Tag: Instrumental Music

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Music Record Reviews

Salo Pallini’s Galactic Musical Blender

Instrumental albums are rare in this day and age, outside of the jazz and classical worlds, yet this year has already witnessed the release of two such works. The debut by all star trio MEM_MODS has been well covered in these pages, but another lyric-less album dropped around the same time — or at least the vinyl version did. This week, the album will be stream-able for the first time.

The album is credited to Salo Pallini, but don’t go searching the ranks of Memphis musicians for that name. It’s a band that includes Landon Moore, John Whittemore, Pat Fusco, and Danny Banks, with ace percussionist Felix Hernandez pitching in — and it’s a band energized with the spirit of musical adventure.

In 2021, the band recorded 11 songs meant to serve as a musical accompaniment for Kurt Vonnegut’s 1959 novel, The Sirens of Titan. And this January that album, titled The Sirens of Titan: A Preemptive Scoring, was released as a beautiful LP. Ostensibly a wannabe soundtrack to Dan Harmon’s proposed adaptation of the novel, the album can nonetheless be enjoyed without knowing the novel or any of its permutations. And in any case, the real point of the album is to pioneer a new hybrid genre, what the band calls Progressive Latin Space Country.

In fact, it might be more accurately dubbed Progressive Latin Space Rock, for there’s always an undercurrent of classic FM sounds behind much of the composition. Indeed, that keeps the momentum up through this collection; one never knows when the coiled snake of rock will rise up and seize the reins of any particular track.

The most obvious case in point is the album’s single, “Kazak’s Bossa,” released as a video last December. It begins as if sauntering through a smoky party, it’s organ and keyboard textures weaving a spell over some very button-down jazz guitar melodies and fills. Then come the cavemen and gunshots roaring “Huh!” in the background. As with many of the tracks, it features a superb keyboard solo by Fusco (in this case on organ). After a breakdown, the congas of suspense announce a change, and suddenly we’re in rock riff land.

It’s pro-level genre-hopping not seen since the glorious ’70s heyday of Queen and Paul McCartney (or Snowglobe). And it captures in a nutshell what’s most fun about this album: its gonzo spirit.

The multi-genre song cycle isn’t the only thing about this project that evokes the ’70s. In “Malachi,” a languid rock-jazz groove not unlike Dark Side of the Moon builds into something from a ’70s action film. Later, there might be a touch of the ’90s: “Beatrice” could almost be a Built to Spill tribute, but then settles into something more like Mott the Hoople.

As the tunes roll by, we hear well-crafted unison guitar lines, or zithers, over driving conga rock, not to mention insane piano solos, angelic sopranos, treacly Moog melodies, bells, whistles, and ambient soundscapes.

Another highlight is “Goofballs,” which delivers the most genuinely Latin groove via Fusco’s deft keys, Moore’s under-groove, and Banks’ driving beat, with some zany guitar to boot. Then it loops into an entirely different rhythm and becomes a chugging rock ballad of sorts.

Salo Pallini’s strength is to always keep you guessing. Even if you know that “Malachi” and “Salo” are from the Vonnegut novel, you’ll nevertheless have fun guessing how to apply the various moods of this album to The Sirens of Titan. And if you’ve never heard of Kurt Vonnegut, this album will still keep you on your toes.

Salo Pallini celebrates the streaming release of The Sirens of Titan: A Preemptive Scoring at Young Avenue Deli this Friday, March 24th, 9 p.m., with Steve Selvidge on guitar and Pee Wee Jackson on drums.

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Music Record Reviews

Dale Watson Owns His Bluff City Influences with Instrumental Tour de Force

I, for one, am crazy about instrumental albums. After a lifetime of pop radio, and rock-borne expectations in the mold of The Beatles, that’s not common, but there’s nothing like a lyric-less soundscape to put me in a state of mind that’s sweeter than words. Having said that, I’m picky. But even in the instrumental universe, Memphis brings more to the table than many cities. History leaves us with such gems as the Bill Black Combo, Willie Mitchell’s band, and the Ace Cannon oeuvre. Nowadays, we have the fine boogaloo jazz of the City Champs, and a crack band, the MDs, devoted wholly to the compositions of Booker T. & the MGs. And that’s just two among many.

Now, we have a band that’s so steeped in the Bluff City instrumental tradition they wear it on their collective sleeves: The Memphians. The only irony is that this group was the brainchild of a recent transplant, Dale Watson, who until 2017 was based in Austin, Texas. But when Dale moved in, he really moved in, taking it upon himself to renovate the classic Hernando’s Hide-a-way venue and setting up a fine retro-chic home near Graceland complete with its own recording facilities, Wat-Sun Studios.

While Watson still plays with His Lone Stars, from Texas, he’s also assembled a crew of Memphis’ finest for his more swinging nights at Hernando’s, and thus were the Memphians born.  While he’s known to sing with them, they really excel at the kind of rootsy, groovy, swinging instrumentals that you rarely hear these days, but were once the mainstay of clubs like the Hide-a-way. Tunes from the heyday of instrumentals, like Bill Justis’ “Raunchy,” or the Bill Black Combo’s “Smokie,” or Ace Cannon’s “Tuff,” are part of the Memphians’ stock-in-trade.

Now, with Watson at the helm, they carry that aesthetic into the present, with a collection of originals that could sit side by side with any of the above classics. Dale Watson Presents the Memphians is a welcome — and pitch-perfect — return to a world where melody, harmony and an irresistible groove are all you need.

It helps that the Memphians are all steeped in the same musical touchstones. All tracks were penned by Watson, except four that he co-wrote with guitarist Mario Monterosso. Joining them are local musicians Danny Banks (drums), T. Jarrod Bonta (piano), Carl Caspersen (upright bass), and Jim Spake (saxophone). Making the most of last year’s quarantine, Watson recorded the group at Wat-Sun Studios in just two days.

The mood swerves from the Duane Eddy-esque low-down twang of “Agent Elvis” or “Deep Eddy” to dreamy reveries like “Dalynn Grace” or “Serene Lee.” And thanks to Monterosso’s influence, they may have produced the only rock and roll rave-up from Memphis where the players shout in Italian — “Mi Scusi.”
Roberto Hawkins

Dale Watson

All the proceedings go down with nary a hitch or a false note, with all players at the top of their pre-70s game. Being a pianist myself (and, full disclosure, occasionally sitting on Watson’s back bench of musicos), I’m especially impressed by Bonta’s ivory-tickling, ranging from perfectly clinky high notes to rollicking boogie woogie without missing a beat, and always bringing both precision and fire to his solos.

The same goes for Watson’s precise guitar playing, but any fan of his past work takes that as a matter of course. The real revelation here is how effortlessly he’s joined by his crew of local savants to produce a classic that somehow stands outside of time. 

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Music Music Blog

A Rare Appearance by Lee Ritenour

Lee Ritenour

It’s rare to find a musician accomplished enough to have played and recorded with such luminaries as Oliver Nelson, Quincy Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Henderson, Lalo Schifrin, and Stanley Turrentine. Lee Ritenour has been there and done that. He came of age, precociously, at a time when the giants of 20th Century American music still walked the earth, still young enough to carry the torch into the current era. And on Thursday, June 21, he’ll be playing in Memphis at Lafayette’s.

Oh yes, and perhaps you remember listening to Pink Floyd’s The Wall long ago, and wishing the band would drop the disco and just rock out, until the burning track “Run Like Hell” came on and you heard them turn it up to 11. As it happens, that was Ritenour as well, brought in to beef the song up. He’s no stranger to such pop accomplishments, having played his first recording session at age 16, on a track by the Mamas and the Papas. And if you’re a fan of “Strawberry Letter #23” by the Brothers Johnson (and who isn’t?), well, then you’re a fan of Lee Ritenour. So was famed Memphian Maurice White, who Ritenour collaborated with on the record “If I’m Dreaming, Don’t Wake Me.”

Naturally, he’s fared well as a solo artist as well, releasing his first record over 40 years ago, and sending the single “Is it You” with singer Eric Tagg to #15 on the Billboard pop charts in 1981. Dubbed “Captain Fingers” for his mad skills, he also kept those skills accessible with one ear cocked to the glories of pop, funk, Brazilian, classical, and rock guitar. He’s been nominated for 16 Grammy Awards, taking one home in 1986 for the instrumental “Early A.M. Attitude”.

Thursday is a rare chance to see this decade-spanning artist, still in his prime at 66 years young. We recommend that you do just that.