Charles Mingus Sextet with Eric Dolphy: Cornell 1964

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Personnel: Johnny Coles, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto sax, flute, bass clarinet; Clifford Jordan, tenor sax; Jaki Byard, piano; Charles Mingus, bass; Dannie Richmond, drums.
Contents: Opening (:17) — ATFW you (4:26) — Sophisticated lady (4:23) — Fables of Faubus (29:42) — Orange was the colour of her dress, then blue silk (15:05) — Take the "A" train (17:26) — Meditations (31:23) — So long Eric (15:33) — When Irish eyes are smiling (6:07) — Jitterbug waltz (9:59). Recorded live, Mar. 18, 1964 at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
From the notes by Gary Giddins: "Mingus opens with two incantations of the jazz past: Byard's dazzling 'ATFW You,' a braiding of Art Tatum and Fats Waller, and Mingus's solo reading of Ellington's 'Sophisticated Lady' — two stirring choruses and a rising coda, yet merely a warm-up for the electrifying bass playing to follow. The delirious half-hour version of the 1959 classic 'Fables of Faubus' is surely the most fun ever inspired by Arkansas governor Orval Faubus. The unified sound of Dolphy and Jordan gives it a fresh blast from the start. …"

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks: Real Emotional Trash

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Contents: Dragonfly pie — Hopscotch Willy — Cold son — Real emotional trash — Out of reaches — Baltimore — Gardenia — Elmo delmo — We can't help you — Wicked Wanda. Recorded Apr. 2007, at Snowghost, Whitefish, Mont., and June 2007, at Foxtrot, Chicago, Ill.
Personnel: "jicks: stephen malkmus - g, v, etc / joanna bolme - bass, bv, synth / janet weiss - drums, bv / mike clark - keys, g, synth" (booklet).
Artist website: http://www.stephenmalkmus.com/
From the website: "Steve Malkmus / the true Victims Family fan. Born in Los Angeles...... Spends his free time hitting a large bell....... Majored in Leprosy at Inkblot Tech....... Feels most at home around Darts... At some point established himself as a group to keep watching.... Defines a Jick as: 'J from Jagger plus Mick minus M.'"
N.B. The uncredited cover artwork for the CD booklet features a lovable cartoon bird that might be related to the ones on the cover of My Morning Jacket's Z.

Early Chamber Music of Elliott Carter

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Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin wrote in the Huffington Post: "Elliott Carter, still one of the greatest modern classical composers, was born in New York City in 1908. This December, he becomes a centenarian. The young Elliott went to New York's Horace Mann School and was mentored by composer Charles Ives. After attending Harvard, where he earned a master's in music, Carter arrived in Paris about 1933, just as conflagration was about to consume Europe. As the streets sadly teemed with Nazi refugees, Carter studied with the legendary Nadia Boulanger, eventually returning to New York to teach and compose. In 1960, after first gaining world renown, Carter was honored at home with the Pulitzer Prize for his string quartets. Among his admirers were Stravinsky and Aaron Copland. Carter's many awards include the Gold Medal for Music from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the National Medal of Arts, and a second Pulitzer. Carter, whose recent work is among his finest, considers his music to be born from jazz. [The Sonata for Cello and Piano] … is an excellent introduction to this living legend" (8/1/08).

Al Green: Lay It Down

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Contents: Lay it down (featuring Anthony Hamilton) — Just for me — You've got the love I need (feat. A. Hamilton) — No one like you — What more do you want from me — Take your time (feat. Corinne Bailey Rae) — Too much — Stay with me (by the sea) (feat. John Legend) — All I need — I'm wild about you — Standing in the rain.
"Stripwax: The World's First and Only Comic Record Review" wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "[Ivan:] You know Natasha, if you and I were to start a band … [Natasha:] Oh no, not again … [Ivan:] We'd kill doing covers of The Kills, and I think you and I could pull off a She and Him style set too … But if I were to perform a love song just for you, I could only wish for it to come out half as smooth as an Al Green song … You should hear his new record! To hear today's young singers like Corinne Bailey Rae singing along with him and his flawless church band is soul inspiring … If only I could sing to you like that, I would … [Natasha:] Ivan … You may not have the voice of a sixty year old soul legend, but you certainly have soul …" (5/29/08, p. 34).

Billy Bragg: Mr. Love and Justice

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Mr. Bragg said in an interview with Christine Smallwood for The Nation: "Since the last album, around 2002, I've come to view politics in broader terms. Obviously we live in a post-Marxist, post-ideological period, so we have to rethink how we articulate the things we believe in. That process has led me to talk to my audience not about the evils of capitalism and conservatism and racism, but to focus on what I see as the thing they have in common, which is cynicism. The worst aspects of capitalism, the worst impulses of conservatives and every inch of racism is driven by cynicism. And our problem, for those of us who want to make a better world, is that we're prone to that as well. I helped to get Tony Blair elected, so you can imagine how I feel sometimes. But I also remain committed to the process. [Smallwood:] What's it like to be rocking past 50? [Bragg:] I still have that same energy, that same excitement. I don't have any urge to look back at what we did in the twentieth century and say, I wish it was like that. I'm still excited to take part in things" ("Back Talk: Billy Bragg," 6/16/08, p. 54).

Nielsen: String Quartets, Vol. 2

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Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "Last year the Young Danish String Quartet, founded in 2001 by four students in Copenhagen, released the first volume of a survey of the four published string quartets and the string quintet by Carl Nielsen. … Volume 2 has just been issued, and the impassioned, insightful performances again shed light on fascinating repertory. Nielsen, who died in 1931 at 66, is usually associated with early-20th-century nationalist composers. Yet, a self-described free spirit, he set himself apart from his safely folkloric compatriots. … Most of the F minor Quartet (1890) was written by the 25-year-old Nielsen during his first trip outside Denmark, to Germany and elsewhere. … Nielsen took the quartet home, where it caught on with performers and critics. Some of those same critics were perplexed by Nielsen's next quartet, in E flat, written and revised in the late 1890s, complaining that its 'convoluted' contrapuntal writing would be appreciated only by connoisseurs. Here the music comes across as daring, with its jagged rhythms and obsessive repetitions" (8/10/08).

My Bloody Valentine: Loveless

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Wired wrote: "We can't be the only ones whose first response to My Bloody Valentine's Loveless was to smack the stereo, assuming some part somewhere must be skipping, warped, or broken. How else to explain those noises? Then, out of the swirling guitar haze — sweet melodies!" ("Playlist," 9/08, p. 74).
And Sasha Frere-Jones wrote in the New Yorker: "Guitars like a choir of bells and mortar shells! An angel on Vicodin singing in a gorgeous falsetto! Kevin Shields, the band’s leader, became something of an Orson Welles after 'Loveless,' constantly delaying a follow-up album (which never came) and fuelling speculation regarding his one classic album. Did he really make all those noises with nothing but a whammy bar and distortion? (He says so.) There hasn’t been a My Bloody Valentine show since 1992, but the band has re-formed to curate part of the 'All Tomorrow’s Parties' festival and to play a handful of live dates. On record, the band’s cherry-chocolate barrage of noise is detailed and dizzying; onstage they sound like an airplane engine."

California EAR Unit: Works of Stockhausen and others

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Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin wrote in the Huffington Post: "Karlheinz Stockhausen was one of the most important composers of the 20th century, and one of the very first to cultivate the electronic music medium; born in 1928 in Mödrath, Germany, a small town near Cologne. … By the age of 8, Karlheinz showed signs of musical brilliance. Tragically, in 1941, his mother was euthanized by the Nazis, and his father later killed serving in Hitler's war; in his late teens, Stockhausen himself was a stretcher-bearer for the Germans, witnessing horrific atrocities. After the war, he hoped to become a music teacher, studying with Frank Martin in Cologne, at the Musikhochschule. In 1952, inspired by the music of Olivier Messiaen, he went to Paris, where his creativity and genius exploded. In just a few years, Stockhausen became one of Europe's leading, and controversial, avant-garde composers. His music is emotional mathematics, cerebral and sophisticated. 'Dr. K-Sextet,' performed by The California Ear Unit and released in 1994, is a gentle introduction to the very complex and brilliant Stockhausen."

Bryan Adams: 11

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Contents: Tonight we have the stars (Adams / Vallance / Peters) — I thought I'd seen everything (Adams / Kennedy / Lange) — I ain't losin' the fight (Adams / Kennedy / Lange) — Oxygen (Adams / Kennedy / Lange) — We found what we were looking for (Adams / Lange / Rabin) — Broken wings (Adams / Kennedy) — Somethin' to believe in (Adams / Kennedy) — Mysterious ways (Adams / Peters) — She's got a way (Adams / Kennedy) — Flower grown wild (Adams / Vallance / Peters) — Walk on by (Adams / Vallance). Performed by Adams on electric and acoustic guitar, bass, and vocals, with accompanying musicians.
The New Yorker wrote: "The Canadian pop star Bryan Adams has been a presence on the charts since the early eighties, when songs like 'Cuts Like a Knife,' 'Straight from the Heart,' and 'Run to You' made him a household name. On May 3, he offers a solo performance of songs from his forthcoming release, '11,' his first studio album in four years" ("Night Life: Rock and Pop," 5/5/08, p. 10).

Conor Oberst: Conor Oberst

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "'Conor Oberst' (Merge) is the richest collection of songs from Conor Oberst … in a long time. … Maybe it's a function of getting older … or maybe the tranquil setting helped, but Oberst seems at ease here. He sounds as if he's shrugged off any pressure to make a Grand Artistic Statement, resulting in songs that that play to his considerable strengths as a writer. He spins a vivid tangle of Dylan-esque lyrics on 'Get-Well-Cards,' and sings with quiet, double-tracked precision on the mournful opening track, 'Cape Canaveral.' There's a lilting country-rock inflection in the gently rolling rhythm of 'Sausalito' and the trebly guitar licks on 'Moab.' Oberst turns to finger-picked acoustic guitar on the folky accusation 'Lenders in the Temple' and ends the record with 'Milk Thistle,' a hushed solo-acoustic taking-stock song as vast in scope as the western sky. 'Help me go slow, I've been carrying on,' he sings, and all the hype and expectations and ancillary rubbish recede, leaving only the sound of an earnest singer and songwriter fully coming into his own" (8/4/08).

Morton Feldman: Rothko Chapel; Why Patterns?

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Personnel: For Rothko Chapel, UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus; David Abel, viola; Karen Rosenak, celesta; William Winant, percussion; Philip Brett, conductor. For Why Patterns?, California EAR Unit (Dorothy Stone, flute; Arthur Jarvinen, glockenspiel; Gaylord Mowrey, piano). Recorded October 1990.
Alex Ross wrote in the New Yorker: "While some classical record labels have lost artistic focus or disappeared altogether amid crises in the music business, boutique operations like Nonesuch, ECM, Harmonia Mundi, and BIS have gone from strength to strength, with each new release extending a personal vision. New Albion, which was founded in Northern California twenty-four years ago by Foster Reed, is among the most distinctive. A laid-back West Coast vibe has characterized many of New Albion’s offerings, although its most celebrated recording, of Morton Feldman’s haunting 'Rothko Chapel,' honors a New York modernist" ("Critic's Notebook: O Albion!," 8/4/08).

Liz Phair: Whip-Smart

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Contents: Chopsticks — Supernova — Support system — X-ray man — Shane — Nashville — Go west — Cinco de mayo — Dogs of L.A. — Whip-smart — Jealousy — Crater Lake — Alice Springs — May queen. Recorded at Idful Music, Chicago and Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Feb. 1994.
Notable lyrics: "When they do the double dutch, that's them dancing …" ("Whip-smart").
Personnel: Liz Phair, vocals, guitar; Brad Wood, drums, percussion, backing vocals; John Henderson, guitars; Casey Rice, guitars; Leroy Bach, bass.
Brian LaRue wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "Exile in Guyville gets most of the praise, but among Liz Phair's albums, Whip-Smart arguably strikes the best balance of provocation vs. listener-approachability, neither risking accessibility for the sake of sounding dangerous nor losing power for the sake of playing it safe. And it's all capped off by the semi-cryptic mid-tempo guitar-pop gem 'May Queen'" ("Advocations: Queen of the May," 5/1/08, p. 27).

Verdi: Un Ballo in Maschera

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Anthony Tommasini wrote in the New York Times: "Like an increasing number of orchestras and opera companies, the Royal Opera House in London has been issuing recordings of historic live broadcasts. The producers have made exciting selections, none more so than a newly released 1962 performance of Verdi's 'Ballo in Maschera.' The overall performance, excitingly conducted by Edward Downes, makes this live recording, with quite passable sound quality, a worthy addition to the discography. But the main point of interest is Jon Vickers's portrayal of Gustavo III, in a production adhering to the opera's original setting in the court of the Swedish king. Mr. Vickers, 35 at the time, was widely acclaimed for his viscerally powerful singing of dramatic tenor roles like Wagner's Siegmund and Beethoven's Florestan. On this occasion you hear flashes of the anguished intensity he would later bring to Verdi's Otello and Wagner's Tristan. But opera buffs who know only the force-of-nature Vickers may be surprised to discover what a fine Verdi stylist he was" ("Classical Recordings," 7/27/08).

Ashlee Simpson: Bittersweet World

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Jon Pareles wrote in the New York Times: "On her third album, 'Bittersweet World,' the defiant pose — 'I just wanna color outside the lines,' she pouts in 'Rule Breaker,' sounding about as dangerous as an unruly kindergartner — gives her fertile songwriting territory. Ms. Simpson is smart enough to work with expert hitmakers, among them the producers Chad Hugo from the Neptunes (his partner, Pharrell Williams, has been working with Madonna) and Timbaland (who squeezed Madonna and Ms. Simpson into his schedule). And she’s shameless enough to mimic Gwen Stefani, Avril Lavigne, Madonna and 1980s hits from Toni Basil, Tom Tom Club and Missing Persons. The shamelessness pays off in songs with crisp beats, teen-seeking choruses and cheerfully obvious lyrics. 'Outta My Head (Ay Ya Ya)' and 'Ragdoll,' her collaborations with the Brooklyn electro up-and-comer Santogold, are perky, syncopated staccato complaints. … Ms. Simpson ricochets from vampy self-esteem ('Hot Stuff,' 'Boys') to postbreakup sulking. … It couldn’t be more calculated, but that doesn’t prevent it from being catchy, too" (4/21/08).

Ricky Skaggs: Honoring the Fathers of Bluegrass: Tribute to 1946 and 1947

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Personnel: Ricky Skaggs, vocals, mandolin, guitar; Kentucky Thunder (Ben Helson, Paul Brewster, vocals, guitars; Cody Kilby-Lea, guitar; Andy Leftwich, fiddle; Jim Mills, banjo; Mark Fain, bass).
Contents: Going back to old Kentucky (with Earl Scruggs) — When you're lonely — Toy heart — It's mighty dark to travel — Mother's only sleeping — Bluegrass breakdown — Little cabin home on the hill — Mansions for me — Sweetheart you done me wrong — Why did you wander — Remember the cross (with Del McCoury) — The old crossroad.
From the notes by Mr. Skaggs: "1945 was a big year. Bill [Monroe] signed with Columbia Records [and] hired a new singer/guitarist named Lester Flatt, and … a 21 year old banjo player named Earl Scruggs. … They didn't record until August of 1946. … It was a totally new sound for Bill Monroe — totally original, and totally unique. Just what he had wanted. It had the essence of old time string music, but with a new fire, and new original songs. …"

Dizzee Rascal: Maths + English

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "One of [the] best things about Dizzee Rascal's first two records was that the English rapper sounded nothing like his American counterparts. With slashing electro beats and social commentary delivered in a thick cockney accent, Rascal (born Dylan Mills) offered a fresh alternative to the moribund gangsta fantasies ruling the domestic scene. … Long delayed in the U.S., 'Maths + English' … finds Rascal evolving. His social consciousness remains intact on 'World Outside' as he yearns to escape the 'hood, and his delivery is clearer and bolder than before. So is his music: Live drums and grinding metal guitar propel 'Sirens' — maybe the catchiest song he's ever recorded — and he rides a hard, funky bass line on 'Excuse Me Please.' Rascal shows better judgment with the other cameos. Lily Allen sings, in pixieish tones, the hook on 'Wanna Be,' while a sample of Arctic Monkeys front man Alex Turner changes the lyrical pace on the jittery 'Temptation' with a relaxed melody that contrasts with Rascal's rapid-fire rhymes" ("CD Review: 'Maths + English,'" 4/29/08).

Jakob Dylan: Seeing Things

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David Wild wrote in the Huffington Post: "Let it be said here that for my money, this kid would have been well worth hearing even if his name was Smith or, say, Zimmerman. Through the good, the bad and the ugly, Jakob Dylan has pushed forward, writing and singing his songs with a gifted band of great players. He has done so during a particularly brutal time in the music business — or what the hell's left of it now. Now Jakob's recorded his very first solo album called Seeing Things, a stripped down, largely acoustic affair produced by Rick Rubin that comes out this summer. … 'Everybody Pays As They Go' … is really just that familiar voice, an acoustic guitar, a subtle, female backing vocal, and a powerfully simple and plainspoken statement about shattered dreams and innocence lost. It's an uplifting and heartbreaking reminder that whoever you are, we all stand on common ground that can give way at any moment. For better or worse, everybody does pay some price as they go. Any way you add it up, Jakob Dylan has more than paid for the right to be heard and valued on his own terms" ("First Listen," 4/15/08).

Erykah Badu: New Amerykah, Part One

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Contents: Amerykahn promise — The healer/hip hop — Me — My people — Soldier — The cell — Twinkle — Master teacher — That hump — Telephone — Honey (bonus track).
Ben Sisario wrote in the New York Times: "Simon Wright, chief executive of the Virgin Entertainment Group North America, said that over the last four or five years music sales had gone from being 70 percent of the stores’ total to less than 40 percent. … He added that the future of Virgin’s Union Square location was up in the air; though profitable, he said, the store is just too big for the current market. Whatever people buy there, the store is doing a brisk business. It buzzed with shoppers on Sunday afternoon. Some of them, like Kim Zeller, a 37-year-old clothing designer pushing a baby carriage, said that buying music on the Internet just can’t compare to the experience of browsing in a store — and getting out of the house. 'It kind of gets boring when you’re trapped inside listening to music from your computer,' said Ms. Zeller, who had bought new CDs by Erykah Badu and the Black Keys" (4/18/08).

Carla Bley: The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu

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Contents: The banana quintet: 1. One banana, 2. Two banana, 3. Three banana, 4. Four, 5. Five banana, 6. One banana more — Liver of life — Death of Superman / Dream sequence #1: Flying — Ad infinitum. All compositions by Carla Bley. Recorded May 19-20 and mastered August 19-21, 2007, at La Buissonne Studios, Pernes les Fontaines, France.
Personnel: Paolo Fresu, trumpet, flugelhorn; Andy Sheppard, soprano and tenor saxophones; Carla Bley, piano; Steve Swallow, bass; Billy Drummond, drums.
From the accompanying booklet: "He had recently been spotted in Managua. Then we heard rumors that he was playing in a tiny club in Caracas. We happened to have a Lost Chords gig in Bogota, and when we arrived we asked if anyone had seen him. Word was that he had been playing in festival street bands and teaching music at a nearby juvenile detention center but had since headed north. We had heard that there was a club in Guatemala called The Banana Republic. There was a good chance he was playing there. …"