Southern Jazz Music

Carmen McRae is brilliant in all of her Atlantic Records recordings and this sublime contemporary treat from 1970 should have made Carmen a household name as she is at the top of her game in a collection of great performances that would have caught a huge audience in the baby-boomer age group had this superb album received airplay yet radio decided to withhold this gem from that potential audience thus denying Carmen the success that she deserved and certainly would have received. "Just A Little Lovin" or more precisely "Carmen In Memphis" does hold up as Carmen's "Dusty In Memphis" and is basically the same musicians and production team as that classic yet sadly this masterwork has largely been overlooked as the stuffy Jazz Elite of yesteryear only accepted works of old done to death material therefore foolishly overlooking anything progressive like this superb album that expanded a classic singer to new horizons. Carmen really loved to stretch and this great collection is filled with richly varied material that gives the legendary singer a chance to soar and successfully explore new musical horizons therefore becoming one of her finest and most adventuresome moments in the recording studio. In the mid-sixties Carmen did a haunting "And I Love Him" and for this fine set "Carry That Weight", "Here, There and Everywhere" & "Something" are stunning performances that equal that amazing performance. Laura Nyro must have been thrilled with Carmen's tremendous "Goodbye Joe" and Tony Joe White blown away by the magnificent fine & funky McRae performance in his "I Thought I Knew You Well". "Didn't We" featuring just guitar and Carmen is sublime while "What'cha Gonna Do" is soul-deep & riveting. Musicians rose to the occasion of this amazing session throughout and it is obvious everyone had a great time when listening to definitive performances such as "More Today Than Yesterday", "I Love The Life I Live" & "I Want You" which are all totally infectious! Anyone loving a great singer in soulful form in a collection of superb & richly varied songs all arranged to perfection, this one is for you!
Bravo Carmen and thank you for this splendid musical treasure!!!

Nobody can "pigeon hole" a singer who is great. And while so many had memories of Carmen McRae singing jazz, she had much more talent than to stay in one genre. This special album features Carmen singing mostly songs of the 60's.

Carmen adds her own special style to the title song "Just A Little Lovin". Nobody can quite sings a Lennon-McCartney song like Carmen! She sings a very fine on "Here, There and Everywhere". Carmen's vocal phrasing is amazing on "Carry That Weight". "I Love The Life I Live" is totally funky!" Carmen's tender version of "Didn't We" is the definitive one. The most perfect ending to this set is "Goodbye Joe". This one is rich and satisfying!

This is a wonderful session of recordings. Carmen is in great voice and the arrangements are brilliant. A must-have for anyone who appreciates the variations of Carmen McRae's career!

This is another Christmas compilation album. It is an odd mixture of tunes. There are a couple of great songs; those being "Christmastime" by Aimee Mann & Michael Penn and "Thanks For Christmas" by XTC. Also notable is "The Little Drum Machine Boy" by Beck, which starts off well but runs too long at seven minutes length. The rest of the songs are not really anything special. Particularly bad is Wendy & Lisa's awful song from that awful movie Toys. But the good songs I mentioned save it from being a complete disaster.

This was recommended to me by a friend with unusual taste in music and, given that, I wasn't suprised by the truly bizarre mix of tracks here. Its not consistently festive, conistently alternative, consistently good, or consistently anything else to be honest, but there are some gems buried here. The Beck opener is a solid track, not one of his best but no embaressment. The Sonic Youth track (a cover) is...interesting. Not one of their most tuneful, and thats saying something. The rest vary between cheesy 70s-style pop (XTC), mournful wrist-slitters (Remy Zero) and some delicately beautiful melodies (especially the dated but brilliant Posies number). Definitely worth a look if you can get it cheap, and a nice alternative to the usual Christmas suspects - just don't expect any miracles.

Like the indispensable fruitcake this com"YULE"ation of late 9o`s alt-minstrels will remain fresh long after the Tannebaum turns brown. Modern-millennial-mirth-makers may even refer to these recordings as time-honored classics for many have such originalty. As it stands now, this disc is anchored by the Top Ten cross-genra track "Thanks for Christmas" from XTC, which also receives multiple inclusion elsewhere. But by no means is that the only starlight, as these songs grow on ya. If the listener enjoys a smorgasbord of stylings they`ll thrill with this discovery under the tree. Merrily Mix tracks 1,2,4,5,6,8,9,10,11,and 12. Post Script: I would like to thank the elfxecutive producers for "LAYing YOUR HANDS ON ME" by packaging songs from so many labels that benfit~ "A camera in the Right Hands at the Right Time at the Right Place can be more powerful than tanks and guns. Let the truth do the fighting." - Peter Gabriel. Posted Script: While riding this seasonal sleigh I`ve noted that paid rock critics and rock industry mucky-mucks tend to lack sincerity more so than thier contemporaries. In a true new millennium there would be more than just a handful of offerings each year.***buyit*saveit*sharemost*giveit*donateit***

The Xmas tunes on this compilation are weak. The Beck tune is cool, but the other tunes are passable.

Better than it has any right to be, this collection of unusual Xmas songs by Beck, Sonic Youth, Xtc and others puts the SPECIAL CHRISTMAS cd's for Special Olypmics to shame. Be forewarned, though--you need a sense of humor to appreciate these sometimes twisted Christmas songs.

This was deleted a few years ago by the French company that put it out and I gave the only copy I could find to a dear friend ( the same friend who turned me on to the Queen of Soul - thanks, Mary where ever you are !! ) and FINALLY has been re-issued. My only complaint is that the wonderful, swinging version of "More" that was on this originally isn't on this one. If you like jazz and blues, this is a great cd to have in your collection. For fans of Aretha who are unfamiliar with her early work on Columbia, this is a great place to start.

Ellington -- meets Blakey and his Messengers -- meets the Miles Smiles Quintet -- distilled via the excellent early nineties sextet of the grand eminence and standard bearer of jazz, Mr. Marsalis. Thoroughly satisfying composition and ensemble work throughout, highlighted in my opinion by the Todd Williams penned "In the House of Williams" which would make a dead jazz lover shout!

Mr. Marsalis seems to elicit polar reactions from critics and the public. Musically speaking, Marsalis is the truth. End of discussion.

He's supremely talented. He's done his homework -- and then some. He is the direct linkage to, descendent from, and obvious heir of the most serious, talented and prolific progenitors of this American popular and classical artform.

Marsalis is no gimmick, fad or one trick pony. His vision is wide; his accumulated knowledge and studied understanding of his chosen artform runs deep. He is a preeminent instrumentalist, composer and ensemble leader. He is a musical and cultural intellectual. History will assuredly prove his critics both shortsighted and tasteless.

Armstrong, Ellington, Bird, Monk, Miles, Trane, Marsalis? Who else in the last twenty years has come close to responsibly assuming any part of this mantle?

Better ask somebody, or better yet listen for yourself -- then get on board, or get left behind.

If you haven't already, especially for those who feel Marsalis belabors traditionalism, don't sleep on his Citi Movement or The Marciac Suite.

And, don't be afraid of beauty.

I recently picked up this recording, and already am wondering what took me so long. I have over twenty Marsalis recordings and think I stayed away from his "Soul Gestures" series so long becuase of bad critical reviews that I'd read and been influenced by. Shows what they know because this album is full of startlingly beautiful blues and swing. I can see why someone might dismiss this album after only one listen, which is what I imagine most critics rely on for their views, becuase the album's five tracks have similar tempos and feelings that could cause a casual listener to become bored or disenchanted with the recording. But keep playing this one because its beauty unfolds like the best art does, slowly, improving with each new listen. Some find Marsalis to be a complacent composer, throwing out whatever comes into his head and passing it off for tunes, but they're missing the point entirely. Read the linear notes. Read Marsalis' own books, and for God's sake, listen well to his recordings, and you'll find that he's way too smart and way too talented to release anything that isn't full of structure and careful planning. This, if anything, is the one drawback to some of Wynton's recordings--they're almost too planned out. But that feeling takes a distant back seat to the joy that comes through in his best recordings, of which Levee Low Moan is one.
Marsalis and his partners, including Marcus Robers, piano, Reginad Veal, bass, Herlin Riley, drums, Wess Anderson, alto, and Todd Williams, tenor and soprano, are so locked into the grooves on this five tunes, that it's almost scary. They have such a deep respect for the groove and never try to push these numbers too far for the sake of a cheap thrill or a flurry of notes that they could easily execute but would cheapen the chosen tempos and feelings. Like Stevie Ray Vaughan learned and spoke about, a slow blues is a lot harder to play than a fast one, even though it sounds like the opposite would be true.
Check out the other nice reviews that folks have written about his gem and do what they recommend, pick it up, put it on repeat and relax into this one. Glorious.

Put on some headphones and set this cd on repeat. I loved Jmood and Black Codes, but this is the Wynton that I love. Easily my favorite album of all time and I love everything from Prince, to Marilyn Manson, to Swedish Komeda, and Miles. I have turned many people onto this disc, especially horn players of all walks who are just blown away by this.

What are you waiting for; find out what it's all about.

I purchased this CD largely due to the other Amazon reviews. I own more than ten Marsalis recordings and this is by far the best, probably in my entire music collection. All five songs are excellent. It is the most relaxing, well though-out album ever. Not one musician misses a note, and the balance of the instruments is perfect. It is a better representation of jazz than other Marsalis recordings because the trumpet playing is excellent, yet every other instrument is given just as much time in the songs and is played with just as much skill. 5 stars.

I never could understand why most critics believe Wynton Marsalis took a huge step back with his "Soul Gestures In Southern Blue" recordings. I am even more baffled on as to why they consider this installment (vol 3) to be the weakest of the series. I personally believe "Levee Low Moan" is one of Wynton's finest, and I think it is a much more solid entry than "Joe Cool's Blues", any of his "Standard Time" recordings, and even "Black Codes".

ALL of the songs on this album are memorable. There is some serious swinging on the title track and a MUCH improved version of "So This Is Jazz, Huh?" Perhaps the crown jewel of this album is "Superb Starling": an odd-metered beauty of a ballad featuring beautiful lyricism and a smoldering saxophone duel that will make you fall in love with jazz all over again. The album overall also includes some beautiful piano work, courtesy of Marcus Roberts.

"Levee Low Moan" is easily Marsalis's most overlooked and most underappreciated album. Give this album a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.