Odyssey of Funk & Popular Music [Original recording reissued]

Lester Bowie | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 11, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Dreyfus
• ASIN: B000068C8E
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #835,092 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Birth of the Blues

2. Next

3. Two Become One

4. Don't Cry for Me Argentina

5. Beautiful People

6. In the Still of the Night

7. Notorious Thugs

8. Nessum Dorma

9. If You Don't Know Me by Now

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

You could've called Lester Bowie a pop-music Odysseus a long time ago, what with his awesome Great Pretender and almost all his other solo albums (and even some of the Art Ensemble of Chicago CDs). But this recording seeks more than the others to get a snapshot of the musical present and filter it through a charged, multihued brass mix that stays amazingly keeled in both the blustery low end, with Bob Stewart's big tuba, Vincent Chancey's French Horn, and a trio of trombones, and also the leaping high end, with Bowie and three other trumpeters. The Spice Girls' "Two Become One" is a sleepy, mournful tune in Bowie & Co.'s hands, just as "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" is a study in extended melodic lines and colorfully blue harmonies. And if the combo of Spice and (Tim) Rice aren't enough, there's also a romping Marilyn Manson that is turned to a low-brass party and even Puccini's "Nessun Dorma." Along the way, you can catch a paean to Notorious B.I.G. and a smoldering take on Cole Porter's "In the Still of the Night." Taken with the Brass Fantasy catalog and Bowie's New York Organ Ensemble CDs, The Organizer and Funky T Cool T, this release deals us a new Odysseus, home, we hope, for a long spell. --Andrew Bartlett

From Jazziz

During the halftime of a Jacksonville Jaguars football game a couple years back, one of the local high-school marching bands came on the field. Over the loudspeaker, a voice then announced, "Here they are ... Jacksonville High performing 'Shimmy Shimmy Ya' by Ol' Dirty Bastard." And surely, somewhere in Brooklyn, Lester Bowie proudly stroaked his two-pronged goatee.

You see, Bowie's been doing this sort of thing with his Brass Fantasy band since the mid-'80s. Perversely covering pop tunes like Michael Jackson's "Black or White" (recorded right after the L.A. riots), Bowie gives new meaning to the word irony. And often, he does so playing it uncomfortably straight.

For this new recording, the Art Ensemble ringleader has selected some gems. Highlights include songs by the Spice Girls, Marilyn Manson, and Notorious B.I.G.

It's hard to imagine Bowie's trumpet as Scary Spice, but his tone works well on "Two Become One," carrying the lead melody of the bubblegum ballad. It's out there - naked and vulnerable with its breathy nature and soft edges. Around the four-minute mark, the tune sheds its delicacy: The band begins to vamp on a chorus phrase, drummer Vinnie Johnson puts some pepper in his step, and trombonist Josh Roseman takes an engaging, uptempo solo.

Some tunes, like "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," are played less straight. Here, Bob Stewart's pumping tuba carries the tune majestically into a faster-paced funk vamp that hosts a woolly solo duel between trombonists Roseman and Luis Bonilla.

Like previous Brass Fantasy albums, at times this CD feels like a novelty - a tough thing to avoid given the material. But because of the strong personalities in his band and the fresh arrangements, Bowie mixes this joke up enough so it doesn't seem like we've heard it before.

--- R. Dante Sawyer, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The history of 20th Century Music goes to the funhouse, September 4, 1999

By 

Todd Jenkins (San Bernardino, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Odyssey Of Funk & Popular Music (Audio CD)

Few artists are motivated or well-equipped to interpret the entire scope of 20th century music in the course of one album. Thank heavens for the unfettered spirit of Lester Bowie and his posse, Brass Fantasy. The Spice Girls' tune "Two Become One" is given an utterly captivating reading here. This one song is reason enough to buy this album. Bowie and company also navigate Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma" (in a Nawlins street-carnival spirit), late rapper Notorious B.I.G.'s "Notorious Thugs" (complete with vocals by Dean Bowman) and oldies radio staples "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "In The Still of the Night". Little brother Joseph Bowie guest-raps on "Next" and trombonist Josh Roseman shows true potential to become a jazz star of the next decade. The one downer is a bizarre rendition of Marilyn Manson's "Beautiful People" which I still can't bear all the way through. Otherwise Bowie's latest parade of pop music re-assemblages is a keeper.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great range., February 20, 2000

By 

Art "Art" (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Odyssey Of Funk & Popular Music (Audio CD)

Any jazz artist that can appreciate Marilyn Manson has got to be great. Thanks Lester.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Why don't I hear more about these guys?, March 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Odyssey Of Funk & Popular Music (Audio CD)

It's not Kenny G. It's not "Bitches' Brew". It IS worth buying just for the Spice Girls' song which I've (proudly) never even heard done by the Spice Girls but makes my eyes glaze over on this CD. I don't know jazz but I know what I like.