Orchèstre Vévé [extended]

• Vintage Verckys [RetroAfric, 2001] A-
• Break Mirrors [I, 2010] *
• Heigh Ho [Verve, 2014] ***

See Also:

• Blake Mills
• Blake Mills

Consumer Guide Reviews:

Vintage Verckys [RetroAfric, 2001]
Saxophonist-careerist Kiamuangana Mateta, stage billing Verckys, could just see the guitars taking over O.K. Jazz as the '70s loomed, so he started a rival band to accommodate Franco's exiles. Verckys's soukous had a sweet tooth, with horn room in the sebenes. His tenor matched that of his garbled namesake King Curtis about as precisely as his sobriquet, and his sound was never as individual as Dudu Pukwana's or Issa Cissoko's. But wait till you hear him quack like a duck as he takes "Londende" home. A-

Blake Mills: Break Mirrors [I, 2010]
On his 2010 bandleading debut, too much band and not enough leader ("It'll All Work Out," "History of My Life") *

Blake Mills: Heigh Ho [Verve, 2014]
Millennial guitar master enlists graybeard backup legends to deploy songs that often prove a shade-and-a-half too atmospheric even so ("Don't Tell Our Friends About Me," "Seven") ***