William Bolcom: Songs

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Bolcom
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "[I]n his songs he almost always balances the contemporary classical and popular elements deftly, as this splendid recording of 34 songs spanning 40 years amply demonstrates. … Mr. Bolcom writes that 'Night, Make My Day' … was intended as a sendup of a 'Liza Minnelli-ish over-the-top extravaganza.' But this torch song is filtered through a rigorous contemporary sensibility, with fractured rhythms and gritty piano chords. [Soprano Carole] Farley takes it seriously. … Even songs that seem just novelties on the surface are musically subtle, like 'The Digital Wonder Watch (An Advertisement).' … Ms. Farley … is especially fine in two major song cycles. 'Songs to Dance,' a setting of 11 poems by George Montgomery, is an ingenious set of miniatures, by turns wistful, sweet and fitful. … In 'I Will Breathe a Mountain,' a setting of 11 poems by American women, Mr. Bolcom offers surprising takes on some of the texts. I especially love 'The Bustle in a House,' based on a poem by Emily Dickinson, which is like some strangely beautiful, harmonically out-of-focus church hymn."

Carly Simon: Into White

CML call number: CD POPULAR Simon
Contents: Into white -- Oh! Susanna (Foster) -- Blackbird -- You can close your eyes (with Ben Taylor, Sally Taylor) -- Quiet evening -- Manha de carnaval (theme from "Black Orpheus") (Bonfá) -- Jamaica farewell (Burgie) -- You are my sunshine (Davis/ Mitchell) -- I gave my love a cherry -- Devoted to you/ All I have to do is dream (Bryant) -- Scarborough Fair -- Over the rainbow (Arlen/ Harburg) -- Love of my life (Simon) -- I'll just remember you (Taylor/ Saw).
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "The best moment on the new Carly Simon album — a tranquil collection of covers that play like lullabies for grown-ups — is her dreamy version of 'You Can Close Your Eyes,' a 1971 tune by her ex-husband James Taylor. Fittingly, her two children with Taylor, musicians Ben and Sally, join in a nice display of family harmony. Elsewhere, Simon puts a soothing spin on songs by the Beatles ('Blackbird'), the Everly Brothers ('Devoted to You'/ 'All I Have to Do Is Dream') and Cat Stevens (the title track), while 'Quiet Evening,' one of two originals, keeps the peace" ("Picks & Pans: Music," 1/15/07, p. 39).

Turn Back the Years: The Essential Hank Williams Collection

CML call number: CD COUNTRY Williams
Josh Tyrangiel included this set in "The All-TIME 100 Albums" and wrote: "Hank lived and died before the advent of the album, and numerous collections have overcompensated by lassoing the entirety of his scattershot output. This Mercury three-disc set omits a few of the big hits (most notably his last, 'I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive') but each of Hank's major themes — honky tonk, heartbreak and gospel — gets its own 20-song disc that blends standards with obscurities. What links all the material is the simplicity of Williams' approach. There are few extraneous nouns, barely any adjectives — and no drums at all. Just a man confident that his voice and his guitar can convey everything in his sad, sad, heart."
From the notes by Colin Escott: "The simplicity and gut-wrenching sincerity in Hank Williams's work is compounded by the enigma of his brief life and tragic death. If chaos wasn't engulfing him, it was just around the corner, but the songs that he spun from his life and sang with such unshakable conviction resonate with us to this day."

Redbeard: Redbeard

CML call number: CD ROCK Redbeard
Personnel: "Redbeard is: Sam Miller - guitar, vocals, percussion; Jae Sherman - electric and acoustic guitars." With additional musicians Nick Lloyd (digi Chamberlin, grand piano, Fender Rhodes), E. Lisette Murphy (saw, banjo), Jan Bell (recorder), Abigail "Stud" Green (acoustic and electric bass, harmony vocals), Lisa Greenleaf and Miriam Greenleaf-Miller (harmony vocals).
Contents: Tyrant's song -- Athena -- Wishing well -- The champagne of tears -- Mason Dixon -- The surprise -- Red night -- The depths below -- Brothers waltz -- Take you down -- Loaded gun -- Until the end of time; all songs written by Sam Miller. Recorded at Fire House 12, New Haven.
Brian LaRue included this album in the New Haven Advocate's "Ten Best Local Discs of the Year" for 2006, and wrote: "Redbeard’s self-titled debut made good on the long promise of the gothic post-folk duo’s buzzed-about live sets and created a ghostly world of its own."
According to CD Baby: "Their gorgeously eerie psychedelic folk music is inspired by traditional folk and blues; 70s psychedelic rock; distortion; noise; thunder and rain; the wilderness; the city."

Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda

CML call number: CD JAZZ Coltrane
Personnel: Alice Coltrane, harp, piano; Pharoah Sanders, soprano saxophone, percussion; Rashied Ali, drums; Charlie Haden, bass; Cecil McBee, bass; with additional musicians.
Contents: Journey in Satchidananda (6:35) -- Shiva-Loka (6:32) -- Stopover Bombay (2:51) -- Something about John Coltrane (9:39) -- Isis and Osiris (11:29). Track 5 recorded live at the Village Gate, New York City on July 4, 1970; tracks 1-4 recorded in Dix Hills, NY, Nov. 8, 1970.
Deanne Stillman wrote in the Huffington Post: "Today, on Martin Luther King day, as we recall his dream, we should also take a moment to honor Alice Coltrane, who passed away on Friday. Alice Coltrane was a be bop angel - she played jazz harp. Have you ever heard 'Journey in Satchidananda'? If not, listen to it now. If so, listen to it now. Alice Coltrane heals. Alice Coltrane shatters. Alice Coltrane soars. Thank you, Alice, for helping me get through the moments, the days, the stormy weather, thank you for one of the greatest prayers of all time, thank you for making us all free at last - if only for a little while" ("Namaste and RIP, Alice Coltrane," 1/15/07).

Mates of State: Bring It Back

CML call number: CD ROCK Mates
David Lewis wrote in Play: "East Haven is not a Mecca for nationally recognized bands but Mates of State have been on the rise for the better part of 10 years. The husband-and-wife duo write some of the most syrupy songs this side of Belle & Sebastian and their most recent release, Bring It Back, finds keyboardist Kori Gardner and drummer Jason Hammel in top form. The seemingly limited sonic format here has given way to a lean and charming record, a wash of keyboards skitter about as Gardner and Hammel trade harmonies. Gardner and Hammel met in Lawrence, Kansas and like most classic love stories were instantly smitten though involved with others, both romantically and musically. A few months later, single and bandless, the two got together and, in 1997, formed their band and their cute as a button love pact. Shortly thereafter they moved to California where Gardner applied to medical school, but opted instead to devote her time to the Mates of State. The band relocated to Connecticut in 2004 and gave birth to a beautiful baby girl some time later; the rest as they say is history. Adorable right? …" ("Homebodies," 1/10/07).

Ornette Coleman: Sound Grammar

CML call number: CD JAZZ Coleman
Contents: Intro -- Jordan -- Sleep talking -- Turnaround -- Matador -- Waiting for you -- Call to duty -- Once only -- Songx; all songs composed and arranged by Ornette Coleman. Recorded October 14, 2005.
Steve Futterman wrote in the New Yorker: "The concept here isn't quite new: in the late sixties, Coleman had a quartet with two acoustic bassists. Still, returning to the plucked-and-bowed setup brings out a coiled lyricism in the saxophonist that shakes up romps like 'Matador' and his 1959 blues number 'Turnabout' (which he has retitled 'Turnaround') and brings a wrenching emotion to the ballad 'Sleep Talking'" ("Jazz Notes: Best of 2006," 1/22/07, p. 14).
From the notes by Ornette Coleman: "Sounds found in the expression of music, vocal and instrumental, are the global styles or forms such as jazz, opera, country, classical and other musical genres, all equal in the concept of ideas. Sound has a specific meaning when used in different dialects. The culture of civilization when expressed in different tongues identifies the differences."
Update, 4/18/07: The New York Times reported April 16 that Sound Grammar won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Music. "Elastic and bracing, with two acoustic basses and much collective improvisation, the music harks back to the 1960s records that made him famous. 'I’m tearing and I’m surprised and happy — and I’m glad I’m an American,' [Coleman] said. 'And I’m glad to be a human being who’s a part of making American qualities more eternal.'"

Neil Young: Live at the Fillmore East

CML call number: CD ROCK Young
Personnel: Neil Young, guitar, vocal; Danny Whitten, guitar, vocal; Jack Nitzsche, electric piano; Billy Talbot, bass; Ralph Molina, drums, vocal.
Contents: Everybody knows this is nowhere -- Winterlong -- Down by the river -- Wonderin' -- Come on baby let's go downtown -- Cowgirl in the sand. Recorded at Bill Graham's Fillmore East, March 6 & 7, 1970.
Wired wrote: "Neil Young, progenitor of grunge, opens his vaults and kicks off his long-rumored archive series with a vintage Crazy Horse set from 1970. A notorious stickler for high fidelity, Young spent years remastering his basement tapes. The resulting pyrotechnics between Young and the late guitarist Danny Whitten are something to behold" ("Playlist," 2/07, p. 60).
The package reproduces a review of the Fillmore show from Cashbox by "n.s.": "… Young is one of the best songwriters on the rock scene. His songs are so good that they read almost as well as they play. His vocal styling is a kind of a country/rock whine which is as singular as his writing. …"

Takemitsu: Quotation of Dream

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Takemitsu
Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker: "Takemitsu died in 1996, at the age of sixty-five. He was by far the most celebrated of Japanese composers. … Carnegie Hall has presented several Takemitsu performances this season. … Recordings have multiplied into the dozens, on such labels as DG, BIS, and Naxos. Film connoisseurs cherish Takemitsu’s scores for various masterpieces of postwar Japanese cinema. … [C]onvincing performances of Takemitsu … are easily found on recordings. … Perhaps the best of the bunch is Oliver Knussen’s DG disk 'Quotation of Dream,' which brings together several masterpieces of Takemitsu’s final decade; in the title work, a fragment of Debussy’s 'La Mer' surges to the surface of the music, making explicit the composer’s most profound and productive stylistic debt. Listening again, I realized that it is hard to say much about this music other than that it is uncommonly beautiful. Its processes remain mysterious, despite the best efforts of analysts and explicators. It almost shies away from the listener as it transpires, longing to return to the silence whence it came" ("Toward Silence," 2/5/07).

The Good, the Bad & the Queen

CML call number: CD ROCK Good
Contents: History song -- 80s life -- Northern whale -- Kingdom of doom -- Herculean -- Behind the sun -- The bunting song -- Nature springs -- A solider's tale -- Three changes -- Green fields -- The good, the bad & the queen.
Notable lyrics: "Come the day/ You see the sun/ Hit the arch/ A history song/ If you don't know it now then you will do. …" ("History Song").
"Friday night/ In the kingdom of doom/ Ravens fly/ Across the moon/ All in now/ There's a noise in the sky/ Following all the rules/ And not knowing why/ And when the sunset wheel begins/ Turning into the night/ I see everything in black and white. …" ("Kingdom of Doom")
Sean Cooper wrote in Wired: "Damon Albarn cages his Gorillaz for a side project that sounds … a lot like Gorillaz. With Danger Mouse on the boards, plus the Clash’s Paul Simonon and Fela Kuti’s Tony Allen pumping out the bass and drums, dirges like 'Herculean' keen like pop music prepped for the apocalypse."

Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 19, 29

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Beethoven
Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat, the 'Hammerklavier,' has long been considered a monument: one of the most path-breaking, large-scale and technically daunting sonatas of the Classical period, a work that only select pianists attempt. In performance it often sounds just as hard as it is. But not on the new recording by François-Frédéric Guy. This 37-year-old French pianist captures the audaciousness and wild flights of the score and plays brilliantly. Yet there is remarkable clarity and poise in his performance. Textures are clear; every note speaks; no detail is fudged. … Mr. Guy maintains a vibrant clip, with plenty of room for phrases to breathe and transitions to ease from one to the next. He brings mischievous humor and crisp articulation to the Scherzo and a searching pensiveness to the great Adagio sostenuto. … [H]e precedes the 'Hammerklavier' with a noble account of the 'Pathétique' Sonata and follows it with, of all things, the Sonata No. 19 in G minor. … And in Mr. Guy's elegant account this moody work … seems anything but complicated" (1/7/07).

The Departed: Music from the Motion Picture

CML call number: CD SOUNDTRACKS Departed
Contents: Comfortably numb (song by Pink Floyd, live recording by Roger Waters, Van Morrison, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, and Rick Danko from the 1990 album The Wall: Live in Berlin, a recording of a concert staging commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall; Helm, Hudson, and Danko credited as "The Band") -- Sail on, sailor (song by Brian Wilson, Van Dyke Parks, Jack Rieley, Ray Kennedy, and Tandyn Almer, recorded by the Beach Boys on their 1973 album Holland) -- Let it loose (song by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, recorded by the Rolling Stones on their 1972 album Exile on Main Street) -- Sweet dreams (Roy Buchanan) -- One way out (Allman Brothers Band) -- Baby blue (Badfinger) -- I'm shipping up to Boston (Dropkick Murphys) -- Nobody but me (Human Beinz) -- Tweedle dee (LaVern Baker) -- Sweet dreams (Patsy Cline) -- The departed tango (from Howard Shore's score for the film, performed by guitarist Marc Ribot) -- Beacon Hill (from Howard Shore's score for the film, performed by guitarist Sharon Isbin).

Steve Reich: Tehillim; The Desert Music

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Reich
Anne Midgette wrote in the New York Times: "Mr. Reich['s] classification as a minimalist, grouped with Philip Glass, has come to seem, with the years, increasingly irrelevant. You could say that Mr. Reich stripped music down to its bare essentials in seminal works like 'Clapping Music' (1972), written for two performers and their hands, or 'Drumming' (1971), an hour-plus piece written entirely for percussion instruments. But even those pieces, spare in means, have their own eloquence. … For his 70th birthday Nonesuch has released a new box set … with a selection of Mr. Reich's greatest hits, most of them in the recordings made with the ensemble he founded in 1966. … The performances are very fine. But it's fascinating to listen to recordings made by another group a generation later. Mr. Reich's ensemble focuses on presenting the composition; the younger group, Alarm Will Sound, crack performers all, also focuses on interpreting it. On that band's CD of 'Tehillim' and 'The Desert Music' … Mr. Reich's music takes on a whole new dimension of ravishing beauty, beauty that was in there all along" (9/29/06).

Brad Paisley: Time Well Wasted

CML call number: CD COUNTRY Paisley
Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "Mainstream country doesn't have many stars like Brad Paisley: a distinctive singer who writes his own songs and happens to be a serious lead guitar picker, too. Mr. Paisley, who is from West Virginia, is one of country's many nice guys in cowboy hats, and he spends most of his fourth album … singing about suburban lives spent in malls and pickup trucks, extolling fidelity and saying sweet things to the woman in his life. As usual, Mr. Paisley dutifully covers the country bases. … What keeps him from getting too corny are his flying fingers and his wit, which has helped make his albums million-sellers. Stars like Dolly Parton and Alan Jackson sing along with him on this new album. Like Mr. Jackson, his role model, Mr. Paisley is steeped in old-fashioned country. Yet he and his producer, Frank Rogers, don't worry about traditionalism versus modernity. Songs that could have turned into power ballads are fitted out instead with fiddle, pedal steel guitar and his own twangy solos. Then he harks back to honky-tonk while singing about his laptop computer or his Visa card" ("Critic's Choice: New CD's," 8/22/05).

Toni Braxton: Libra

CML call number: CD R&B Braxton
Contents: Another sad song (5:01) -- Breathe again (4:29) -- Seven whole days (6:22) -- Love affair (4:28) -- Candlelight (4:36) -- Spending my time with you (4:08) -- Love shoulda brought you home (4:56) -- I belong to you (3:53) -- How many ways (4:45) -- You mean the world to me (4:53) -- Best friend (4:28) -- Breathe again (reprise) (1:19).
Lisa Ingrassia wrote in People: "After taking time off to be with her husband, musician Keri Lewis, and their two sons, six-time Grammy winner Toni Braxton, 38, returns with her seventh CD. … [Braxton said:] On her new album's title 'I am a Libra, and I'm always trying to find balance in my life between motherhood and my career.' On if her kids like her music 'They don't particularly like my singing voice. It's too heavy. When I sing for them, I have to sing in a mousey voice. They like Barney and Elmo.' On getting older 'I'm very comfortable with my age. Sometimes musicians hit their 30s and people go, "Oh, she's older." But I'm not dead. It's really strange, especially for women. You have to remind people that you're still sexy'" (9/12/05, p. 52).

Arvo Pärt: Alina

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Spiegel im Spiegel [Mirror in the mirror] performed twice in the original version for violin and piano, and once in the arrangement for violoncello and piano; Für Alina, for piano, performed in an extended, improvisatory version, from which the composer selected 2 sections to be inserted between the 3 interpretations of Spiegel im Spiegel. Recorded July 1995 in Frankfurt.
Personnel: Vladimir Spivakov, violin; Dietmar Schwalke, violoncello ; Sergej Bezrodny, piano; Alexander Malter, piano.
Ardella Crawford wrote in Classical Music: The Listener's Companion: "[Pärt's] earliest works were mostly instrumental, some in a neoclassical style … later he took up serialism. In 1968 he entered a silent period, unbroken (except for his transitional Symphony 3) until 1976, when he wrote a brief piano piece, Für Alina. With this, which followed a thorough study of Gregorian chant and other music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, Pärt began composing in the austere, serene style that now distinguishes his music" (p. 692).

Prokofiev: Violin Concertos & Sonatas, etc.

CML call number: CD CLASSICAL Prokofiev
Contents: Sergey Prokofiev: Violin Sonatas nos. 1 (F minor) and 2 (D major); 5 Mélodies for violin and piano; Violin Concertos nos. 1 and 2; Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio no. 2 in E minor.
Personnel: Joshua Bell, violin; Olli Mustonen, piano; Steven Isserlis, cello; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, conducted by Charles Dutoit.
From the notes by Jeremy Hayes: "Prokofiev's First Violin Sonata is one of his darkest and most disturbed works, far removed from the warmth of his violin concertos. It is dedicated to the Russian violinist David Oistrakh, who played through the work with the composer before he gave its premiere in Moscow in 1946. 'One felt that this was truly great music, and indeed for sheer beauty and depth nothing to equal it had been written for the violin for many a decade,' Oistrakh recalled. When he asked Prokofiev about the very quiet, other-worldly, eerie scale passages that the violin plays at the end of the first movement and again at the end of the finale, the composer told him that they were like wind blowing through a graveyard."