Tropic Appetites

With jazz you can never go wrong. Great combo of the beautiful and extravagant female voice of Julie Tippets and Howard Johnson's vocals that vaguely reminds me of Tom Waits energy, suave and elegant.

Essentially, the long form tracks here dominate in quality, with Carla Bley masterfully balancing parts to create a structurally daunting composition while simultaneously adding manic, and weirdly cool instrumental passages and shorter songs to easy transitions into more complex moments. Everybody got their spotlight, and everybody did their job well. And I'm totally pleased with the result

Brilliant. I fell in love with Carla Bley's jazz at first listen, and every time I re-listen, I just love her off-the-wall vision more. Someone called this "jazz in opposition". Yeah. That is pretty much the best three-word review I've ever read. Take what jazz offers and what rock in opposition offers in terms of weird structures, and you get this wonderful mess.