Shopping List: The New and the Notable
Peter Case, Let Us Now Praise Sleepy John (Yep Rock)
Peter Case, who received a taste of rock stardom during the seventies in Los Angeles's Plimsouls, knows whereof he sings in "Palookville," the centerpiece of this strong, honest collection of acoustic tracks in praise of life's coulda-beens. The ghost of Woody Guthrie smiles benignly over Sleepy John, especially in Springsteenian songs such as "Million Dollar Bail," wherein Case sings about "two kinds of justice....One's for folks up on the hill, the other's down below."
Norman Granz Presents: Improvisation (Eagle Rock Entertainment DVD)
You don't see high-quality footage of Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, Hank Jones, Ray Brown, Ella Fitzgerald, and Buddy Rich jazzing together every day. But this DVD captures the special 1950 occasion—with the caveat that the five tunes they play were recorded separately, and the synchronization is a tad offputting. The remainder of impressario Granz's film anthology is fairly stunning as well, particularly Joe Pass's pair of 1979 solo tunes, Duke Ellington serenading artist Joan Miro on the Cote d'Azur, Count Basie at Montreux in 1977, and Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, and Eddie Lockjaw Davis in a high-velocity cutting contest at the same festival.
Incredible String Band, Live at the Lowry (MVD Visual DVD)
If anything, the mystical, mythical bent of this legendary Scottish folk combo is even more pronounced in this 2003 concert film than when the band was bending young countercultural ears during the sixties. Mike Heron and Clive Palmer (third ISB founder Robin Williamson is elsewhere) reprise "The Hedgehog Song," "Chinese White," "A Very Cellular Song," and other more traditional numbers such as Palmer's medley of fiddle and pipe tunes.
Oliver Mtukudzi, Tsimba Itsoka (Heads Up)
The title of this Zimbabwean star's very moral album means "no foot, no footprint," and the phrase resonates throughout the lush Shona-language harmonizing. Lilting polyrhythms and echoes of Hugh Masekela's South African jazz can also be heard in songs that endorse the Golden Rule, compare life to a game of cards, and encourage responsibility, respect, and action.