Month: May 2014

Wilco’s bassist John Stirratt and multi-instrumentalist Pat Sansone steal some time from their day jobs and step out with their appropriately titled fifth long-player under the Autumn Defense moniker. Fifth captures ’70s AM-drenched, hook-laden tunes in the vein of pop masters like the Beatles, Beach Boys, Badfinger, Big Star, and Bacharach.

Stirratt and Sansone split songwriting duties, with a common characteristic being lyrics for the ladies that range from wistful (Stirratt’s opener, “None Of This Will Matter,” lovely in its simple structure) to playfully suave (Sansone’s Latin-y and lounge-ful “Why Don’t We”).

Fifth is the first album on which the Autumn Defense has utilized their core live band – drummer Greg Wieczorek (Norah Jones, Joseph Arthur), bassist Jim Haggerty, and guitarist John Pirucello – and it shows on arrangements such as Sansone’s “This Thing That I’ve Found” and “Things On My Mind,” which channel George Harrison and Jeff Lynne, respectively.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s July ’14 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

Maryland’s Lionize has concocted an appealing blend of Deep Purple-style heavy rock, reggae, and sci-fi imagery. With a musical vision that began on 2005’s Danger My Dear and reaching a creative peak on 2011’s Superczar and the Vulture, Lionize is a tenacious, hard-working band with moxie and talent.

Framing themselves within an imaginative palette of groove-heavy drumming and rippling rock riffs, the band is bassist Henry Upton, Chris Brooks on keys, and Nate Bergman on vocals and guitar.

From the album’s ’70s prog-rock B3 ostinato introduction into “Breather,” the musicality is tight and hits hard. Excellent wah work is offset by thick organ textures and a bass solo from Upton that is melodic yet concise. Bergman’s he-man vocal delivery benefits greatly from the band’s clever use of breaks and dynamics, particularly on “Evolve” and “Electric Reckoning.” The title track displays the band’s compositional range. “Lazarus Style” is ferocious. Sci-fi movie references flow freely.

This is a heavy album of power and groove. Implementing less reggae and pursuing a more straightforward rock approach, the record is still top-notch Lionize, but hardcore fans may find a key ingredient missing from a superb band.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s July ’14 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

With four solo albums under his belt, Pat Martino was considered one of the ’60s most exciting new jazz guitar voices. As the decade ended, the 23-year-old was a third of an organ trio led by 30-year-old B-3 virtuoso Gene Ludwig. Tapes capturing their onstage fireworks at Club 118 in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1968/’69 remained in Martino’s personal stash until cleaned up and now released.

A 13-minute-plus “Who Can I Turn To” kicks off the set with easygoing soloing from both before Martino goes full-throttle on John Coltrane’s “Mr. PC,” unleashing waves of dazzling, incandescent, single-note passages. Wes Montgomery’s influence looms large on “Sam Sack,” a 1961 tune Milt Jackson and Montgomery recorded, and “Close Your Eyes,” a song Martino had only recently recorded on his 1968 East album.

Martino’s mastery of octaves dominates “Watch What Happens” and an early interpretation of Montgomery’s “Road Song,” which Martino formally recorded in 1972. “Colossus,” an intense, never-recorded Martino original musically similar to “The Great Stream,” runs nearly 12 minutes.

The album also proves a worthy showcase for the bebop-minded Ludwig, active until his death in 2010. Young Guns captures the interplay of two future jazz masters in their youth, both loose, swinging, and hell-bent for leather.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s July ’14 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.

We’re in a paradoxical era when many pioneers of high-volume electric music are now in their 70s, from Mick and Keef to Paul and Ringo. By the time you read this, even the eternally youthful Jeff Beck should have turned the big 7-0.

Along the same lines, 72-year-old fusioneer John McLaughlin is still burning the frets off his guitar, as captured on the new live album, The Boston Record. He’s backed by the 4th Dimension, a killer band featuring Gary Husband on keyboards and drums, bassist Etienne Mbappe, and drummer Ranjit Barot. The quartet stormed the Berklee Performance Center last June and kicked out the jams. It’s fun to imagine all the student guitarists in the audience walking home under a cloud of depression, knowing they just had their asses kicked by a gray-haired old man with a PRS axe.

The set rockets off with “Raju,” an uptempo cooker that lets the musicians stretch out. McLaughlin’s tone, as usual, is thin and incisive, just the way he likes it. Surprisingly, he doesn’t use an amplifier; instead he has three floor preamps, some guitar-synth gear, and a few stompboxes to deliver his quirky sound.

Next, cue up “Little Miss Valley” to an altered blues and, under Husband’s organ solo, you get a rare treat: McLaughlin lays down some sweet and funky chord work. Virtuoso Mbappe steps up next for a deadly five-string solo that should leave most bassists weeping in their tea. Finally, Johnny Mac himself steps in for clean-up duty and rips mighty blues-fusion lines, still displaying the ferocious right-hand picking chops that made him a hero more than 40 years ago.

Every track here is terrific, but fans might most appreciate the updated version of “You Know You Know,” a composition from the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s revolutionary Inner Mounting Flame LP of 1972. It gets a funky workout, replete with Husband’s tremoloed electric piano, Billy Cobham-style drum fills, and McLaughlin’s tasty lead licks.

“Senor C.S.” is McLaughlin’s tribute to buddy Carlos Santana. Interestingly, the guitarist goes as far as to mimic Santana’s fat “woman tone” and does it extremely well – you might be fooled for a minute and think Carlos just stepped onstage. It’s a gorgeous ballad, and McLaughlin’s phrases are typically stunning.

Aside from being a terrific recording, the critical message the album delivers is simply this: John McLaughlin is still at the top of his game and touring his ass off. If you have never seen him live, you should make that happen, because he’s one of the most important guitarists to ever walk the planet.

This article originally appeared in VG‘s July ’14 issue. All copyrights are by the author and Vintage Guitar magazine. Unauthorized replication or use is strictly prohibited.