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Here we are, cruising under the top 40 radar, and leaving the maudlin sensibilities of monopolized radio frequencies for greener pastures.

Once again, we hit up The Internet Archive for inspiration. I saw the name Reggie Watts in the Live Concert Archive, and thought it sounded familiar so I checked it out. I’m not sure why the name was familiar. I think I might of been thinking of Nathan Watts, the bass player on Songs In The Key of Life (Stevie Wonder, but you knew that, right?)Turns out this mistaken identity moment yielded some cool stuff.

Reggie is an Interesting improvising vocalist, using looping and processing. Chats a lot, almost too much for my liking - but at least he has some interesting things to say. His website mentions he is starting to do comedy, which makes perfect sense. His stage banter is quick-witted and amusing.It just kinda gets in the way when you want music, which is what I’m after.Anyhoooo …he has a band project, Maktub. The appealing, hook laden mix of soul/funk/rock is worth consideration, if you dig that kinda stuff.

The Tunes: Catchy and hummable without being predictable and boring. I do most of my listening on my daily commute, and this past week I hopped off the bus with melodic hooks and good vibes a-plenty thanks to this recording. One of the hallmarks of a good melody in my book, is the ability to invoke other melodies without feeling copycat or derivative. For me, that happened a lot with this recording. Listening to these tunes pulled up fragments of pre-eighties Stevie Wonder, The Beach Boys, Carole King, and Burt Bacharach. Clearly, the song writing here is based on a solid foundation, and a lot of well informed listening, yet still seeks and finds it’s own territory. The live setting shows the strength of the songs, unadorned as they are by studio production tricks and techniques.

The Players: Solid. There isn’t a lot of flash and virtuosity on display here. I suspect all players are capable of struttin’ their stuff, but their strength in this context is restraint, support, and tastefulness. Every note is played with purpose, and you get the sense that these guys are very much about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. Just for the record, that is an excellent approach to making music.

The Recording: Pretty damn good for a live recording. It sounds like there are some edits between songs, which is fine by me - I’ve heard audiences clap and whistle before. The inevitable crowd noise is present, and Reggie tries to have some with it on behalf of The Boston Acoustical Research Team. The vocals come through strong and clear, with a balanced sound from the band. All instruments are audible, well defined, and in tune. There are a couple audio ‘oops’ , but nothing jarring .

Recommendation: Totally worth the bandwidth. The new album will be released in November 2007, and I’m looking forward to supporting this independent artist.

Music, music, music.

The world is full of it, and most goes un-heard, un-discoverd, and un-appreciated. Our ability to choose and appreciate is often eclipsed by the sheer number of options available and the heaps of marketing money behind promoting a select few artists or genres.

You have to take some chances, cultivate in-the-know resources, and invest some time to find the gems. I discovered my musical road less travelled through music school. Some unearth their favourites while traveling, while others have the luxury of an eccentric relatives record collection to pry them from top 40 purgatory.

The Internet Archive is an incredible resource for a lot of things, including music. I have taken it upon myself to recycle the tunes on my ipod from their live concert archives at least once a month. It started out looking for specific artists, and evolved into checking out tunes from any band that started with the letter ‘S’, or whose name rhymed….pretty much random criteria. What do I have to lose? If you’ve got the bandwidth, use it for something interesting. The quality of recordings can vary, so I would advise listening to a tune or two on the streaming player before downloading.

This time around, I found The Alex Skolnick Trio. I recognized the name from my heavy metal years
(15 to the present), so did some snooping. Yes, it is the same Alex Skolnick from Testament and Savatage - and he’s playing jazz! Playing it well, I might add.

THE TUNES: Originals, and some well chosen arrangements of rock and metal tunes. I love the fact that I can listen to something like Detroit Rock City and feel sophisticated and gleefully immature all at once. The original compositions show a solid understanding of the jazz idiom, and it’s contemporary harmonic practices. They sound quite…New York. A little bit of spit and polish, but not too pretentious; adventurous without being reckless, and hint of attitude.

THE PLAYERS: Before this, I had only heard of Alex. Just goes to show ya, you don’t have to be famous to be good. Bassist Nathan Peck hails from a musical family, and has played with Maynard Ferguson, Maria Muldaur, and a host of others. On drums, Matt Zebroski is solid, creative, and complementary. He knows when to lay it down and drive it home, and when to sit back and let his cohorts stretch out on their improv sections.

THE RECORDING: Well done, and clear through out. Some live recordings tend to favour a certain frequency range, but this recording, from 08/31/2006 is great. I suspect it was a mix from the soundboard, although that isn’t indicated on the download page.

RECOMMENDATION: Download this one and throw it on the stereo when your Great Aunt Martha comes over for dinner. She’ll relate to the swinging ride cymbal and pretty chords, and you can secretly have the lyrics to the Scorpions “Still Loving You” going through your head, and feel 17 again. I’d book them for my jazz festival, If I had a jazz festival.