New Music Releases: Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band, Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love, Gerardo Frisina

Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd St Rhythm Band - Express Yourself

A masterpiece of messed-up LA funk – and one of the crowning moments in the career of Charles Wright & The Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band! Charles and crew do an excellent job with all the tracks – most of which are more open ended than some of their earlier ones, and run on for longer than usual with some good trippy instrumental moments that really stretch out the groove from their funky 45 days. The album includes the stoner funk classic "High As Apple Pie", done here in two "slices", plus the classic "Express Yourself", a monster number that still sounds great every time we hear it – even though it's been used on commercials and sampled plenty of times over the years! Other tracks include "I'm Aware", "Road Without An End", and "Tell Me What You Want Me To Do". ~Dusty Groove

Ken Vandermark & Paal Nilssen-Love - AMR

Ken Vandermark and Paal Nilssen-Love are no musical strangers – having played together for most of the past three decades – so it's no surprise that they leap right out of the gate with boundless improvisational energy here – completely on fire in a live performance recorded together in Switzerland! As always, Vandermark really blows us away with the range of sounds that he gets from his reeds – elements that effortlessly shift between musical moments and more textural passages – as Paal himself moves between romping rhythm and more abstract percussion elements. There's no songs listed at all on the CD – although there appear to be five selections – but given the instant appeal of this duo from a free jazz perspective, you hardly need notes to tell you what to love! ~ Dusty Groove

Gerardo Frisina - Marombo (parts 1 & 2)

Great work from Gerardo Frisina – the kind of long, Latin-styled grooves we've always loved from this Schema Records legend – still very much at the top of his game after all these years! The track is nice and long – plenty of room for the rhythms to roll out with all the kind of changes that Frisina can bring into the mix – complicated, but never losing their groove – and with lots of room for added percussion solos from Enesto Lopez, and some nice work on baritone sax from Alfonso Deidda! ~ Dusty Groove