What Am I Listening to Now?
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008Reinvigorated, I loaded some new music for today. I have decided to work my way through my commercial CDs . . . at least for a while. For today I put on Bob Weir’s Heaven Help the Fool and David Sanborn’s As We Speak. Both offerings remind me of college.
The first time I heard Heaven Help the Fool was my freshman year at the ‘Berg. I liked it. I always thought some of this should have shown up in the Dead’s roatation, but alas . . .
What really struck me today was how short albums used to be. I don’t listen to a lot of commercial stuff as I primarily put in complete shows. Three hours is normal for me to complete an offering. By contrast, the eight songs here came in under 35 minutes. Sheesh . . . I completed this before I made it to work today.
Some of the songs sound dated. Bobby did not record another Ace here. The album has a produced sound to it with some tricks along the way. But good songs are good songs despite the post production.
The first six songs are decent. Track seven, I’ll Be Doggone is the weak song and the closer, Wrong Way Feelin’ doesn’t do much for me. I’ve always liked Bomb’s Away and it gets the album off to an upbeat start. I actually quoted a verse of this for a geocache I placed four years ago.
The ballads, however, seem to be what I like most out of Bobby’s stuff here. Easy to Slip and This Time Forever are good. While neither is more than the requisite 4:09 for radio play, both are structured for a big Jerry solo in the middle. Oh wait . . . that’s not going to happen. Hmmm . . .
Salt Lake City, Shade of Grey (predates Touch of Grey), and the title song are all solid. Listening to this disk this morning had me easily seeing my dorm room, Craig, and the big stereo cabinet I used to have back then.
As I arrived at work As We Speak came on. This is another album from my college days. I kind of stumbled into this album and hence, Sanborn and jazz to boot.
It was circa 1984 and my friend Mike Rubinstein decided he was in need of a new pair of speakers. He asked me to come with him to Bryn Mawr Stereo. Back then, Bryn Mawr was the place to purchase high-end stereo equipment. They were eventually gobbled up by Tweeter.
We drove out to the Whitehall store. At the time I was a fan of Polk Audio and Rubes was taken by a big set. Soon enough someone came to help my buddy. We went into a private listening room to test out some stuff. This was pre-CDs folks. The salesman put on a record and then began his spiel about the speakers. I was right there, but not being the one putting out the cash, listened to the music. Things were crystal clear. I interrupted and asked what we were listening to. The guy told me a bit about David Sanborn and handed me the album cover.
This began my move to liking jazz. I even played the alto sax because of this album. There is a humorous story associated with that, which I will share some other time. Sanborn has played with all sorts of folks over the years and he was definitely it at this time. The restaurant I managed during this period played a lot of Sanborn and other kewl jazz. Fast forward a couple years and I purchased my first CD player. As We Speak was one of the first five CDs I purchased.
It’s been a while since I listened to this, but it never takes long to get into it. Port of Call moves! This is no Kenny G, folks. Sanborn lays down some serious grooves with his band here. Of course, George Duke makes an appearance on this opening tune.
The band includes Omar Hakim, Marcus Miller, and Micheal Sembello. among others. This is a fine band for Sanborn to rip his saxophone. Back Again is the highlight of the record followed by the aforementioned Port of Call and the title song.
This morning was a nice trip down memory lane. I don’t regret much in life and I don’t really want to go back in time, but I wouldn’t mind slipping into my 30″ Levis again. 
