| Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions: A Hurricane Relief Benefit | | Posted Monday, September 11, 2006 6:11:46 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | George Winston is no stranger to benefits. He often gives the proceeds from his concerts to charitable organizations, and in 2001 he released Remembrance, a benefit album for the families of 9/11 victims. Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions: A Hurricane Relief Benefit serves two purposes. It's a benefit for the victims of Hurricane Katrina, but it also allows Winston to indulge his love of New Orleans piano, which he's voraciously studied from the works of James Booker, Professor Longhair, Henry Butler, and Dr. John. Winston's proficiency at these styles is not always convincing. There's uncertainty in his timing, and he seems to get finger-tied on difficult runs. But he doesn't make it easy on himself, playing stomping stride pieces by James Booker ("Pixie") and Henry Butler ("The Breaks"). These are rapid-fire tunes on which Winston gets a honky-tonk sound from the piano that might surprise his fans.On a 12-minute odyssey through "When the Saints Go Marching In," Winston echoes Bobby Hebb's 1966 hit, "Sunny," before breaking into a rollicking stride version of the New Orleans anthem that takes a turn into boogie-woogie minimalism. These songs challenge Winston's skill, as does Dr. John's ruminative "Creole Moon," which would seem more appropriate for Winston's technique. But it's not all New Orleans stride and jazz. Winston also throws in some gorgeous originals that are in his more conventional "folk-piano" style. The long ring-outs and sustains of "Gulf Coast Lullaby Part 1 & 2" have all the Winston signatures, as does "Stevenson." Gulf Coast Blues & Impressions is a fun album, but Winston's love of New Orleans piano isn't always done justice in the performance. --John Diliberto... | |
| |
| | | Beyond Grand Canyon | | Posted Sunday, August 27, 2006 8:11:42 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | The desert Southwest has been the source of more musical inspiration than just about anywhere else in the U.S., and Nicholas Gunn has been trekking through its surreal landscapes since his 1993 debut. He is one of the few flautists to evoke the Southwest without resorting to Native American flute. Instead, he relies mostly on a silver concert flute for most of his lush, often tribally rhythmic evocations. Beyond Grand Canyon is of a piece with all the albums he's released over the last decade or so, many of which have "Grand Canyon" somewhere in their titles. Favoring romantic harmonies and arrangements that border on Yanni 's terrain, Beyond Grand Canyon is on the lighter side of Gunn's oeuvre: often tending toward the sentimental, when a darker, more evocative touch might serve him better. Gunn plays flutes, stacks his voice in earthy, vaguely Native American-meets-Gothic choirs, and plays keyboards and percussion throughout the disc, accompanied sparingly by violinists (including Karen Briggs) and guitarists (including Johannes Linstead). Despite the Southwestern scenario, there's a surprising Celtic flavor to many of these tracks, including the title piece and "The Boneyard." And when it's not Celtic, Gunn brings a Latin and flamenco feel. On the companion DVD, the album tracks accompany a slickly produced slide show of Michael Fatali's color-saturated, painterly photographs, a vibrant, hyper-real Yang to Ansel Adams's stark and austere Yin. --John Diliberto... | |
| |
| | | Lorraine Hunt Lieberson ~ Handel Arias | | Posted Thursday, August 24, 2006 8:11:39 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | If you think you've heard Handel's "Ombra mai fu" (known as his "Largo") so often, and in so many different arrangements, and sung by so many different voices, that you can no longer be moved or surprised by it, think again. This CD of Handel arias, mostly from his Theodora or the cantata La Lucrezia, ends with "Ombra mai fu," and as sung by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, it is so tender, so beautiful, so impeccably shaded, that you'll think you're hearing it for the first time. But that's only four of this disc's 67 minutes---a follow-up to Hunt Lieberson's extraordinarily successful CD of Bach cantatas. There's not a dull or disinterested moment to be heard anywhere. As the violated Lucrezia, Hunt Lieberson alternately rages against the man who raped her and turns her grief inward; the former is terrifying in its intensity, the latter makes us almost feel as if we're eavesdropping. The five arias for Irene, Theodora's friend, confidante, and the upholder of Christian beliefs are all magical prayers or statements of faith, and from Hunt Lieberson, they become real, with each word honestly conveyed and colored. The voice itself is unfailingly beautiful---warm, lush, never forced, agile when necessary---and her breath control is stunning. She is backed ideally by Harry Bicket and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and the string soloists in the ensemble---the viola da gamba player, lutenist, etc.---are as gifted as she is. If you want proof that Handel was a great dramatist with a special gift for communicating emotion, all while listening to sublime sounds, this CD is a must. --Robert Levine... | |
| |
| | | RockPaperScissors | | Posted Monday, August 14, 2006 6:11:30 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | It's been 14 years since Michael Brook did a proper solo album, Cobalt Blue, but that doesn't mean the guitarist has been absent from music. He's produced and performed on pop recordings by Julia Fordham and Jorane and made numerous albums for the Real World label, including signature releases by the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Djivan Gasparyan, and Hukwe Zawose. He's also composed and performed on film scores and was part of Hans Zimmer's soundtrack posse, contributing notably to Black Hawk Down, among others. He throws all of that into his new album, RockPaperScissors, which could've been called RockPaperScissors and Whatever, as Brook slices up a career's worth of influences and drops them in one load--albeit an elegant one. Lebanese violinist Claude Chalhoub turns in a mournful duet with Brook on "Tangerine," singer Paul Buchanan shows up on the title track, and a Bulgarian choir turns up incongruously on a dreamy, '60s style guitar instrumental, "LightStar." There are King Crimson-like guitar grooves on "3 Doges," and on "Darker Room," a spoken-word sample of Richard Burton performing Dylan Thomas's "Under Milk Wood," quoting the "Starless and bible-black" line that Crimson connoisseurs will note as the title to a one of their albums. Given Brooks's extensive work as a film composer and session artist, it makes sense that much of the disc has a cinematic quality, with many tracks featuring a full orchestra. Excepting Lisa Germano's haunting turn on "Want", the other two vocal tunes drag. Rather than honing a sound, as he did with Cobalt Blue, RockPaperScissors brims with too many ideas, as if Brook thought it might be another 14 years till his next album and he had to get it all out now. --John Diliberto... | |
| |
| | | Chakra Balancing: Body, Mind and Soul | | Posted Saturday, August 12, 2006 6:11:55 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | "Chakra Balancing" provides the key to maintaining wellness and balance by providing effective tools for the removal of any blockages in our chakra system (or "wheels of light"--spinning vortexes of energy contained in each of us) to achieve radiance in body, mind, and soul. Contained in this luxury double disc edition from the world's most preeminent voice in mind, body, and soul modalities are a detailed manual and images that'll help take you on a powerful journey toward healing.... | |
| |
| | | Elysium for the Brave | | Posted Friday, July 28, 2006 2:11:43 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | For this, her second solo album, Azam Ali, lead vocalist of Vas and Niyaz, takes her patented polycultural blend of ancient and contemporary influences even farther beyond the stratosphere. That she is now a veteran of numerous film scores, including Children of Dune, Earthsea, and Matrix Revolutions, perhaps explains her present more cinematic direction. Born in Iran, reared in India and the US, and gifted with a voice of improbable tonal breadth, flexibility, and beauty, she is backed by collaborators like Trey Gunn (King Crimson), Chris Venna (Nine Inch Nails), Turkish DJ/composer Mercan Dede, the Japanese ensemble Kodo, and Grateful Dead drummer/world percussion enthusiast Mickey Hart. One of the more interesting conundrums inherent in Ali's work is that no matter how much electronic technology she employs, her immersion in her heritage unfailingly comes across loud and clear. Whether she is singing in English, which predominates on these sessions, Farsi, or another language, a prayerful sensuality informs every note. It's as though a sexy Tanagra temple figurine or silk-clad court lady from an antique parchment were to suddenly turn her lovely head and step daintily into the modern world, unfurling precisely the kind of voice one expected but never could have imagined. --Christina Roden... | |
| |
| | | Over Here the Water is Sweet | | Posted Friday, June 30, 2006 12:11:40 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | 50 women's voices sing music from 14 countries in 11 languages. Selections include chant by Hildegard von Bingen, spirituals from the United States and the Bahamas, and Lewis Allan's "Strange Fruit," made famous by Billie Holiday and heard here in a stirring arrangement for a cappella choir. Winner of the 1998 GLAMA Award for "Best Choral Group."... | |
| |
| |
|
|
