Visual Sound: Issue 8
BOBBY MAHONEY & THE SEVENTH SON, “MOTH TO THE FLAME”
Fresh off their We Go On (Telegraph Hill Records) listening party at The Saint in their hometown of Asbury Park, Bobby Mahoney & The Seventh Son is gearing up to head out on the road to support its first EP in four years. Twelve years in, guitarist/vocalist Bobby Mahoney, drummer James McIntosh, guitarist Andrew Saul and bassist Chang-Soon have fine-tuned their alt-rock sound into a blister of post-punk chaos.
MIKE DALY & THE PLANETS,
“THIS IS MY LIFE”
Former Aquarian Weekly Editor Mike Daly, from Passaic County, has been singing even longer than he’s been writing. He’s always been a great singer but on this song, he hits a nerve compositionally that cuts to the bone and draws blood. You can’t get more searingly honest than this.
NINETEEN HAND HORSE,
“JUST ANOTHER HONKY TONK NIGHT”
Nathalie Archangel may be singing these days in a hotshot California country band, working on her second album with them after their Revel debut was so well-received, but you can’t take the Jersey out of the girl who spent the first 23 years of her life living right off Exit #168 of the Garden State Parkway in Bergen County. This pure country song even resurrects the ghosts of Patsy and Waylon plus Johnny and June.
NEW YORK BASS QUARTET,
“AIR”
Last month, we introduced you to bassist/composer Martin Wind from Teaneck. We’ve since had the opportunity to listen to Air (Laike Records) by his New York Bass Quartet. Suffice it to say we were knocked out loaded! This is one amazing amalgamation of four basses (covering a sonic range of over four octaves) plus two drummers, piano, organ and accordion). Besides his mysterious originals, they interpret JS Bach, Lennon/McCartney, Weather Report, Charlie Haden and Pat Metheny. This has to be the jazz album of the year so far.
VAKILI BAND,
“RACHEL”
Here’s one more from Montclair’s Vakili Band. “Look, we're a local Jersey band with big dreams,” singer Lily Valkili tells The Jersey Sound. The songs on our Walking Sideways debut are the result of a phenomenal collaboration by Ben St. Jacques' electric guitar, Matt Jovanis' heavy bass, Joel Dorow's wailing harmonica, Gordon Kuba's thunderous drums and producer David Amlen at Sound on Sound Studios. Some of it has our horn section of local jazz players: tenor saxophonist Alexandre Desrivieres, trumpeter Scott Peebles and trombonist Peter Lin.
LENNY WHITE,
DRUM SOLO WITH GERI ALLEN
In 1969, when he was 20 years old, longtime Teaneck resident Lenny White was in the studio on drums with Miles Davis for the seminal Bitches Brew album. That same year, he was in Rudy Van Gelder’s iconic Englewood Cliffs studio to record Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay. When Chick Corea first asked him to join pioneering jazz-rock group Return To Forever, he turned him down. He was also asked to be the original drummer of Journey and he turned that down too. Then Chick asked him again and he wound up changing the face of progressive instrumental music as part of Return To Forever. Besides teaching at NYU, and suffering through the pandemic (“the pandemic took away my purpose, which is to play live.” he recently admitted to The Jersey Sound as part of next month's "Up Close"), White will join the legendary bassist Ron Carter—still going strong—at his 85th birthday concert “For The Love Of Ron” in New York City May 10. The dude is one of the best living American drummers. Period. You can also hear him on Air by The New York Bass Quartet.
JOE WALSH,
“ORDINARY AVERAGE GUY”
The Pride of Montclair, Joe Walsh, gave the Eagles some much-needed balls when he joined them in 1975.