Alison Krauss: A Hundred Miles or More

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: You're just a country boy (original title "I'm just a country boy") — Simple love — Jacob's dream — Away down the river — Sawing on the strings — Down to the river to pray (originally recorded for O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack) — Baby mine (originally for The Best of Country Sing the Best of Disney — Molly Bán (originally for The Chieftains' Down the Old Plank Road: The Nashville Sessions — How's the world treating you ‪(‬duet with James Taylor‪; originally for Livin', Lovin', Losin': Songs of the Louvin Brothers)‬ — Scarlet tide (originally for Cold Mountain soundtrack) — Whiskey lullaby ‪(‬duet with Brad Paisley‪; originally for Paisley's Mud on the Tires)‬ — You will be my ain true love ‪(‬ft. Sting; originally for Cold Mountain‪)‬ — I give you to his heart (originally for The Prince of Egypt: Nashville soundtrack) — Get me through December (originally for Natalie MacMaster's In My Hands) — Missing you (duet with John Waite; originally for Waite's Downtown) — Lay down beside me ‪(‬duet with Waite‪)‬. Performed by Allison Krauss, vocals, fiddle, viola ; accompanying musicians.

The White Stripes: Icky Thump

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "Finally. A mere 10 years into the band's career, the White Stripes made it to Connecticut for the first time Wednesday night and blew through Wallingford with the ferocity of the big bad wolf demolishing the first little pig’s straw hut. It was worth the wait. On a stylized red stage set matching the duo’s color fixation, Jack White and his ex-wife Meg unleashed a garage-rock maelstrom of guttural guitars and visceral drumming that lifted the near-capacity crowd to its feet in the Chevrolet Theatre and kept the audience chanting for one more song after the last note had faded. Singer and guitarist Jack White briefly acknowledged that the band had never played Connecticut before. 'It’s up to you to tell us why or why not tonight!' he declared. … The duo, late of Detroit, is steeped in the blues, and Jack let fly with shrieking slide guitar lines on 'Little Bird' while Meg pounded her drums with primitive abandon. They took the blues in a heavier direction on 'Icky Thump,' the title track from their latest album" ("Review: The White Stripes in Wallingford," 7/26/07).

The Bravery: The Sun and the Moon

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Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "'Every word from your mouth is a knife in my ear/Every thought in your head is like poison to hear,' sings Sam Endicott, the Bravery's songwriter, on this band's second album, 'The Sun and the Moon.' What really matters is what he sings immediately afterward: 'Oh, oh oh oh-oh-ohhh/Oh, oh oh oh-oh-ohh.' Because for all the angst in the Bravery's latest songs, the hooks come first. The Bravery is a pop-rock band and glad of it. That means plenty of nonsense syllables to invite singalongs, and utter shamelessness about borrowing other bands' sounds and tricks. … [T]he band has … picked up the mournful sympathy of Elliott Smith in 'Tragedy Bound' and the exuberant vocal counterpoint of the Turtles and the Beach Boys in 'Angelina,' even as Mr. Endicott sings lines like, 'Everything I have someday will fall apart and fade away.' … [A]nother extended hommage to the Cure would have been a blunder. By trading retro preciousness for craftsmanlike pride, the Bravery has grown no less blatant, but, somehow, more likeable" (5/28/07).

Andrew Hill: Time Lines

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Personnel: Andrew Hill, piano ; Charles Tolliver, trumpet ; Greg Tardy, tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet ; John Hebert, bass ; Eric McPherson, drums.
Contents: Malachi (7:01) — Time lines (9:00) — Ry round 1 (8:57) — For Emilio (9:38) — Whitsuntide (8:55) — Smooth (8:11) — Ry round 2 (7:52) — Malachi : (solo piano version) (5:31).
Time wrote: "It's a well-worn jazz riff: superb player, been around forever but known mostly to musicians and insiders. Andrew Hill almost fit the bill. Over his 50-year career, he was lauded as a groundbreaking pianist and composer. And yet he was often overlooked by mainstream audiences, which focused on contemporaries like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Coleman Hawkins. But Hill refused to fade. His 2006 album, Time Lines, earned him album-of-the-year honors from Down Beat magazine. Hill, who performed just three weeks before his death, was 75" ("Milestones: Died," 5/7/07).

John Anderson: Easy Money

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Easy money (Anderson / Otto / Lawson) — A woman knows (Rich / McGehee / Roberts) — Funky country (Anderson / Rich) — Bonnie blue (Anderson / Coleman) — If her lovin' don't kill me (Womack / McGehee / Rich) — Something to drink about (Anderson / Emerson / Emerson) — Weeds (Anderson) — You already know my love (Chagnon / Savigar / Rosen) — Brown liquor (Rich / Lawson / Phillips) — I can't make her cry anymore (Anderson / Rich / Lawson) — Willie's guitar, featuring Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard (Phillips / Stephenson).
Ralph Novak wrote in People: "Having recorded for 30 years, Anderson has a keen sense of his own strengths, so the 11 songs on this exemplary album couldn't suit him better, showcasing his warm, hearty baritone and easy, unaffected masculinity. From the energetic title tune to the empathetic 'A Woman Knows' and the wistful 'Willie's Guitar' ('The hole in Willie Nelson's guitar is like the one you've worn through my heart'), he rocks, croons and altogether charms his way along."

An die Musik: The Painter's Music, the Musician's Art

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Russell Platt wrote in the New Yorker: "The string trio … was the Marlon Brando of the Classical era: it coulda been a contender. But Joseph Haydn’s invention of the string quartet proved to be an irresistible force. … Still, a cluster of new recordings prove the genre’s durability. … Schubert’s delightful, one-movement String Trio in B-Flat Major lies at the heart of 'The Painter’s Music, the Musician’s Art' (Newport Classic), an album that also includes recordings of piano quartets by Beethoven and Mozart. In 1981, Helen Frankenthaler made her friend Constance Emmerich, the pianist of the longtime New York ensemble An die Musik, a collage that was inspired by one of its performances. Emmerich, seeking a way to celebrate her group’s tenth anniversary, asked three more painter friends — Kenneth Noland, David Hockney, and Robert Motherwell — to create posters inspired by the composers they loved. Now the recordings have finally been brought to CD: the art works, which are beautifully reproduced in the liner notes, are a touching complement to the group’s warm, attentive, and convivial performances" ("Classical Notes," 5/14/07).

Lully: Thésée

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Elaine Fine wrote in Classical Music: The Listener's Companion: "It's one of the supreme ironies of music history that French Baroque music in its grandest forms (opera, orchestral suites) owes its existence largely to one man, an obscure Italian musician who rose from the depths of poverty to become the all-powerful Maître de Musique at the court of Louis XIV. It's unclear where and how Lully learned to play the violin, but his exceptional talent was discovered by a plenipotentiary of the king, and he was engaged as a member of Les Petits-Violons, a kind of 'junior varsity' version of the more famous Vingt-Quatre Violons du Roy. …From there, he progressed rapidly to become director first of the King's ballets and later of his operas. … But what about Lully's music? … [C]ertainly the spectacular choral and ballet numbers have immediate appeal for modern-day audiences. … His vocal writing flows easily from récitative to aire without the abrupt breaks characteristic of Italian opera; in this regard the music is almost a pre-echo of Wagner's through-composed music dramas" (p. 529).

Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
RJ Eskow wrote in the Huffington Post: "Paul McCartney's got a new album coming out — and here's a word to those of you who just yawned … it's his best work since the days of that 'beat combo' from Liverpool. … In fact, people 'of a certain age' may find that it speaks to their emotions as effectively as any record since those put out by McCartney's first band. McCartney's songwriting and playing are as sharp as they've been in any of his finest moments. … His voice now seems as strong as it ever was. … And, on tunes like 'You Tell Me' … he's showing a vulnerability and heartrending soulfulness I can't recall hearing from him before. … Memory Almost Full opens with a light tune, 'Dance Tonight.' … The next song, 'Ever Present Past,' raises the musical and lyrical ante as far as songwriting's concerned. Great playing and production, and what's that effect in the bridge? Sounds like a harpsichord being strummed like a guitar … 'See Your Sunshine' is a midtempo ballad. … 'Only Mama Knows' opens with strings and then rocks hard and heavy. And make no mistake — McCartney always could rock" ("Paul [McCartney] Is Alive," 5/23/07).

Richard Strauss: Josephs Legende

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Russell Platt wrote in the New Yorker: "'Josephs Legende' (1914) is the ultimate Richard Strauss sleeper. The only German composer to be commissioned by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, Strauss composed a lush sixty-five-minute orchestral tableau illustrating the Biblical tale of Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife that was designed specifically for the prodigious talents of Nijinsky. But when Nijinsky was fired by Diaghilev, his lover, out of revenge for marrying Romola de Pulszky, the role of Joseph in the Paris première was taken by the less experienced Léonide Massine, and the piece never got the launch it deserved. Now 'Josephs Legende' returns with an electrifying performance by the Budapest Festival Orchestra, led by Iván Fischer (on Channel Classics). While hardly profound, it is a bewitching piece that has something for every Strauss fan: the innocence of 'Der Rosenkavalier,' the decadence of 'Salome,' the grand bombast of the 'Alpine Symphony.'"
From the notes by Clemens Romijn: "Later on, Nijinski made the following remark … : 'Even if God himself were to descend to the earth, he would not be able to dance to this music'" (p. 8).

Richard Strauss: Der Rosenkavalier

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Lotte Lehmann wrote in Five Operas and Richard Strauss: "[T]he curtain rises upon a scene of peaceful intimacy: Marie Theres', the Marschallin, is reclining upon a couch in serene repose. Octavian, her lover, kneels by her side, his head in her lap while her hands gently stroke his hair. … Strauss thought of her as being approximately thirty-five. … In that day and age … no striking significance attaches to the fact of her having a lover. … Married off to her Field Marshal at a rather tender age, she had to wait for illicit affairs of the heart in order to discover the joys utterly lacking in her marriage. Now … she takes pleasure in the boyish seventeen-year-old Count Octavian. … He, of course, thinks of himself as desperately in love with her. … 'No one,' he declares, 'will cross this doorstep without my permission. I am the lord and master of this place.' Lord and master, indeed — so much so that he has to go hide as breakfast is being brought in. The Marschallin is intensely aware of the comic aspects of the situation, and her 'There he goes, quick as lightning, hiding from the breakfast,' is sung on a note of tender mockery. …" (pp. 123 ff.)

Pit Er Pat: Pyramids

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Hugh Elton wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "Pit Er Pat is a gloomy Chicago trio whose closest thing to a classification would be something meaninglessly arcane like 'Nu-Jazz' (which the band's MySpace page places before 'Ghettotech' and 'Happy Hardcore,' two sounds that they knowingly couldn't be further from). The band's most recent release, Pyramids, is best suited for play in limbo and bizarre, confusing dreams. It would be a good accompaniment for a modern-day murder mystery, one that involves obscure organic psychedelics of some sort. Simple, slow-driving progressions provide a seemingly endless basis for Fay Davis-Jeffers' untrained but posed voice (which sounds like a teenaged ghost singing Cat Power songs) and the ominously melancholy atmosphere it creates. The simulated eternity of her stripped-organ motifs mingles awkwardly at times with Butchey Fuego's drumming, while Rob Doran (a founding member of Alkaline Trio) lays down moody, surreptitions bass lines that connects all these strands enough for that disjointed feeling to remain mostly in check" ("LiveMusic: Sucka, Pit-er, Flanders," 5/3/07).

A Tribute to Joni Mitchell

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Kirk Miller wrote in Sky: "Joni Mitchell … has remained unpredictable. … Mitchell was a musical pioneer … and she earned commercial success without the help of prefabricated pop singles, big-budget music videos or image consultants. Her body of work crosses musical boundaries with ease; Mitchell may be the only artist who has directly inspired Prince, k.d. lang and Sarah McLachlan. Those artists and nine others appear on A Tribute to Joni Mitchell, an A-plus reimagining of her best work. Some fans may mourn the lack of better-known songs — there’s no 'You’re So Square (Baby I Don’t Care),' no 'Woodstock' — but the selection here is as eclectic as the performers. Icelandic alt-rocker Björk turns 'Boho Dance' into a chill-out groove of bells and electronic distortion, while Prince turns on the falsetto charm for 'A Case of You,' morphed from a ballad into an R&B vocal workout. … Elvis Costello['s] … rendering of 'Edith and the Kingpin' … is … ultimately rewarding. Though it’s virtually impossible to improve on a musical iconoclast like Joni Mitchell, this collection is at least a perfectly varied and suitable tribute" (6/07, pp. 59-60.)

Joshua Redman: Back East

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "'Back East' (Nonesuch) isn't a stopgap or an experiment for the saxophonist Joshua Redman; it's a record that scales back and takes inventory of his roots and strengths. It pulls vigorously toward the example of Sonny Rollins (the title is a play on Mr. Rollins's 1957 album 'Way Out West') but also, to a lesser extent, toward John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Mr. Redman's father, Dewey Redman, who died last year. Mostly, it's a no-nonsense saxophone-trio record — like 'Way Out West' — using three rhythm sections, all of them first-rate. A few songs include Dewey Redman, Chris Cheek or Joe Lovano on second saxophone. (On 'GJ,' the last track, the elder Redman plays a short piece with one of the rhythm sections, Larry Grenadier on bass and Ali Jackson on drums; the younger Mr. Redman doesn't even appear.) Mr. Redman has been a flexible record maker since he emerged, almost 15 years ago; he can play with almost anyone, and with almost any stylistic intent. But here his simplest record is also his least facile and his clearest of purpose" ("Playlist," 4/29/07).

Hiromi's Sonicbloom: Time Control

Status of copy at Case Memorial Library
Ernest Barteldes wrote in the New York Press: "Fans of the 28-year-old, Japanese-born pianist will notice a change of pace on her new disc … since her trio is enhanced by the presence of David 'Fuze' Fiuczynski of the Screaming Headless Torsos on electric guitar. … Fiuczynski … has a jazz-rock influence that brings to mind players like Jeff Beck and Steve Howe: He uses few guitar effects, save some reverb and light distortion … and he has … the talent for giving the instrument a near-human tone. … This is possibly the closest [Hiromi] has come to making an instrumental rock album. … In one of the disc’s key tracks, 'Real Clock vs. Body Clock = Jet Lag,' she plays around with different sound textures, shifting beats and using both piano and electric keyboards … while Fiuczynski contributes by adding improvisations and drowsy solos that translate the fatigue one gets from constantly being on the road. On 'Time Control or Controlled by Time,' she begins with a fast piano riff … and [Tony] Grey contributes a beautiful electric bass solo that leads to a showcase of drummer Martin Valihora’s individual talents" ("Between Time Zones," 4/11-17/07).