Ornette Coleman: The Shape of Jazz to Come

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Gary Giddins wrote in the New Yorker: "No musician has ever roiled the jazz establishment quite as much as Coleman. Musical history is filled with jeering audiences and critics, but not many musicians have inspired personal violence. In Louisiana, in 1949, Coleman was summoned from a bandstand and beaten bloody by a mob which also destroyed his saxophone. A decade later … the drummer Max Roach came to listen and … ended up punching him in the mouth. But musicians with a grounding in the classical avant-garde were more encouraging: Leonard Bernstein declared him a genius, Gunther Schuller wrote a concerto with him in mind, and John Lewis, the pianist and musical director of the Modern Jazz Quartet, touted him as the most important jazz figure since Charlie Parker. The object of this furor is a preternaturally gentle man who speaks, with a modest lisp, in visionary metaphors and bold assertions. Those assertions came initially, between 1958 and 1960, in a series of provocative album titles: 'Something Else!!!!'; 'The Shape of Jazz to Come'; 'Change of the Century'" (4/14/08).

Southside Johnny: Grapefruit Moon: The Songs of Tom Waits

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Sal Nunziato wrote in the Huffington Post: "Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you one of the freshest recordings of the year. … [S]omeone knew what they were doing. And that someone is Richie Rosenberg, better known as La Bamba from the Conan O'Brien show. Sure, you've got the material. … But to feel this music the way La Bamba feels it, is no easy task. Southside Johnny does a fine job interpreting the tin pan alley words and melodies of the great Tom Waits. But the real star is Richie 'La Bamba' Rosenberg, whose arrangements evoke the brilliance of such orchestrators as Oliver Nelson, Billy May, and Nelson Riddle. 'Down Down Down' becomes a kick-ass jitterbug and 'All The Time In The World' sends you speeding through the Riviera, looking for Blofeld. 'Johnsburg, Illinois,' one of my fave Waits tunes, clocks in at less than 2 minutes on 'Swordfishtrombones.' It's a tad longer here, but after one listen, you are ready to kick a can down some boulevard in the rain, wondering just why she did you wrong. Every song will either put you in a Billy Wilder film or some saloon" (9/9/08).

R.E.M.: Accelerate

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Contents: Living well is the best revenge — Man-sized wreath — Supernatural superserious — Hollow man — Houston — Accelerate — Until the day is done — Mr. Richards — Sing for the submarine — Horse to water — I'm gonna DJ.
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "'I've got to fall in another direction/ Accelerate!' sings Michael Stipe on the bracing, buzzing title track of R.E.M.'s 14th studio album. After forgetting how to rock following the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997, the trio cranks it up on Accelerate, their most amped effort since 1994's Monster. The result is simply the best R.E.M. disc since 1992's classic Automatic for the People. Accelerate hits the ground running with the opening assault, 'Living Well Is the Best Revenge,' as Stipe tears into his vocal with renewed vigor. You can just imagine him thrashing about to this one onstage. Even better are 'Supernatural Superserious' … and the soul-deep 'Hollow Man.' … Lean and mean, Accelerate clocks in at less than 35 minutes, its 11 cuts racing by so fast you can't wait to play it again."

Buena Vista Social Club Presents Ibrahim Ferrer

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Phil Ramone and Danielle Evin wrote in the Huffington Post: "Born in 1927, the legendary Cuban vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer was known for his elegance as much as his son and bolero stylings. In the mid-'90s, he was living close to poverty, shining shoes in Havana, when Ry Cooder enlisted him for the Buena Vista Social Club project, which went on to win the 1998 Grammy Award for best tropical Latin performance. Ferrer was literally born in a social club. His mother went into labor on a night out at a dance in the southeastern city of Santiago de Cuba. At the age of 12, Ferrer sadly became an orphan, and a year later he joined the band Los Jovenes del Son and thus began his professional career. The Buena Vista Social Club brought him unexpected, late-in-life success, earning him the first Latin Grammy for best new artist in 2000. Buenos Hermanos, another collaboration with Ry Cooder, won a Grammy for traditional tropical Latin album in 2004. At the age of 78, Ferrer died in Havana" ("Dog Ears Music: Volume Eighteen," 4/18/08).

Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon

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Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "Coachella … is the king of the American alternative rock festivals. … Coachella has broadened the rules of its game, booking acts that, the longer you think about them, aren’t indie in the slightest. But what’s indie? For instance: Coachella is awash with festivalgoers walking around the stages and art installations wearing T-shirts that they’ve carefully selected. … But because so much of the audience is educated, grown up and employed, with a little scratch in their pockets and a healthy sense of leisure time, they have an acute sense of irony and pluralism. What kind of brand, slogan or cultural entity on a T-shirt would be thoroughly uncool, unalternative, at Coachella? Budweiser? Metallica? James Taylor? Bell Biv DeVoe? All acceptable. … As go the shirts, so go the bands. Roger Waters closed the festival’s main stage on Sunday night, playing Pink Floyd’s entire 'Dark Side of the Moon' album, as well as his own post-Floyd songs in the first half. (For 'Dark Side' he left most of the absent David Gilmour’s singing and guitar parts to his band; the lyrics, though, are Mr. Waters’s.)" (4/29/08)

Houston Person with Ron Carter: Just Between Friends

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Contents: How deep is the ocean — You've changed — Blueberry Hill — Darn that dream — Meditation — Lover man (oh where can you be?) — Lover come back to me — Polka dots and moonbeams — Always — Alone together.
Nate Chinen wrote in the New York Times: "The tenor saxophonist Houston Person and the bassist Ron Carter, jazz sages in their 70s, have recorded memorably as a duo before, more than a decade ago. So it’s no wonder that 'Just Between Friends' (HighNote) has the feel of a conversation, though the casual air masks an imposing amount of knowledge. Both musicians savor the setting: Mr. Person articulates melodies with a soft and murmuring lisp, while Mr. Carter fills the open space with his sound. Together they make this an easeful and beautiful record of a sort you don’t hear much anymore" ("Playlist," 4/27/08).

Chad and Jeremy: Of Cabbages and Kings

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Contents: Rest in peace — The gentle cold of dawn — Busman's holiday — Can I see you — Family way — I'll get around to it when and if I can — The progress suite, movements 1 thru 5: Prologue — Decline — Editorial — Fall — Epilogue — Bonus tracks: Manners maketh man (prev. unissued) — Cautionary tale (prev. unissued ) — The gentle cold of dawn (prev. unreleased instrumental) — Rest in peace (single version) — Painted dayglow smile (single version) — Sister Marie.
The New Haven Advocate wrote: "[I]t's a rare week when you can find The Searchers (last night and tonight), Peter & Gordon (tomorrow night) and — for our money the best of the three — Chad & Jeremy (tonight), all at Mohegan Sun. … Among them, these three Brit combos brought us from Beatles-blessed Merseybeat … through Americanized Phil Spectorian oomph … to a fantasy-filled psychedelic makeover (Chad & Jeremy's underrated concept album Of Cabbages & Kings)" ("The Week: Our Guide to Getting Out: Have Mersey," 5/1/08).

Ellis Marsalis Quartet: An Open Letter to Thelonious

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Ben Ratliff wrote in the New York Times: "Thelonious Monk's songs leave no place for a musician to hide … and that's probably why other musicians playing Monk's music … have made some of their own best work in the process. Maybe too — as the drummer Jason Marsalis puts it … it helps that Monk was the 'first unofficial funk musician.' … That stutter-stepping funk is built into a lot of Monk's compositions. … Here it comes out most often in the rhythm section, between Jason Marsalis and the bassist Jason Stewart. In tunes like 'Teo' and 'Jackie-ing,' the drummer establishes a raw, banging funk up front, then later falls into 4/4 swing that makes the switch a logical transition. Anyone who has admired the younger Marsalis's drum solos … will find a few brilliant ones here. Derek Douget, an underrated saxophonist from New Orleans, is the dry and smart-sounding saxophonist in the quartet. And Ellis Marsalis, at 73 a lucid, subtle, laconic pianist, shines up these tunes, leaving sufficient space while weaving phrases in and around the solos. Clearly this music has gotten into his bloodstream" ("Critics' Choice," 4/7/08).

Brian Wilson: That Lucky Old Sun

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Contents: That lucky old sun (Gillespie/Smith) — Morning beat (Wilson/Bennett) — (Narrative) — Room with a view (Wilson/Parks) — Good kind of love (Wilson) — Forever she'll be my surfer girl (Wilson/Bennett) — (Narrative) — Venice Beach (Wilson/Parks) — Live let live (Wilson/Parks) / That lucky old sun (reprise) — Mexican girl (Wilson/Bennett) — (Narrative) — Cinco de mayo (Wilson/Parks) — California role (Wilson/Bennett) / That lucky old sun (reprise) — (Narrative) — Between pictures (Wilson/Parks) — Oxygen to the brain (Wilson/Bennett) — Can't wait too long (excerpt) (Wilson) — Midnight's another day (Wilson/Bennett) — That lucky old sun (Reprise) — Going home (Wilson/Bennett) — Southern California (Wilson/Bennett).
Time wrote: "He's 66 now, too old to be chasing the high notes, but the miles on Wilson's voice make his eternal innocence seem that much sweeter. The songs are slight ruminations on '60s L.A., some barely memorable, but as delivery devices for an optimistic soul, they do just fine" ("Downtime: 5 Things You Should Know About," 9/15/08, p. 67).

ZZ Top: Eliminator

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Barry Walters wrote in Rolling Stone: "Mention dance rock and people think of Franz Ferdinand or Duran Duran. But when it comes to the American edition, nothing matches the ferocity or success of ZZ Top's 1983 Eliminator, a landmark blend of traditional Texan boogie blues, New Wave synths and disco-steady beats that sold over 10 million U.S. units. Yielding the band's sleek pop breakthrough, 'Legs' … Eliminator announced a major studio reinvention from a hairy Houston threesome previously focused on replicating the grit of their arena-packing Seventies concerts. Guitarist Billy Gibbons already knew how to fill a power-trio framework with rumbling chords and fat leads that double as propulsive rhythmic blare. Here he adds a badass distortion that complements bassist Dusty Hill's quavering synth frills and drummer Frank Beard's Devo-precise stomp as biker hoedowns like 'Gimme All Your Lovin' ' and 'Sharp Dressed Man' overflow with good-natured testosterone. … This special edition's synth-shorn live tracks assert the punkiness that drove the band's retooled attack" ("Reissues & Rarities," 9/4/08, p. 72).

Charles Ives: Symphony No. 2 and other works

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Contents: Symphony no. 2 (Andante moderato, Allegro, Allegro cantabile, Lento maestoso, Allegro molto vivace); The Gong on the Hook and Ladder, or Firemen's Parade on Main Street (Allegro moderato); Tone Roads no. 1 (Allegro); Hymn: Largo cantabile (from "A Set of Three Short Pieces," for string orchestra; Hallowe'en (from "Three Outdoor Scenes"; Allegretto to Presto); Central Park in the Dark (Molto adagio); The Unanswered Question (Largo molto sempre). Recorded live at Avery Fisher Hall, April 1987 (symphony) and November 1988.
Personnel: New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein.
Steve Smith wrote in the New York Times: "Bernstein’s second New York Philharmonic recording of Ives’s Symphony No. 2, issued in 1990, is every bit as lively and alert to eccentric detail as his previous account, taped three decades earlier. But the patience and insight revealed in the more recent account are persuasive, and the disc also includes breathtaking versions of Ives’s 'Central Park in the Dark' and 'The Unanswered Question'" ("On Disc," 9/12/08).

Counting Crows: Saturday Nights & Sunday Mornings

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Personnel: Counting Crows (Dan Vickrey, David Immerglück, Charles Gillingham, Adam Duritz, David Bryson, Jim Bogios, Millard Powers). "Saturday Nights" produced by Gil Norton, "Sunday Mornings" produced by Brian Deck except "Come Around" produced by Gil Norton.
Contents: Saturday nights (1492 — Hanging tree — Los Angeles — Sundays — Insignificant — Cowboys) — Sunday mornings (Washington Square — On almost any Sunday morning — When I dream of Michelangelo — Anyone but you — You can't count on me — Le ballet d'or — On a Tuesday in Amsterdam long ago — Come around).
Notable lyrics: "I bought a gun cuz it impresses / All the little girls I see … Into the dark Italian underground of disco lights and disco sound / And skinny girls who drink champagne / And take me on their knees again / Then pull me up and out the door / Past railway cars … And morning spreading out across the feathered thighs of angels … In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue / In 1493, came home across the deep blue sea …" ("1492," Adam F. Duritz)

Spoon: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

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Jeffrey Petrin wrote in Play: "Favorable reviews combined with a music industry foaming at the mouth for the next Nirvana led the band to the behemoth Elektra Records. The result was A Series of Sneaks, released in 1998. Critics showered the record with praise, but consumers weren't so quick to fall in love with Spoon; poor sales led to Elektra dropping the band from their roster after a mere four months. The band, feeling defeated and abused released a 7-inch single on Saddle Creek called The Agony of Lafitte with B-side called Lafitte Don't Fail Me Now (both titles were references to Elektra's Ronn Lafitte, who the band felt reneged on his promise to put money into promoting the album. …) The single got quite a bit of exposure, and Spoon (along with Nada Surf, Aimee Man[n] and Wilco) soon became the poster children for bands that were mistreated by the big labels. Merge signed the band in 2001, and the result was Girls Can Tell, Kill the Moonlight and Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, each album out selling the former. … Ga Ga… debuted at no. 10 on the Billboard charts" ("Worth the Trip: Spoon," 4/2/08).

Cassandra Wilson: Loverly

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Gary Giddins wrote in the New Yorker: "'Loverly' suggests excitement from the first — Jason Moran’s jaunty sixteen-bar piano introduction to 'Lover Come Back to Me,' built on a two-note figure played over a quick shuffle rhythm. … Despite the familiarity of the album’s material, there isn’t much nostalgia here. For Wilson and the band, the songs aren’t covered in the barnacles of previous interpretations; it’s as if they had just been discovered in an old trunk. Wilson occasionally uses flat intonation as a spur, creating a moment of tension before stressing the notes and chords that define a song’s arc. The band is superb throughout. Moran phrases on the beat and against it, meshes clattering chords with the rhythm section, and adds harmonic twists that knock the songs slightly askew. Lonnie Plaxico, the bassist on all but the duet selections, is strong and limber, and Herlin Riley’s robust drumming is amplified by the resourceful Nigerian percussionist Lekan Babalola. (Nicholas Payton, uncredited, plays a trumpet solo on 'Lover Come Back to Me,' overdubbed during a sound mix.)" (6/23/08)

Lil Mama: VYP: Voice of the Young People

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Melena Ryzik wrote in the New York Times: "'Voice of the Young People' is a curious mix of schoolyard froth — the second single, 'G-Slide (Tour Bus)' is built around a sample from the children’s song 'The Wheels on the Bus' — and adult advice. When 'G-Slide,' released last fall, was met with indifference, her label held the album, repositioning the rapper as more of a multifaceted artist … and pairing her with hit-makers like the producer Scott Storch, the singer-rapper T-Pain and the young R&B star Chris Brown. The collaboration with those performers resulted in the Top 10 single 'Shawty Get Loose.' … Her determination to be viewed as more than a novelty act — as chronicled in the album’s second track, 'One Hit Wonder' — was bolstered by the death of her mother, Tara Kirkland, in December after a four-year battle with cancer. … She started dancing as a child; her father ran an independent record imprint, Familiar Faces, and released her songs on mix tapes. Through a management company 'Lip Gloss' [her hit novelty single] was eventually propelled to radio" ("Young Rapper's Plan," 4/30/08).

Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool

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Jim Motavalli wrote in the New Haven Advocate: "Giants walk the earth, and some of them have brought their horns to the New Haven Jazz Festival over the years. Trumpet player Freddie Hubbard, overcoming reputed health problems, was so scorching that the grass had to be replanted. After going dark for a year, the New Haven Jazz Festival is back. Although there are still several imported guest stars, the core of the festival is local, and that's a good thing. Recent developments have given New Haven jazz ample reason to strut its stuff. Playing on Saturday night is the New Haven Jazz Orchestra, headed by New Haven-based trombonist and arranger Drake Smith. The orchestra was launched in 2006, Smith says, and had a long-running gig at the now-defunct Blues Pizza in Hamden. 'We're looking for a permanent home now,' he says. … Smith is a huge fan of the jazz arranging of Gil Evans, particularly on such Miles Davis albums as Birth of the Cool. 'There was so much great stuff being done in the 1950s,' he says" ("Jazz Returns to the Green: After a Hiatus, the Jazz Fest Is Back, and Local!," 8/7/08).

Neil Diamond: Home Before Dark

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David Wild wrote in the Huffington Post: "I proudly pledge all of my non-existent delegates to a true American Idol among us, the next President of these United States — Mr. Neil Diamond, everybody! … Neil Diamond is seasoned but he's also a lot younger than John McCain. Okay, everybody's younger than John McCain. Put it this way: Neil Diamond played The Last Waltz; John McCain is currently unaware of any dance craze since his last waltz. … Neil Diamond may very well actually be a Democrat. I know he once did a fundraiser for George McGovern and gave some money for gun control. Being a patriotic American, Neil also sang at a state dinner at the Reagan White House, but I'm pretty sure that was so he could dance with Princess Diana. Neil Diamond doesn't need the gig. His forthcoming album Home Before Dark — produced by Rick Rubin — is perhaps the best album of his entire career. When I heard this masterpiece for the first time a month or so ago, I was so moved that I started writing a book about my lifelong love for the man and his music" ("Coming to America: Neil Diamond for President," 4/27/08).