| Highlife | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Sonny Sharrock Band | ||||
| Released | 1990 | |||
| Recorded | October 1990 | |||
| Studio | Quantum Sound Studio in Jersey City | |||
| Genre | Jazz fusion, pop, rock | |||
| Length | 44:18 | |||
| Label | Enemy | |||
| Producer | Sonny Sharrock, Francis Manzella | |||
| Sonny Sharrock chronology | ||||
| ||||
Highlife is a studio album by American jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock. It was recorded at Jersey City's Quantum Sound Studio in October 1990 and released later that same year by Enemy Records. [1] [2]
In a contemporary review for The Village Voice , Robert Christgau gave Highlife an "A" and called it a "gorgeously straightforward guitar record" from someone whose musical principles reflect "a genius son" of Jimmy Smith and Jimi Hendrix. He said Sharrock expresses his themes in a dignified manner, with variation in timbre more so than in harmony, while committing to both cacophony and melody in his exploration of jazz and rock traditions. [3] Christgau named it the sixth best album of the year in his list for the Pazz & Jop critics poll. [4] In The Philadelphia Inquirer , jazz critic Francis Davis hailed Highlife as "instrumental-pop at its most energetic and uncontrived". [5] She felt the "vivacious" record was more "pop" than "jazz" but nonetheless a "persuasive argument for the advantages of maturity" in which Sharrock embraced "simplicity and directness, qualities you'd never have expected from him twenty-five years ago". [6]
In The Penguin Guide to Jazz (1992), Richard Cook and Brian Morton gave Highlife three out of four stars and found it more polished than Sharrock's previous records but with "bass-heavy" jazz fusion exercises that showed potential for more in the future. [7] AllMusic's Steve Huey was less enthusiastic, giving it three out of five stars and deeming it "something of a transitional album, catching Sharrock in the midst of figuring out where to take his music next, yet that searching quality makes it a compelling listen for fans". [8]
All music is composed by Sonny Sharrock, except "All My Trials" and "Highlife" which are Traditional arranged by Sharrock, "Venus/Upper Egypt" by Pharoah Sanders, "Giant Steps" by John Coltrane, and "Kate", which was written by Sharrock and inspired by "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush. [8]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "No More Tears" | 5:38 |
| 2. | "All My Trials" | 8:01 |
| 3. | "Chumpy" | 5:40 |
| 4. | "Highlife" | 4:14 |
| 5. | "Kate (Variations on a Theme by Kate Bush)" | 5:51 |
| 6. | "Venus/Upper Egypt" | 8:38 |
| 7. | "Your Eyes" | 5:38 |
| 8. | "Giant Steps" | 0:38 |
Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes. [9]
Robert Thomas Christgau is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and later became an early proponent of musical movements such as hip hop, riot grrrl, and the import of African popular music in the West. Christgau spent 37 years as the chief music critic and senior editor for The Village Voice, during which time he created and oversaw the annual Pazz & Jop critics poll. He has also covered popular music for Esquire, Creem, Newsday, Playboy, Rolling Stone, Billboard, NPR, Blender, and MSN Music, and was a visiting arts teacher at New York University. CNN senior writer Jamie Allen has called Christgau "the E. F. Hutton of the music world – when he talks, people listen."
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