Last week I was in Boston for work, and when I found out that Galactic was in town for the first date of their Ya-Ka-May tour, I was thrilled. I went over to the Paradise Club with four colleagues, and we had a blast! I'm a musical evangelist and I love it when I contribute to people discovering great bands.

It was my first time at the Paradise Rock Club, and I was surprised at how big the venue was. I stood in front of the stage on the right side during the first set and a bit further back and then upstairs during the second set (I just couldn't get any closer, it was packed with drunk dancers!)

It was my third time seeing Galactic, and the first two gigs were both very different. The first time I saw them was just after the release of From the Corner to the Block. It was at the Nouveau Casino in Paris, a small venue packed full of hip-hop fans attracted by Boots Riley and Chali2Na. They were exposed to hard-hitting funk that night (and I discovered a couple of hip-hop artists that I had only ever heard on that record) and it was a blast. The second time was during the Banlieues Bleues jazz festival last year and they had Shaman Allen with them. It was a very different gig, mostly instrumental, but it was very very good stuff too.

This time, the core band of Stanton, Rich, Robert, Ben and Jeff was supplemented by Corey Henry of the Rebirth Brass Band on trombone and Cyril Neville on vocals and percussion. One thing is for sure: every time you see Galactic, it's a different band doing a different show. There's no risk of it sounding the same from one tour to the next.

I wasn't able to get my hands on Ya-Ka-May (they had vinyls, but the CDs only arrived on the day after this gig, it seems), and it didn't recognize much of the material they played up until the end when we were treated to a rocking Crazyhorse Mongoose. But it didn't matter that I wasn't in familiar territory, quite the contrary. The spicy recipe of Galactic's own music ('The Meters with a hard edge' is how I described it to one of my colleagues) was made even spicyer by Corey Henry's heavy slamming (when he wasn't roaring on trombone) and Cyril Neville's wonderfully lyrical singing.

There aren't that many bands that you can see three times in three years and yet still deliver a fresh and exciting show. Galactic is one of them. I shot a quick video from the pit, a song called Boe Money. I apologise for the atrocious sound, but this close to the stage Stanton's kick drum saturated the microphone. Still, it'll give you a good feel for the atmosphere. Some photos will follow soon.

Last night I went to the Alhambra Theatre for a concert of Ludovic Beier's new trio with Angelo Debarre as a guest. It wasn't quite what you see in this video since Beier - on the occasion of Django's 100th anniversary - is revisiting the Django legacy through Brazilian Music. It took me a while to get used to the strange melange, and I can't say that I thought it always worked, but there were some amazing moments. I have to say though that my favourite parts were the few numbers that Debarre and Beier played as a duet. Quite magical,

Debarre's superb tone and amazing velocity, and Beier's ample register and no less astounding fluidity. Beier also played a kind of melodica with accordion buttons instead of keys, with a sound very close to that of a chromatic harmonica. And man was he fast on that too!

It's kind of weird to review an album of French rock in English, especially since Noir Désir was such a massive phenomenon in the late 90s and early 00s in France, but it's good music, and I guess if I can listen to albums sung in various languages I know nothing about and enjoy them the same must be possible for non-French speakers with albums in French...

Anyway, I'd pretty much given up on Noir Désir with their last studio album Des Visages, Des Figures which I thought was pretentious and political. I love the early Noir Désir because it's all about the music, but they fell victims to the same syndrom U2 fell to (in my opinion) which is that your music becomes a vehicle for your persona rather than something worthy in and of itself. But when I heard some of the first excerpts from En Public, I started to reconsider, and I don't regret buying it one bit.

It's not every band, especially bands as popular as Noir Désir was back then who can completely reinvent itself live, offer 3 hours of live music that doesn't just cover the singles and famous songs but offer new interpretations and instrumentations of most of their repertoire. The early Noir Désir was atmospheric and evocative. Furious or darkly dreamy, it would always carry you somewhere else with a combination of intelligently poetic lyrics and innovative songwriting.

With En Public, Noir Désir shows that it found itself again towards the end, beyond the public image, the lesson giving and the posturing. They found the ways into their back catalog as well, rewriting songs like Les Ecorchés (as a kind of dark swing), rediscovering Pyromane from their first EP, revisiting the pulsating Le Fleuve with a string quartet. 

In many ways, En Public is a fitting end to Noir Désir's career as a band because it's not just representative of a period of the band's life but rather visits their whole lifespan in a really interesting and mature way.

Gently Disturbed is the album that made Avishai Cohen explode on the European Jazz scene, attracting huge crowds and expanding way beyond the traditional jazz audience. And yet Continuo, the album that preceded Gently Disturbed is the one I find the most interesting, perhaps because the blend of musical cultures is slightly more pronounced.

It's no surprise that Avishai Cohen's and his trio are adept at drawing from multiple influences: Cohen himself is Israeli born and bred but came to musical prominence in New York City backing the likes of Chick Corea. Sam Barsh started classical piano before switching to jazz with a blend of funk, r&b and groove on top. These threads are immediately apparent when you listen to his playing. Mark Guiliana is a New Jersey born drummer with fingers in both the jazz and the rock pies and adept at mixing both. Maybe this overview of the trio give you a sense of the musical blend I was talking about earlier. The addition of Amos Hoffman on Oud on a couple of tracks adds the little bit of spice that makes Continuo exotic.

What I like about the music on Continuo is that it's uncompromisngly melodic without being tame. It seems to me that Jazz has a complicated relationship with melody because it's a necessary element that you must nonetheless kill if you can. Avishai Cohen's trio manages both to perfection in my opinion. Fans of exploratory jazz improvisation might feel frustrated I guess, but for me the limited level of "out" is just right. Listen to Nu Nu, the opener: slow dirge intro to strong syncopated oriental melody gives to hard groove with oud and bass improvisations. There's variety and entertainment without compromise.

Avishai Cohen demonstrates that even in the 21st century you can play jazz with integrity but without necessarily sacrificing listenability. You can also play a jazz that draws from very varied influences without compromising the essential jazz nature of the music. That's what excites me about this record, and - to be honest - the two Avishai Cohen records that followed.

Check the Best of the Rest!

Next week, I'm going to see Angelo Debarre live again. This prompted me to (finally) work on the photo set I did at the concert I attended in October. Jazz is often played in tricky lighting conditions, but the Sunset where they played back in October is particularly awful. That's, in part, why all my photos are sepia: if you're going to have grain and no colours, you might as well go for old fashioned sepia... Anyway, you can peruse the photo album at your leasure here.

And here's a little video to whet your appetite for this amazing musician.

The first week's contest for the JJ Milteau Harmonicas compilation is over, and the winner is @kikacastro. Week two of the contest starts immediately. If you want to read the review of Harmonicas, check it out here.

The principle for week two of the contest are exactly the same. Please note that participants for week one need to tweet again! There's no automatic participation! Note also that the url has changed, so your previous entry will not show up when I search for this week's text.

I'm also introducing an additional change to the rules to expand participation: you can participate via twitter like last week or via a blog if you have one.

Twitter:

What do you have to do to win? Very easy, here it is in 3 steps:

1. If you do not have a twitter account, open one on www.twitter.com, it's free.

2. Once you have a twitter account, you need to start following me, ie. @fiberguy.

3. Once you've subscribed to @fiberguy, you need to tweet the following:

Win JJ Milteau's 2-CD 40-track career spanning compilation. Please RT. Info: http://bit.ly/4tYVIj #harmonica #blues #soul #milteau

Blogging:

What do you have to do to win? Very easy, here it is in 2 steps:

1. Blog about the contest on your blog. Feel free to word the text any way you want, but your blog post needs to mention the following:

• that the CD to be won is JJ Milteau's 2-CD, 40 track carreer spanning compilation Harmonicas
• that the contest is organised by www.musicalramblings.com
• that the full rules can be perused at http://bit.ly/5RI9nV
• that the P&P will be covered by Musical Ramblings worldwide

2. Email me the blog post with reasonable proof that you were the author (if I have doubts, I won't validate your entry!)

And that's it. Simple isn't it ?

At the end of the week I will collate all the tweet handles and emails of the participants, paste all of that in Excel and randomly select a winner.

Just three important note:

• tweeting or blogging more than once will not get you several chances to win.
• you need to tweet the text exactly with no variations whatsoever.
• if you retweet, DO NOT USE the new retweet, it's results don't show up in your twitter timelines and I won't be able to see it. Use instead the "edit then retweet" options or do the RT manually by copying RT @fiberguy in front of the required text.

Also, since many French participants were frustrated in understanding the rules, here they are in French:

Les règles en Français

Le concours de la première semaine pour gagner la compilation Harmonicas de JJ Milteau est terminé et le gagnant (ou plutôt la gagnante) est @kikacastro. Le seconde semaine commence aujourd'hui. Si vous voulez lire la critique du disque, elle est ici.

Le principe du concours pour la deuxième semaine reste le même. Notre que les participants de la première semaine devront tweeter (ou bloguer, voir plus bas) de nouveau. Il n'y a pas de participation automatique, et comme l'url change, votre tweet précédent n'apparaîtra pas quand je ferais la recherche des participants.

J'introduis également un changement aux règles pour étendre la participation: vous pouvez participer via tweeter comme la semaine dernière ou via un blog si vous en avez un.

Via Twitter:

Comment gagner ? C'est très simple, voici les trois étapes à suivre:

1. Si vous n'avez pas de compte twitter, vous devrez en ouvrir un sur www.twitter.com, c'est gratuit.

2. Une fois que vous avez un compte twitter vous devez suivre @fiberguy, c'est à dire moi.

3.Une fois que vous suivez @fiberguy, vous devez tweeter le message suivant:

Win JJ Milteau's 2-CD 40-track career spanning compilation. Please RT. Info: http://bit.ly/4tYVIj #harmonica #blues #soul #milteau

Via un Blog:

Comment gagner? C'est également très simple:

1. Ecrivez une bafouille sur le concours sur votre blog. Formulez le texte comme vous le souhaitez, du moment que les éléments suivants y apparaissent:

• le CD à gagner est le double CD compilation de JJ Milteau Harmonicas
• le concours est organisé par www.musicalramblings.com
• les règles complètes peuvent être consultées sur http://bit.ly/5RI9nV
• Musical Ramblings paiera pour les frais de port partout dans le monde

2. Envoyez moi un lien vers votre bafouille sur mon email, avec des preuves raisonnables que vous en êtes bien l'auteur (si j'ai des doutes sérieux, je ne validerais pas votre participation)

Just two important note:

• tweeter ou blogger plus d'une fois ne multiplie pas vos chances de participer.
• si vous tweetez, vous devez le faire avec le texte exact, sans aucune différence.
• si vous faites un retweet, ATTENTION A NE PAS UTILISER LA NOUVELLE FONCTION RETWEET. Les résultats de celle-ci n'apparaissent pas dans votre timeline twitter et je ne pourrais donc pas voir votre tweet. Utilisez plutôt la fonction "Modifier puis Retweeter" ou faites un RT à la main en copiant le texte précédé de RT @fiberguy par exemple.

Milteau is one of the most interesting contemporary blues harp players. He walks a fine line: respecting the musical tradition that inspires him (blues and soul) and approaching in his own, unique way. Of his recent output, Blue 3rd is the most interesting and thrilling to my ears. This album is defined by voices. Human voices, of course, and not the least of those (Terry Callier, Gil Scott-Heron, N'dambi) but also instrumental voices, epitomised by the grainy sound of Howard Johnson whether on sax or on tuba.

There's an enticing duality about Blue 3rd: Milteau and his band lay a velvet cushion for his guests to shine on and at the same time their backing in itself is a gem, and Milteau's playing even more so. This is the epitome of his particular vein of sparse, tone focused approach. Fans of harp histrionics, move on, this is not what Blue 3rd is about. Fans of african-american inspired music and particularly Memphis soul blues should absolutely find their fill here!

When I first listened to that album there were tracks that absolutely blew me away. Terry Callier's Some Kind of Pressure is stunning, with this deep, raw double bass sound throughout. Gil Scott-Heron's Home is where the Hatred is grooves like the days of the Midnight Band. Turtle Walk and Fishing Blues are both instrumental gems, bridging the gap between trad blues and blues note jazz. All of these are total winners. I was somewhat less convinced originally by some of the instrumentals that sounded a bit too much like the current brand of R&B, but with time even these I grew to appreciate and The Lonely Knows with N'dambi has become a favourite of mine.

This is a superb album that really manages what it sets out to do: showcase interesting voices or tones in a musical context deeply respectful of the afro-american tradition it draws from.

I have already stated my boundless admiration of Jimmy Herring when I reviewed the ARU's Nice, so imagine my thrill when I found out that Herring was releasing an album with a quartet of like minded jazz-rockers! Project Z's debut album (there would be only two due to the untimely demise of bassist Ricky Keller) is an exhilerating ride all around the jazz-rock landscape featuring a mix of very accessible numbers, some really wild experimentation verging on free and somewhere in the middle, my favourite stuff, the roaring and inventive tracks that pepper this record.

Now I may be a Herring fan, but the rest of Project Z are no slouches. Jeff Sipe is on drums and beyond being a former ARU bandmade of Herring's his musical CV is a long as my right arm. Ricky Keller is a killer bass player, fast and furious. Rev. Oliver Wells accompanies the trio on Keyboards with gusto and vibe, and Count M'butu (also a former ARU guy now with the Derek Trucks Band) joins on percussion on a couple of tracks. Speaking of Derek Trucks he guests on a couple of numbers as well.

Raging Torrent opens Project Z. It's one of these roaring and inventive ones: a fury of drum rolls and a super-fast bass-line sets the groove and when Herring's overdriven guitar comes in, you can't help but fall into the rushing stream. It's a great example of Herring's blend of jazz and rock influences. One of my frustration with a lot of jazz-rock is these wimpy synth-guitars that apparently some people think sound "rock". Herring's sound is mean and in your face. Rock as God intended.

Another stunner is Rainbow, the only song on the record where Herring plays acoustic guitar. It starts with a mellow piano intro played by Wells. After two minutes, when the rest of the band joins in, things get heavier, with a thick bass driven groove. The funk parade is kept mellow by Herring's acousticness though. Well's piano solo is supberb and Herring's own acoustic solo is graceful and melodic. Superb playing all the way through.

Herring lets his jazz chops rip on Separated Gestures. My guess is fans of Allan Holdsworth will lap this stuff up, although I have to say it's a little too out for my tastes. But there are many less threatening tracks on there too, like Augusta's Ankle or Mud Bug.

There's only one thing that's slightly annoying on Project Z and that's the many 30 second interludes between songs that in my opinion don't contribute anything and break the flow of listening. But in this day of iPods and music software, it's easy enough to skip and certainly doesn't justify missing out on this masterpiece of jazz-rock!

Check the Best of the Rest!

Limonchiki was the first Amsterdam Klezmer Band album I purchased after seeing the reference in Joann Sfar's wonderful graphic novel Klezmer. I now own most of their discography (including some pretty weird collaborations!) but Limonchiki remains my favourite record of theirs.

Klezmer, like all traditional musics can be played analytically or it can be played with street smarts. The AKB is definitely in that second category and I think that's what I like. They have no excessive respect for the source material, they're always willing to experiment with jazz, and groove beats, but more importantly perhaps, they do it for fun. Now don't get me wrong, some of their music, like Klezmer in general, can exude absolute sadness, but it's the kind of sadness you get after a night of drinking Vodka and reminiscing. It's not calculated. And it's just a likely to be followed by a round of the deep laughter of friendship.

That's why I like the AKB, and that's why Limonchiki is at the pantheon of my favourite records. From the first track you're grabbed into a whirlwing of clarinet and horn-laden fun. Di Naie Chuppe is a slow minor tune with the four "horns" (clarinet, trumpet, trombone and sax) playing around the theme and around each other. It's like an introduction to the dancing material that will follow. It's just in the middle of joy and sadness like I said above. The second track, Nadja is definitely the fun one, with a really cool lopsided B section. The rest of the album alternates between these extremes of joy and melancholy, but it's always wonderfully musical and real.

A couple of tracks really stand out. The title trak Limonchiki is a whimsical song with Alec Kopyt's great vocals, reminiscent of his home town of Odessa. Der Mama ist Gegangen is a yiddish tune that starts with a drone and ends up in frenzy. And finally, the exhilarating A Chassid in Amsterdam which is a kind of klezmerish hip-hop with Job Chajes on vocals (in Dutch).

If you like any kind of ethnioc music, especially if you're after something that translates the atmosphere as opposed to literal renditions, then any AKB albums will bring you lots of joy, and Limonchiki (if you can find it) is a great place to start!

Check the Rest of the Best!