Book Review: Ohio Jazz

Ohio Jazz: A History of Jazz in the Buckeye State.
By David Meyers, Candice Watkins, Arnett Howard, & James Loeffler.
Charleston, SC. : The History Press, 2012.  Paperback. 

189 p.  ISBN 9781609495756

Books like this are few and far between for most cities and states, and so one must cherish them.  While not comprehensive, Ohio Jazz gives us a glimpse into the world of the genre, a place to start, and an anchor upon which to build further.  For that, the authors, collaborators on a couple of previous books on music in Columbus, should be congratulated.  

Of course, since the authors are denizens of Columbus, one should not be surprised to find a preponderance of Columbus-related jazz history.  They already had a lot to work with, and included significant amounts here.  But they give no short shrift to other cities, with Cincinnati, Cleveland, Toledo, Dayton, Springfield, and other towns getting a share of the credit for the historical and current scenes.  In fact, I was surprised by the number of times both Dayton and Springfield came up (clearly my own ignorance showing).  I kept rooting for Northeast Ohio with every turn of the page (while not born here, I’ve lived here for 30 years), and came away with more than two dozen names of musicians from this part of the state who I did not know were associated.  This is why I got the book.  Writing a quick review is just a secondary idea.  

So, what’s good about this book?  It is in large part a reference book.  The initial chapters are mostly arranged chronologically, from ragtime to the present, while the second part of the book is an alphabetical batch of 60 short biographies of musicians from around the state, some big names, some not, depending on your depth of jazz knowledge.  I only knew of 34 of the 60, and I’ve been digging around in jazz for a while.  Many are huge names: Art Tatum of Toledo, Albert Ayler of Cleveland, Billy Butterfield of Middletown, Wild Bill Davison of Defiance, Harry “Sweets” Edison and Rahsaan Roland Kirk of Columbus, just to name a few.  You can find more information about any of them in places such as the AllMusic Guide, or an encyclopedia, but you won’t find them tied together geographically, like they are here.  The chapters give a good, if somewhat dry overview of each phase of jazz history, with the connections between that phase and Ohio musicians.  The chapters are rather breathless in their tone, because there’s so much to cover.  There are many lists.  But if you’re a jazz fan, that won’t deter you from working through them to find the information you want.  

What doesn’t happen here is a good feel for the jazz scene and history of each city.  But a scene involves more than just who was born here or educated here.  It includes the clubs, the juke joints, the nightlife, the interactions among musicians and fans.  Little of that is here, since each city would require its own book.  That kind of approach requires an extended historical monograph involving examination of primary sources and interviews with those who remember those scenes.  Joe Mosbrook (mentioned in the text) has been doing that for Cleveland for decades and hasn’t finished.  The authors have done some of that work for Columbus in one of their other books.  There’s so much more work to be done.  

This book will be most appreciated by jazz history aficionados, music historians with a geographical bent, and reference librarians, like me, who need to parse out this kind of information.  Every library in Ohio ought to have it.

J. Clark Wanser, M.A., M.L.S

Memphis

Boz Scaggs.  Memphis.
429 Records, 2013.  Boz Scaggs:  http://www.bozscaggs.com/

Scaggs is technically another one of Northeast Ohio’s favorite sons, although he might not claim the honor himself.  Born in Canton, Ohio, his family moved Oklahoma, then Texas when he was still young.  He’s had a long career, beginning in the 1960s, peaking in the 70s with a string of gold and platinum albums, then fading from the musical scene for most of a decade.  Another string of 90s releases has been followed by more sporadic albums and touring with Donald Fagen and Michael McDonald.  He’s also had time to start his own winery in the Napa Valley.  This is his first studio album in about five years, and the results are pretty spectacular.

Memphis was recorded, appropriately, in Memphis, specifically Royal Recording Studios, home of albums by Al Green and Ann Peebles, among others.  Mixing covers of  “Rainy Night in Georgia,” “Mixed Up Shook Up Girl,” and “Corrina Corrina” with some lesser-known tunes, Scaggs mixes up styles, sounding sometimes a bit  like Green, other times a little  like Van Morrison, and most often  like himself.  The result is part R&B, part blues, part rock, but all Boz.  His voice is still strong and sweet, and uniquely his own.  He still has the falsetto, which he uses to great effect.  The slow burners, like “Can I Change My Mind” really show off his sinuous vocals, while rockers like “Cadillac Walk” and “Gone Baby Gone” are great rave-ups. “Dry Spell”  and “You Got Me Crying” are fine loping blues, that may be my favorites on the album.

Scaggs and his producer, Steve Jordan, have the good sense to surround him with great musicians.  The basic band of Jordan, Ray Parker, Jr., and Willie Weeks, supplemented by dozens of others for specific tracks, including Spooner Oldham on keyboards, Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica, Keb’ Mo on slide dobro, and the Royal Strings and Royal Horns, because how could you be there and not use them?  

The only disappointment for me is “Love on a Two Way Street,” which has never been a favorite of mine, and seems rather flat.  Others may disagree.  Everything else is great, and I’m glad to see Scaggs back and in high gear at 68 years old.  It gives me hope.

Video from Boz Scaggs’ website:  http://www.bozscaggs.com/bozVideos.html

Personnel:  Boz Scaggs (lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitars), Steve Jordan (drums and percussion), Ray Parker, Jr. (acoustic and electric guitars), Willie Weeks (upright and electric bass), and a whole batch of assisting musicians.
Tracks:  Gone Baby Gone; So Good to Be Here; Mixed Up, Shook Up Girl; Rainy Night in Georgia; Love on a Two Way Street; Pearl of the Quarter; Cadillac Walk; Corrina, Corrina; Can I Change My Mind; Dry Spell; You Got Me Cryin’; Sunny Gone.

The Grand Wazoo

Hidden Legacy

Harmonia. Hidden Legacy
Harmonia and Folk Sounds Records, 2012.
Harmonia:  http://www.harmoniaband.com/

Founded by Walt Mahovlich, Harmonia is based in Cleveland but members call a diverse range of geographic areas “home.”  This brilliant Eastern European-themed group compiles music from Hungarian, Croatian, Slovak, gypsy, and other former Soviet-bloc cultures, with a prominent klezmer musician thrown in for giggles.  The band not only features full-bodied Eastern European music, but is also fluent in the culture and traditions of Eastern Europe, through personal experience here and abroad and more academic study.  What shines through their music the most, to me at least, is the combination of performance and love that goes into each piece.  The musicians in Harmonia are not simply playing music, but recreating a sense of homeland using music, dance, clothing, and history.  This cultural richness both sets them apart from many groups while also making them right at home in the Northeast Ohio-Northwest Pennsylvania area, with its strong eastern European communities.

Harmonia’s sound is rich and complex, with plenty of sounds that many Americans won’t be used to.  Most tunes are very danceable in a moderate, hip-shaking, belly-dancing way, and a few cross into bouncy upbeat tunes that get anyone moving.  The unusual-to-us instrumentation is a treat, especially the klezmer pieces with the strong accordion and violin usage.  The Roma selections have you seeing bangle bracelets, hip-shawls, and campfires easily, and can even make dinner a workout as you shimmy around the kitchen (preferably while frying things).  The lush sound isn’t just for those of us who already appreciate WCPN’s Slovak hour and other cultural programming, but nearly anyone who likes to enjoy life and indulge in simple hedonism once in awhile.

Reeling right into the swing of things, Romanian Ritual Dances grabs your attention and lets you know that this is not going to be a standard American folk CD.  Instrumental, punctuated by shouts in a foreign language, the sound is something that could have come from any number of nationalities.  “In the High Pasture” is a flowing pastoral work highlighting Beata’s vocals and Andrei’s wind skills.  Anyone who’s familiar with Slavic Village area of Cleveland and the churches there will recognize a good polka, and “Ukrainian Polka” is solid without being stereotypical so even non-polka fans can enjoy the piece.  “Songs from Vojvodina” begins grand and sweeping with cimbalom and vocals, and then winds into a rousing vocally driven section.  This pattern repeats through the song, and reminds me of a song fit for a cabaret show.  “Hora from Bucovina” has wonderful accordion and violin parts that let the listener focus on the interplay of the players and less on the individual instruments.  The beginning of “Slovak Shepherd Song” is a bit disconcerting with what sounds like a didgeridoo starting out, until you Google “Slovak didgeridoo” and find out that there is in fact a Slovak didgeridoo called the fujara.  And then the song is over and you have to go back because you missed the beauty that is a “Slovak Shepherd Song.”  “Seven Step Hora” is one of the most danceable tunes and should not be played in a confined space unless you’re far more coordinated than I am.  “Mother’s Lament” lets you recover from all the twirling while listening to more heady woodwinds.  “Moldavian Stomp” has the sounds of dancing to go along with the dancing rhythm.  Weary feet drag at the beginning of the “Roads of the Roma,” like weary travelers driven from every home they’ve known, but as the music continues, spirits lift, as they are wont to do when there’s good music to be enjoyed.  “Sunrise Song from Transylvania” is brief but sweet, and a nice lead up to “Hungarian Dances from Transylvania.”  Sounding almost out of tune, the cimbalom in “Forgive Me, Mother” plays in Beata in a gentle, downcast tune.  This leads into “Hungarian Suite in Gypsy Style,” which builds over the course of the song into a faster pace, which slows down again at the start of “Ukrainian Mountain Music,” only to crescendo quickly again before the album is finished.

In March, Harmonia is mostly doing workshops instead of touring, they do have Hidden Legacy available on CD Baby, their own website, and streaming on the web.  A quick search turns up plenty of ways to hear them in whole or the individual members, so you can grab a quick fix.  They also bring their cultural workshops to schools and other venues, which might be interesting if you wanted to delve deeper into Eastern European heritage.  Give them a try, and let a little folk culture into your life.  [Editor’s Note:  They have played at Hiram College, and will do so again.]

Personnel: Walt Mahovlich (Accordion), Alexander Fedoriouk (Cimbalom), Beata Begeniova (Vocals), Steven Greenman (Violin), Jozef Janis (Violin), Andrei Pidkivka (Panflute/Nai, Sopilka/folk flute), Branislav Brinarsky (Bass), Fujara, Gajdice (Vocals), Ken Javor (Bass).

Tracks: Romanian Ritual Dances, In the High Pasture, Ukrainian Polka, Songs from Vojvodina, Hora from Bucovina, Slovak Shepherd's Song, Seven Step Hora, The Mother's Lament, Moldavian Stomp, Roads of the Roma, Sunrise Song from Transylvania, Hungarian Dances from Transylvania, Forgive Me Mother, Hungarian Suite in Gypsy Style, Ukrainian Mountain Music

Lisa Regula Meyer

Classic Black

Cletus Black.  Classic Black.

Night Wax Records, 2012.  Cletus Black:  http://www.cletusblack.com/

What do you say about best-of releases?  For more than two decades, Black has been plying Northeast Ohio with some seriously good bluesy rock music, in the vein of J. J. Cale--low key, low voice, swampy, slightly menacing, and very satisfying.  I have enjoyed several of his albums, especially Black Ice and Shades of Black, but haven’t heard them all.  This latest release collects some tracks from many of his previous dozen or so albums (none from his covers album, The Big Cover Up, released in 2011).  All the songs are his own, and it’s on his own music where he shines brightest.  

Black subtitles this CD The Best of Cletus Black on his website, but that doesn’t show up anywhere on the booklet or CD.  But these 19 tracks are certainly a fine sample of his best work.  He’s chosen at least one song from most of his albums, but relies heavily on One More Card to Play and Black Ice, with three each, with one or two from the others.  He even pulls two tunes from his earlier compilation of 1980s material, Shades of Black.  I can sense a change in his voice over the years (we all change), and more recently he has had a lighter touch, although he’s still strong.  His guitar hasn’t changed, and still provides a fine accompaniment.  Black names a boatload of accompanying musicians who have worked with him over the years, including the members of his current band, the Cletus Black Revue.  This album was remixed by Dave Morrison, the harmonic player in the Revue, who’s worked with Doc Dreyfuss, and Aces & Eights.  

The songs range from a couple of rave-ups ("Night Train" for example), to a couple of ballads, but most fall somewhere in-between, sort of a mid-tempo shuffle.  Some are a bit more rockabilly in style, with occasional touches of swamp rock, and even New Orleans.  There’s not a clinker in the batch, and I tend to think of this as music to drive down the road with.  A couple of the songs are alternate versions or mixes, and one tune, “Depot Road,” was never released until now.  If you want to get a full taste of this fine musician, this CD is a great place to start.  

Personnel:  Cletus Black (vocals, guitar), and about 35 other people on various tracks.
Tracks:  Baby Hi, Don’t Push the River, BYO Blues, He’s Got a Harley, Cocaine Trail, Depot Road, No Moon Night, Shuffle that Deck, It’s Hard to Rock, Hold on Tight, I’m Ready, Woman Woman, Ocean Drive, Graveyard Shift, Clothesline Blues, Tennessee Baby, Creole Witch, Night Train, Throwing Aces.

Wansdog

Mr. Black

Old New Stuff in the Library

Stuff We’ve Added to the Hiram College Library Collection Recently, but Didn’t Review Because it was too Old

We often add older Northeast Ohio music to the library's collection, because: A. The stuff is useful and/or good; or B. We got it cheap. Either way, we're building our back file, and here's a list of items we have placed in the collection. If you have access to an OhioLINK library you can even borrow them. We hope you find this useful and entertaining.

Rock & Pop:
Breaker.  Accept.
Captain Kneel & the Noisemakers.  Captain Kneel & the Noisemakers.
Destructor.  Sonic Bullet.
Roger Hoover & the Whiskeyhounds.  Golden Gloves.
Ringworm.  The Venomous Grand Design.
Ryan Humbert.  Hangman.
Skychief.  Me Rock You So Hard.
This Moment in Black History.  It Takes a Nation of Assholes to Hold Us Back.
David Thomas & Two Pale Boys.  Erewhon.
Folk, Country, & Blues:
Oliver Buck.  Rust Belt Blues.
Robert Lockwood Jr.  I Got to Find Me a Woman.
Hal Walker.  Home in Ohio.
Jazz:
James Emery Septet.  Spectral Domains.
Jack Schantz Quartet.  Speechless.
Classical:
Cleveland Orchestra (Jahja Ling, conducting).  Also Sprach Zarathustra.
Cleveland Orchestra (Franz Welser-Möst, conducting).  A Night in Vienna.
Quire Cleveland.  Carols for Quire from the Old & New Worlds.
Michael Sachs/Todd Wilson.  Live from Severance Hall.

We'll keep you updated.

Jeff Wanser

Miscellaneous Droolings

To Artists and Record Labels:

We would love to review your CDs. The best way to have that happen is to send us a copy. 

Please direct all mailings to Jeff Wanser, Hiram College Library, 11694 Hayden St., Hiram, OH 44234. 

Inquiries? wanserjc@hiram.edu 

Want to listen to Northeast Ohio Music on Spotify?
We’ve created a bunch of playlists.  Just type in NEO Music, and you should see playlists for rock, classical, jazz, R&B, metal, and polka!

https://www.spotify.com/us/

Shivering Timbers Latest

Shivering Timber.  Sing Sing.

Shivering Timbers, 2012.   

Shivering Timbers:   http://www.shiveringtimbersmusic.com/

Shivering Timbers’ first full album, Sing Sing, is a strange mixture of genres blended together with a heavy stock of indie rock. This what I’d consider more of a folk band than anything else and Sing Sing’s title track has an indie pop quality to it. Sarah and Jayson Benn have a good collaboration and the songs are both melodic and chaotic. While many people in the music world suggest avoiding relationships in the band, lest you end up writing the overplayed “Don’t Speak” or anything from the oeuvre of Captain and Tennille, but often the married couple thing works. In this case, I don’t think the fact that Shivering Timbers happens to be a married couple detracts at all, and I hope they are enjoying or not enjoying the groupies accordingly to their previously agreed upon arrangement that may or may not exist. And I’m sure they’ll appreciate that.  

“Holly Holy” (a cover of the Neil Diamond tune) is a slower track, a little boring at the beginning, but the song shows power in the vocals which can fall behind in many indie tracks. It’s easy for a female artist to have her range pushed to the back burner in favor of “haunting” qualities, especially in Indie Rock (is anyone else as tired of Zooey Deschenal as I am?) It has a neat sixties folk sound to it with heavy drumbeats., sort of a Joan Baez/Grace Slick sensation.

Less indie and more electric folky, “Generations” is a great tune lyrically and melodically. The echoing of the vocals works with the rawness of the electric guitar. Grungy bass layers nicely and the band sounds united.

Shivering Timbers has the intimacy on the Weepies (married couple and band mates), albeit with a harsher, howl to it like good old country songs. There is something so earnest about the sound that I didn’t roll my eyes once, which is pretty much my go-to reaction. I was really hoping for something from the song “D.H. Lawrence,” being a literature nerd, but it blended into the song before it so the place in the album didn’t make it stand out. Actually I didn’t realize it was a different song until it was almost halfway over, which is never good.

Cold Mountain and the Civil War can be heard in the bluesy country tracks like “Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down” and the cover of “Wayfaring Stranger” (which is right up there with “Hallelujah” when it comes to overly-covered songs). While this isn’t my favorite rendition of “Wayfaring Stranger,” I think it would have been better without the ornamentation, it’s still solid. It was brave to remix the tempo and bit, modernizes it, which is more of a change than most artists would bother to attempt.

All Our Days is very She and Him which I find particularly irritating since I hate them and the entire concept of “Adorkable” is ridiculous to me. However, this is the trend of Indie Rock these days and I’m willing to forgive Shivering Timbers for this since so much of their stuff has a bluesy layer to it.

Overall, Sing Sing is a good, full bodied piece of work and Shivering Timbers have a creative and cool sound that has enough country to it to make it stand out among the “indie” wave.

Personnel:  Sarah Benn (vocals, upright bass), Jayson Benn (electric guitars, backup vocals), David Marhcione (drums, bells), Dan Kyshwanis (drums, bells)

Tracks:  Sing Sing, Holly Holy, Generations, Without Someone, D.H. Lawrence, Annalee, Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down, Wayfaring Stranger, All Our Days, Big Fire, I Love You So Much, The Mopping Floor, Boys and Girls.

Lauren Parker

Sugar & Adrenaline

Dan Miraldi.  Sugar & Adrenaline.
Dan Miraldi, 2012.  Dan Miraldi: http://www.danmiraldi.com/fr_home.cfm

In a world of post-rock, electronica, and plastic top 40, Dan Miraldi is a throwback.  He combines a variety of retro styles and influences ranging from Americana to punk, glam to garage, but never sounds out of date.  One can place him roughly in the power pop category, next to a lot of Cleveland bands, including the Raspberries, although the direct similarities to them end there.  Miraldi has boy-band good looks, a solid, and at times fiery guitar, and an expressive, clear tenor voice that is amazingly good.  While the press seems to compare his sound to the Rolling Stones and the White Stripes, he and his band remind me more of David Bowie, Steve Miller, Buddy Holly, the Standells, and even the Monkees, depending on the mood of the song.  

This is his second full-length album, and third overall.  In comparing it to his first, Thirsty, from 2009, it’s clear that he has matured in his arrangements, and his music is more complex, bringing in a wider array of instrumentation and mood.  His voice is his strength, and I really enjoy his direct, articulate singing style (I didn’t need a lyric sheet) which hasn’t changed a bit since the first album.  Miraldi also harmonizes nicely with his bandmates on vocals.  He still rocks hard, but mixes the uptempo burners with mid-tempo tunes and the occasional ballad, lending a greater variety to the whole package.

Most songs are short and sweet, with a tightness that is quite amazing.  Miraldi isn’t much for hanging around or taking extended solos (although it might be nice if he did a bit more on the guitar).  Endings tend to be abrupt and he never fades out.  The rhythm section is solid and keeps the band moving forward, but never takes the foreground, with nary a drum solo to be heard (again, something to consider for the future).  

The opener, “Few Rock Harder,” sets the mood of the album with a driving beat and strong hooks.  “The Runaround” is the track that reminds me of an old Steve Miller song because of its punctuating riffs, and slightly off-kilter tempo.  The track that is getting pushed for airplay (and the shortest song), “Road Warrior,” is another fast-tempo tune, with traces of Green Day as done by the Allman Brothers.  “Yonder St. Sebastian” gives us Byrds-like folk-rock vocals, but the next tune, “Vampire Girl,” takes us in a more Tom Petty direction.  “She Got Soul Part I” is in a similar vein, with Neil Diamond instantly springing to mind, and “Revenge” recalls David Bowie.  For empirical verification of my perceptions I called out the artists I thought of to my wife as the tracks came up.  She usually responded, “Hey, yeah!” or something similar.  Proof.

Miraldi needs to break out of the love song rut.  A couple of songs about something else (life on the road, The closest he comes is “Record Collection,” a story of his disillusion with his girlfriend’s pretentiousness and phony friends, that takes him home to his record collection, presumably a vinyl one.  His ballads are still a bit shaky, not melodically or in structure, but in the lyrical content, where he tends to try for worldliness (“Helen of Troy”), and ends up sounding like a college kid writing a song based on his last class.  Frankly, he sounds more sophisticated when he goes for an innocent approach, since it lends an air of honesty that can be interpreted as depth.

The title of the album is entirely accurate, with a combination of sweetness and speed that is quite infectious. It's fun, filled with catchy hooks, and the band performs beautifully. Dan Miraldi has some serious talent, and as he develops, I cannot imagine him not reaching a wider audience.  Give the guy a try.

Personnel:  Dan Miraldi (vocals, guitars, keys, organ, percussion, bass), Joe LaGuardia (bass), Sarah Luffred (drums, backing vocals), Alex Bowers (guitars, organ).

Tracks: Few Rock Harder, The Runaround, Now is the Right Time, Road Warrior, Yonder St. Sebastian, Vampire Girl, Record Collection, Helen of Troy, I Fall in Love All Over Again, She Got Soul Part I, Revenge, The Many Shades of Blue.

Jeff Wanser