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Shades of Bey Andy Bey (Evidence) Of related interest: John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, Lambert, Hendricks & Ross Over his 40-plus-year career, he's played with some of jazz's best. At 8, he sang alongside Hank Mobley. As an adult, he sang with Horace Silver and Max Roach. Yet Andy Bey is still relatively unknown. It's an oversight that will soon be corrected because Shades of Bey is one of the best jazz vocal records of the year--smooth and understated, with a varied repertoire and oh-so-patient phrasings. There's not a hint of bombast here. Not until three minutes into "Midnight Blue," the album's second cut, does Bey fully take off, unleashing his deep vocal guns and going full volume. The album opener? "Like a Lover," a quiet bossa nova ballad that's just Bey's voice and a classical guitar. A couple of tunes ("Pretty Girl," "The Last Light of Evening") are built on Billy Strayhorn melodies. There's a vocal interpretation of Thelonious Monk's "Straight, No Chaser" and even a cover of Nick Drake's "River Man." For most of these cuts a solid jazz crew backs Bey and his ivories (both oral and Steinway); Geri Allen on piano and Gary Bartz on sax are standouts. The record's a romantic and sublime mix and, if such a thing exists these days, the make-out record of 1998. Edward Garabedian The Salesman and Bernadette Vic Chesnutt (Capricorn) Of related interest: Lambchop, R.E.M., Harry Crews novels
Vic Chesnutt For his sixth album, The Salesman and Bernadette, Vic Chesnutt enlists a whopping 14 backing musicians, all from the loose-knit, eccentric country ensemble Lambchop. Though the collaboration is the first between the Georgia singer-songwriter and these Nashville oddballs, the pairing brings out the best of both. Chesnutt has never been given over to happiness and contentment, but with Lambchop's backing a mild cheeriness permeates. This isn't to say our hero has lost his melancholy ways--far from it--but Lambchop's touch bathes his clever despondency in a glimmery light. With a musical army behind it, the faster paced first half of Chesnutt's album takes on a kaleidoscopic quality reminiscent of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, particularly on the "sha la la"-filled "Replenished" and the almost danceable "Until the Led." On tender ballads like "Arthur Murray" or "Parade," Lambchop takes the slow and subtle route. Listen closely to "Woodrow Wilson" and you'll hear the sweet voice of country goddess Emmylou Harris. Just one more classy touch on an album filled to the gills with sweet wonderment. Alyssa Isenstein Actual Sounds and Voices Meat Beat Manifesto (Nothing/Interscope) Of related interest: Nearly every techno artist since 1990 Meat Beat Manifesto, Mr. Dibbs,
Q-Burns Abstract Message, Josh Wink After 10 years of sampling, looping and scooping everyone in the electronica world, Meat Beat Manifesto's Jack Dangers has completed his transformation from terrorist to artist. His cut-and-paste style hasn't changed--his constructs still have more layers than most buildings have floors--but he no longer sounds as if he wants to hold down cheesy DJs and force-feed them fat breakbeats for breakfast. Now that everyone's copied "Radio Babylon" and copped all his sonic tricks, there's no need; he's proved his mettle and can now lean back and groove. On Actual Sounds and Voices, Danger has surpassed himself in the beat-production department, skipping, tripping and hopping from thumping jungle to jazzy funk razzmatazz. ("The Thumb" even features ex-Headhunters Bennie Maupin and Pat Gleeson on sax and synth for a lively jolt of '70s nostalgia.) Orbiting Planet Percussion are clouds of rubbery dub bass with celestial keyboards and samples that sound as if they were beamed from orbiting UFOs. Perhaps Dangers is just a conduit, channeling the frequencies floating through space, and when the cultural antennae are finally aligned properly, everyone will catch the transmission. John Graham
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