Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992 TAG: 9202220458
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE TENNIS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
NEW RECORDS
Rock24-7-SPYZ's fired-up and charging music and lyrics hit hard on their debut EP, "This is . . . 24-7-SPYZ" (eastwest records america).
The band's acid rock-laced guitars drip with distortion, much like a modern Jimi Hendrix (who's thanked for his inspiration in the liner notes) or Living Colour's Vernon Reid. The vocals, too, could have been easily handled by Living Colour crooner Corey Glover.
In fact, this band could be recommended listening for folks needing more of the Living Colour fix before those dudes get another record out.
On "Tick, Tick, Tick," the group releases a vitriolic spurt of energy, mixing rap with metal. Elsewhere, other tunes could pass for cool cocktail lounge jazz or refreshingly re-fabricated 1970s funk.
music
If the names Robert Clivilles and David Cole don't ring any bells, it's probably because you know them by their initials - the "C" and "C" in\ C+C Music Factory.
But as Clivilles & Cole's "Greatest Remixes, Vol. 1" (Columbia) makes plain, the Factory isn't the only place these two have toiled, for the two C's have been the brains behind the beats on Seduction's "Two to Make It Right," the Cover Girls' "Because of You" and Chaka Khan's "Clouds" - all of which are given slammingly insistent rethinks here. But the album's best moments are its oldest and newest: The vigorously soulful "A Deeper Love," and a tastefully revamped version of the house classic, "Do It Properly." - The Baltimore Sun Jazz
Subtle dynamics, melodic logic and a keen sense of compositional structure are such essential aspects of\ John Lewis' piano style that it can be easy to forget just how expertly the man can swing - particularly when he's away from his rhythmically conscious companions in the Modern Jazz Quartet.
But as his new solo recording, "Private Concert" (Emarcy), shows, few jazz musicians can build an original line around a Bach motif the way Lewis can, and fewer still can construct an improvisation that sounds like some lost work of Claude Debussy. And yet as well-thought-out as his solos are, they never lose their sense of swing; Indeed, even the Bach-derived "The Opening Bid" swings as expertly as his rendition of " 'Round Midnight." - The Baltimore Sun