ALL THAT JAZZ Miles Davis - Porgy And Bess (1958) Dos três CDs que Miles Davis gravou acompanhado dos arranjos e condução da orquestra de Gil Evans, este é o que mais gosto. Escrito pelo grande compositor norte-americano George Gershwin, Porgy And Bess está, ao lado de também sua Rhapsody in Blue, entre os mais criativos e belos encontros do jazz com o clássico; do popular com o erudito. Os talentos de Miles Davis e Gil Evans na leitura de Porgy And Bess só contribuem para elevar ainda mais essa gravação à condição clássico. O arranjo de metais em Summertime ou Bess, You Is My Woman Now, por exemplo, transmitem essa suavidade do estilo cool - inventado pelo próprio Miles -, enquanto ele desfila o seus solos de trompete quase como se cantando as letras de Ira Gershwin escritas para a peça.

Discoteca Básica The Stone Roses (1989) Era uma vez uma banda de Manchester que a crítica inglesa especializada não perdeu tempo em anunciar aos quatro ventos como a salvação do rock, a próxima maior banda de todos os tempos, etc... Isso em 1989! Mais de dez anos se passaram e... onde estão eles? Comentários irônicos à parte, vamos ao que interessa: The Stone Roses - o álbum. A crítica inglesa não estava tão errada assim... Este é um trabalho de estréia incrível, como poucos já conseguiram fazer, e combina com perfeição melodias pop e letras apaixonadas; riffs de guitarra primorosos dos anos 60 com batidas dançantes dos 80! Estes caras simplesmente inventaram o brit-pop da década seguinte. No seu rastro (e no de outros como The Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets e Happy Mondays) vieram nada mais nada menos que Blur, Oasis e até o Radiohead! Canções como Made Of Stone ou Sugar Spun Sister poderiam figurar sem problemas nas listas das melhores de todos os tempos... mas seria uma injustiça com as demais! Depois de tudo isso, podemos até perdoar os comentários corrosivos de Ian Brown na época, ou o segundo CD da banda, ou mesmo seu ostracismo... Ele é merecido, pois eles cumpriram o dever de casa com este álbum.

Por uma destas coincidências que às vezes sucedem aos internautas, eu estava procurando por "sad movies" no Google, quando deparei com essa resenha de 1995, publicada no jornal dos estudantes da Universidade de Washington. O autor fala sobre o mais recente (na época) disco do Buffalo Tom - uma dessas bandas alternativas de rock que, na minha opinião, não tiveram o destaque merecido na mídia especializada do Brasil. Para quem não conhece o trio de Boston, cujas letras estão entre as mais poéticas e inteligentes que já encontrei, achei uma boa introdução aos caras que, a propósito, andam meio "sumidos", sem lançar nenhum material inédito desde 1998 - nem mesmo no site oficial se vê algum sinal de vida.

Buffalo Tom: Music for people who like sad movies

Kevin Beatty
Daily Staff

Buffalo Tom plays soul music. Not Motown soul music, but music that reaches into your heart, fills that indefinable cavern known as your soul, and then pushes straight through until it comes out your back. Each song, no matter how upbeat, carries with it a feeling of alienation - of melancholy - that permeates the listener's body and sends shivers up their spine.

It is a feeling that bassist Chris Colbourn can relate to. "Like a lot of people, I like a sad, slow, sad song; I like a sad film or a sad short story," Colbourn admitted during an interview last Saturday, before their two shows at Moe.

Colbourn, along with guitarist/vocalist Bill Janovitz and drummer Tom Maginnis, have been writing and performing those kinds of sad songs since 1988, when they met at the University of Massachusetts.

The band recently released a new record, entitled Sleepy Eyed. While not as polished as their last effort, Big Red Letter Day, Sleepy Eyed is a more complete album than the former. Each song complements the others, making it flow smoothly from start to finish, side-stepping the stale moments that plagued Big Red Letter Day.

One area where things have gone unchanged is in the feel of the songs. Buffalo Tom continues to write great tunes that draw the listener in and grab at their heart. The intense passion and emotion that comes from each song are sincere, and Colbourn thinks most people can relate to the feelings of despair or disappointment that are present in many of their songs.

The songs on Sleepy Eyed also work well because the song writing is a collective effort. As the band members are getting older, they are beginning to show a more mellow, reflective side to their music.

"Yeah, we're slowing things down a lot more than we used to," said Colbourn. The band, he said, has limited the number of full-throttle rockers they write. "I think to an extent we found that we wrote a lot of that stuff, and had begun to rewrite it by our third album," he said. "It was actually more interesting to vary the textures and experiment with the mid-tempo and even some acoustical stuff."

While the music itself is excellent on the record, it is the words and vocals that give each song its heart and soul. Each lyric gets into the head of the listener not only for what is being said, but for how it is presented. Bill Janovitz's raspy voice makes the chorus of "Summer" all the more haunting when he sings, "Summer song/ the summer's gone/ you've wasted/ every day, every day."

Janovitz's voice expresses a passion that is so incredibly real it's as if each song is a separate personal memory. Colbourn counters that with smooth, innocent sounding vocals on "Kitchen Door" and "Clobbered." When the two sing together their voices contradict each other enough to create a near-perfect harmony that adds even more to the songs.

But while Buffalo Tom may have found a formula that enables them to create great records, music is still a business. Unfortunately, business is not so good.

Unlike many of their contemporaries (Lemonheads, Juliana Hatfield), the band has yet to release a big hit single. Yet Colbourn admitted the band doesn't feel the need to change to achieve that success. "We knew on our earlier albums that we weren't the best players or singers, but I think we realized that we can't change that. I think if we had been a little more MTV savvy we might have had an easier time, but those aren't things we're really out to change."

Hit single or not, Buffalo Tom can't be considered completely unsuccessful. In addition to appearances on television's "My So-Called Life" and Conan O'Brien's talk show, the band has also lent music to a recent Nike commercial, which brought up the topic of selling out.

"We're not stupid enough to let someone else do that to us, but we're not totally musician savvy to go out and do it," said Colbourn, adding that they don't sit around thinking, "OK, let's go write the big hits album!"

He said that Buffalo Tom has always considered their music radio-friendly, so they weren't too reluctant when Nike asked them to put their music in a commercial. "It was a shoe company, so we had a little problem with it, but we had them send us the film and it looked pretty good," he said. "And they offered us a ton of dough, so the price was right in a way." (And they deny the sell-out factor? Hmmm... - ed.)

Although the music is used to sell shoes, Colbourn said it was more a matter of the songs being used as film music instead of Nike exploiting a huge hit song.

When asked how Nike became interested in their music, Colbourn said that a younger employee of the company had seen them live and thought their music would work well in the ad.

Of course, that should be no surprise to anyone who has seen Buffalo Tom live. The band played two shows at Moe last Saturday, each with equal quality and energy.

Buffalo Tom is a band that sounds better live than on disc, mostly because the visual dimension is added to the sound. Saturday was no exception. They played a generous diversity of material, going back to classics like "Bird Brain" and "Taillights Fade" instead of just playing the majority of songs from Sleepy Eyed. Upbeat songs like "Tree House" and "Sundress" had more zest than they do on record, while the moody "I'm Allowed" from Big Red Letter Day sounded more raw with emotion.

Their second set featured a hint of the band's influences when they came out for an encore that included a cover of The Rolling Stones' "Rocks Off."

The only drawback of the night was the overcrowded showroom at Moe. It was a tad uncomfortable to bounce around in such a cramped area, but no one seemed to care once the music began. And besides, a good amount of discomfort always complements the Buffalo Tom experience.

Fonte: The Daily of the University of Washington

Power Duo Para quem não conhece ainda (será?) recomendo o quarto CD do White Stripes chamado Elephant. O rock atual pode estar sofrendo de um surto de falta de inovação mas, sem dúvida, não sofre de amnésia. A prova é este "power duo" de Detroit que buscou suas bases nas linhas de guitarra marcantes que dominavam o rock setentista, utilizando a distorção até suas últimas (e ótimas) conseqüências. Antes de mais nada, o som dos irmãos (?) Jack e Meg é blues... não clássico, é verdade, mas pesado e recheado de riffs ledzeppelianos (Seven Nation Army, Girl you have no faith in medicine) e ritmos tribais (The Hardest Button to Button) que, à sua maneira e acompanhando melodias ora acessíveis (In The Cold Cold Night), ora mais alternativas (The air near my fingers), contribui para essa renovação do rock - o que não deixa de ser um jeito peculiar de inová-lo (basta ver a releitura de I Just Don´t Know What to do With Myself de Burt Bacharach!). De qualquer modo, não deixe de conferir um dos melhores lançamentos do ano!