Blogarrhea: Unearthing Great Sound From Cuba, Memphis, Brazil & a 17-Year-Old Girl From Texas

Four packages came to my mailbox recently representing sound as varied and esoteric as can be: from hot Afro-Cuban spice by the Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble on 316 Records (Havana Blue) and a "new" Elvis double-album from Memphis (Way Down In The Jungle Room on RCA/Legacy) to a Brazilian samba-soaked sampler Boston Pops-style (the self-released Concerto Para Moviola by Ricardo Bacelar) and--the gem of the batch -- 17-year-old red hot mama wanna-be Ally Venable Band (No Glass Shoes on Connor Ray Music) from deep in the heart of Texas. They combine for one hell of a Blogarrheah.

You might call Concerto Para Moviola by acclaimed Brazilian pianist/composer/arranger Ricardo Bacelar similar in presentation to what the Boston Pops does. It's a program for dilettantes as no one road is traversed very deeply, but, on the surface, time-honored familiar melodies by the likes of Weather Report ("Birdland"), Pat Metheny ("So May It Secretly Begin"), Benny Golson ("Killer Joe"), Michel Legrand ("The Windmills of Your Mind"), Horace Silver ("Senor Blues") and Chick Corea ("Blue Miles") go down easy and are juxtaposed with originals to present a flowing background that anybody could digest. It proves to be a functional introduction to some great tunes as done by an octet of professionals.

Much more passionate and illustrative of one's inner desires, the Ally Venable Band's No Glass Shoes casts the titular character as a big-time bad-ass blues mama who takes what she wants. She's a bad go-getter, yeah. Did I mention she's 17? Despite her tender age, she can sling and sting a guitar with those twice and three times her age. She has the balls to rewrite Alberta Hunter's "Downhearted Blues." She tackles "Messin' With The Kid" by Junior Wells and "Love Me Like A Man" (the Bonnie Raitt hit). She wrote the other five songs herself and sings with a powerhouse delivery where you'd swear she was at least, uh, 18. Those in her home state of Texas should be on the look-out for her in Kilgore at The Back Porch Outdoor Stage on Aug. 13, the Dallas House Of Blues on Aug. 19 and Dan Electro's Guitar Bar in her home town of Houston. Here's hoping she heads northeast sometime soon.