BP Recommends

THE JACKSONS
Destiny [Epic/Legacy]
Triumph [Epic/Legacy]
As kids the Jackson 5 didn’t spent too much time in traditional school, but these two multi-platinum albums marked the culmination of their education in songwriting and production. 1978’s Destiny, which yielded “Shake Your Body Down to the Ground” and “Blame It on the Boogie,” and 1980’s more refined Triumph (“Lovely One” and “This Place Hotel”) may have foreshadowed brother Michael’s subsequent solo smashes, but in their own right they are tremendously tight assemblages of rhythm, melody, and performance. Big brother Jermaine handed over bass responsibilities to long-time Stevie Wonder bassist Nathan Watts, then fresh from Songs in the Key of Life, who’s funky parts and flourishes greased the wheels in many a roller disco.

-Bill Leigh

CARLA BLEY BIG BAND
Appearing Nightly [ECM]
It may not be a sure-fire stability strategy, but a life in jazz at least makes for good stories: That much time in dark, socially lubricated nightclubs is nothing if not peculiarly poignant. Mercurial pianist and composer Carla Bley knows (and lives) this, thus her latest Big Band release, which abstractly evokes the nadir of her otherwise illustrious career: a brief stint, at age 17, as a Monterey, California lounge pianist. The five tunes on Appearing Nightly are fun, buoyant, and brilliantly metaphorical takes on facets of the jazz-club milieu. Bley is perhaps unmatched in her marriage of compositional braininess and conceptual good humor; one can marvel at the slippery close-voiced horn arrangements while delighting in the wink-wink snarkiness of the whole affair. As is always the case in Bley’s bands, bassist Steve Swallow anchors the romp with exquisite taste and tone, without ever once sounding remotely like anyone else. His searching, effervescent solo on the epic “Appearing Nightly at the Black Orchid” is a perfect representation of his enigmatic genius.

-Jonathan Herrera

APOLLO SUNSHINE
Shall Noise Upon [Headless Heroes]
Psychedelic soul, heavenly harmonies, and serious poetic prowess mingle on Apollo Sunshine’s third major release. The album leaves little modern musical territory untouched, unfolding more like a meticulously crafted mix tape than a fulllength album. Fortified by Jesse Gallagher’s clunky and funky bass lines, Shall Noise Upon unfolds as an impressively diverse and competent body of music for any contemporary group, let alone such a cult indie outfit.

-Marty Fowler

JOHN MILLER
Stage Door Johnny [PS Classics]
Better than a hit musical revival, John Miller’s debut disc brilliantly reworks Broadway classics in a more contemporary light. “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?” “Old Man River,” and “We Kiss in a Shadow” are charmingly staged as a folkguitar- led James Taylor meditations. “Hey There” transitions into a full-blown Nuyorican cha-cha, complete with brass and Spanish- translated vocals. “Hernando’s Hideaway” is awash in Steely Dan-style Rhodes comping and low-voiced horns that add perfectly to the leering lyrics. As the Great White Way’s premier music coordinator and contractor, Miller assembles an ample, first-rate supporting cast, starting with guitarist and disc-producer David Spinozza. Miller’s fretted and fretless electrics and upright also get in on the act, channeling everyone from Lee Sklar to Gene Cherico, and take a starring role on “Fugue for Tinhorns” and “Secret Love.” The former rides a thumbed funk-shuffle figure, while the later alternates between a slapped upper-register subhook and an upright-driven, Don Sebesky-arranged big band shout chorus.

But the guiding creative light is clearly Miller, via his lead vocals and minimalist guitar playing (his late-night, fooling-around acoustic guitar riffs were the genesis for all of the arrangements). On the vocal side, especially, his musician-singer instincts—in the tradition of Mose Allison—are key to his offbeat readings. Your reactions while listening will be as varied as the 12 tracks themselves, but mostly you’ll smile.

-Chris Jisi

NINA SIMONE
To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story [RCA/Legacy]
This three-disc set ably captures the eclectic range of Simone, a classically trained singer/pianist whose ouevre spanned jazz, folk, protest music, and more, but it also celebrates her sheer artistic power and fire. The included DVD resurrects a halfhour documentary that shows the fiercely focused Simone rehearsing and performing with her band. Intense and inspiring.

-Bill Leigh