Katie Goldsmith interviews Caleb Followill

"Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill … formed the rock band Kings of Leon … [Q] Is it true your Grammy-winning track 'Sex on Fire' was almost cut from the album? [A] When it comes time to put an album together, you try all different song sequences, and one or two usually have to go. My choices of songs to take off have become our biggest hits. … [Q] You’ve been criticized for abandoning the dirtier southern sound of your first three albums for something slicker. Do you think that’s fair? [A] No, absolutely not. You grow as a band, and you want to spread your wings. Whenever we get going to write another album, people will realize that our goal is always to do something different. [Q] When headlining a festival in Scotland in July, you got angry about the sound quality and ended up smashing your Gibson ES 325. … What exactly happened? [A] I don’t know—I think I just made a bad decision. … [Q] What are your plans while you’re in New York? [A] My girl [model Lily Aldridge] lives here, so I visit quite a bit. … I prefer the scene in New York much more than in L.A. or other cities because you can be yourself. I don’t like going out and getting my picture taken" ("Holy Roller: Caleb Followill," New York, 9/14/09).

Vivien Schweitzer on Marin Marais

"A memorable scene in Alain Corneau’s film 'Tous les Matins du Monde' shows Marin Marais eavesdropping while Jean de Sainte-Colombe, a reclusive 17th-century musician, practices the viola da gamba. Cinematic license aside, Marais was reportedly a fast learner and, after studying with Sainte-Colombe, became one of the first French players to achieve fame as a viol soloist. Marais published five books of music for viol and continuo between 1686 and 1725. The harpsichordist Skip Sempé accompanies the violists da gamba Josh Cheatham and Julien Léonard in selections from Marais’s third and fifth books on this disc from Paradizo, Mr. Sempé’s Renaissance and Baroque music label. The two viol players reveal their instruments’ dark-hued, soulful timbres. … The disc also includes a songful performance of Marais’s somber Sarabande for Two Viols in D minor from Book 1. But the highlight is the performance of a Suite in G from Marais’s Books 3 and 5, which includes a vigorous interpretation of the 'Allemande la Magnifique et Double'; a lithe Courante, in which the viol sings over the harpsichord continuo; a dynamic 'Gigue la Précieuse'; and a joyous Chaconne" ("Classical Recordings," New York Times, 4/6/09).

The Stone Roses Legacy Edition 1989-2009

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: CD 1: I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs the Drums, Waterfall, Don't Stop, Bye Bye Bad Man, Elizabeth My Dear, (Song for My) Sugar Spun Sister, Made of Stone, Shoot You Down, This Is the One, I Am the Resurrection, Fools Gold (bonus track). CD 2, "The Lost Demos": I Wanna Be Adored, She Bangs the Drums, Waterfall, Bye Bye Badman, Sugar Spun Sister, Shoot You Down, This Is the One, I Am the Resurrection, Elephant Stone, Going Down, Mersey Paradise, Where Angels Play, Something's Burning, One Love, Pearl Bastard. DVD: live, Blackpool Empress Ballroom; videos: Waterfall, Fools Gold, I Wanna Be Adored, One Love, She Bangs the Drums, Standing There.
"The Stone Roses were huge in England, but in the preglobalized '80s, their music was hardly available in the U.S. So what did we miss? Ian Brown's bleak northern outlook, sung over ecstatically romantic chords and harmonies. This three-disc set captures it all" ("Short List," Time, 9/18/09, p. 71).

Alex Ross on cadenzas

"The art of embellishment — improvising cadenzas, adding ornaments, taking other opportunities for creativity in performance — is a hot topic in classical music these days. For generations, conservatories preached absolute fidelity to the score: do what the composer wrote and nothing more. The problem is that the scores of prior eras can leave quite a bit to the performer’s imagination, and the earlier the piece the sparser the notation. Modern musicians specializing in the Renaissance and the Baroque have led the way in looking beyond the printed page: the great viol player Jordi Savall improvises heavily in his appearances with Hespèrion XXI, and Richard Egarr, in a new recording of Handel’s organ concertos, responds imaginatively to passages marked 'ad libitum.' … [Robert] Levin, the Harvard-based musician who for decades has been the chief guru of classical improvisation, believes that performances need to cultivate risk and surprise. Otherwise, he says, music becomes 'gymnastics with the affectation of emotional content' — a phrase that sums up uncomfortably large tracts of modern music-making" ("Musical Events," New Yorker, 8/31/09).

John Oates speaks to Jon Chattman

"The project was put on the back burner for quite a long time, but this year it got resurrected and Daryl and I both got into it creatively — hands on. Working with the guys at Sony Legacy was great, because they were real fans and really had a lot of passion for the music. They did a lot of amazing archival work in digging out tapes and stuff like that. ... I dug some things out of my vault, Daryl had some stuff of his, and together it was a really great project. I had some stuff — for instance — the live tracks that appear on the set. They are from our first concert in England in 1974 — it was the first time we went and performed there. I had it actually on video tape which we took the audio from and remixed it and remastered it. It's impressive. The band was on fire that night. We didn't have a lot of material to draw from at that time, so the arrangements are sort of really baroque. It's a unique glimpse into where we were at at that time. I'm far enough away from a lot of the music now and I'm pretty amazed at the depth of the material and the wide variety of production styles and approaches that we evolved through over the years" ("Hall & Oates Interview Part 1," Huffington Post, 9/22/09).

Anthony Tommasini on Till Fellner

"Like most pianists … he grew up playing the 15 Two-Part Inventions, which are essential student pieces, as well as the 15 Sinfonias. … Bach lovers will surely forget that the inventions and sinfonias are considered teaching tools when they hear Mr. Fellner’s new ECM recording. As before, he is an elegant, sensitive and impressively articulate Bach player. To fill out the generous program he includes a sparkling account of Bach’s Fifth French Suite. Sometimes Mr. Fellner brings freshness to these familiar works by taking unusual but very convincing tempos. The Invention in E moves at a slow but steady pace, allowing the syncopations between the two lines, which almost always move in opposite directions, to come through playfully. But in the Invention in F — a bustling piece, all leaping intervals and fleeting passagework — Mr. Fellner takes a breathless tempo. The pristine clarity of his playing prevents the music from becoming a jumble. Yet there is more to the magic than that. No matter how quick the tempo in any of these performances, Mr. Fellner’s playing always sounds relaxed and confident, an effective blend of daring speed and cool control" ("Classical Recordings," New York Times, 5/10/09).

Regina Carter: I'll Be Seeing You

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: 1. Anitra's Dance (Edvard Grieg, arr. transcribed & adapted by Xavier Davis from the 1939 John Kirby Orchestra recording); 2. Little Brown Jug (J. E. Winner, arr. Gil Goldstein); 3. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen (Sholom Secunda, Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin, Jacob Jacobs, arr. John Clayton); 4. Sentimental Journey (Les Brown, Bud Green, Ben Homer, arr. Clayton); 5. You Took Advantage of Me (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, arr. Davis); 6. St. Louis Blues (W. C. Handy, arr. Clayton); 7. A-Tisket, A-Tasket (Al Feldman, Ella Fitzgerald); 8. Blue Rose (Duke Ellington); 9. This Can't Be Love (Rodgers, Hart, arr. Clayton); 10. How Ruth Felt (Regina Carter); 11. There's a Small Hotel (Rodgers, Hart, arr. Matthew Parrish); 12. I'll Be Seeing You (Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal, arr. Goldstein).
Personnel: Regina Carter, violin; Xavier Davis, piano (except 4); Matthew Parrish, bass; Alvester Garnett, drums (except 4, 9); Dee Dee Bridgewater, vocals (3, 9); Carla Cook, vocals (5, 6, 11); Paquito d'Rivera, clarinet (1, 2, 3, 4, 6); Gil Goldstein, accordion (1, 2, 3, 6, 12).