Music that defies category is good music
Christopher C. Allison | Brooklyn, NY United States | 08/16/2002
(4 out of 5 stars)
"On a whim, I went to see Howard Fishman at a small club in Brooklyn last night. The show was free, so what did I have to lose? As it turned out, nothing but my chains.
The five-piece quartet played two sets, the first more tranditional Dixieland-ish kind of stuff, and the second somewhat...more experimental. During the intermission, I decided I needed to buy the record, so I approached Mr. Fishman, who had a bunch in a duffle bag. He handed me three. I asked him which one he prefferred. He said Well, this one is very traditional, this one is fairly experimental, and this one (handing me 'Do What I Want') is rock and roll.
Rock and roll? Huh.
So I bought the rock and roll album. I'm not sure I agree with his labelling, but I'm not sure I can make a better suggestion either. It's a great record, a challenging record, a strange record, a funny record and, in the end, unlike anything I've every heard before. There's some jazz guitar, and some beautiful violin playing, and some crystalline trumpet, and some biting lyrics. What these all add up to, I don't know. But it's definetly worth your [$$$] for the music alone, and you can feel good that you've done your part to hold back the tide of rampant sameness in modern corporate 'music.'
And god bless you for it."