home entertainment 2007

Performance ★★★★
Sonics ★★★
They were strange days in the USA when NRBQ took
the stage at the Ludlow Garage in early 1970. There
could hardly have been a more progressive, less predictable
band in our land, which had just taken a great
big Nixonian right turn. But there they were, full of fire and
fun in Cincinnati, just about the time Columbia put out their
second and last LP for the label: Boppin’ the Blues, a collaboration
with rockabilly daddy Carl “Blue Suede Shoes” Perkins.
In those earliest days, and as they would continue doing for
more than three decades, the Q lovingly and respectfully
served up a gumbo of musical styles. Heck, the first song on
their debut album was written by Eddie Cochran, the second
by Sun Ra. So it’s not surprising that NRBQ was an anomaly
onstage. Anchored by guitarist-songwriter Steve Ferguson,
blue-eyed-soul singer Frank Gadler (both left the group in
the early ’70s), and keyboardist Terry Adams, the Q would lay
down a smokin’ version of Little Richard’s “Rip It Up” one
minute, and in the next a doo-woppy cover of Billy Stewart’s
1965 hit “Sitting in the Park.” Blink and you might miss them
then swing from Wilson Pickett to Roland Kirk.
This was not hip eclecticism for its own sake. NRBQ have
always been about stretching boundaries, and it’s probably why
they’ve never achieved widespread popular success, despite
releasing nearly three dozen albums, several on major labels.
They’ve also always been about challenging themselves and
their fans to think, as they reached for the musical outer limits.
By the sound of it, the Ludlow Garage crowd got it. In his
liner note, longtime Q cohort Chandler Travis writes, “They
were shooting to play great music and teach folks what makes
it great, and, oh yeah, have an absolute ball.” Well, you can
hear it here in their bopping, upbeat version of Hank Ballard’s
“Finger Poppin’ Time,” in the sweet but edgy harmonies in
Ferguson’s original “When It’s Summertime in the
Wintertime,” in Terry Adams’ inspired clavinet playing in the
instrumental “Goofus,” and in Ferguson’s freakishly fast guitar
solos adorning his perky “Flat Foot Flewzy.” Then, on Terry
Adams’ “Kentucky Slop Song,” there’s some fired-up tenorsax/trombone
battling by Keith Spring and Donn Adams,
who together would soon become the Whole Wheat Horns.
I can assure you of one thing: Neither here nor in anything
else the Q ever did is there an ounce of self-indulgence.
Though Ludlow Garage shouldn’t be the first NRBQ album in
your collection (that distinction belongs squarely to Rhino’s
two-CD Peek-a-Boo collection, one of my “Records To Die
For” for 2003), this is an ear-opener—turns out there was a
band playing this wide-open a spectrum of cool music back at
the dawn of the ’70s. The real cool thing is that, in the years
that followed, NRBQ got only better.
Flash forward to 1982. NRBQ’s sturdiest lineup—guitaristsongwriter
Al Anderson, drummer Tom Ardolino, Terry Adams,
veteran bassist Joey Spampinato, and the Whole Wheat Horns
(Ferguson, Gadler, and drummer Tom Staley are gone)—has been
on a roll. Anderson, Adams, and Spampinato have become firstclass
songwriters, and their songs are starting to be covered by
such top-shelf artists as Bonnie Raitt and Dave Edmunds. The Q
are more fun and less predictable onstage than ever, and their
songs have taken a more melodic turn. The Derbytown: Live 1982
DVD puts you smack dab onstage with the band in Louisville,
Kentucky. Though the camerawork is pretty basic, it’s a revelation
even for a longtime fan—and back then, there was no band that I
saw or liked more than the Q—to watch these guys work together
and see how they could energize a club.
They were still doing quirky covers—like Johnny Horton’s
RECORD REVIEWS
country hit “Sink the Bismark,” with Donn Adams’ off-color
singing (think Country Dick Montana)—but there’s a feeling
of great affection among the players. Anderson is a rock on
the left side of the stage, an incredibly nimble guitarist and
singer who can make a basic song like “12 Bar Blues” sound
as if it contains the secrets of the universe. To his right is
bassist Spampinato, who’s always reminded me of George
Harrison. He writes and sings some of the band’s sweeter and
simpler songs, such as “I Love Her, She Loves Me.” Terry
Adams manhandles his Hohner Clavinet/Pianet Duo with
reckless abandon. Before delivering a redemptive and soulful
version of the Louvin Brothers’ “My Baby Came Back,”
Anderson introduces Adams as “The Chairman of the Keyboard.”
Then it’s up to drummer Ardolino to tie everything
together. With the Q, just when a solo or interlude sounds as
if it’s about to disintegrate, Ardolino and company rein it all
in perfectly.
At less than 43 minutes, Derbytown: Live 1982 doesn’t contain
a lot of the catchier Q songs of that era—for instance,
there’s no “Ridin’ in My Car” or “Me and the Boys”—but it’s
great fun to hear them tear into another classic driving song,
“Green Lights,” witness the smiles and winks exchanged on
stage, and see all the members of the band taking turns at the
mike. Like John, Paul, George, and Ringo, Al, Terry, Joey, and
Tom all have distinct but hugely complementary styles and
voices. But the bottom line is the playing and the songs, and
it rarely got any more inventive and fun than this Q lineup in
a club before a packed house. Kudos to Derbytown: Live 1982
for turning back the hands of time. —David Sokol
jazz
THE THREE TENORS
Chris Byars, Ned Goold, Grant Stewart
CHRIS BYARS: Photos in Black, White and Gray
Chris Byars, tenor, alto, soprano sax; Sacha Perry, piano; Ari Roland, bass; Andy
Watson, drums
Smalls SRCD-0021.07 (CD). 2006. Luke Kaven, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 59:59
Performance ★★★★ 1 ⁄2
Sonics ★★★★
NED GOOLD: March of the Malcontents
Ned Goold, tenor sax; Sacha Perry, piano; Neal Caine, bass; Charles Goold, drums
Smalls SRCD-0019 (CD). 2006. Luke Kaven, prod., eng. DDD. TT: 76:24
Performance ★★★★ 1 ⁄2
Sonics ★★★ 1 ⁄2
GRANT STEWART: In the Still of the Night
Grant Stewart, tenor sax; Tardo Hammer, piano; Peter Washington, bass; Joe
Farnsworth, drums
Sharp Nine SHP 1038-2 (CD). 2007. Marc Edelman, prod.; Joe Marciano, eng.
DDD. TT: 60:25
Performance ★★★★ 1 ⁄2
Sonics ★★★★ 1 ⁄2
Why put these three albums together? Because Chris
Byars, Ned Goold, and Grant Stewart are three of
the best tenor-sax players you’ve never heard.
They have other qualities in common. They all
learned their craft at Smalls, the underground Greenwich
Village club whose capacity is tiny and whose influence has
been huge. They all sound like stylistic conservatives, with
tones on the lighter side of the soft/hard tenor-sax spectrum.
And each is more modern than he at first seems.
Chris Byars, though 36, is spiritually at home in music from
the middle of the last century, by such people as Lucky
www.Stereophile.com, May 2007 125