Travers & Appice Featuring T.M. Stevens ~ Live At The House Of Blues (DVD review) ... Do you think they're sexy?

Style: hard rock, blues-rock
Label: Fuel Label
Year: 2010
Home: n/a

Concert location: House of Blues, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina
Year Recorded: 2010
Length: 60 minutes
Bonus Features: pre-show interview with Pat Travers & Carmine Appice; gallery slide show with T.M. Stevens voiceover

Members: Carmine Appice ~ drums/vocals
Pat Travers ~ guitar/vocals
T.M. Stevens ~ bass/b. vocals

Originally planned to be Derringer/Appice following the Derringer, Bogert, Appice album scheduling problems prevented that union so to fulfill contractual obligations in stepped Canadian blues-rock guitarist Pat Travers who had previously jammed with legendary drummer Carmine Appice at a NAMM music conference show. The partnership proved positive resulting in It Takes A Lot Of Ball that featured a 70's-esque sound of rock drums & thick guitar playing. African-American funkmaster T.M. Stevens contributed bass to a track. Going on tour on the eve of their follow-up the three reunited again. This DVD, also available on a CD/DVD combo under the name Keep On Rocking!, was one of the first gigs. In many ways it might be a good introduction to all three folks individually, in addition to T&A. There's no flashing lights, no special effects, no flash ... its all about the music. Its so modest that one might forget that T.M. Stevens is the new boy in the group of a career that .. only .. goes back to playing in James Brown's band & that the guys behind him include a Canadian legend & the man that created the first drum clinic. This is really very straight ahead 70's feeling rock driven by Traver's blazing guitar going through an array of blues-inspired riffs & singing most of the lead vocals. Travers is a far better rhythm player as his solos, here at least, seem to lack individuality. Appice keeps the beat steady but at the same time somewhat surprisingly reserved for someone of his stature with few solos, while singing a few songs in a surprising high tenor for someone of his physical ruggedness. Stevens, by far the most flashy of any of them in every way, contributes straight ahead basslines that probably does him the least amount of justice of the trio, as those familiar with his work will feels he's under-utilized ... made obvious by a bass/vocal only rendition of his "Turn Me On", co-written by Al Pitrelli of Megadeth/Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Here Stevens shows us what makes him so funky & what he can do & what the Stevens experience is all about by singing his solo like George Winston but throwing in some wah-wah effects on his bass, along with a lot of fascinating finger movements. On some level it feels like the climax of the show as its full of surprises, let alone being one of the most unique bass solos one will hear ... though normal for Stevens. Turn up the volume & check-out Stevens bass in the mix during the concert. He might be limited in chord progressions but he's still doing more than most bassists & filling out the sound a lot. On the whole the biggest problem with the music might not. Then there are the lyrics. Neither Travers nor Appice aren't known wordsmiths nor seemingly have anything interesting to sing about, which means the results tend to distract from the music. Appice co-wrote "Do You Think I'm Sexy" with Rod Stewart which they revamp here. But, be warned that its nothing like the famed disco-tinged version, maybe to its detriment. Other tracks include stuff from the Beck, Bogart & Appice catalog & a couple solo Travers songs. Bonuses include a real highlight in a casual pre-show interview with Travers & Appice talking about how they got together to the music to each other & even Traver's attempt to start a fashion statement with a monocle. Travers dominates the conversation while Appice throws in a sly comment ... it's rough New York Long Island meets Canadian polite & fun to watch. 

Steve Vai ~ The 7th Song (comp) (album review) ... Mystical 7 strings!

style: hard rock, instrumental
Label: Epic
Year: 2000
Home: California

Members: Steve Vai ~ guitars/keyboards/vocals
Guests: Mike Keneally, Tommy Mars, Scott Collard ~ keyboards
Devin Townsend ~ vocals
T.M. Stevens, Stu Hamm, Philip Bynne, Bryan Beller ~ bass
Terry Bozzio, Mike Mangini, Gregg Bissonette, Tris Imboden, Deen Castronovo, Pete Zeldman ~ drums

In terms of solo instrumental guitarists when I was younger I was into Joe Satriani as he was the chart-topper at the time, inheriting the title from Yngwie Malmsteen who had already gotten lost to his own brand of classical meets rock oblivion. But, as I've gotten older I've found myself getting into Satriani's once student SV. Ironically, I first heard SV while living in Japan as my housemate was into the B'z as the guitarist guests on a SV album. With an interest in Japanese music & how it relates to American music I had my first taste of SV. He stayed in my memory as sounding different than what I was used to, but didn't pursue him further due to being in the midst of a jazz/blues phase with a little Tom Waits & Sophie B. Hawkins thrown in. Today, as a collector of guitarist Al Pitrelli I find myself returning to Vai as the two often cross paths via the shared Berkeley education & the same albums. SV got his start in the Frank Zappa band which would set the stage for a career of something different & often challenging ... what I had picked up ia the B'z. He'd later replace Yngwie in Alcatrazz with Rainbow's Graham Bonnet on their under-rated third album before touring with Billy Sheehan as part of David Lee Roth's first solo band. He'd go on to join Whitesnake & create a seven string guitar now a somewhat regular sight in rock. For me, Satriani is a rocker, Yngwie a speed freak show-off but Vai is often the most emotional & with the widest range of experimentation. Because of this he might even be the most challenging to listen to & in turn the most rewarding. SV will let a note hang in the air forever like an old blues guy or run a fast scale in a prog-rock composition. He's more than just a guitarist's guitarist but someone trying to bring guitar playing to new levels. The 7th Song (Enchanting Guitar Melodies Archives Vol. 1) compilation, his first compilation album & the first of four entries in the Archives series of fairly obscure tracks, shows the note hanging in the air side of SV. Presenting a more mystical face to creating music than his peers, SV has made it a habit to always make the seventh song on his albums the melodic rocker. The 7th Song brings many of these seventh songs together with a few other pieces to show the melodic star-gazing side of SV. The linear notes say upfront that this collection forms a reflection of his desire for spiritual communion. We've come to not expect such insights from rock stars, or at least not something sounding so unpretentious & egotistical & in turn almost unsettling. With opener "For The Love Of God", from Passion & Warfare, featuring Indian tambura-esque drones there's no question that this is an slow esoteric journey & not just a rock guitar attack. SV takes us on a journey using seemingly simple soaring guitar lines gliding slowly like calm waves & sometimes occasionally rushing towards the shore. Satriani is known for overdubbing guitar over guitar but SV often keeps to one guitar & just lets the notes come in an almost goal-less improvised sounding fashion. I'm reminded of the playing of jazz great Mahavishnu John McLaughlin, such as in his One Truth Band or with Devadip Carlos Santana & Alice Coltrane. He is another guitarist interested in a journey that's not about verse, verse, chorus, verse, bridge & lots of annoying vocals with cheap lyrics cluttering up the voice of the guitar. Though, it takes great skill to keep the guitar talking instrumental after instrumental & have the conversation not sound forced or boring. SV has the skill in spades maybe more than his peers who often get more technical than expressive. Most of the songs on this release were recorded in different surroundings & line-ups between 1984 & 1990, but the instrumentation is generally very simple via duos & quartets & extremely uncluttered almost as if the songs are demos. "Burnin' Down The Mountain" is a first take, so for some songs demo might not be far off the path, but a demo requires a new song to be made & that's not the case here. Even where there's multiple overdubbed guitars the result sounds like a single instrument that's just able to say two words at once like the Tibetan chanting monks (for example, "Touching Tongues") not dueling guitars as has come to be the expected norm in a solo instrumental rock guitar outing. Further, all the tracks sound like they came out of the same session, thus giving The 7th Song a cohesive sound not typical to compilations. This is mostly because the bands are without doubt taking a backseat to SV. These songs come from his solo albums & thus its about him & not about a group. Whitesnake is one place to go if you want that side of SV or any sense of band interplay. Most of the songs get a bit of background info in the linear notes showing SV as a more complicated person than many musicians present themselves as. He speaks on everything to his belief in what religion is to recording in the afterglow of a forest fire. There's no rock star mask here, but just a guy who happens to play guitar exceedingly well & has great spiritual longings. Actually, in that sense he's quite average ... but most musicians will probably refrain from putting the controversial topic of religion out there outside of disguised song lyrics. But, SV has never been afraid of putting unsettling guitar playing out there & nor is he afraid of putting unsettling ideas out there just the same. SV has a guitar style that floats & glides like water & on first listen one will easily fall into a hypnotic state, perhaps even losing just how technically accomplished he is. But, if that's the case than he does a good job. Too often highly technical guitarists astound us with their almost inhuman skills but afterwards we find ourselves with a soulless vacant experience. Yngwie has been handed this criticism too many times. SV brings the best of both worlds together. SV has so many albums that the new listener may not know where to start. For something different without pounding drums & slashing rhythms this collection is a good starting point while showing SV seemingly naked with no fancy gimmicks between his playing, his mood & the listener. There's a couple new songs included for the already fan. This includes the special seventh song, "Melissa's Garden", which is SV's first step into digital recording. All proceeds from single sales of it go to the Melissa Kravets Memorial Foundation, a eye-catching thing to read in the linear notes. "The Wall Of Light" is an outtake from the Passion & Warfare" sessions, while the simply titled "Boston Rain Melody" is the recording of a jam session during a soundcheck jam that SV added some finishing touches to for this compilation.

Black Night: Deep Purple Tribute According To New York (album review) ... More like a tribute to New York!

Style: hard rock, tribute, funk
Label: Revolver Music
Year: 1997
Home: New York City

Members: T.M. Stevens ~ bass/lead vocals

Guests: Joe Lynn Turner, Tony Harnell, Cory Glover ~ lead vocals
Simon Gregory ~ guitars/b. vocals
Will Calhoun, Van Romaine ~ drums/b. vocals
Cindy Blackman ~ drums
Ritchie Kotzen ~ lead vocals/guitars
Al Pitrelli, Lars Y. Loudamp, Steve Salas, Vinnie Moore ~ guitars
Bernie Worrell ~ keyboards

I tend to avoid compilations as potential reviews as it will undoubtedly turn into a situation of judging one band against another & if I like one contributing band but not another I'm in an uncomfortable position of comparison ... but, this is an interesting compilation as it's produced by funk bassmaster T.M. Stevens & features only fellow New York musicians ... many of whom aren't household names but whose careers as just illustrious as anyone else ... with the set number of musicians organized so no two songs feature the same line-up though the same musicians are all over the album with T.M. Stevens as the one stable factor & Living Colour drummer Will Calhoun coming in near second. Also, I happen to be a big fan of Richie Blackmore, but who isn't, & of guitarist Al Pitrelli who rips through four tracks. Speaking of Al ... the roster of musicians on this tribute - wow! The list is the best of NYC, though by far not inclusive of all the great talent in the city. It includes alumni/members of Rainbow, Megadeth, Alice Cooper, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, TNT, Living Colour, UFO, Mick Jagger, Lenny Kravitz, Steve Morse, Poison, Mr. Big & more. & yes, they all live up to their reputations which isn't always the case with tribute albums of this type. Besides rotating through Stevens backing band over the years, many of these musicians have played together in numerous other projects or even been in the same bands. The comradery comes through. There might not be a single real or permanent band on the outing, but the inherent cohesiveness of sounds & styles says differently. So often one-off tribute line-ups like this are created by people who don't each other & the music suffers because no one is on the same page. But, with long shared histories & Stevens keeping a watchful eye on the outcome this compilation does not suffer like most of its stilted 'in it for the money only' label created cousins & easily rises to the top of tribute albums. As for the music itself. This is not Richie Blackmore. No one can copy his style ... if they can even play that fast & nimbly. Though at times some of the guitarists come close in their own individual way, but the point here is obviously not to imitate but pay tribute. There's a big difference that a lot of bands misunderstand when doing covers. Focusing on imitation is where other tribute albums usually fail. The point is also to give the album a New York City edge, which obviously deters some inclinations to imitate. Which, for Stevens, is to funk Deep Purple up. For those that think Deep Purple can't be funked up the results are shocking & ecstatic. Blackmore has always been a very melodic player, avoiding the cliché riffing style, so putting a funk behind his rock rhythms doesn't sound like two strangers coming together. Given Blackmore's diverse inspirations he'd probably approve of the resulting interpretations. Even a reggae-fied "Child In Time" comes across successfully, with the great Bernie Worrell on keys though it migrates into a rock sound. Further, you usually don't get to hear most of these guys ... and girl, laying their stuff over a bed of funk so this is a treat. Upbeat, fun, & it gives an equal balance to funk & rock, more in the sense that the rhythm is funk & the leads are undoubtedly rock. At times it reminds me of Band of Gypsies, Hendrix's funk outfit. Sometimes when you have an album with such a star line-up you aim to listen for a particular musician. Yes, I'll confess I bought this album for Pitrelli, but this is an album where you stop trying to focus in on the details cause the whole thing is an exciting collage of sound ... the way it should be with no superstars just a bunch of good old city boys jammin'. As for is this a particularly NYC sound? Well, what is a NYC sound? I've always seen it as Lou Reed, but heroin isn't mentioned anywhere on the album nor are there any screechy Velvet Underground-like tirades. While it's definitely not the New York Dolls, Twisted Sister, Beastie Boys & there's not a bit of Broadway in sight. So, who really can say. It's definitely not L.A. glam, that's for sure. For the curious, all the hits are here: "Black Night", "Strange Kind Of Woman", "Fireball", "Smoke On The Water", "Child In Time", "Woman From Tokyo", "Space Truckin", "Stormbringer", "Speed King" & "Burn".