Little Feat: 40 Feat - The Hot Tomato Anthology 1971-2011 (Hot Tomato, 2011)

Little Feat
40 Feat - The Hot Tomato Anthology 1971-2011
Hot Tomato Records
2011

Little Feat has been a band without founder Lowell George three-times longer than when he was living.  After the band's re-emergence in 1988, it was completely apparent that the band was firmly in the control of guitarist Paul  Barrere and keyboardist Bill Payne, just as it was when Down on the Farm (Warner Brothers, 1979) was released.  And that is as it is.  40 Feat - The Hot Tomato Anthology 1971-2011, a retrospective of the band's 40-year history represents the band in its entirety, Lowell George and all.  When the band formed, Hot Tomato Records in 2002, they began releasing archival and new material.  This anthology is made up of this music.  There is no Warner Brothers music included, which is fine.  This is a representation of the band as it is heard best, live.  And, all of the usual suspects are here.

Joan Stiles with Joel Frahm and Matt Wilson: Three Musicians (Oo-Bla-Dee, 2011)

Joan Stiles with Joel Frahm and Matt Wilson
Three Musicians
Oo-Bla-Dee Records
2011

Joan Stiles provided one of the finest recordings of the year in 2007 with Hurly Burly.  She returns with an inspired bass-less trio composed of tenor saxophonist Joel Frahm and drummer Matt Wilson, two NYC chums who share Stiles' sense of humor and overall adventuresome musical outlook.  Both are illustrated in the mash-ups "In The Sunshine of My Funny Valentine's Love" and "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime/Can't Buy Me Love," both recalling "The Brilliant Corners Of Thelonious' Jumpin' Jeep" from Hurly Burly.  Stiles' piano is as much informed by Thelonious Monk as Hank Jones, Tommy Flanagan and Oscar Peterson.  Three Musicians finds three musicians having fun while hard at work, playing with effortless swing and depth-less soul.

The Allman Brothers Band - This Is Not The Last Waltz

The Allman Brothers Band
This Is Not The Last Waltz - Live at the Beacon, March 2009
40th Anniversary Concert Series
Qualitybootz
2009

The Allman Brothers Band's annual residence at New York City's Beacon Theater has always been a much anticipated event.  In 2009, much was to be celebrated in the 40th anniversary of the band's founding by Duane and Gregg Allman.  Eight compact-discs worth of the entire Allman library replete with special guests playing on the appropriate originals and covers, captured in near flawless lossless format make this a set worth seeking out.  The riches here are so embarrassing, it is impossible not to froth over it.  This is a band that perfected what the Grateful Dead created in the jam band with liberal taping policies.  Never mind the absence of Dickey Betts, this is a crack band at the height of their powers and should be considered on those merits alone.  This is, and is not, your parent's Allman Brothers Band.

Ry Cooder: Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch, 2011)

Ry Cooder
Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down
Nonesuch
2011

There would be no Rolling Stones "Honky Tonk Women" ushering out the 1960s were there never a Ry Cooder.  Applied American musicologist extrodinaire, Cooder contributed to the Glimmer Twins' Let it Bleed (London, 1969) and while tooling around Olympic Studios, turned Keith Richards on to the open-G guitar tuning.  Known for  a near perfect guitar style, Cooder has also proven to be the clever lyricist also.  On Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down, Cooder combines 40 years of music study with a sharp, left leaning political wit that provides "No Banker Left Behind" the "Bourgeois Blues" vibe via Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter and "El Corrido de Jesse James" a Flaco-Jimenez-on-amphetamine-laced-mescaline ambiance.  "John Lee Hooker for President" is the best Cooder in 25 years, the guitarist nailing an iconic method to drive his story of  JLH hallucinating/projecting his presidency.

Josh White: Bluesman, Guitar Evangelist, Folk Singer (Saga Blues, 2007)

Josh White
Bluesman, Guitar Evangelist, Folk Singer
Saga Blues
2007

Josh White (1915-1969) is credited with changing the title of "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed" to "In My Time of Dying" famously covered by Led Zeppelin on Physical Graffiti (Swan Song, 1975).  White was born in the Carolina Piedmont area and his guitar playing reflects other Piedmont blues guitarists such as Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller.  Bluesman, Guitar Evangelist, Folk Singer is a collection of blues tunes and spirituals recorded by White between 1932 and 1956.  The sonic fidelity of these fine examples of Piedmont Blues is very good when compared to recordings made in the 1920s and '30s.  "Low Cotton," "Careless Love," "Strange Fruit" and "John Henry" blur the boundaries of blues, ragtime, jazz, gospel in a beautifully illustrative example of American cross-cultural cross pollination.