Blackstick - Sidney Bechet

Advantages: Great jazz tunes from the Golden Age
Disadvantages: None

...This is real jazz, from the real Golden Age of Jazz. It's got the pace, the rhythm, the fluid trumpet playing, the relentlessly enthusiastic, rolling piano playing and the clear diction of some excellent singing of vocalists who could not only hold a tune, but who could capture your heart and soul, too… There's musicians with such great names as Muggsy Spanier, Meade Lux Lewis, King Oliver and Sidney Bechet. You do not get musicians called Muggsy nowadays. I wonder why? As well as straight out jazz such as the Dippermouth blues, there's also the dreamy and melodic April in Paris from Charlie Parker. Some jazz aficionados reckon that Charlie Parker eventually sold out. Well, perhaps he did. But some of his earlier work still stands the test of time. Jack Teagarden is on this CD, with So Many Times, a rather nice, well... Read review

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Advantages: Mysticism
Disadvantages: Moaning

...-literal grumbling. Even to a heathen like myself, these have a sunny and heartfelt sincerity which rings far truer than his misanthropic moaning. 'See Me Through Part II (Just a Closer Walk with Thee)' is based on the traditional hymn, sung gospel-style. Van adds, magically, an invocation of his Belfast origins and musical roots - from Sidney Bechet to Hank Williams. Several more conventional love songs also help redress the balance. 'Carrying a Torch', 'Green Mansions', and 'Quality Street' are tender ballads, wrapping pastoral imagery in organ, piano and lush synthesisers. 'I Can't Stop Loving You' plants a soulful version of the Don Gibson standard firmly in Celtic soil with the Chieftains' violins, pipes and whistles. Don't look for great originality here. Several of the songs are retreads of others in the Morrison songbook, and the musical... Read review

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Advantages: Contains the group's finest material
Disadvantages: buried amongst a load of filler and some of it's worst

..."Sidney, Sidney/ in the USA!", naturally the Sidney referenced is Sid Vicious, and the cover features a blurred chap who I think is supposed to evoke thoughts of John Lydon, but the song is basically crap, an un-memorable music track with god-awful lyrics, most notably the line same fuckin shit 1998" where the band clearly didn't notice the 'swearing = cool' trend of the early 1990s was fading. I don't know what the hell you would call Crane Fist, starting with some kind of sample, and consisting mainly of a bassline, the song also lacks any hook, or any appeal full stop. Who Would've Thought tries to milk the ballad appeal that Corason de Oro does so much better, and the rest of the songs are either outstandingly bad pop-punk numbers, or brain-numbingly boring attempts at reggae tracks. With all of this negativity flying around, I... Read review

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