Adam Levy’s recommendation: “One artist who moves me consistently is Sam Phillips. Her songs are smartly written, yet she always keeps them from sounding fussy or fussed over. Her melodies get stuck in my head and I never mind them sticking there. Some of her lyrics race along with the pace of taut short stories (imagine Tobias Wolff as a singer/songwriter), while others are more dreamlike. She’s a strummer — not a fingerpicker — and I love the way her guitar lopes and swaggers through her songs.”
New to Sam Phillips? Adam suggests you start here: My favorite Sam record is A Boot & A Shoe. Song for song, I think it’s her most consistent batch, and the production is seductively gritty. My other fave is Fan Dance — released a few years prior to A Boot and a Shoe To me, these two feel like companions. (I’ve no idea if Phillips thinks of them that way.) Both records were produced by T-Bone Burnett, and the cast of session players is similar — including drummer Carla Azar and guitarist Marc Ribot.
About our guest author, Adam Levy: We at Rocktorch.com recently found out about Adam Levy on a WFUV segment and we really liked what we heard: skillful guitar work perfectly laid under intimate, well crafted lyrics. We dug around the Web for his bio info and found out that his grandfather wrote “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and the theme from the TV series Gilligan’s Island (how cool is that?!) and that he has backed the likes of Norah Jones, Ani DiFranco and Tracey Chapman. But the interesting thing is that there is not a ton of bio info on his own site. Instead the music and reviews of his work speaks for itself. Of his most recent record, The Heart Collector, No Depression says, “A great album overflowing with warm and soulful songs that enchant the ears and captivate the heart,” and Minor 7th writes, “It’s his guitar virtuosity, melancholy melodies, vocals — multiple musical personalities — that will surely mesmerize you.” Levy gets a lot of jazz coverage, but there is definite crossover potential here; we see him as a gifted singer-songwriter. Be sure to check http://www.adamlevy.com to check Adam’s concert schedule, join his mailing list and more.
The recommendation from Eef Barzelay: “Jimmy Scott is one of my very favorite singers. Born with a rare hormonal condition that kept his voice from ever changing, he somehow sounds like a man, a woman, and a child all at once. Also he sings so far behind the beat it just devastates, nobody sings slower. I saw him at Birdland on New Years Eve years ago and it was one of the best nights I’ve had upon this earth.”
More on: Eef Barzelay and Clem Snide (Editor’s note: Eef Barzelay fronts Clem Snide, perhaps most famous for penning Moment in the Sun, the song that was used as the theme track for the NBC show Ed. Their latest album, Hungry Bird is coming out on February 23 of which Rolling Stone says it “… sounds like Michael Stipe fronting Pavement.” Also, check their site for tour dates.)
New to Little Jimmy Scott? Start here: The story goes that Ray Charles plucked Scott for his own Tangerine label to record this collection with the strongest arrangers in the business to make Falling In Love Is Wonderful the best it can be. Charles even fingers the keys on the album. The collection has been snagged in a legal bird nest for years but it has now been re-released in all of its wondrous glory.
The Quote from Kevin Barker: “I’m not a jazz musician, and my record collection is MABYE 10% jazz records. A lot of jazz music I can appreciate without really having an emotional connection to, but there are really only a handful of jazz records that have really struck a chord (har har) with me. To name a few: Tangents in Jazz by Jimmy Giuffre, A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, Miles Smiles by Miles Davis, and Tauhid by Pharoah Sanders. Pharoah’s records are meditative, ecstatic, open, loving, and very melodic. They’re like a great big giant spiritual hug.”
More on: Kevin Barker (Editor’s note: Kevin Barker has spent the last few years collaborating with the likes of Joanna Newsom, Vetiver and Antony and the Johnsons. He has released a lovely solo record called
You and Me that is chock full of his signature fingering guitar playing and lush harmonies.)
New to Pharoah Sanders? Start here: An amazing band {appears on Tauhid} including the great Henry Grimes on bass, Dave Burrell on piano and Sonny Sharrock on guitar. A particular favorite is Japan, which my wife and I had some friends perform an arrangement of for our wedding procession. This is the record I would play for someone if they believe that they don’t like jazz music. It transcends genres and labels. It’s not even that it straddles genres, like Mahivishnu Orchestra or electric Miles Davis. It transcends them because steps completely outside of them to make its own style of music. More akin to Indian Classical music without sounding anything like it, this is devotional music at its finest, gospel music preaching ecstatic love of the unknown and the unknowable.
About our guest author, Adam Levy: We at Rocktorch.com recently found out about Adam Levy on a WFUV segment and we really liked what we heard: skillful guitar work perfectly laid under intimate, well crafted lyrics. We dug around the Web for his bio info and found out that his grandfather wrote “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” and the theme from the TV series Gilligan’s Island (how cool is that?!) and that he has backed the likes of Norah Jones, Ani DiFranco and Tracey Chapman. But the interesting thing is that there is not a ton of bio info on his own site. Instead the music and reviews of his work speaks for itself. Of his most recent record, The Heart Collector, No Depression says, “A great album overflowing with warm and soulful songs that enchant the ears and captivate the heart,” and Minor 7th writes, “It’s his guitar virtuosity, melancholy melodies, vocals — multiple musical personalities — that will surely mesmerize you.” Levy gets a lot of jazz coverage, but there is definite crossover potential here; we see him as a gifted singer-songwriter. Be sure to check http://www.adamlevy.com to check Adam’s concert schedule, join his mailing list and more. 
