Let me premise this with the fact I am a huge Joe Perry and Aerosmith fan. Being a guitar player growing up in Boston in the 70’s and 80’s you had no choice but to idolize this six string slayer. Joe Perry has redefined how a guitar should sound, how a song is structured and all basic principles of Rock n Roll.

With Have Guitar Will, Travel Perry returns to his hard rocking bluesy roots. Opening tune “Still Have A Long Way To Go” has that hyper 8th note bass line feel that dominated Joe’s first two solo albums. The song is solid and would be a stand out in 1980. In 2010 it sounds like rehash. Read the rest of this entry »

Although I considered them a good band and had been brainwashed by their big hits,  I was not a huge Purple fan, but after viewing Highlights ’68-’76 this writer is quite a bit more enamored of them. That isn’t to say this  Deep Purple history-documentary is not without flaws…some of the technical aspects of the footage is subpar, some of the interviews with 0band members becomes somewhat rambling and not as cohesive as it could be…and founder / manager, Tony Edwards  does an interview in French…

 But at the core of this dvd is a group of very talented musicians striving to be true to their art, not compromising terribly, and performingwith an  unapologetic boldness.  Original frontman , Rod Evans, gives it hell on Hugh Hefner’s Playboy After  Dark, performing  “Hush” (a Joe South cover)–with keyboardist Jon Lord waxing witty while Hef strums  Ritchie Blackmore’s Gibson ES-335 guitar.  Read the rest of this entry »

Joan Armatrading had the potential to become as big a superstar as Fleetwood Mac and former A & M label-mate Peter Frampton – her relentless touring and thick catalog of fantastic music made her the odds-on favorite to break out of the pack and delight Top 40 fans with hit after hit. Alas, it never happened, though her 1983 best-Cars-song-that-the-Cars-never-wrote, “Drop The Pilot”, should have catapulted her to fame and fortune. It was #11 in Britain, #78 in the states, and the artist flirted with commercial fame throughout the decade before and decades after. Read the rest of this entry »

 As the N.E. Patriots show real heart with Tom Brady in the game in the 4th quarter they are seen as true champions. There’s an excellent story on the web by Doug Farrar about how football fans want games at the end of the year to mean something. When the Colts “protected” themselves instead of going for it they lost some momentum. And they looked like lightweights. The N.E. Patriots have lots of momentum as we head into the 2010 playoff picture, hopefully Wes Welker will be there with them…but as film critic here at TMR Zoo it is time to talk about my current favorite subject…Avatar!

Is it a perfect film? No…but I’ve yet to see a perfect film…even some of my very favorites – Boris Karloff in The Bride of Frankenstein, Mick Jagger in Performance, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Matrix Trilogy, all of them have areas that could have been enhanced. Maybe the original Star Wars comes closest to the bar in my mind, that mark many critics believe was set by Citizen Kane and Gone With The Wind – but let’s talk about what is right with Avatar…the mystical world James Cameron creates is lovely and the 3D enhances the escapism. Sam Worthington’s understated performance and Sigourney Weaver’s presence all add to the many layered story. Though there’s no Heath Ledger Joker performance (that’s left to the special effects, the main focus of and in this major event) Avatar is a very special film. What will be very exciting is if the film studios spend the 30 million on the 3D technology for the original 1933 King Kong (unlikely), for the Matrix series, Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, Terminator films…now that will make things very interesting…

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This DVD blindsided me; I was expecting a disk full of  laid back classic rock. Marty Balin comes out the gates swinging with the song “3/5th of a Mile in 10 Seconds”. This is a great opener and a solid rocker. Jefferson Starship alum Mark “Slick” Aguilar delivers blazing guitar throughout the song including an incredible classic rock solo. I settle in for what I think will be a standard smash and bash rock show and Marty mixes it up.

The next tune “Runaway” is a jazz influenced rock tune with beautiful harmonies and awesome guitar work once again by Aguilar. This tune is dovetailed into the country flavored classic “Count On Me”. Read the rest of this entry »

The NFL Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams Players of the Week for Week 5 of the 2009 NFL Season have been announced and are shown below. Nobody guessed this week’s offensive winners correctly, but James Harrison was a popular pick for defense. Better luck next week. Read the rest of this entry »

As you listen to Alice In Chains’ “Black Gives Way To Blue” good gives way to great. AIC’s first release in 14 years is an album worth waiting for. There are 3 components in my opinion that make AIC sound like AIC. The first crucial component for AIC to sound like AIC is Jerry Cantrell’s guitar.

Jerry Cantrell has never been a slouch on the guitar. Jerry has always had great tone and textures in his playing and writing. With this release it seems like he has somehow brought his playing to another level. In the opening song “All Secrets Known” there is a mixture of power chords and synthesizer like volume swells. The open track also features an Indian influenced sitaresque guitar solo. Read the rest of this entry »

There are two George Bensons in my opinion. We have the FM radio smooth jazz George that gave us the hit “On Broadway”. On the other side of the coin is George the Wes Montgomery clone. The later named guy is the musician that gave us albums like “Giblet Gravy” and “Witchcraft”. When Benson’s latest release “Songs and Stories” hit my desk I was hoping to hear the latter George. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case.

Let me premise this by saying “Songs and Stories” isn’t a bad disk. It is a formula disk. It is classic R&B with great musician ship and beautiful vocals. Read the rest of this entry »

Stefon Harris and Blackout’s “Urbanus” is a mixture or bop, fusion and New York cool on a backdrop of urban beats. Harris successfully blends classic grooves and tones with what can only be described as hardcore fusion.

There are touches of old school Miles in the recording; Miles during the Bitches Brew era. This is a departure from what you traditionally would expect from a vibraphone player.

Harris at one time was the captain of his high school wrestling team. In this recording he seems to be wrestling with identity. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it possible for a band to rip their selves off? KISS’ new release Sonic Boom nods to classic KISS in a frightening way. Though they are marketing geniuses KISS has always been on the trailing edge of music trends. Still they tend to get to the party in time to make an impact.

Case in point KISS’ disco anthem “I Was Made for Loving You” was released on the eve of the death of disco. KISS was also late getting to the hairband party. Still KISS was able to wash of their makeup, that is most of it and crank out some great hits. Read the rest of this entry »

Are Elvis Costello fans thrilled by his predilection for genre-jumping? Or do they find it maddening? To be certain, no one listening to My Aim Is True in the late ‘70s could have predicted that the dweebish punk heard on that record would routinely take time out from rock ‘n’ roll to compose classical music, take a stab at jazz, or completely immerse himself in old-school country music as he does on his latest release, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. Read the rest of this entry »

The Mohegan Sun casino has the look and feel of an amusement park for adults, the ringing bells of the slot machines adding to the high spirits in the area surrounding the Wolf’s Den,  the venue where Three Dog Night, Jay Black (of Jay & The Americans), Mark Farner and Ambrosia featuring Marty Balin (a unique pairing, no?) have graced or will grace the stage.  A British flag announcing Herman’s Hermits featuring Peter Noone broadcast on the screen in advance of the 8 PM show on Saturday evening August 8, 2009.

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If you‘re looking for a new, classic rock band, look no further than Brooklyn-based ZO2. The trio just released their third album, Casino Logic and, it has the same authentic classic rock sound that has marked their first two releases, Tuesdays and Thursdays (2004) and Ain’t it Beautiful (2007).

All three band members already had pretty decent gigs when they started the group. Lead vocalist/guitarist Paulie Z was the voice behind many of the song parodies on the Howard Stern Show. His brother, bassist David Z was a member of Trans-Siberian Orchestra, well known for their Christmas performances, while drummer Joey Cassata was a member of the performance art troupe, Blue Man Group.
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Kenny Barron is to Jazz piano what Micheal Jordan was and is to Basketball. This is a man that was hired by Dizzy Gillespie sight unseen going on reputation alone. Dizzy, Ron Carter and Freddie Hubbard have all seen the massive impact that this talent has brought to their recordings and live shows.

I caught Kenny as he was touring in support of his new release The Perfect Set. This recording is with his long time bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Ben Riley. It truly shows us what a perfect set of Jazz sounds like. This musical genius is the most humble and giving man I think I have ever met. Battling a cold and breaking in a new drummer he still took the time to meet one on one with not only us but also other media members. Read the rest of this entry »