Local Record Roundup
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LONBERG-HOLM/ROEBKE/KOTCHE A Valentine for Fred Katz (Atavistic) Cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm is best known as a free improviser and abstract composer. But with this project–a tribute to the first great jazz cellist that was initially put together for the 2000 Empty Bottle jazz festival–he swings with an ornate lyricism. (Katz was an integral member of the gentle, highly stylized west-coast quintet led by Chico Hamilton in the 50s and a longtime collaborator of local word-jazz maestro Ken Nordine.) Lonberg-Holm chose two rock-oriented players–Wilco drummer Glenn Kotche and bassist Ryan Hembrey–to round out the group in its debut performance, but the trio brought a suitably gentle finesse to the melodic and restrained repertoire. On the record, a mix of Katz originals and standards affiliated with the cellist, Jason Roebke (sounding superb) replaces Hembrey.
MR. RUDY DAY “Juzzle” (Randy Diatribe) Rudy Day is the alter ego of guitarist Andy Hopkins, who since migrating from Atlanta in the late 90s has made himself indispensable as a sideman to Kelly Hogan and Andrew Bird. In their bands he creates soft-focus grooves from Curtis Mayfield-inspired arpeggios, but when he fronts this unabashedly stoopid power trio his soulful side has to compete with his cock-rock fantasies. His oversize riffing–funky in a James Gang sort of way–struts like a skid row drag queen, and he interrupts it with hysterical falsetto whoops and sickly sweet leads that would make Tom Scholz blush. The more introspective stuff sounds eerily similar to the recent balladry of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Hopkins is a terrific guitarist and there’s promise in his writing, but his inveterate goofiness is wearying.
