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Apothocary Rx | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | June 1, 2004 | |||
Genre | R&B/Electronic | |||
Length | 57.30 | |||
Label | Giant Step | |||
Producer | Carl Hancock Rux, Stewart Lerman, Rob Hyman | |||
Carl Hancock Rux chronology | ||||
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Apothecary Rx is the second studio album by Carl Hancock Rux, produced by Rob Hyman (of The Hooters ) and Stewart Lerman. The album also features singer Stephanie McKay and contributions from jazz violinist Leroy Jenkins and singer-songwriter Marc Anthony Thompson (of Chocolate Genius ). The album was selected by French writer Phillippe Robert for his 2008 publication "Great Black Music": an exhaustive tribute of 110 albums including 1954's Lady Sings The Blues by Billie Holiday, the work of Jazz artists Oliver Nelson, Max Roach, John Coltrane; rhythm and blues artists Otis Redding, Ike & Tina Turner, Curtis Mayfield, George Clinton; as well as individual impressions of Fela Kuti, Jimi Hendrix, and Mos Def. [1]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [2] |
"After six years since Carl Hancock Rux released his debut album, he "comes thundering back with one of the most expansive, ambitious, and musical recordings to come down the pipe in a long while. What ties these tracks together besides the musician's lyrical savvy (think scholarly, yet street lean and mean from the Gil Scott-Heron old school) and exceptional ear is almighty rhythm, as a cipher, as a shape-shifting ever-present in a musical meld that touches on everything from the Delta blues and Storyville to vanguard rock, vintage R&B, classic and futuristic pop, tough urban soul, and of course, the rainbow of sounds and beats that is hip-hop. A strange and unwieldy cast of characters were assembled for this set, including guitarist Dave Tronzo, avant jazz violin legend Leroy Jenkins, Marc Anthony Thompson (aka Chocolate Genius), Brazilian samba guitar genius Vinicius Cantuaria, Rob Hyman from the Hooters (who wrote "Time After Time" for Cyndi Lauper), and backing vocalists such as Irene Datcher, Stephanie McKay, and Helga Davis. Co-produced with help from Stewart Lerman (Black 47, Dar Williams), Rux assembles a montage of sounds that weave through and around one another in a constant effluvium of urban music that continually references and overwrites its history politically, socially, and spiritually. On the opener, "I Got a Name," with its shimmering African juju guitars that open onto a body of dubbed-out, compressed pianos, multi-layered percussion, and throbbing bass lines, Rux sings, raps, and chants his way through to establish an identity in the African diaspora as it stands tall as its own signifier, the American urban landscape. On "Eleven More Days," the contrast of generations, religions, races, and social statures is played out on subway platforms, playgrounds, slam apartments, prisons, and in the streets. While Rux iterates the terrain and circumstances in his landscape, a stunning gospel refrain sung by a chorus of female voices emphasizes the place of intersection, the place of hope, the place of loss, and even deliverance while contrasting contrapuntal synthetic rhythms slip around bass lines and indeterminate sounds. And while these two selections provide a view, they are by no means the only ones. Everywhere polyrhythmic strategies, multivalent pop textures, and smoky roots musics fold into one another, sometimes clashing but more often just touching and caressing one another before they move on to get Rux's poetic depth of field across, and that field never cancels anything out of its articulation, except perhaps hopelessness. Apothecary RX is indeed a prescription: musically it opens wide the current closed scene of alliteration, endless insider referencing, and production conceits by sounding organic and visceral without ever bogging down in its own ambition. Lyrically, it offers voices, many of them, sometimes speaking simultaneously, sometimes out of the depths of solitude, and they speak from reportorial detachment as well as from pain and joy and the desire to transcend as well as be delivered. Rux has created something off the boards here, unclassifiable, truly beautiful and moving. It is as unrelenting in its excellence as it is in its ambition." Thom Jurek AllMusic . [2]
The Hooters are an American rock band, which was founded in Philadelphia in 1980. They combine elements of rock, reggae, ska, and folk music.
Vinicius Cantuária is a Brazilian singer, songwriter, guitarist, drummer, and percussionist. He is associated with bossa nova and Brazilian jazz.
Time Stand Still is the sixth studio album by American rock band the Hooters, released in Europe on September 14, 2007, and released in the US on February 5, 2008.
Zig Zag is the fourth studio album by American rock band the Hooters, released in 1989 by Columbia Records.
Out of Body is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Hooters, released in May 1993 by MCA Records.
The Hooters Live is the first live album by American rock band the Hooters released in 1994 by MCA Records. It contains eleven tracks recorded live in Germany and two newly recorded studio tracks.
Rux Revue is the debut album by Carl Hancock Rux, released by Sony 550 Music which operated through Sony Music's Epic Records division. The album was produced in Los Angeles by the Dust Brothers, featuring drummers Joey Waronker and James Gadson, bassists Atom Ellis and Carol Kaye, keyboardist James Hall, bass guitarist Wah-Wah Watson and additional keyboard, Keyboard, Piano and Melodica by Money Mark. The album mixes soul, gospel, blues, rock, classical and hip-hop into a collage of machine samples, drum machines, live instrumentation and sound effects, incorporating a gospel influenced Sprechgesang and Vocalese style reliant upon African American alliteration, consonance and assonance while abstaining from the common techniques of poetic monologue popular in spoken word and slam poetry.
Stephanie McKay is an American soul singer and songwriter from the Bronx in New York, whose music includes elements of soul, funk, rock, and hip hop. McKay's career has spanned over 20 years, during which time she has collaborated with artists such as Anthony Hamilton, DJ Spinna, Toshi Reagon and Big lovely, Roy Hargrove, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Katalyst, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Tricky, Carl Hancock Rux and Amp Fiddler and numerous others. She has released two solo albums, McKay (2003) and Tell It Like It Is (2008), the self-titled EP Stephanie McKay (2006), and has toured internationally as a solo artist. She formerly played guitar in Kelis' band and recorded with the Brooklyn Funk Essentials.
Both Sides Live is a 2-CD live album by American rock band the Hooters, released in November 2008.
Soul Meeting is a 1961 Atlantic Records album of recordings made by Ray Charles and Milt Jackson in 1957. The album was later re-issued together with the earlier Soul Brothers (1958), on a 2 CD compilation together with other 'bonus' tracks from the same Charles and Jackson recording sessions.
Blues Preacher is an album by the American guitarist James Blood Ulmer, recorded in 1992 and released in Japan on DIW Records and in the US on Columbia/DIW. It was released in North America in 1994.
Places I Have Never Been is an album by the American musician Willie Nile, released in 1991. It was Nile's first album in 10 years, as legal and personal issues prevented him from putting out music. Nile supported the album with a North American tour.
Good Bread Alley is the third studio album of Carl Hancock Rux. Titled after a close-knit historically African American district of shotgun houses that once occupied a segregated neighborhood in Miami, Florida, the cd was released by Thirsty Ear Music, produced by Carl Hancock Rux with songwriting and co-songwriting credits from Geoff Barrow, Vinicius Cantuária, David Holmes, Rob Hyman, Stewart Lerman, Darren Morris, Phil Mossman, Vernon Reid, Tim Saul, Jaco Van Schalkwyk, and Bill Withers. The cd tackles religion, sexual politics, war and media overload, in the tradition of Marvin Gaye and Donny Hathaway, employing supersaturated, open-ended soul music with bluesy vamps, touches of minimalism, and slide-guitar licks providing a rich backdrop for Rux's sardonic baritone, achieving a pop-gospel synthesis.
How About This is an album by vocalist Kay Starr and pianist and bandleader Count Basie, released in 1969 by the Paramount Records label.
Samba Carioca is a 2010 album by guitarist and vocalist Vinicius Cantuária.
Vinicius is a 2001 album by guitarist, vocalist and percussionist Vinicius Cantuária.
Lágrimas Mexicanas is an album by guitarists Vinicius Cantuária and Bill Frisell which was released on the French Naïve label.
"Boys Will Be Boys" is a song by American rock band The Hooters, which was released in 1993 as the second single from their fifth studio album Out of Body. The song was written by Rob Hyman, Eric Bazilian and Cyndi Lauper, and produced by Joe Hardy, Bazilian and Hyman. Lauper also provides guest vocals on the song.
Leroy Jenkins Live! is a live album by violinist / composer Leroy Jenkins. It was recorded in March 1992 at P.S. 122 in New York City, and was released by Black Saint in 1993. On the album, Jenkins is joined by guitarist Brandon Ross, synthesizer player Eric Johnson, bassist Hill Greene, and drummer Reggie Nicholson. The album is subtitled "featuring Computer Minds."
Urban Blues is a live album by violinist and composer Leroy Jenkins. It was recorded in January 1984 at Sweet Basil in New York City, and was released by Black Saint later that year. On the album, Jenkins is joined by members of his band Sting: Terry Jenoure on violin and vocals, Brandon Ross and James Emery on guitar, Alonzo Gardner on bass, and Kamal Sabir on drums.