Friday, July 03, 2009

DIG THOSE CRAZY BERMUDAS


Rodd Keith was one of the giants of the weird world of song-poems, but his son Ellery Eskelin is no slouch either, carving out a career for himself as one of the primo sax masters to have emerged on the Downtown NY avant scene.

On his 1996 album "
Green Bermudas" it's a father and son reunion, with recordings of his late dad popping up via Andrea Parkins' sampler, while Junior blows mad jazz over it. The title song is summer vacation music for maniacs:

Ellery Eskelin & Andrea Parkins: "Green Bermudas"

One of the most hilariously sexist song poems ever, "Yummy Dum Dum" also gets the treatment. But even the non-song poem tracks make for fine listening. Eskelin is at home with both high-energy blowouts, and emotional ballads. The sax/sampler lineup creates all kinds of unpredictable and unique combos (Parkins even samples one of Eskelin's old records on one track), making this one of the best jazz-for-people-who-don't-like jazz albums I've heard lately.
(Actually, this album's so crazy, jazzbos might not like it.)

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My half-witted brother Ken wears shorts like this....with sandles and black socks.