Sometimes, it’s fun just to kick back and enjoy a CD without
\nhaving to think too much. Wire your brain into your feet,
\ndisconnect your worry and analysis glands, and have yourself a good
\ntime. For me, at least, a prime musical form to do this with is
\nWestern swing, and Vancouver-based Ray Condo & His Ricochets is
\npleased to oblige my musical slacking.<\/p>\n
This is not to say that swing is brainless. On the contrary,
\nit’s a complex, textured music; especially adding in the jazz,
\nroots, and blues notes Condo and his band are fond of.
\nHigh And Wild<\/i> is a well-done piece of work, enjoyable, fun,
\nand worth looking into.<\/p>\n
Condo is a longtime veteran of the music scene (first recording
\nin 1966) and his background includes country, punk, rockabilly,
\nR&B, pop, and swing. In 1994, he put together the Ricochets,
\nmade up of a collection of established musicians from the Vancouver
\narea.
\nHigh And Wild<\/i> is their third CD.<\/p>\n
The production is excellent, playing up the band’s sound well,
\nthough it’s a little flat and brittle – perhaps to add a sound of
\nauthenticity to the material. The musicianship is excellent – it’s
\nhard to decide who to single out for special kudos, but I have to
\nmention the intent, steady, thrumming beat of Pete Turland’s
\nstandup bass (especially on “Whatcha Gonna Do When There Ain’t No
\nSwing”, originally recorded in 1947) and Stephen Nikleva’s talented
\nlead guitar.<\/p>\n
There really isn’t a bad track on
\nHigh And Wild<\/i>. Worth special attention is “Fort Worth
\nStomp”, the rockabilly-tinged “Baby I Don’t Care”, a neat cover of
\nConnie Francis’ “Many Tears Ago”, and a
\ntruly\u2026original\u2026version of Cole Porter’s “What Is This
\nThing Called Love?” On a couple of listens, I probably could have
\nskipped past the Gene Vincent cover “I Flipped”, but that’s a minor
\nquibble.<\/p>\n
Overall,
\nHigh And Wild<\/i> is an excellent example both of traditional
\nWestern swing and of swing with a twist (several twists, in fact).
\nKudos to Ray Condo & His Ricochets for a truly wonderful trip
\ninto musical history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":25618,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6455],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-36824","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ray-condo-his-ricochets","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36824"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36824"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}