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April 22, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Peter Frampton: Peter Frampton Forgets The Words

Peter Frampton

Peter Frampton Forgets The Words

Ume

Peter Frampton’s protracted retirement has already given us one of the worlds worst “blues” albums. And – now this! Peter Frampton Forgets The Words is not his first foray into all-instrumental music, there was a mid-00s “comeback” album called Fingerprints and somehow its butchering of Soundgarden’s Block Hole Sun became a concert highlight for Frampton and possibly lead the way for a now slew of covers of that tune. Read More »

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April 22, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Sweetman Podcast # 254: Steve Braunias

Welcome back for another week and another new guest, this is episode 254 of Sweetman Podcast with support from our sponsors – T Leaf T and Yeastie Boys  and thanks to you readers and listeners.

Now – as you probably know, as well as the usual platforms (this site, soundcloud, iTunes/Apple) you can get to Sweetman Podcast on Spotify – follow it there and have it saved in your Spotify library. It’s on most of the podcast platforms besides the ones mentioned here. Read More »

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April 21, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Nathan Salsburg: Landwerk No. 2

Nathan Salsburg

Landwerk No. 2

No Quarter

Nathan Salsburg is all things to any sort of guitar-listener, a fine accompanist, he makes beautiful folk records of his own, he’s involved in a new “supergroup” of sorts – and – in and around all of that he’s moved towards making ambient records with his Landwerk project. I say “Project” because this was a lockdown thing; finding the run off grooves of old 78s and then layering his own electric guitar in to the piece. It resulted in a very fine record called Landwerk and a few months on from that (arriving at the very end of 2020 in fact) we have Landwerk No. 2. Very much a continuation of sound and its pieces (four in total) are numbers. So here we have V, VI, VII  and VIII to follow on from the first volume’s I-IV. Read More »

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April 21, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

R.I.P. Jim Steinman

Jim Steinman has died. He was 73. He is best known for his collaboration with Meat Loaf, he is the writer of the albums Bat Out of Hell and Bat Out Of Hell II: Back Into Hell. In total he wrote four albums for Meat Loaf, and there were certainly hits on 1981’s Dead Ringer too but it’s the original Bat album for which he is best known.

Coming from musical theatre, Steinman was a composer and lyricist, a keyboardist, sometime producer and most definitely a musical arranger. He brought the pomp to Meat Loaf’s sound – and his signature power-ballad songwriting wasn’t hard to sniff out. That’s him behind the Air Supply song, Making Love Out of Nothing At All. That’s also him behind Celine Dion’s epic It’s All Coming Back To Me Now. And if you ever thought that Bonnie Tyler’s songs Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding On For A Hero sounded a bit like Female Meat Loaf, well, that would be because those are both Steinman songs too. Read More »

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April 21, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Shit That’s Good! Crap Albums I Love # 45 – Yes, “Big Generator”

Yes, Big Generator, 1987

This one’s pretty funny. I bought this because I quite liked that 80s hit, Owner Of A Lonely Heart. Then, much later, I found out that was the band Yes. I’m not sure if I ever really liked the band Yes, but I did know their early prog records – the, erm, classics. And in a weak moment I still like the first couple – and a track or two off the album or two that followed. But not really a fan. Read More »

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April 21, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

John Key’s Jazz Monsters: Dune Dancing

John Key’s Jazz Monsters

Dune Dancing

Odd Music Productions.

Long before there was a dead-eyed monster called John Key roaming this land and ruining healthcare – somehow proud in an aw-shucks way that the people who allegedly liked him in his old job also had a nickname for him as “The Smiling Assassin” – there was this John Key. The pianist. A kind musical soul playing inventive jazz shapes, adhering to tradition and honouring standards whilst seeking out new space via colourful original works. Read More »

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April 20, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Poem: Still, Breathing

There’s nothing better than a day that starts well.
You’re breathing.

That’s the start you crave.
And if the woman in the car cuts you off

and the guy at the bar laughs at you
you’re still breathing.

If the bank won’t play the sort of overdraft game you crave
and if they say your craft isn’t the same as anything worthy of a rave

you are still breathing.
The day will come and go and there’ll

be another. Unless you die in your sleep
which is arguably the best way to go.

But it’s not something I’m interested in – right now. I must say.
What I love is breathing.

Having a great day – or knowing it has started the right way.
Still breathing.

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April 20, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

TRANSMISSION: Theatre

TRANSMISSION

Direction: Stuart McKenzie & Miranda Harcourt

BATS Theatre (April 20 – May 1)

Last night I attended the world premiere of TRANSMISSION. It’s a new play by Stuart McKenzie and Miranda Harcourt. It stars Sophie Hambleton, Tom Knowles and Tim Spite – between them they give voice to works spoken by Jacinda Ardern, Grant Robertson and Michael Baker. The words come – verbatim – from interviews Miranda and Stuart conducted right through our lockdown. The result is a piece of art which captures the mood and the history, looks at the science and the politics that drove the decisions; factors in the emotion and even gives us back-story, behind-the-scenes anecdotes around decision-making or just the mood of a particular day. Read More »

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April 19, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Archie Shepp & Jason Moran: Let My People Go

Archie Shepp & Jason Moran

Let My People Go

Archieball

Archie Shepp is 83, a living legend of jazz, a musical polymath and star of one of the best hip-hop albums of last year too! Jason Moran, some 30+ years younger than Shepp is one of the great modern jazz pianists – steeped in tradition (his tribute to Fats Waller is a fascinating re-create) and yet embracing of all musical styles that have stemmed from it. So it’s a perfect pairing to have these two basically in musical conversation. Read More »

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April 19, 2021 by Simon Sweetman

Brandi Disterherft Trio w/ George Coleman: Surfboard

Brandi Disterherft Trio w/ George Coleman

Surfboard

Justin Time Records

Brandi Disterheft is a Canadian bassist and vocalist. George Coleman is jazz saxophonist – a living legend (he was 85 at the time of this recording) who worked with Miles Davis and Chet Baker, Herbie Hancock, Ahmad Jamal, Lee Morgan, Max Roach and many others. Read More »

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