2006

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NEW YORK TIMES
"This literary young lion found the balance between hip-hop cool and the poetry slam's pretentions on his debut collection of funk powered, soul-searching rants, forming a panorama reaching from the neighborhood to the universe"

THE GUARDIAN
Carl Hancock Rux declaims vivid texts in a half-spoken, half-sung baritone somewhere between Scott Walker and Gil Scott Heron. The musical settings shoot off in half a dozen different musical directions, depending on the inclinations of his collaborator, or the sample or loop used as the germ of each idea. Rux works in the manner of a rapper but the result is somehow fresher than much rap, and less self-regarding.Lies, co-written with Vernon Reid, uses a vocal harmony hook reminiscent of Moby or Alan Wilder's Recoil, while Black of My Shadow marries the instantly recognisable acoustic guitar chords of Vinicius Cantuaria to Helga Davis's soaring spirituals. My Brother's Hands is oddly reminiscent of Virginia Astley or the Blue Nile. Rux also delivers a moving reinvention of Bill Withers' I Can't Write Left Handed...The most focused piece is the title track, where a majestic, dirty blues vamp underscores another heartfelt soliloquy: "Our religiosity has got to be more/ Than historical animosity."

CMJ
"Working with a smaller set of musicians -- and for a smaller label -- the multi-disciplinary artist Carl Hancock Rux delivers what is arguably his most musical album to date. There are more "songs" on Good Bread Alley than on the poet/author/vocalist's previous efforts, and Rux also uses his deep baritone singing voice more than usual. Hip-hop and electronica make brief appearances, but most of the sounds here are neo-cabaret, neo-classical, or downtown loft blues, played naked and live enough to suggest what a one-man show from Rux might sound like. On the opening title track, Rux drags behind him the faux synthesized orchestra that appears throughout the album. Decidedly fake horns and strings plod out the tune, denying their leader's Gil Scott-Heron-styled tale of "why didn't we see it coming" which fades in and out like a radio station on the edge of reception. From here, Good Bread Alley becomes more approachable, more warm, less produced, but no less evocative. The tales of "wine and war" mentioned on "Thadius Star" -- a song originally written for former Brooklyn Funk Essentials member Stephanie McKay's solo debut -- contrast wealth and poverty, success and failure, hope and disappointment. Rux has a firm grip on his art but he's humbled by the complexity of modern life and doesn't offer answers as much as advocate awareness. He recites his prose if need be, but more often sings his message with the earthy tone that has earned him the experimental blues tag he's been pigeonholed with. The desolate "Thadius Star" adds Brecht and Weill to the jumble of influences, along with Massive Attack, who's spirit is deep in the song's sensual slinking. "Black of My Shadow" puts spirituals and Billie Holiday through William S. Burroughs' cut-up treatment, while the taut "Living Room" unleashes the old-fashioned, straight-ahead R&B, although the "Soul fury!" shouted out in the song speaks to domestic violence instead of Stax. There's also an incredible, heartbreaking cover of Bill Withers' protest song "I Can't Write Left Handed" here to prove Rux is also a gripping performer and interpreter. Still, with all the advancement he has made as a musician, his spellbinding words still offer the richest rewards and are the most responsible element in making Good Bread Alley the potent triumph it is. "The Sound Of Carl Hancock Rux's Good Bread Alley(borrowing it's title from a now defunct segregated black district in Florida around the turn of the century) features scaled down sound of live acoustic piano (played by Kwame Brandt Pierce and effected Rux collaborator Jaco Van Schalkwyk), upright bass (Jason DeMatteo) and drums (Chris Eddleton). It's Blues-scape brings to mind Son House, Bob Dylan, Nico & The Velvet Underground, as well as the southern fried soul of Bill Withers. If Rux's previous efforts left music critics aestheticially pleased (one critic called his last cd "...an album filled with pain, poison, and healing energy propelled by an incredibly layered, textured musical collage...") yet full of frequently asked questions (is it Hip Hop? R&B? Electronica? Spoken Word? Nouveau Soul?).Good Bread Alley takes a simpler, less cluttered approach to the artist's often difficult-to-categorize music. With Ten tracks of powerful vocal artistry, somewhere between Hendrix, Gil-Scott Heron and Jim Morrison, a voice capable of transfixing or lulling you to sleep-"Good Bread..." features song writing collaborations with guitarist Vernon Reid (Lies), Ocean's Eleven sountrack artist DJ David Holmes (Living Room), and a cover of a 1975 anti Vietnam blues song by Bill Withers (I Can't Write Left-Handed).Lies, perhaps one of the record's most identifiably blue-influenced songs, was intially recorded for an unreleased project of Reid's. Rux's voice harmonizing with itself over plunking piano licks, takes on the wit and sarcasm of the blues tradition"

FLAVOR PILL
Post-poetry slam performers like Ursula Rucker, Saul Williams, and Carl Hancock Rux have faced an uphill battle to define their recorded work. As with Gil Scott Heron before them, audiences embrace their singing and rapping with guarded ears, more comfortable when the artists stick to a traditional poetic cadence. Rux, however, has gone conceptual and created an opus where his voice, both in free verse and crooning, soars to Paul Robeson levels. That might sound like hyperbole, but Good Bread Alley is as satisfying a musical work as it is an intellectual one. The album offers an amalgam of blues, symphonic electronic balladry, scorching soul, and vampy theatrical songs, all welded together by Rux's gentle baritone. Imagine Nick Cave or Paul Simon scoring an album for Isaac Hayes and you'll be close to what tracks like "My Brother's Hands (Union Song)" and "Geneva" achieve. Add to that a Bill Withers cover ("I Can't Write Left Handed") and a tribute to Kurt Cobain, and the result is a thoughtful but approachable avant-soul creation that's uncluttered and full of emotional sincerity.

PHILADELPHIA CITY PAPER
The multitalented, infinitely forward-slashed wunderkind Carl Hancock Rux performs at the PMA as part of the Fifth Annual Art After Five program, which this year is dedicated to the oeuvre of influential Spanish surrealist Joan Miró, whose paintings and sculptures-like Rux's poems, plays and music-often blur the line between the phantasmagorical, primal, preternatural and profane. Rux, 35, has collaborated with some of the most innovative contemporary artists and performers (Miguel Algarin, DJ Spooky, David Holmes, Vernon Reid), and is fresh from reprising the title role in a tour of Bernice Johnson Reagon's opera The Temptation of St. Anthony (based on the Gustave Flaubert novel). He recently released a CD titled Good Bread Alley, which is largely back-to-basics American roots music with a few modern twists of electronica-a blues for the hip-hop generation. In our post-Katrina landscape, Rux says of the blues, "It is the essence of the soul, it's what you've seen, it's what you remember, it's what you know." Miró, whose work was principally drawn from the realm of memory, would surely be pleased. (Maori Karmael Holmes)

PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY
The multitalented, infinitely forward-slashed wunderkind Carl Hancock Rux performs at the PMA as part of the Fifth Annual Art After Five program, which this year is dedicated to the oeuvre of influential Spanish surrealist Joan Miró, whose paintings and sculptures-like Rux's poems, plays and music-often blur the line between the phantasmagorical, primal, preternatural and profane. Rux, 35, has collaborated with some of the most innovative contemporary artists and performers (Miguel Algarin, DJ Spooky, David Holmes, Vernon Reid), and is fresh from reprising the title role in a tour of Bernice Johnson Reagon's opera The Temptation of St. Anthony (based on the Gustave Flaubert novel). He recently released a CD titled Good Bread Alley, which is largely back-to-basics American roots music with a few modern twists of electronica-a blues for the hip-hop generation. In our post-Katrina landscape, Rux says of the blues, "It is the essence of the soul, it's what you've seen, it's what you remember, it's what you know." Miró, whose work was principally drawn from the realm of memory, would surely be pleased. (Maori Karmael Holmes)

JAZZREVIEW
Once upon a time, music was not only listened to for pleasure, but to find out (in the words of Saint Marvin) "what's goin' on." Whether you think about minstrels in medieval Europe, the traveling country bluesman or Woody Guthrie, singer/songwriters traveled, detailing life itself for an audience and a bit of green.That approach hasn't completely fallen by the wayside. Take Carl Hancock Rux. Poet, author, intellectual bluesman, humanist hip-hoper, a jazz performer using words as riffs (or vice versa), a male heir to the throne of Nina Simone. He is all of these, or most of these, with some handles fitting more than others. He "raps," but his style is closer to Gil-Scott Heron, John Lee Hooker and Jack Kerouac than Dr. Dre. Especially J.L. Hooker if Hooker went to college in a contemporary America and majored in journalism.Rux doesn't "declare" or "tell" the listener what "actions" to take, nor does he glorify material possessions ("bling"). He's more of a vocalized "60 Minutes" accompanied by rhythm-laden soundscapes informed by jazz, blues, funk and gospel. Those seeking an aural compassionate-humanist documentary set to music or simply something unique should visit Good Bread Alley.