Every so often one can sense an artist or group about to make a big stride artistically and commercially to the next level. Grace Potter & The Nocturnals might not be headed for superstardom, but with a new album this month the group appears to be breaking through in popularity and artistic achievement as it hasn’t before.
With their self-titled CD on Hollywood Records produced by Matt Batson, Potter has her second record on the label, a new producer with a proven track record and some nationwide publicity to go with what has been a relentless touring schedule since the early 2000s. We caught the group in January at the Infinity Hall in Norfolk, Connecticut, and some of the same magic that drew us to the music from Potter’s extraordinary live performance is evident in the group’s new recorded work.
This is Potter’s fourth album, the first two self-released. She is in all ways the focus of the group as a singer with memorable chops — a voice that flows from sugar sweet to raunchy rasp coupled with an impressive range — as a musician, on guitar and Hammond B-3, and most important as a songwriter. All the material is hers or co-written with group members or Batson (six songs) on the album.
Her group is a solid collection of players, too, that is far greater than the sum of its parts, as I have written before. Scott Tournet on lead guitar is the driving force of the band, Matt Burr provides steady and groove-oriented drum patterns and new members Catherine Popper on bass and Benny Yurco on rhythm guitar fill out the sound with quality work of what was a four-piece until about a year ago.
In most cases on the album what you get live is what you get on record. There are few embellishments, except those provided by the group through overdubs. There’s no filler on the album, but the group is definitely at its best on all-out rockers or tunes that develop from moderate-paced to blazing. Continue reading Potter & The Nocturnals on the verge
A Season In Hell With The Rolling Stones by Robert Greenfield is the perfect companion to what many Stones fans believe is the group’s greatest album. There’s no doubt it comes from the group’s last great era, and although it’s one of my favorite Stones records, I don’t believe it’s their best.
So watching the newly released Shout Factory DVD of this rather amazing collection of eclectic talent was an almost entirely new experience. But it certainly brought back memories of how pop and rock music was presented in the early ’60s. This show was filmed in October, 1964, at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium in front of a group of mostly high school students over a two-day period, performed twice for a live audience and once without.
Miles is credited with bringing jazz into the fusion era when he started experimenting in the late 1960s with rock and funk influences as well as a number of players from various backgrounds and styles. He was a leader in the fusion movement, but he was also influenced by what was going on around him, as he had always been, while jazz and rock began to merge in various forms.