SARR - Girl Talk - All Day

In which everybody’s favorite mash-up DJ asks his audience if he can take the day off. Greg Gillis sounds a tad uninspired here. Compared to 2008’s raucous Feed the Animals, All Day sounds rigid, static and soulless. Certain combinations – “Blitzkrieg Bop” (Ramones), “Tipsy ‘09” (J-Kwon), “La Di Da” (Slick Rick) and “Waiting for the Sun” (the Doors) – don’t fit together as seamlessly as tracks such as “Jailbreak” (Thin Lizzy) and “Crank That” (Soulja Boy) did on Feed The Animals. All Day isn’t completely flat, however. The opening two minutes, featuring Ludacris’ “Move, Bitch” mashed up against the first verse of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs,” is sure to get the blood flowing, but I don’t know if the rest of the album will make you get up and dance.

SARR - Pentangle - Basket of Light

A solid folk album from one of the English folk era’s most enduring groups. While “Basket of Light” doesn’t match the best released by fellow folkers Fairport convention, Pentangle’s jazzy undertones certainly breathe life into folk traditions and keep the songs from sounding as dated as they should be. The record’s opening track, “Light Flight” (and its smoky vocals from Jacqui McShee) wouldn’t sound out of place at the Village Vanguard in NYC. Other highlights include “Springtime Promises” and the soaring “Train Song,” which almost ventures into prog territory with its bluesy time changes and frenetic ending.

SARR - Fillmore: The Last Days

For five nights in the summer of 1971, some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s biggest and best paid their respects to promoter extraordinaire Bill Graham’s Fillmore West concert hall. The highlights from the five-night party were compiled into this two-album set and a concert film, which has been recently re-released on DVD. There are a few standout tracks on the record – in particular, a transcendent performance of “Pana” by Jorge Santana’s Malo that’s more enjoyable to me than most of Carlos Santana’s catalogue. However in some cases (It’s a Beautiful Day’s incendiary “White Bird”) the performances sound limp without the video footage. Go with the DVD.

SARR - Pat Martino - Consciousness/Live!

Pat Martino is a stone cold genius of the jazz guitar. Throughout this two-album set, Martino pushes jazz to its limits, producing Clotranesque sheets of sound, daring his band members to keep up. However, though the full band tracks are breathtaking, Martino’s genius really shows on two tracks, “Passata On Guitar” and Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” For all the breakneck energy shown on such tracks as “Impressions” and “Special Door,” Martino’s tender phrasing on “Passata” is the true standout of this disc, and Martino exhibits virtuosity and subtle restraint, creating the perfect atmosphere for a summer night on your patio.