The Palm Beach Post from West Palm Beach, Florida • Page 116

y. r3.i.v.2:.3.r.u;fi '-Mr Page 28 The Palm Beach Post FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2001 TGIF OF to) 1-1 1 nl ru) THE M5) You know our critics! They can't name just one. BILL MEREDITH: Great Sky River, Jazz Is Dead. Dixie Dregs keyboardist T. Lavitz and drummer Rod Morgenstein, bassist Al-phonso Johnson and recently-departed guitarist Jimmy Herring blaze through instrumental versions of the Grateful Dead's Blues for Allah, Terrapin Station and Morning Dew.

LARRY AYDLETTE: It was a year of many great individual songs, but only a handful of exceptional albums. The best: Dolly Parton's bluegrass foray, Little Sparrow, full of sweet harmonies, hot picking and a banjo-propelled version of Collective Soul's Shine. Plus, The Word, a set of blues-drenched gospel instrumentals from a supergroup of keyboardist John Medes- Live at the Baked Potato Vol 1, various artists. Los An- geles guitarist Jeff Richman Peter Gabriel's Mercy Street, DAVID THOMAS: People often ask me to recommend CDs, due to the lackluster past few years of mainstream music. When I run through a list of great albums, they look at me bewildered.

"There's that many good, new CDs out there?" or more often I get: "Dismemberment what?" Believe it or not most record stores do stock these titles: The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most, Dashboard Confessional. "Emotional, personal, heartfelt, beautiful." Won, As Friends Rust "Hard rock thaf dark and intense, a genre-bending release." United by Fate, Rival Schools. "Skilled musicians making great indie-rock on a major label." Hell BelowStars Above, Toadies. "Feel-good rock 'n' roll from Texas" Gorillaz, Gorillaz. "A cartoon band with some brilliant takes on alternative music." The Argument, Fugazi.

"Once again this band proves they are playing far beyond anyone else on the map." stt4.sltny. ki (of Medeski, Martin and Wood), the North Mississippi All-Stars and pedal steel guitarist Robert Randolph. And Joe Henry's dark, introspective rock-jazz hybrid Scar, with the moving Richard Pryor Addresses A Tearful Nation. I also enjoyed John Mayer's Room For Squares, a fresh blast of light jazz-pop romanti does instrumental takes on Marcus Miller's Splatch, and his own originals with jazzfusion heavies like Yellowjackets bassist Jimmy Haslip and drumming great Dave Weckl. The Sound of Surprise, Bill Bruford's Earthworks.

By working for 15 years with this organic, open-minded jazz ensemble plus progressive rock bands King Crimson, Yes and Gene- sis drummer Bruford proves nothing musical lAfe Sparrow The Sound of Surprise cism, the pure melodic rocking of Guided By Voices' Isolation Drills and the twisted country-electronica sound of Pensacola singer Jim White's No Such Place, especially the lead track, Handcuffed to a Fence in Mississippi. In straight-up jazz, Bob Belden's orchestral suite Black Dahlia brought back the sweet sound of film noir. Roseanna Vitro 's tribute to the music of Bill Evans, Conviction, and Steve Tyrell's Standard Time were jazz singing at its subtle finest. And Harry Con-nick Songs I Heard was his best work in years, especially the jazz-flavored songs from Mary Poppins, Willy Wonka and The Wizard ofOz. After that we get down to individual songs: Golden Boys from rookie soul songstress Res' How I Do; the Beautiful World duet of John Mellencamp and India.Arie; Elton John's Want Love; Alicia Keys' Fallin' and Blu Cantrell's sassy Hit 'Em Up Style (Oops!) Finally, two expanded reissues of note: Live at Leeds, by the Who with the complete live Tommy added, and What's Going On, by Marvin Gaye, with concert performances and alternate mixes.

Identikit, Burning Airlines. "Well-crafted indie-rock that demands attention." Change, Dismemberment Plan. "Challenging, odd and thoroughly entrancing." West Palm Beach, FL Aug. 9, 10, can take him by surprise. VR000M VR0OOM, King Crimson.

A double-live CD of Crimson classics featuring the "double trio" (guitarists Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew, Chapman stick specialists Tony Levin and Trey Gunn, and drummers Bill Bruford and Pat Mastelotto), recorded in 1995 in New York City and 1996 in Mexico City. The Grand Pecking Order, Oysterhead. Primus bassist Les Claypool and Phish guitarist Trey Ansatasio form the vocal personality of this trio and CD, but the band's heartbeat is former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who's thankfully playing rock again (even if it is of the quirky variety). Past, Present Futures, Chick Corea New Trio. Songs From the Analog Playground, Charlie Hunter.

Here, Dean Brown. Live Encounter, Trey Gunn Band. Lateralus, Tool. Gorillaz Pearl Jam. "Best live rock band in the world releases concert recordings of every show it played in 2000, including its two-night stand in West Palm Beach.

All 72 of them are better than the new Creed album." AND LAST AND LEAST Our dubious achievement award goes to ok ONE LAST ONE: The absolute lowest moment in music in 2001 The Michael Jackson anniversary concert and TV special. Do we have to say anything more? M.i.iim.i.i.iiiin.u.i i. wmihhhpw it S-v Y. Vjtfr- Ji Palm Beach County radio programming. If there's an airtight case for musical education in U.S.

schools, this is it Locally, you have Planet Radio 92.1 and The Buzz 103.1 programming a playlist of lunkheaded young Caucasian males either whining (Korn, Staind), rapping (Kid Rock, Limp Biz-kit), bastardizing ska (Blink-182), showing 0-percent originality (Gods-mack), or having so many deficiencies that they can't all be listed here (The Offspring). If only there were a classic rock alternative (pardon the pun) The Gater 98.7 and Zeta 94.9 nlav ach ing old warhorses by Bob Seger, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Boston, then tell you that a song by nouveau whiners like Creed balances things. Radio programmers will answer with the old "we're giving the people what they want" line, which has no teeth, because they're only giving the people what they've been brainwashed into thinking they want Do you really have a choice when it comes from less than 1 percent of what's available? Bill Meredith.