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The name comes from an Italian kind of pasta. The lineup is made of Weba Garretson (vocals), Joe Baiza (guitar), Wayne Griffin (drums) and Ralph Gorodetsky (bass). The most repeated word in the press release - namely in other reviews, and by the singer herself - is "angular", especially referred to Baiza's style. Yet Puttanesca are definitely more a rock group than Doctor Nerve, if you get my point, and there is a clear blues'n'jazz root in what they do, which surely has nothing to do with your typical "easy going" showcase of kerranging riffs and screaming vocals for headbanging pleasures. At times, Garretson could even remind someone of a more vocally corpulent version of Annette Peacock; indeed, in "Shiny Red Box" I myself was thinking about Peacock's contribution to Bill Bruford's "Feels Good to Me". There is something genuinely appealing in this band, though; the recording sounds like captured in a garage, but some of the elements are refined and telling in a sensual kind of way. The rhythm section is tightly seamed, without concessions to any lustre, and some of the arrangements wear like deliciously battleworn clothes on the ears; there's even a Captain Beefheart cover ("Lick my decals off, baby") that closes the show, and a (probably involuntary) tip of the hat to Jethro Tull in "Red Haired Woman". All in all, "Puttanesca" is a nice melange of honesty and passion. But where all these people hear that "punk" attitude, I still can't put my finger on. Massimo Ricci “Touching Extremes†7/07, http://spazioinwind.libero.it/extremes/touchinghome.htm
Puttanesca may not boast the same kamikaze thrills as The Master's Voice (Baiza's project The Unkown Instructors) but what it lacks in off-the-cuff excitement it more than makes up for in tunefulness, with cool melodies that drift up and out of the speakers like cigarette smoke in a noir nightclub. As a frontwoman, Weba Garretson is a powerhouse, her intoxicatingly smooth vocals lending a touch of class to Baiza's angular fretwork. Her apparently structuring influence as a songwriter, too, suits the guitarist well; if his more tedious improvisations with the Instructors occasionally serve as reminders of just why the electric guitar is a less expressive instrument for free jazz than, say, the tenor saxophone, here he's at the top of his game, laying down grooves with an easy funkiness on "Shiny Red Box" and channeling his best Antennae Jimmy Semens on "Fruit Filled Pancake."
But Puttanesca works best as a collaborative effort, and the best songs on this record are the ones where the whole is greater than the sum of its musical parts. Like "White Nylon," where Godoretsky plucks out an almost subliminally funky bassline under Garretson's and Baiza's mutual racket. Or "Red Haired Woman," the album's majestic chill-out number, in which the band wisely resists the urge to go all out and lets Garretson's voice stretch languorously over a bed of mellow guitar chords, brushed percussion, and even a closing flute solo to boot. Best of all, though (and not just because it allows me to make my third Beefheart reference in this single article), is the closing cover of "Lick My Decals Off, Baby," which faithfully co-opts the Magic Band's galloping arrangement while Garretson injects the lyrics with a sexuality Don Van Vliet could never muster.
http://mainline.wordpress.com/2007/04/27/jazzpunk/
The opening track, "Shift," starts with 90 seconds of nothing
but a smooth groove between the inviting vocals and the drums.
But don't be fooled. this is not "smooth jazz." When "Shift" kicks into
gear, the effect is stunning, and leads us into an extraordinary record that
is the first contender I've heard so far for Best Albums of 2007.
http://doyouwantnewwaveordoyouwantthetruth.blogspot.com/2007
/03/puttanesca-band-album.htm
Garretson is an intriguing yet charismatic singer
and performer, superbly complemented by the dizzying
accompaniment of guitarist Joe Baiza (founder of the seminal SST
band Saccharine Trust and the infamous punk/jazz quartet Universal
Congress Of), drummer Wayne Griffin of Congress Of and bass
player Ralph Gorodetsky, a veteran of both UCO and the Sinfonietta... At the best of times, like a meeting of the minds of Marlene Dietrich and Ornette Coleman, Puttanesca is sometimes demanding, sometimes thrilling, and always intriguing.
http://www.avrev.com/music/revs/0407/weba_garretson.shtml
Puttanesca's self-titled debut is not for the faint of heart, though for about 60
seconds, one isn't likely to notice the dangerous edge that lurks within the
band's music. As bass player Ralph Gorodetsky and drummer Wayne
Griffin lock onto a skipping, beatnik groove, front gal Weba Garretson
seductively delivers Shift's sexually charged lyrics with a conversational
coo. In hindsight, the darkness is present right from the start, hiding within
the tension that resonates through every rhythmic pattern. It doesn't
become apparent, however, until the sharp, stabbing shards of Joe Baiza's
electric guitar poke through the calm with such lightning speed and deadly
force that they shove the ambience of the endeavor into an entirely different
orbit.
http://www.musicbox-online.com/reviews-2007/puttanesca-self-
titled.html
Uncompromising and courageously stripped down; angular, trippy and raw. The beat of the drum, the bass and guitar is sheer and
insistently clear. The vocals arc, arch and bend your will. Like a meeting between Dot Allison and the Gang of Four in a particularly troublesome part of town, the record is a bed of perfectly contemporary needles. It never lets me rest.
http://www.outsideleft.com/main.php?updateID=702
