With Paris Sessions, Joe's first release in over a year, he again demonstrates that he has an articulate voice and is an effective master of his chosen idiom. His new group, the All-Star Band, provides a truly complementary backup sound, with Peter Albin offering smooth bass, Dorothy Moskowitz some original, rippling piano and Tucki Bailey some fine sax. Vocally, Joe is supported throughout by the gospel-styled harmonies of drummer Ana Rizzo and Ms. Moskowitz. The slightly overused chemistry of his and their voices gives the record substantial vocal depth.

In "Sexist Pig" and "Coulene Anne," Joe offers two harrowing attacks on phallic oppression. Coulene embodies her sex's suffering and is dragged down by an abusive husband, Jimmie Dee, and the usual daily fare of drudgery. In a furious pitch, the women overpower Joe as they sing, "Babies have ruined my body/Washing has ruined my hands/Cooking, cleaning, regular things are starting to drive me mad ..." Rock has known few more liberating moments than when Coulene empties her .38 into Jimmie.

The music is strangely split between Top 40 and underground. Four of the five songs on the first side—including the eloquent but slightly cliched "Fantasy" and the stimulating "I'm So Tired"—are AM-oriented. The exception, "Movieola," offers Joe's cynical opinion of the current cinema and is the album's least listenable cut.

The second side is far heavier. It opens with "Zombies in a House of Madness," a damning poem about correctional institutions by prisoner Michael Beasley, and it includes the two anti-sexist numbers and a nightmarish—but humorous—dope bust tale called "Colorado Town."

The album adheres to a show format in which Host Joe says "Hello," dedicates a song, tells us when to invert the disk, and says "Goodbye" at its end. He ends with a light pastoral "St. Tropez," an innocuous escape from the excitement, decadence, violence, anger and pain that have dominated most of the album. (RS 141)

LEN EPAND