Sound Bites
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 24, 2000 9:00 p.m.
 Patricia Barber
“Nightclub”
Patricia Barber “Nightclub” Blue
Note/Premonition Records
As Patricia Barber softly noodles her way through
“Nightclub,” you can almost see the scene she’s
musically sketching. Smoke clouds the lights, patrons yawn while
lazily munching peanuts, and a friendly bartender polishes his
glasses while waiting for her band to close its set. This
isn’t a dangerous, rough and tumble Kansas City barroom where
the musicians are just as likely to knife each other in the back as
they are to play their horns. No, it’s a calm, sedate place
warm with all the comforts of an old haunt. Even if everybody knows
your name, they’re probably just going to nod hello and go
back to drinking alone. It’s not a sad scene, just a quietly
reflective one. As you nurse your poison of choice, you look over
and see Barber, shrouded in black, carefully fingering the ivories.
With her little trio following along, she cranks out the classics,
a subtle soundtrack to your quiet evening. In some ways, it’s
a beautifully understated jam. You won’t find this group
trying to beat you over the head, they just play on and don’t
care if you listen or not. From “Bye Bye Blackbird” to
“I Fall in Love Too Easily,” the cuts flow seamlessly
into one another, each a model of refinement and cool.
Barber’s capable, if not particularly flashy, piano skills
make tunes like “You Don’t Know Me” and
“All or Nothing at All” enjoyable and fresh. Her
smooth, smoke-tinged voice is also a pleasure to listen to, pouring
rich emotion into “Invitation” in particular. With her
in command, this nightclub is a reserved, yet friendly, place.
While all this calm is pleasant, it’s still nice to get
knocked on your ear every now and then and it would be good to hear
Barber crank it up and let loose with something a little more
peppy. The most exciting “Nightclub” gets is
“Summer Samba,” which still sounds like it’s
cruising along in second gear, never reaching its full potential.
Guest guitarist Charlie Hunter seems like the route to this
much-needed pizazz, with his icy licks highlighting jams like
“Alfie.” Unfortunately, he never really breaks loose of
the calm mood. Still, if you’re seeking solace in this club,
Barber’s a fine choice. When it comes time for last call, you
might be asleep, but you’ll be having some awfully nice
dreams.
Brent Hopkins Rating: 7
Mack 10 “The Paper Route”
Priority
Mack 10’s latest album, “The Paper Route,”
will have most rap fans feeling extreme déja vu. The gangsta
themes of the early ’90s have been played to death. Mack
10’s latest unimaginative creation encompasses pimping, gang
banging, balling and living large in their most banal forms. There
are no infectious beats and no original rhythms. All you have is
Mack 10 sporting a combed out afro and proclaiming how
“dope” he is. “I’m dope. Dope as they
come,” is Mack 10’s proclamation in the obviously
titled “I’m Dope.” Perhaps it was decided
redundancy would be Mack 10’s edge on the competition. In
“Tight to Def,” the sample of an old rap hit is
recycled and revamped with T-Boz’s raspy vocal and Mack
10’s rap. This has the potential to be a hit single, more due
to its formulaic accouterments than its substance. It has an
R&B break and a beat that keeps moving, but that’s about
all. Unfortunately the Bonnie and Clyde allusion Mack 10 makes, as
it pertains to himself and his wife T-Boz, has been done before and
better. One may think back to Ice Cube and Yo-Yo, two rappers who
became the embodiment of gangsta Bonnie and Clyde with the hit
“Bonnie and Clyde Theme,” and later Jay-Z’s and
Foxy Brown’s interpretation of the exact same theme. Right
after Mack 10 declares the undying bond between himself and his
R&B wife in “Tight to Def,” he stays true to the
gangsta mentality by following it up with “Pop X,”
about a groupie Mack 10 is ready to ravage. After so many raunchy
sexual descriptions, with some drug references thrown in for good
measure, the audience is desensitized and the shock value, which is
key in the so-called reality-based world of gangsta rap, is
completely removed. The song is simply reduced to a foul and
uninteresting chronicle of cheap sex and expensive drugs. Judging
by the product Mack 10 has chosen to release as a representation
and extension of himself, he has not evolved or matured
emotionally, mentally or musically since his earlier albums. Mack
10 simply rehashes in his new album’s fallacious and
exaggerated themes. If he does not want to have any legitimate and
honest substance in his raps he should at least go the Puff Daddy
route, creating rhythms that will have the clubs jumping. This
album turns into one big blur of all too familiar gangsta rap
themes and lyrics. Everyone is beneath Mack 10 and Mack 10 will
never stop banging. That is the basic point of the album, in case
anyone would like to spare themselves of having to shell out the
paper for Mack 10’s “The Paper Route.”
Aphrodite Manousos Rating: 3
Jill Scott “Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds
Vol.1″ Hidden Beach Recordings
About midway through “Who is Jill Scott,” newcomer
Jill Scott croons the line “I felt so excited and so afraid
at the same time/I don’t know whether to sing or to
rhyme.” That’s a pretty poignant observation for a
vocalist that doesn’t quite pack the octaves of a diva nor
the gritty delivery of a rapper. Unlike so many other artists,
however, Scott doesn’t pick either extreme, and, as a result,
rides her soothing mid-range vox to a very commendable debut album.
A glance at the cover art might get one thinking Mary J. Blige, but
Scott’s style is much closer to the neo-soul sensibility of
the Roots, sans the hip-hop vocals. In fact, Scott co-wrote the
Roots’ hit “You Got Me,” and continues to deliver
similar vocal performances on “Who is Jill Scott?” Also
like the hip-hop supergroup, Scott favors more traditional
production values: organic drums, trumpets, pianos and even the
occasional trombone. “It’s Love” brings all of
these jazz elements together into an up-tempo number that gives
Scott’s vocals a little leeway to wander off into higher
territory. Scott’s lyrics, however, are a little less
traditional. Some tracks aren’t jazz songs as much as they
are poetry with musical garnishing; that is to say, the words often
flow with a rhythm entirely different from the accompanying music.
Such an approach highlights the importance of the spoken word and
makes narratives like “Exclusively” and “Honey
Molasses” all the more effective. To boot, Scott possesses
remarkable humor and wit, both of which are staples in her lyrics.
To the album’s detriment, Scott’s progressive poetry
often seems like an anachronism among all of the ultra-traditional
jazz sounds. Likewise, on the bonus track “Try,” Scott
flirts with hip hop so successfully, you wish she’d done it
throughout the whole album. Still, in a work that attempts to stay
true to the ideals of classical jazz as well as contemporary hip
hop, such inconsistencies are inevitable. Besides, the combination
of the two genres makes for interesting subject matter, and the
results often speak for themselves: “Red hot spicy/I felt
Dizzy and Sonja, heaven and Miles between my thighs/Better than
Love we made delicious.” Well said.
Anthony Camara Rating: 7
The Queers “Beyond the Valley” Hopeless
Records
With the hyper-sensitive microscope hovering over the
entertainment industry these days, it’s nothing short of a
miracle that the Queers haven’t made it into the spotlight
yet. Albums like “Beyond the Valley” are just begging
to be picked up by moralist crusaders as examples of depravity.
It’s tempting to call the band’s trash-mouthed lyrics
“crass,” “lewd,” or perhaps “grossly
offensive,” but the punk trio would likely take that as too
much of a compliment. When lead singer Joe Queer kicks the album
off by singing “I’m uncouth,” man, he ain’t
kidding. Although he’s been at this since 1982, he’s
never really lost that junior high sense of humor or penchant for
four-letter words. Indeed, half of the song titles can’t even
be printed in most polite newspapers, and probably most impolite
ones as well. So while the band won’t win any accolades for
its kind, sensitive nature with tunes like “Stupid Fucking
Vegan” or “Strangle the Girl,” at least the
music’s kind of fun. There’s need for a major emphasis
on “kind of,” since the Queers’ brand of punk
makes even Blink-182 seem like rocket scientists. Queer steers into
vaguely serious territory on some cuts, dealing with alienation in
“In With the Out Crowd” and punk hypocrisy on
“Little Rich Working Class Oi-Boy,” but for the most
part, he avoids any sort of grown up themes. Then again, most folks
did when they were in junior high, so you can’t fault him too
much. If you’re looking for something deep, meaningful, or
anything above mildly entertaining, move past this one. If not,
however, the Queers should provide hours of endless inane fun. With
a CD that’s only 32 minutes long, you’ll know these
off-color ditties in no time.
Brent Hopkins Rating: 4
