Carl Hancock Rux: Good Bread Alley (Thirsty Ear Records).Best known as a playwright and author (the Obie Award-winning Talk and the post-apocalyptic novel Asphalt), Carl Hancock Rux has released an impressive catalog of music since the mid-1990s, most notably the woefully woe·ful also wo·ful adj. 1. Affected by or full of woe; mournful. 2. Causing or involving woe. 3. Deplorably bad or wretched: underpromoted albums Rux Revue (Sony/550, 1998) and Apothecary apothecary /apoth·e·cary/ (ah-poth´e-kar?e) pharmacist. a·poth·e·car·y n. pl. a·poth·e·car·ies Abbr. ap. 1. Rx (Giant Step, 2004). Rux moves to avant-garde independent label Thirsty Ear for the equally impressive Good Bread Alley Good Bread Alley was the name of a street in the Overtown section of Miami that fell to ruins after the construction of a nearby highway. It is also the name of Carl Hancock Rux's 2006 CD of "neo-blues" music. . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Supported by a powerful group of collaborators (including Brooklyn Funk Essentials Brooklyn Funk Essentials is an musical group who mix jazz, funk, and hip hop collective featuring musicians and poets from different cultures. The band was conceived in 1993 by producer Arthur Baker and bassist and musical director Lati Kronlund. vocalist Stephanie McKay and electronic production legend David Holmes), Rux once again travels a hypnotic, lyrical diaspora filled with dense poetics, gospel yelps, preacherly exhortations and seductive, rumbling baritone. As with Revue and Apothecary, the music is grounded by multiple sonic contexualizations by a primary instrument, and Rux ably dances with Brechtian acoustic piano arrangements through classically tinged pop ("Behind the Curtain in concealment; in secret. See also: Curtain " and a lamenting rework of McKay's "Thadius Star"), stride blues sermonizing ("Living Room"), and moody, syrup-slow country soul (a heart-rending performance of the Bill Withers antiwar soldier's story "I Can't Write Left-Handed"). carlhancockrux.com |
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