzed-out and the playing is tight-but-loose. In “Cool It Down” and other songs, the drum kit has a very realistic “boom” and presence.
Lou Reed sounds noticeably younger and at times, almost…joyful, like the James Brown way he declares, “Just watch me now! Whoo!” during “Sweet Jane.” There’s some track-to-track inconsistency in the mixes – “Lonesome Cowboy Bill” sounds like it’s a mixed-in-10-minutes throwaway (and musically, what were they thinking), while “Sweet Jane” has some good punch and “I Found a Reason” some sweet harmonies. The 2015 Hi-Res Audio 2015 96/24 remaster I heard on Qobuz is close, but the Rhino vinyl has more depth and detail, and the Hi-Res version’s vocals are hyped-up and ultimately fatiguing for this listener. If you’re a Velvets fan, you’ll want this Rhino reissue.
I am flabbergasted by how great the Stooges’ Fun House sounds. I consider it an incredible document of a ferocious rock band and, no exaggeration, an out-and-out “audiophile” recording. It’s clean – even the distorted Stratocaster through a fuzz box through a Marshall sounds like a real guitar and amp in a real room. The snare drum sounds crisp and walloping and powerful, the electric bass is thick and punchy, and the dynamic impact is tremendous. (There are actual dynamics – when Iggy implores, “Bring it down!” the band brings it down.) The Qobuz 16/44 Deluxe Edition sounds really close to the Rhino vinyl, but missing the you-are-there sense of the band in the room. The vinyl has remarkable presence.
People sometimes think of the Stooges as…well a bunch of Stooges as far as musical ability is concerned, but these guys (Iggy Pop, vocals; Dave Alexander, bass; Ron Asheton, guitar; Scott Asheton, drums; Steven Mackay, tenor sax) killed it on this record. Forget about all the peanut butter and ground glass craziness, Iggy has one of the greatest rock voices we’ll ever hear. He dominates with hurricane force and is right in your face on this recording.
What energy! I’m surprised the record didn’t fly off the platter. The classic, “TV Eye,” is here, as well as “Dirt,” “1970,” the primal off-the-rails one chord title track, and three other songs. As Iggy says in the liner notes, “Everyone was pretty damn impressed to be making a record in a beautiful, slick pro place in the middle of Hollywood, so we were on our best behavior. As the recordings show, I sang live and in full, take after take. The key feature of the arrangements was to avoid the mindless overdubbing that was so popular at that time in commercial sh*t.” He also noted, “Something about this record that I like is the way it begins with very short, structured numbers, and then slips farther and farther out of control…” By the last track, “L.A. Blues,” the Stooges have gone completely chaotic, with fuzzed out wah-wah feedback guitar, double-tracked drum sets, random bass playing and Iggy’s incomprehensible singing, all merging into a wall of glorious noise. How did they even put this kind of thing on record? Well as Lou Reed noted, those were different times.
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