Jeff Richman and Chatterbox - The Line Up - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Jeff Richman's 15th solo and delivers ten hard-hitting, playful compositions with catchy melodies and a refreshingly modern sound. Richman continues to shine in his ability to write music with creative intricacy and sophistication, articulating his individual point of view. This time around, his guitar tone is deeper, more resonant, robust and alive. Richman's style of playing complex changes fluidly over these infectious grooves will satisfy over many listenings. Musicians include Alex Acuna, Vinnie Coliauta, Mitchel Foreman, Larry Golding's, Steve Hass, Deron Johnson, William Kennedy, Neil Stubenhaus, Dean Taba. Track Listing Like That, in Spirited, Small Kid Time, Awful Pretty, the Endless Inbetween, Rock Tall, Tsuyako, Touch and Go, in Flux, Truffaz.

There's an irony inherent in the term 'postpunk.' Many of the groups that define the genre (think Pere Ubu or Cabaret Voltaire) existed for several years before punk. But these outfits had little hope of finding an audience until punk stirred up an appetite for the extreme, while also spawning a new breed of independent labels that could support challenging music.This Heat are a prime example. Formed in early 1976 by drummer Charles Hayward, guitarist Charles Bullen and 'non-musician' Gareth Williams, the group were initially unaware of what was brewing elsewhere in London, yet they were driven by similar impulses to make noise expressive of the era's turbulence. Instead of punk's crude reduction of rock 'n' roll, This Heat took their bearings from expansive inspirations free jazz, Captain Beefheart, musique concrète, and reggae's disorienting dub techniques.InchVital to their evolution was Cold Storage, a disused meat fridge in Brixton where the band rehearsed. Produced by This Heat with David Cunningham and Anthony Moore, their 1979 debut was collaged out of cassette tapes and recordings made during ultra-cheap graveyard shifts at The Workhouse. The jump-cuts in sound quality were deliberately designed to make the album more unsettled and jarring.InchThe first two principles of This Heat's mission statement-'All possible processes. All channels open.'-could have been co-signed by many pre-punk experimentalists. It's the third part-'24 hour alert.'-that makes This Heat archetypally post-punk, crystallizing the 'totally-wired' mood of paranoid vigilance they shared with peers like Scritti Politti and The Pop Group. Soft power-the mind-control of television and advertising-was an obsession; several tracks take their titles from the gogglebox ('Testcard, Horizontal Hold'). But hard power-in particular, geopolitical dominance-is also addressed in tracks like 'The Fall

Contemporary Jazz guitarist Jeff Richman, who has played with a diverse range of artists including B.B. King, Billy Cobham, Robbie Krieger and Gerry Mulligan is joined by a group of first class musicians on his new InchAquaInch Simon Phillips & Will Kennedy - drums, Abraham Laboriel - bass, Mitchell Forman & Jeff Babko - keyboards, Jeff Beal & Brandon Fields - horns, Walfredo Reyes - percussion and Chris Wabich - steel drums. Inspired by the peaceful, calming sensation of the ocean he grew up with Jeff has composed nine original songs to convey his vision of this environment and closes the CD with his instrumental version of the Neil Young classic InchDown By the RiverInch.