THE VIEW
MUSIC: Kentucky Headhunters & Ted Kooshian
VDT View — THE KENTUCKY HEADHUNTERS LIVE/AGORA BALLROOM — CLEVELAND, OHIO — MAY 13, 1990
Twenty years after releasing the debut album “Pickin’ On Nashville,” the Kentucky Headhunters is still playing and kicking and not conforming to Nashville expectations — thank goodness. The band’s blues and Southern rock/country music is still pure. But, man, if you want to catch this group as a young band full of steam and vinegar, find this live recording of the Headhunters’ May 13, 1990, show in Cleveland’s Agora Ballroom. The Headhunters blast through their early stuff: the cover of Bill Monroe’s “Walk Softly On This Heart of Mine,” “Dumas Walker,” “Rock ’n Roll Angel,” the cover of Don Gibson’s “Oh Lonesome Me.” Though the band left Mercury Records many years ago, this live album is part of Mercury and Universal Music’s Authorized Bootleg series. In the liner notes, the bandmembers note they have lived charmed lives. This live album proves why.
UNDERDOG & OTHER STORIES: Ted Kooshian’s Standard Orbit Quartet
Every cut of this 13-song album is a revelation, a foot-tapping, head-bopping load of fun mixing nostalgia with new interpretations. It is not unusual for an instrumental jazz album to cover standards from folks like Duke Ellington. Ted Kooshian covers Ellington, too, with a hopping rendition of “Purple Gazelle.” But it is the other covers here that astound, amaze and amuse. There is an Arabian-tango saxed-up take of the old “Underdog” cartoon theme. While that old tune, especially with this revved-up version, may not be familiar to many listeners, Kooshian’s covers of Quincy Jones’ “Sanford and Son” theme will catch your attention. He also takes a stab at a melancholy, discordant instrumental version of the Popeye theme, with a wobbly, Sunday-morning-coming-quality suggesting the sailor may have something a little more brisk than just spinach in the can. The “Wild, Wild West” theme starts with its familiar bum-bump, bum-bump opening then transcends into a near-religious experience on saxophone. This is the type of album that may offend some jazz purists. Too bad. It’s just the type of album to make jazz fans out of non-jazz listeners.
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