***** Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell – The Only Legitimate Criticism of It Is That It Lacks Aggression

Firstly, I would like to say that all of the songs on Midnight Blue are great, and that that is the reason this one is a 5 star album. Though don’t mistake this one for the shred style albums, I am likely to give 5 stars, because Midnight Blue is a mellow album, in the vein of Kind of Blue by Miles Davis. Midnight Blue is better than Kind of Blue, but that may only be because I prefer guitar to trumpet. I am a guitarist, and if you ask me, Kenny Burrell on Midnight Blue is the real deal. Clearly, aggression wasn’t Burrell’s goal, but so often I go for the aggressive album, as compared to the blue album. That is, when it comes to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, Blue Trane by John Coltrane, Midnight Blue by Kenny Burrell, and so many other jazz artists that had a blue album, frankly, this isn’t my favorite style of music. I can appreciate it, and that is where the 5 stars come in, but in the long run, this really isn’t my favorite style.

One thing that is striking about Midnight Blue is how well the guitar functions as a chording instrument. These aren’t boring chords. The chording on this album is quite skilled.

I like jazz, and that is probably one reason that I am a fan of Kenny Burrell. If you get into jazz guitar, then Kenny Burrell is a staple, but he is slowly being forgotten. There are better artists out there today that are less heard of than Burrell. Really, nothing separates Kenny Burrell from the local jazz act in many places. Such an act may have a name guitarist, but because he or she did not come along until this generation, he or she is lost in the shuffle. However, this is where the problem starts for giving him a 5th star. That is, because Kenny Burrell is really only known well among cloistered groups at universities where people go to study music in order to get a degree in it, and he is then only remembered among those knowledgeable in jazz, increasingly Kenny Burrell’s popularity has been waning. If you ask me, while this is a great album, it will eventually lose its status as a standard. I think it can be outdone because for the most part I prefer shred to music like King of Blue, or Midnight Blue. As for now though, I think this album is still a 5 star standard.

**** Live at Budokan by Dream Theater – Far From Bad, but also Far From Essential

Let’s face it; Dream Theater is better in the studio than live.  Live at Budokan isn’t bad at all though.  The mix does suffer a bit.  Live at Budokan sounds like an assembly of songs with less sound quality than a studio disc, and it doesn’t even serve well as a greatest hits package because there is never a song that seems like parts of it aren’t filler.
Why Dream Theater bothers releasing anything but their best live stuff is beyond me.  All the way back to “Once In a LIVEtime” they released a cd where James LaBrie’s voice was hoarse.  Why on earth that they would have picked this, one of the last stops on that tour to make a live set (for Once in a LIVEtime) is perplexing?  They did the same thing when they practically wasted the first cd of Live Scenes from New York.  Disc 2 was great off that one, but when they played the entire Scenes from a Memory from start to finish on Disc one, on that particular day in New York it was a catastrophe, IMHO.
Most bands never come close to being this good, and that is where the 4th star comes from.  However, what Dream Theater is doing with disc sets like Live at Budokan is saturating an already saturate market.  I would scarcely miss this one if I no longer had it.  Additionally, there is enough good prog metal that makes this even further nonessential.
It is a good set of three discs and all 3 are good, but it is just no where near as good as their average studio album, and they have plenty of studio albums by now, well maybe.  It does seem like I always end up craving a new Dream Theater album.
I have been burnt enough on Dream Theater’s low quality live albums that I am not looking for the next live album coming down the pike.  For example, I am not even going to waste my time on Live at Luna Park.  I am not going to say DT can’t play live.  They proved that they are one of the best live acts on earth when they released Score.  However, for the most part their live acts are a disappointment.  Even the times when I have personally seen them live, the band seems to lack personality, and can’t compare with more suave acts like Queensryche.
Granted it seems like there is not a track that doesn’t have both a highlight, and also lull.  But, for the most of the part, I wouldn’t reach for this one off the shelf, having a chance to listen to others is because the bulk of this material has dry parts, or parts that are cheesy in quality or lack feeling.

**** Without a Net by the Grateful Dead – No Drugs Necessary to Enjoy This!

First, of all, I am not much of a dead head. I have never seen them live. I don’t do drugs. However, this is a really good concert. Phish is better, but the Grateful Dead was a good prototype. There is more to Without a Net than just humdrum scatterbrained sound. The Grateful Dead are definitely talented, and their improvisational skills shine through on Without a Net. Is this the Dead’s best? I’d have to say, “No.” However, this one is up there as being one of their better efforts.

What interested me in this disc was the Grateful Dead’s inclusion of “Eyes of the World” on the band’s greatest hits compilation from the Arista Years. I later learned who Branford Marsalis was, and that would happen to be that he has been one of the most influential musicians ever; captured in this song on saxophone. I figured that since Eyes of the World was so good on the Greatest Hits compilation that it would be worth it to pick up a copy, and I figured right. I can’t say that is true for some of the other albums by the Dead.

I have to admit Jerry Garcia’s voice sounds rather worn out, no doubt due to drug use. However, the voice does have a bit of charm to it.

Another highlight is the Grateful Dead’s version, “Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodleloo,” which at times is quite emotionally evocative, at least for me, though I have never crossed the Rio Grande, or any of those other rivers.

This is a stand out disc from the Grateful Dead’s mediocre Arista years. It is good from start to finish though I would hesitate to call it great. This time period may be compared to the Rolling Stones releases late in their career, where the disc usually has one good song, and yet the Dead put out a really good album. However, this disc stands out from this time period as being worthy of purchase.

What is really great about Without a Net is that I have had it since High School, probably 1996 or so, and it still entertains me.

*****World Play by Soul SirkUS - This Rocks Hard from Start to Finish. This Isn’t Popular Because Why?

This cd goes great in rock and prog mixes. It has been in the mix of my hundred disc changer now for a few years (at least 4). The local rock station WPXE could probably have played Soul Sirkus and been a part of making a new band popular. The problem with Soul Sirkus is that they never got the promotion necessary to make it big.

World Play, the band’s only album to date has a few well know session names in it, such as it Neal Schon, Jeff Soto (temporarily sung) and Deen Castronovo, both of which played in the mega popular band Journey. Also, that this music has music that was salvaged from an album with Sammy Hagar is apparent. Just listen to the album through, it sounds like it could have been one of Hagar’s best works. I can only guess that Sammy Hagar walked away from this group to have a chance to play with the guitarist Joe Satriani, in Chicken Foot. This album is better than Chicken Foot, IMHO.

This band makes also me think of Van Halen, or Chicken Foot. The singer sounds like somewhere between King’s X and Van Hagar.

Honestly, Soul Sirkus probably would have gone under my radar had not Virgil Donati played on tour with them, replacing Deen Castronovo. Donati is one of my heroes, as I champion the underground virtuosos in progressive metal, jazz, and rock.

Last, but not least, if you like the harder side of Van Hagar –Van Halen with Sammy Hagar on vocals -, then get this album.

*****The Kindness of Strangers by Spock’s Beard – Excellently Written Prog That Isn’t Showy

A part of the reason why people who aren’t musicians listen to music that is not good (the popular junk that is on the radio) is because progressive music is often quite showy, especially prog metal.  Usually, half of the prog in prog it that it is about the guitar solos.  If you are looking for solos that will wow you, there aren’t any on The Kindness of Strangers.  The music doesn’t even rely on high speed licks.  What makes this prog in my opinion is that the song writing is superior.  Someone could probably pull this album out from the shelf 500 or 1,000 years from now and would still find it as enjoyable as I am as I write this review while listening to the album.

The songs are beefy on the song craft, very catchy, very diverse, and very mature.  It is easy to listen to a lot of Spock’s Beard and not grow fatigued.  This isn’t children’s music though the content is not over the top with risqué topics.  It would appear that Neal Morse has been a champion of wholesome music even before he became Christian.

Really, the hardest part about listening to an album like this one from Spock’s Beard is that it is extremely good music - catchy, hip, etc. - music, but despite being so awesome it never got popular.  Neal Morse is to music is as, Vincent van Gogh is to art.  If you ask me, this is every bit as good as the ever more popular Phish.  However, I don’t believe the front man, Neal Morse, would put up with the drug use that Phish puts up with at their shows.  However, why Neal Morse isn’t nearly as big as Phish perplexes me.

If you like this one, I encourage you to check out the Flower Kings, Phish, and Transatlantic.  Of course there are other good similar progressive acts, but I will keep my list short, but I would put this music also in the same category as the Gypsy Kings, Soulive, Jimmy Smith (really the organ stands out), and Medeski Martin Wood.

So what do I think of most when I listen to this cd?  I think of song craft that is awesome from start to finish.  I also think of organ, because the Neal Morse is a vocalist/organ player.  However, while he does stand out as the front man in Spock’s Beard, the whole band comes across as awesome.

The hardest part of listening to this band is when Neal Morse converted to Christianity, and formed the Neal Morse band, which played Christian music that was absolutely terrible.  I think of the song that said, “In the name of Gd you must die,” which was supposed to be mocking the idea of slaying someone in the name of Gd, but that song never came across as was intended, and it ended up sounding like Neal Morse was serious about happily slaying people for fun in the name of religion.  Once on his Christianity binge he broke up Transatlantic, and Spock’s Beard.  Now, I am glad that he is back and into with Transatlantic.  I am also sure he would not hesitate to put out a new Spock’s Beard at some time in the future.

*****Surfing with the Alien by Joe Satriani – Weep Techno Engineers, Satch Is Better than Machinery

If you are looking for a fan of Joe Satriani, I am not.  I like this Satch disk.  That is it.  Yes, it is true; I didn’t much care for his more recent work with Chicken Foot much too.  (Though I reviewed Chicken Foot first, I have been more familiar with Surfing with the Alien, since high school c. 1996, which I got after liking The Extremist.  However, I no longer like The Extremist).  I have never heard anything else of Satch’s, other than Surfing with the Alien that I liked or didn’t bore me.

I am positive that he is a phenomenal guitarist, but it is just that I never seem to like the music he solos over.  When Satch is king, he spoils the stew.  He usually sets it up so that he is the star, and the other instruments just support him.  He is a hog of the good music on his albums and usually I hate that, but this album despite being the guitar virtuoso at the center of attention, as if he is only person at the show is any good, this album is really good, really.  This is Joe’s best work so far as I know.  I do know a Satch fan who thinks Surfing with the Alien isn’t his swansong though, but as far as I know this is his best.

My favorite song on the album is track 4, “Always with Me, Always with You.”  Usually, I am not a fan of slow music, but this song is great.  Think Tears of Sahara if you are a Tony MacAlpine fan, oh yeah I forgot Tony MacAlpine has consistently put out better music than Satch, and suffers from obscurity.  This is a problem for many musicians, but I digress.  Track 4 is so lyrical, and Joe leaves nothing aside in the song that could hide his anything but perfect playing.  No computer techno beats could touch a song like this one.  It takes a human musician’s touch to make music like this.  You can’t program something as good as this for programming can’t account for the inflections of one’s touch on their instrument (provided that you are a good musician).

Just like a 5 star album should be, every track is awesome.  No second on Surfing with the Alien is wasted, start to finish, well almost, track 6, “Circles” is terrible.  That one almost got by me because my 100 disc shuffler usually never plays track 6 on any cds.  I have to wonder if the engineers where paranoid about the number 6.  666 the number of the beast or even the number 6 on its own sometimes creeps people out.  As I write my reviews, I usually have the disc in player while writing.  Oddly enough, at this point in the review track 6 came on, just as I was musing over how this disc is flawless.  Lol!  I have had this disc in the player for probably more than a year and never heard track 6 once, as usual, due to the weird engineering of whoever made my (actually, my wife’s) disc changer contraption.

***** Fire Garden by Steve Vai – Highly Recommended Progressive Rock Soul Music

What separates Steve Vai from the other leading brands are that able to shred faster than him is that he is better able to put his soul into his music.  I realize that I am invoking supernatural powers to suggest Steve Vai is just a better musician than the competition.  I am a spiritual person and I hope that is okay with my audience.  If you don’t believe in Steve Vai’s supernatural powers, I suggest seeing him live.  He puts on a good show, and you will see progressive rock soul music looks like.

While I owned some of Vai’s music prior to when the Ultra Zone came out, the Ultra Zone is what got me into him.  I would imagine that Fire Garden would have captivated me just as much as the Ultra Zone had I experienced it first.  My first experience with Steve Vai was Sex and Religion, and when I was in high school, I thought that album was just terrible, but now I love it.  Sex and Religion has very little shredding and is about song craft, but not usual song craft.  It is more like song craft from planet q.  That album, Sex and Religion, actually turned me off to Steve Vai, and it wasn’t until one of my friends played Ultra Zone, c. 2,000, for me that I was hooked.

I wish I had got Fire Garden earlier.  It has been in my 100 disc changer for many years now.  It is a true favorite of mine, even to the extent that I would probably have a difficult time getting along with someone who wasn’t able to appreciate this album for its greatness, technicality aside.

Fire Garden - like every five star album should be - is superior quality music from start to finish, while at the same time providing a lot of music.  Vai has a lot to say on this one with his guitar, and if you get it, I don’t think that you have to be some sort of genius to appreciate this one.  IMHO this one has been good from start to finish year after year.  It didn’t require me to adjust my musical taste to appreciate it.  It wasn’t hard to get into.  It is a readily accessible work art.  What more can I say?