Scofield "Singing" A Bluesy Gospel?! My Word, Sign Me Up

John Scofield, the jazz guitarist and otherwise musical chameleon is back with his his 36th album and it's bluesy. "Motherless Child" get's the (newer, bluesier) signature Scofield makeover, along with more classics like "Walk With Me" and "Angel Of Death". Essentially I really like the album - say if I were sitting at a bar sipping a bourbon right about now, which I'm not - and that's a shame, but like always, it's Scofield, and one kind of needs to dig his style. At least It'll take Missy Elliot and company another couple of years before they start sampling this because I don't think they have seen the "light", as it were.

For your listening pleasure, I have wrangled one of the songs in the ELECTRONIC FORM.

For you Scofieldheads, which I know there are out there, make sure to buy the record. The gods will shine a light down on you.

Thank you and Good Night.

Speaking of Quality Sound...

This year’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will premiere on April 4 at 8PM ET/PT only on FUSE (exclusively, naturally) and if you fancy yourself even marginally interested in music you should TOTALLY watch this. I mean, better than brain rotting MTV, am I right? RIGHT? Who can stand watching that junk anymore. It’s so old I was hesitant to bring it up, but here I am. Instead, watch FUSE! Remember that time it was Canadian? I like Canada. Everyone’s always saying they’re gonna move there, but me? I’m gonna actually do it. But this isn't about Canada, I got so sidetracked for a moment there. THIS IS ABOUT ROCK AND ROLL!! I mean, can you argue with this? Brings some tears to my eyes. Almost. Check it for yourself. It's a free country, after all. All I can say is that you are a little bit more bad ass if you watch the video.



LONG LIVE ROCK AND ROLL ...or whatever's left of it. word.

Enjoy Gr8 Flicks in Gr8 Quality

They call it 4D and they plan to take audio and video by storm. What good are all these *terrific* new records and movies if you can't hear them? AstoundStereo to the rescue.

From the press release:
"The AstoundStereo Expander enables you to hear all your digital audio in a new way. You become completely immersed in the sound with elevation, intensive depth perception and widening of the stereo image, creating a four dimensional audio experience."

My oh my, that sounds fan-cy. I count 4 Ds.
They say, put it to the test. You can download a free version by clicking the logo.

For the music heads, check out www.AstoundStereo.com/freetrack and get some FREE TRACKS. We love free, here at the Marvelous Observations. Basically we don't do anything that is not free. You could call us FREEdomfinders.
Let's see if this manages to come through or just turn into some beta max thing. I'm waiting in ASTONISHMENT. zing.

After The Eye Candy, Some Reality

After a brief hiatus I am at it again. And boy have I missed this. Next on the list is this str8 to DVD release that probably should have gotten a theatrical release seeing as how it's packed with an all star cast featuring Tommy Lee Jones, best two face ever and John Goodman, best Walter ever, doing a book by James Lee Burke. There's others too, like Ned Beatty, but he's not on the cover, so who cares.

The movie is a thriller and has received mixed reviews. Quite frankly, I'll watch anything with Tommy Lee Jones though, so it's on my list. Catch a sneak peak:

Buy It here:
http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Mist-Ned-Beatty/dp/B001NFNFIK

Songstress Looks Younger Than She Sounds

By the sound of things I would have guessed this singer's age to be about 45, at least. Alas, I was wrong. She merely sings for 45 year olds. Naturally, this does not detract from her considerable talent. And I mean that purely on a scale from one to ten. Like, looks, get it? I dare you to a comment and tell me I make too many "jokes" that are only funny to me. See for yourself.
She goes by the moniker "Jane Monheit" and makes jazzy music. And if you look at who claims credit for this oeuvre it is a veritable who's who of jazz heavy weights:

(from the press release)
Accompanying Monheit on “The Lovers, The Dreamers And Me” are long-time Monheit band-members Michael Kanan (piano and Fender Rhodes), Rick Montalbano on drums, and Neal Miner on bass, who were joined on the CD by musicians Peter Bernstein (guitar), Stefon Harris (vibes), Seamus Blake (saxophone), Frank Vignola (guitar), Gil Goldstein (piano, accordion), Romero Lubambo (guitar), Antonio Sanchez (drums), Scott Colley (bass) and Bashiri Johnson on percussion.

I might develop an eyebrow fetish - I have some pretty strong ones myself (In fact, it is said that they saved my one eye once - long, other story). In conclusion, I present you with Jane Monheit's CD available here. For your listening pleasure please visit her official site at JaneMonheit.com and check out the "goods"; those 35 sec clips. I mean. Duh. Get going already and stop staring.

Kick back, relax and shoot yourself in the foot.

This may seem a little cliche, but there are two things that drive me up the wall. One of them is definitely smooth jazz in all it's incarnations. Call it urban, contemporary jazz, some form of R&B...whatever. Gives me the heebie jeebies - all is see is fake jewlery and vinyl dresses. eeeuuuccchhh. Over-produced, cheesy, SAXOPHONES, dentist chairs, drilling, you see where this is going. Unfortunately this genre refuses to go the way of cherry curls and so here I present you with a, not quite so hairraising, sample of one of the genres proponents:Give it a listen on MySpace and tell me you don't at least hear a hint of things that makes you wish Stalin got his hands on Kenny G or something. But you know, we keep an open mind around these parts, and whatever floats your boat, but stay away from my children and I. Or my future children, anyway. I will make sure that if they go to the dentist there will be no muzak and they will keep it real. But should you be absolutely hell bent on adding another useless record to your collection, be it for sake of the industry as whole, which would be quite commendable, frankly, please go ahead and purchase it here.

Hello.

Debauched!

Because I like that word. Now, down to business. Caligula has been released for the umpteenth time and guess what? It's still a pretty far out clusterfuck. I read things that condemn the movie to all hell, but I, myself, am not quite so dramatic. In fact I think Caligula, who is also Alex from a "Clockwork Orange", is totally metal and therefore awesome. Yeah, there are prehistoric dildos and a lawn mower that doubles as a people mower, but it's still kind of badass. How's that saying go? Something about too many cooks in the kitchen....
So, now you can watch some the grainy movie in super high def with some extras about Peter O'Toole smoking mad joints, and to me that's almost as much fun. I was kinda, uh, bleary eyed myself when i saw the movie and sat in dark for at least 5 minutes after it was done trying to get my ears to turn normal flesh color again. ____: (get it? bottom line) the movie is confusing, effing long, decadent to no end, perhaps a wee bit unrealistic and, i'm willing to bet, entirely offensive to anyone that's had the privelege of being homeschooled. I can let you preview it here, but in my opinion it's best if you check it out for yourself - even as a tutorial on how-not-to-make an epic historical fiction piece with tons of penthouse pets. Quite frankly, how you mess something like this up is beyond me. Buy the Blu-Ray, even if it's only to save space and have one less disk than the 3-set DVD set.

UPDATE: The eyes, man, the eyes - talk about piercing. Although that is neither here nor there.