Adam Rogers Quintet: Allegory

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Nate Chinen wrote in the New York Times: "The guitarist Adam Rogers specializes in a turbocharged, sleekly designed, ultimately armored brand of postbop. His compositions, with their harmonic and rhythmic feints, can suggest complex spring-loaded devices. His playing, skillful to the point of superfluity, can impart a similarly mechanical feel. There are bolts of daring and imagination in his enterprise, but not a shred of vulnerability and only traces of warmth. None of this closes off the possibility of good music, as Mr. Rogers periodically proved on Tuesday night, in his debut as a leader at the Village Vanguard. … Mr. Rogers played two songs apiece from his first album, 'Art of the Invisible,' and his second, 'Allegory.' As on both of those records, which were issued by the Dutch label Criss Cross, he featured the articulate pianist Edward Simon and the attentive bassist Scott Colley. … Mr. Rogers presented … a modal polyrhythmic waltz, in the vein of the John Coltrane Quartet. Because that song, 'Phyrigia,' provoked some searching actions from Mr. Rogers … it registered as … fiercely soulful."

Keane: Perfect Symmetry

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Contents: Spiralling — The lovers are losing — Better than this — You haven't told me anything — Perfect symmetry — You don't see me — Again and again — Playing along — Pretend that you're alone — Black burning heart — Love is the end.
People wrote: "They've always been moody dudes, but things were looking particularly gloomy for Keane following the release of 2006's Under the Iron Sea (when the British trio canceled a tour while lead singer Tom Chaplin went to rehab). But on their third album they actually sound like they're having fun. 'Spiralling,' the opening cut and first single, sets the bouncy tone with its '80s-inspired dance-pop. Other up-tempo highlights like 'You Haven't Told Me Anything' and 'Better Than This' sound as if they could have been on the soundtrack to a Molly Ringwald movie. The latter is, like, totally Wham! Keane still being Keane, though, the lyrics aren't always as upbeat as the music. And the sweetly pining 'You Don't See Me,' one of only three real ballads, demonstrates that they can still make perfect melancholy" ("Music: Alt-Pop," 10/20/08, p. 46).

Of Montreal: Skeletal Lamping

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Contents: Nonpareil of favor — Wicked wisdom — For our elegant caste — Touched something's hollow — An eluardian instance — Gallery piece — Women's studies victims — St. Exquisite's confessions — Triphallus, to punctuate! — And I've seen a bloody shadow — Plastis wafers — Death is not a parallel move — Beware our nubile miscreants — Mingusings — Id engager.
Jeff Noise wrote in Stripwax: "[Freddie Mercury, singing with microphone:] Hey there Paul [Rodgers], it's Freddie, I've been dead for years already, so don't worry it's no big deal to me … but if the choice were mine to make, there's a goofy young new flake named Kevin Barnes you really ought to see … yer hairy chested blues are great Paul, but this kid that sings for Of Montreal, he hits notes that only dogs can hear … he reads too much, he's way too smart, but he could sing and look the part, in fact, nine out of ten people think he's queer … [Barnes:] But I've been married to a woman for several years! …" (New Haven Advocate, 10/16/08, p. 42).

Bob Dylan: Tell Tale Signs

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Mikal Gilmore wrote in Rolling Stone: "Bob Dylan is well-known for his abandoned treasures — all those unreleased recordings from the past 40-plus years that have made his ongoing Bootleg Series such a mind-blowing trove. … This newest collection of rare recordings, though, is something apart: The alternate studio takes, undisclosed songs, movie tracks and live performances … depict Dylan's development from 1989 to 2006 — which is to say they're closer to Dylan's here and now than any earlier volumes. Also, Tell Tale Signs is less an anthology than an album in its own right. It seems designed to tell a story that sharpens and expands the vista of mortal and cultural disintegration that has been the chief theme of Dylan's 1997's Time Out of Mind, 2001's Love and Theft and 2006's Modern Times — perhaps the most daring music he's ever made. Tell Tale Signs makes plain that Dylan knows the caprices of the world he lives in, now more than ever. Just as important, this collection bears witness to Dylan's reclamation of voice and perspective" ("Reviews: Hard-Boiled, Raw Bootlegs …," 10/16/08, p. 75).

The Rolling Stones: Shine a Light

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Rob Sheffield wrote in Rolling Stone: "[T]he Stones thrive on stage by celebrating the thrill of rediscovery — you can hear them seize forgotten gems from deep in their torn-and-frayed past or open up new pleasure zones in songs you figured they'd already played to death. Like any live Stones album, this one is about the World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band rediscovering how great they are. Shine a Light is the soundtrack to the Martin Scorsese concert film, catching the Stones at two New York shows in 2006. … It documents the Stones on a historic roll, reveling in their mastery. Jack White duets with Mick Jagger on 'Loving Cup.' … Jagger's comic timing in 'Some Girls' and 'Shattered' is as limber as his hips. … He does a surprisingly autumnal 'As Tears Go By.' … But the weirdest emotional highlight is 'She Was Hot,' a long-forgotten groupie tale from 1983's Undercover — the Stones rescue the melancholy melody and build it up into an ode to nostalgia, regret and loneliness, with Jagger yelping for salvation and Charlie Watts banging away. It's a bold stroke from a live album that's full of them" (4/17/08).

Stanley Jordan: State of Nature

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Nate Chinen wrote in the New York Times: "'State of Nature' … is a true hybrid, splitting the difference between assertive post-bop combo work and gauzy New Age confabulations. … As a whole it hangs together because of the deep and obvious investment Mr. Jordan has in the music. His signature technique — a method of playing the guitar as a sort of orchestral percussion instrument, tapping the fretboard with the fingers of both hands — receives generous expression here. The album’s sprawling opener, 'A Place in Space,' enables a virtuoso turn, as does the Antonio Carlos Jobim classic 'Insensatez (How Insensitive).' And a solo interpretation of the F-major andante movement from Mozart’s piano concerto No. 21 will surely grab the attention of amateur guitarists. … And Mr. Jordan occasionally plays piano and guitar at the same time, soloing with one hand and chording with the other. … Somehow it all culminates in a smooth-jazz cover of the Joe Jackson disco hit 'Steppin’ Out.' That phrase describes what Mr. Jordan is doing here, even if the results don’t suggest risk so much as a kind of reassurance."

Taj Mahal: Maestro

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Eric R. Danton wrote in his Hartford Courant blog Sound Check: "Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks and raised in Springfield, Taj Mahal, 66, has spent his career tinkering with the blues, adding a world-music edge with more traditional sounds from Africa and the Caribbean. 'Maestro' mixes his musical interests, balancing horn-laced blues with a couple of reggae-tinged tunes. … Taj shines brightest on brassy blues tunes like 'Scratch My Back,' where he growls out the lyrics in his gruff, throaty voice over a lean guitar part that swings like a pendulum. He sings with enough ferocity on 'Dust Me Down' that guest Ben Harper, who wrote the tune, has trouble keeping up. Taj nods at Elmore James with a blustery, raw slide guitar lick on 'TV Mama,' and he switches to banjo for the hazy country-blues tune 'Slow Drag.' His interest in African music surfaces on 'Zanzibar,' which features Angelique Kidjo on vocals and Toumani Diabate on kora — a cross between a harp and a lute. The album is a refreshing reminder that, in the right hands, the blues is very much a living genre that need not be stuck in a formulaic 12-bar past."

Fiesta

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Contents: Sensemayá / Silvestre Revueltas — Margaritena / Inocente Carreño — Mediodia en el llano / Antonio Estévez — Danzon No. 2 / Arturo Márquez — Fuga con pajarillo / Aldemaro Romero — Dances from the ballet "Estancia" - Los trabajadores agricolas / Danza del trigo / Los peones de hacienda / Alberto Ginastera — Santa Cruz de Pacairigua (Suite Sinfónica) / Evencio Castellanos — "West Side Story," Mambo / Leonard Bernstein.
Justin Davidson wrote in New York: "Fiesta [is] a sensational CD of Latin music detonated by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela. The disc ends with the West Side Story 'Mambo,' which erupted from my speakers in a raucous tumble of rhythms. The performance taps a subversive wildness that runs through even the most beloved numbers" ("Classical Music: Rethinking Lenny," 10/13/08, p. 68).
Diederik de Jong writes in Classical Music: The Listener's Companion: "Sensemayá is … based on a poem by Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén [and is] often called a Mexican Sacre du Printemps."

Cerha: Cello Concerto, Schreker: Chamber Symphony

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Russell Platt wrote in the New Yorker: "When Franz Schreker composed his Chamber Symphony, for the faculty of Vienna’s Academy of Music and the Performing Arts, his country was embroiled in the carnage of the First World War. You would never know it, however, from the limpid swirl of sound that Schreker produced in this astonishing twenty-five-minute piece. Peter Eötvös and the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra (on ECM) turn in a shimmering performance that reveals that Schreker’s sole symphony is really a tone poem in disguise, a journey that seems to end up where it began. Filling out the disk is a powerful interpretation (with the master cellist Heinrich Schiff) of the compellingly eclectic Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra (1989-96) by Friedrich Cerha, the doyen of contemporary Viennese composers" ("Classical Notes: Vienna Blood," 9/15/08, p. 23).
From the CD notes by H.-K. Jungheinrich: "With its tight construction and elaborate nexus of allusions, Cerha's music is far removed from any form of minimalism or neo-primitivism. …"

The Pretenders: Break Up the Concrete

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Ben Greenman wrote in the New Yorker: "The title of 'Boots of Chinese Plastic,' which leads off the Pretenders’ new album, 'Break Up the Concrete' (Shangri-La), alludes to Bob Dylan’s 'Boots of Spanish Leather,' but the song’s propulsive rhythm and surreal lyrics mark it as a close cousin to another Dylan song, 'Tombstone Blues.' In just over two and a half minutes, the lead singer and songwriter, Chrissie Hynde, touches on everything from reincarnation to the global marketplace to the difficulties of ethical living. The next song, 'The Nothing Maker,' supplies some yin to go with the yang. … For years, the Pretenders have been a band in name only, consisting of a bunch of young hired hands doing the bidding of Hynde and, usually, the founding drummer, Martin Chambers. This time, Chambers is absent, though his replacement — the session veteran Jim Keltner — is a great deal more than capable. That’s true of the entire band, in fact: the English guitarist James Walbourne, the pedal-steel player Eric Heywood, and the bassist Nick Wilkinson. … Hynde has written a superb set of songs here" (10/6/08, p. 20).

Bach: Violin Concertos; Gubaidulina: In Tempus Praesens

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Vivien Schweitzer wrote in the New York Times: "The German violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has said that she is not a 'great believer in so-called authentic playing' of Baroque music, but that the knowledge gained from the period-instrument movement regarding phrasing and sound production has been 'fruitful.' With the Camerata Salzburg at Carnegie Hall on Monday night, Ms. Mutter — elegant in a mulberry-colored strapless dress — demonstrated that she can play Bach with simultaneous nods to both the 18th and 21st centuries. In Bach’s Violin Concerto in A minor (BWV 1041) she played with her trademark rich, sweet tone. … Her American tour this month playing Bach coincides with a Deutsche Grammophon release of two of the Bach concertos on the program. The rather breathless speeds set by Ms. Mutter in the A minor concerto’s outer movements felt more rushed in the live performance than on the recording with the Trondheim Soloists. (Her Bach tempos on the CD, which pairs the A minor and E major concertos with a striking new work by Sofia Gubaidulina, are certainly on the brisk side, but less impetuous.)"

TV on the Radio: Dear Science

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Personnel: Tunde Adebimpe, vocals; Kyp Malone, vocals, guitars, bass, synth; David Andrew Sitek, programming, guitars, samples, bass, synths; Gerard A. Smith, bass, organ, synths, samples, Rhodes; Jaleel Bunton, drums, guitars, Rhodes, organ, synth, bass, programming; with Martin Perna, Stuart Bogie, Eric Biondo, Aaron Johnson, Yoshi Takamasa, Colin Stetson, Janis Shen, Claudia Chopek, Eleanor Norton, Lara Hicks, and other accompanying musicians.
Contents: Halfway home (Adebimpe) — Crying (Malone/Bunton) — Dancing choose (Adebimpe/Sitek)— Stork & owl (Malone) — Golden age (Malone/Sitek) — Family tree (Adebimpe) — Red dress (Malone/Sitek) — Love dog (Adebimpe) — Shout me out (Adebimpe) — DLZ (Adebimpe) — Lover's day (Malone).
The Day wrote: "TV on the Radio's 'Dear Science' is quite simply a masterpiece. Two years after their acclaimed major-label debut, 'Return from Cookie Mountain,' the New York quintet's new album raises the bar …" (10/12/08, p. D5).

Anthony Braxton: For Alto

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Nate Chinen wrote in the New York Times: "[T]he Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians … has fostered some of the most vital American avant-garde music of the last 40 years. … The scene plays out vividly in 'A Power Stronger Than Itself: The A.A.C.M. and Experimental Music,' an important book by the trombonist-composer-scholar George Lewis. … 'If this was to be a revolution,' Mr. Lewis writes, 'it would be a revolution without stars, individual heroes or Great Men.' But the association has had its share of great men (and a few great women): audacious improvisers like the trumpeter Lester Bowie, the tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and the violinist Leroy Jenkins; visionary composers like [Muhal Richard] Abrams, [Amina Claudine] Myers, [Henry] Threadgill, [Roscoe] Mitchell and the saxophonist Anthony Braxton. … Yet even in the most solitary of settings — the solo saxophone recital, as represented by Mr. Braxton’s landmark 1968 album, 'For Alto' (Delmark) — the aesthetic of the organization called for something other than the jazzman’s heroic voice" (5/2/08).

Leona Lewis: Spirit

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Jeff Leeds and Robert Levine wrote in the New York Times: "In a shake-up that reflects the new realities of the music business, the renowned hitmaker Clive Davis is making way for a younger executive known for having an ear toward the pop charts but also an eye on controlling costs. On Thursday, Sony BMG Music Entertainment said that Mr. Davis would give up his corporate role as head of its BMG division and control of its RCA Label Group for a new creative post. Barry Weiss, the chief of the company’s Zomba Label Group, will become chairman and chief executive of the BMG Label Group, overseeing RCA and Zomba, and an array of artists like Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, OutKast and Kelly Clarkson. The announcement surprised many in the music industry, as Mr. Davis, who has survived several executive suite setbacks only to rise again in a career that spans five decades, seemed to be playing a hot hand. This week’s No. 1 album is the debut from Leona Lewis, the latest in a long string of divas that Mr. Davis, 76, has signed and shaped" ("Longtime Executive Steps Aside at Sony BMG," 4/18/08).

Featured Book: Coltrane: The Story of a Sound, by Ben Ratliff

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Mr. Ratliff writes in Chapter 3, "Prestige": "[In 1957] he went in to make a record for Blue Note, while he was hot. With rehearsal time paid for by the company, as was its custom, the preparation in the music is obvious. Coltrane organized five tunes, including four of his own, making it the most forthright display of his own music up to that point. … [T]he first track, 'Blue Train' … is agitated, driving, splintered music, reaching to the very end of his lung capacity. It was also a blues, and for a player with progressive tendencies, Coltrane had begun to establish himself as a specialist in the blues — possibly, at that time, the most inventive blues player in jazz. 'Moment's Notice' and 'Lazy Bird' are the first of Coltrane's études — short and perfect pieces with quickly moving chords connected in unusual relationships. With the Jerome Kern–Johnny Mercer song 'I'm Old-Fashioned,' Coltrane showed that he was also growing rapidly as a ballad player. … By now he was making his spooky, thick-textured, long notes in the middle register, with their minimal vibrato — the iconic texture of what was to be Coltrane's sound."

Lila Downs: Shake Away

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Contents: Little man — Ojo de culebra — Minimum wage — Perro negro — Yo envidio el viento (I envy the wind) — Skeleton — Black magic woman — I would never — Justicia — Taco de palabras — Los pollos — Tierra de luz — Silent thunder; bonus tracks: Shake away — I envy the wind — Nothing but the truth.
Ed Morales wrote in Newsday: "There are times on Lila Downs's new album … when she seems to be letting out deep emotions stored inside her for centuries. On such songs as 'Skeleton,' which is bolstered by jazzy rave-ups provided by her co-producer Brian Lynch; 'Silent Thunder,' a funk-blues number, or 'Little Man,' which manages to merge a calypso sensibility with the garish horns of Mexican banda music, she lets out unimaginable howls for the ages. But there's nothing quite like the guttural shouts she emits on the title track, a song she performed at her recent performance at Brooklyn's Prospect Park. '… Like a rattlesnake …,' she sang, and then got down on all fours, becoming a writhing rattlesnake, celebrating, letting all the pain go" (8/31/08).

Joan Osborne: Little Wild One

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Contents: Hallelujah in the city (J. Osborne, R. Hyman, E. Bazilian, R. Chertoff) — Sweeter than the rest (Osborne, Hyman, Bazilian, Chertoff) — Cathedrals (J. Clifford) — Little wild one (Osborne, Hyman, Bazilian) — Rodeo (Osborne, Hyman, D. Forman, Chertoff, Bazilian) — To the one I love (Osborne, Hyman, Bazilian, Chertoff) — Daddy-o (Hyman, Forman, Chertoff, Bazilian) — Meet you in the middle (Osborne) — Can't say no (Osborne, Hyman, Bazilian, Chertoff) — Light of this world (Rev. Gary Davis, Osborne) — Bury me on the Battery (Osborne, Hyman).
Personnel: Joan Osborne, vocals, guitar; Steve Holley, drums; Eric Bazilian, mandola, guitars, etc.; Rob Hyman, keys, etc.; Mark Egan, bass; Chris Golbreski, drums; William Wittman, bass; David Forman, 12-string guitar; Jack Petruzzelli, omnichord, guitar; Ann Marie Calhoun, violin.
Chuck Arnold wrote in People: "On this winning album, Osborne's rich vocals soar atop arrangements that mix old-timey mandolin with the urban pulse of electronic instruments. 'Hallelujah in the City' sounds like salvation" ("Recent Raves," 9/22/08, p. 53).