Reviews of new pop, country/roots, jazz and classical releases
By
The Philadelphia Inquirer,
Source: MCT News Service
Pop:
FRANK ZAPPA "Philly '76" (Vaulternative, 3 1/2 stars)
The live album is the bastard son of the music biz. The idea is a throwaway _ usually a contract-fulfilling tactic. Still, the Philadelphia live album has had it good. The Doors, David Bowie, and Grover Washington Jr. are but a few who made their stage time in Philly sound worthwhile. Yet none have done better than the late Frank Zappa.
As a guitarist, Zappa was unrivaled in his abilities to solo fluidly, with grace and grunge on his side. As a composer, Zappa married intricate pop and avant-psychedelia with lyrics either socially astute or satirically arresting. As a bandleader, he chose only the best musicians.
"Philly '76," recorded on Oct. 29 of that year at the Spectrum, embraced Zappa's weird pop side ("Camarillo Brillo," a cover of the chugging '50s rocker "Stranded in the Jungle") with but a few exceptions, such as the slithering, soulful "Black Napkins." While Zappa and violinist Eddie Jobson fill that lengthy epic with rapturous solos, the pop of "Philly '76" has a boogying R&B and gospel edge, too. Blame Lady Bianca Odin. Her churchy vocals help turn the stammering "Dirty Love" and "Dinah-Moe Humm" funky and chic.
This is truly exquisite stuff from a master of his trade.
_A.D. Amorosi
JAMIE CULLUM "The Pursuit" (Verve, 3 stars)
British pianist and vocalist Jamie Cullum has built a career on performing clever jazz standards and surprising pop-rock covers, with his own compositions thrown in for good measure. His fifth studio album, "The Pursuit," finds him taking on more original compositions and fewer covers, but with mixed results. His song "You and Me Are Gone" is a lively combination of show tunes, samba, jazz, and funk, while his cover of Michael Jackson's "Don't Stop the Music" is both compelling and unnatural. Cullum generally doesn't try to sexualize his music, so hearing him talking about getting naughty on the dance floor is a bit of a non sequitur. His interpretation of the song, however, is fascinating, with piano interludes interspersed amid emotional and driving vocals. If more of the album focused on these reinventions of jazz and rock tunes, it would be remarkable. But instead, the record focuses more on the tired sounds of anthemic, emotion-driven rock and jazzed-up ballads.
_Katherine Silkaitis
HOT CHIP "One Life Stand" (Astralwerks, 3 1/2 stars)
"Happiness is what we all want," proclaim London's Hot Chip at the start of their fourth album, "One Life Stand." From a band that once celebrated "the joy of repetition" with a meta-pop wink (on the great indie dance single "Over and Over"), "One Life Stand" is full of subtle variations and sincere declarations of fidelity. Rather than look for happiness on the dance floor, Hot Chip now look for it in committed relationships.
While using building blocks from club music _ staccato synths, house-music pianos, the steady thump of a rhythm track _ Hot Chip craft soulful songs, and the sweet falsetto vocals of Alexis Taylor and the world-weary croon of Joe Goddard offer soft pledges rather than arch proclamations. "One Life Stand" may lack a playful and irrepressible single on a par with ones from Hot Chip's previous albums ("Take It In" comes closest), but from start to finish, it provides happiness aplenty, and isn't that what we all want?
_Steve Klinge
JASON DERULO "Jason Derulo" (Warner Bros., 3 stars)
This pop prodigy exploded to prominence last summer with his chart-topping "Watcha Say," which rode upon, refreshed, and recharged a heaping sample of Imogen Heap's "Hide and Seek."
On his debut album, the 20-year-old Floridian of Haitian lineage wields a winning formula: great beats, layered arrangements, and unusually sweet Auto-Tuned vocals.
That floor plan makes songs like his newest single, "In My Head," jump from speakers (although he may want to steer clear of marshy ballads like "What If").
Derulo's infectious blend of pop and dance made him an ideal opening act on Lady Gaga's recent tour. He won't be an opening act for long.
_David Hiltbrand
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Country/roots:
WAYLON JENNINGS "Waylon/Singer of Sad Songs" (Collectors' Choice)
These two 1970 albums, on one CD, make up the last of three new twofers that capture Waylon Jennings right before his infamous Outlaw period, when he did the classic work that would define his legendary career. (The first two are "Folk Singer/Waylon Sings Ol' Harlan" and "Love of the Common People/Hangin' On.")
At this point Jennings didn't have the full creative control he would eventually get. But you could still tell he was a star, his supple baritone marking him as a strikingly expressive and charismatic singer.
"Waylon" (3 stars), cut in Nashville, retains a countrypolitan feel, but the best moments veer from that _ a twangified take on Chuck Berry's "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," Mickey Newbury's stoner ballad "The Thirty-Third of August," a rousing duet with Anita Carter on Merle Haggard's "All of Me Belongs to You."
"Singer of Sad Songs" (3 1/2 stars) was made in L.A. and produced by Lee Hazlewood. With Jennings exerting the most studio authority he'd ever had, his vision comes into clearer focus. There were no originals, but he took a diverse collection of songs _ the New Orleans R&B of "Sick and Tired," the hard country of "Ragged But Right," the modern folk of "If I Were a Carpenter," the rock-and-roll of "Honky Tonk Woman" _ and made his interpretations cohere into an artistic statement that was uniquely his own. And the best was yet to come.
_Nick Cristiano
WILL KIMBROUGH "Wings" (Daphne, 3 stars)
Will Kimbrough is a Nashville cat who's not as well-known as most of the artists for whom he has played an integral role as sideman, songwriter, and producer _ Jimmy Buffett, Rodney Crowell and Todd Snider, to name a few. But the artist who shares front man duties with Tommy Womack in the roots-rocking Daddy is also an estimable talent in his own right, as he shows on his fifth solo set.
"Wings" is an album whose loose theme _ the push and pull on a musician who is also a family man _ could produce the worst kind of singer-songwriter solipsism. But Kimbrough avoids that trap. From the unabashedly uplifting folk of the title song (written with Buffett) to the lazy J.J. Cale-style groove of "It Ain't Cool" (written with Snider) and the luscious, horn-kissed soul of "Open to Love," the Alabama native presents a collection whose emotional richness is enhanced by its well-crafted musical mix _ and the presence of such female singers as Jonell Mosser, Lisa Oliver Gray, and Dawn Kinnard.
_N.C.
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Jazz:
JOHN ELLIS & DOUBLE-WIDE "Puppet Mischief" (ObliqSound, 3 1/2 stars)
It's rare to hear a sousaphone in jazz, but tenor saxophonist John Ellis uses it to good effect in invoking the spirit of his adopted hometown, New Orleans.
The session can seem like a French movie soundtrack, a funky carnival, or a Crescent City funeral. Ellis' quartet, with drummer Jason Marsalis, sousaphone player Matt Perrine, and organist Brian Coogan, is cat-light and liable to break out into herky-jerky R&B at any time.
Ellis, 35, who broke in with guitarist Charlie Hunter and has played with Sting and Mos Def in the last year, seems more confident with every recording. The reedman who doubles on bass clarinet also works in Gregoire Maret on harmonica, along with trombonist Alan Ferber, for yet more colors.
This set of meandering originals ranges from a film-noir feel to cartoon quirkiness. "Chorale" is compactly tragic, while "Heroes De Accion" flames with slinky Latin percussiveness along with some curious humanlike sounds from the sousaphone.
_Karl Stark
FRED HO AND THE GREEN MONSTER BIG BAND "Celestial Green Monster" (Mutable Music/Big Red Media, 2 1/2 stars)
Baritone saxophonist Fred Ho's nasty bout with colorectal cancer sent him back to doing some songs from his youth.
His ambitious big-band session touches down on pearls like "Spiderman Theme" and "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." But the latter really serves as permission to explore the universe for 16 minutes with Sun Ra-like abandon.
The Brooklyn-based Ho, who has long sought to create a distinct Chinese American vibe in jazz _ he dubbed a recent work "Take the Zen Train" _ uses an 18-piece big band here to present originals from as far back as the 1970s, including his 1975 "Liberation Genesis."
The set is full of honking horns and modernist exuberance. Ho, who has a long record as an activist, dedicates "The Struggle for a New World Suite" to MOVE, the provocative Philadelphia radical group whose rowhouse was bombed by police in 1985. The 38-minute piece is by turns querulous, harmonious, percussive, and imposing. Ho relishes a militant musicality.
_K.S.
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Classical:
MARTHA ARGERICH
"Salzburg" With Nelson Freire: Brahms Variations on a Theme by Haydn, Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances, Schubert's Rondo in A, Ravel's La Valse (Deutsche Grammophon, 3 1/2 stars)
"Argerich Plays Chopin" Selected Mazurkas, Ballade No. 1, and Piano Sonata No. 3 (Deutsche Grammophon, 3 stars)
"Mozart Piano Concerto No. 18 and Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1" Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Eugen Jochum (1973) and Seiji Ozawa (1983) conducting (BR Klassik, 4 stars)
Unintentionally, two recording labels offer a cross section of Martha Argerich's career: The Chopin disc includes performances from 1959 to 1967, the Bavarian Radio disc has concertos from 1973 and 1983, and the two-piano recital with Freire dates from the 2009 Salzburg Festival. Each stage has much to offer, the least of them being the Chopin disc _ mostly 1967 radio recordings that show the young Argerich leaping headlong into this beloved repertoire with great fingers and instincts but, in these predominantly fast, dazzling performances, not much cultivation or consideration.
The concertos, unearthed from the Bavarian Radio archives, show the mature Argerich just as much at home in classical-era pieces as in the big-boned romantic repertoire on which she made her name. The sense of power in reserve, the strong-minded ideas in every phrase, and the technical precision to reveal them down to the finest detail are much in evidence here. These are among her best concerto performances.
In the Salzburg recital, Argerich and Nelson Freire are like lions at play: The fact that most of the music is transcriptions relieves them of some artistic responsibility, since even the best performances are secondhand to the orchestral originals. That said, seductive coloring is everywhere, especially in the Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances, though the performances make me want to return to the original rather than hear their versions again.
_David Patrick Stearns
JOHN SHEPPARD "Media Vita" Stile Antico (Harmonia Mundi, 4 stars)
The 14-voice Stile Antico continues to set new standards for Renaissance polyphonic singing in this disc devoted to the 16th-century John Sheppard, whose music not only has the devout mellifluousness characteristic of the period's liturgical music, but also strange dissonances that recur, like stones in a shoe, in almost every work.
The fact that one can even hear them is evidence of Stile Antico's quality: The balance of vocal blend and individual voices takes you deep inside the music, helped by the fact that the group seems not to come to the music with any preconceived idea of what it should sound like. Thus, it sounds like itself, with all of its shifting textures and sublime logic that find the most ingenious resolutions for the most irrational dissonances.
_D.P.S.
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