Highlife (Sonny Sharrock album)

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]

Highlife
Studio album by
Sonny Sharrock Band
Released1990 (1990)
RecordedOctober 1990 (1990-10)
StudioQuantum Sound Studio in Jersey City
GenreJazz fusion, pop, rock
Length44:18
LabelEnemy
ProducerSonny Sharrock, Francis Manzella
Sonny Sharrock chronology
Live in New York
(1989)		 Highlife
(1990)		 Faith Moves
(1991)

Critical reception

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 his 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]

Track listing

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.TitleLength
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

Personnel

Credits are adapted from the album's liner notes.[9]

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References
  1. Sonny Sharrock catalog accessed July 13, 2015
  2. Chronological Recordings of Sonny Sharrock accessed July 13, 2015
  3. Christgau, Robert (June 4, 1991). "Consumer Guide". The Village Voice. New York. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  4. Pazz & Jop 1991: Dean's List
  5. Davis, Francis (March 27, 1992). "Jazz Meets Metal, And Sparks Fly". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved August 15, 2015.
  6. Davis, Francis (September 3, 1991). "This Is Not Jazz: The Guitar Buzz and Howl of Sonny Sharrock". The Village Voice. pp. 67‐68.
  7. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (1992). The Penguin Guide to Jazz. Penguin Books. p. 972. ISBN 0140153640.
  8. Huey, Steve. "Sonny Sharrock: Highlife > Review" at AllMusic. Retrieved July 13, 2015.
  9. Highlife (booklet). Sonny Sharrock. Brooklyn, New York: Enemy Records. 1990.CS1 maint: others (link)
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