Anthony Tommasini on Till Fellner

"Like most pianists … he grew up playing the 15 Two-Part Inventions, which are essential student pieces, as well as the 15 Sinfonias. … Bach lovers will surely forget that the inventions and sinfonias are considered teaching tools when they hear Mr. Fellner’s new ECM recording. As before, he is an elegant, sensitive and impressively articulate Bach player. To fill out the generous program he includes a sparkling account of Bach’s Fifth French Suite. Sometimes Mr. Fellner brings freshness to these familiar works by taking unusual but very convincing tempos. The Invention in E moves at a slow but steady pace, allowing the syncopations between the two lines, which almost always move in opposite directions, to come through playfully. But in the Invention in F — a bustling piece, all leaping intervals and fleeting passagework — Mr. Fellner takes a breathless tempo. The pristine clarity of his playing prevents the music from becoming a jumble. Yet there is more to the magic than that. No matter how quick the tempo in any of these performances, Mr. Fellner’s playing always sounds relaxed and confident, an effective blend of daring speed and cool control" ("Classical Recordings," New York Times, 5/10/09).

Regina Carter: I'll Be Seeing You

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: 1. Anitra's Dance (Edvard Grieg, arr. transcribed & adapted by Xavier Davis from the 1939 John Kirby Orchestra recording); 2. Little Brown Jug (J. E. Winner, arr. Gil Goldstein); 3. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen (Sholom Secunda, Sammy Cahn, Saul Chaplin, Jacob Jacobs, arr. John Clayton); 4. Sentimental Journey (Les Brown, Bud Green, Ben Homer, arr. Clayton); 5. You Took Advantage of Me (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart, arr. Davis); 6. St. Louis Blues (W. C. Handy, arr. Clayton); 7. A-Tisket, A-Tasket (Al Feldman, Ella Fitzgerald); 8. Blue Rose (Duke Ellington); 9. This Can't Be Love (Rodgers, Hart, arr. Clayton); 10. How Ruth Felt (Regina Carter); 11. There's a Small Hotel (Rodgers, Hart, arr. Matthew Parrish); 12. I'll Be Seeing You (Sammy Fain, Irving Kahal, arr. Goldstein).
Personnel: Regina Carter, violin; Xavier Davis, piano (except 4); Matthew Parrish, bass; Alvester Garnett, drums (except 4, 9); Dee Dee Bridgewater, vocals (3, 9); Carla Cook, vocals (5, 6, 11); Paquito d'Rivera, clarinet (1, 2, 3, 4, 6); Gil Goldstein, accordion (1, 2, 3, 6, 12).

David Browne on Yo La Tengo

"For a quarter-century, Yo La Tengo has refined a beguiling blend of fragile pop and bomb-siren feedback, making at least two essential indie-rock albums … in the process. At a point when most bands start slowing down, Yo La Tengo has instead released its most forceful album in a decade, Popular Songs, whose tracks saunter confidently from electro–bossa nova and piano pop to twisty guitar drone and John Fahey–style avant-acoustic music. (The bouncy 'If It’s True' even sports a Motown bass line.) The band made major headway in film scoring with this year’s cult hit Adventureland, and on September 25, they’ll headline Roseland Ballroom for the first time ever. … In the beginning, the word career could hardly be associated with the band. Soon after meeting, [guitarist-keyboardist Ira] Kaplan and [drummer Georgia] Hubley dragged a guitar, drum, and amp to Kaplan’s family’s house in Westchester and bashed out Who and Kinks covers. 'We didn’t do it to form a band,' Kaplan says. 'We did it to pass an afternoon.' (The group’s name is Spanish for 'I have it,' reflecting Kaplan and Hubley's mutual baseball addiction.)" ("Hoboken's Finest," New York, 9/21/09)

Eric R. Danton on George Strait

"In a career stretching more than 30 years, Strait has landed 44 No. 1 singles on the Billboard Country chart and released 25 studio albums, two live records, eight compilations and five Christmas albums. That's 40 albums, 31 of which have sold more than 1 million copies. All told, he's sold more than 68 million records. Here's the secret to his success: Strait is Everyman. He picks solid songs with themes just about anyone can relate to, and he sings them with a hint of twang in his warm voice. His songs feel like home, and his latest, 'Twang' (MCA Nashville), is no different. He outlines his plan for the end of the work week on the rollicking 'Twang' (hint: there's a bar and a jukebox full of country tunes), marvels over meeting his romantic match on 'Same Kind of Crazy.' … Kicking butt with up-tempo songs is the easy part, but Strait delivers on the gutbucket side, too, wondering where the time went on the steel-soaked 'Where Have I Been All My Life,' and pouring out regrets on 'Out of Sight, Out of Mind.' Strait keeps alive country's long (but fading) storytelling tradition, too, with the grim-faced murder ballad 'Arkansas Dave,' saving a narrative twist for the end" ("CD Review," Sound Check, 8/10/09).

Modest Mouse: No One's First, and You're Next

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Satellite skin — Guilty cocker spaniels — Autumn beds — Whale song — Perpetual motion machine — History sticks to your feet — King rat — I've got it all (most).
"[Coffeepot robot:] Every new Modest Mouse elpee is cause for celebration, even when it's merely a collection of outtakes! I have a theory on why this is so … Modest Mouse continuously pushes the boundaries of their sound! They've brought in Johnny Marr to compliment the bedspring twang of Isaac Brock's guitar, and it's as if Tom Peloso masters a new instrument on a quarterly basis, thus adding to the band's musical depth … Why do you think every Modest Mouse elpee is cause for celebration? [Angular man:] I think every Daughtrey elpee is cause for celebration, myself … Listen robot … as long as there are chicks diggin' on Chris Daughtry's man-ape ballads, the bar is lowered for all male mammals. Great news for slackers like me" ("Stripwax: The World's First and Only Comic Record Review," New Haven Advocate, 8/6/09, p. 28).

Allan Kozinn on András Schiff's Bach Partitas

"This is Mr. Schiff’s second traversal of these works on disc; the first was a 1983 studio recording for Decca that was highly regarded in its day, and still is, but that sounds positively dumpy beside this vigorously played, beautifully recorded ECM version. Mr. Schiff’s tempos are brisker and harder driven now, and the clarity of texture that has long been his hallmark is greatly magnified: his articulation could hardly be sharper, and his ability to sustain it through a performance of all six works in one sitting is extraordinary. At times his seemingly endless well of energy can seem overbearing. Mr. Schiff’s careful balancing of Bach’s lines within fast-moving movements seems to have an intellectual severity that overrides the music’s visceral joys. … But Mr. Schiff knows how to lighten up too. His minuets are consistently spirited and bright hued. And his subtly shaded accounts of the relaxed Praeludium of the B flat Partita, several of the sarabandes and the Tempo di Gavotta of the E minor Partita are pictures of elegance and transparency. Those are the qualities, along with Mr. Schiff’s fine-grained focus, that stay with you" ("Classical Recordings," New York Times, 9/6/09).

John Adamian on Gary Higgins

"Connecticut’s Gary Higgins … who’d recorded a spooky, mellow and vaguely psychedelic and folky record in 1973 called Red Hash and pressed a few thousand copies of it — was pretty much unknown until a musician made a mixed CD with a track from the record and passed it on to a friend. Word spread among like-minded musicians and fans. In 2005, the record was re-issued by über-hip Chicago label Drag City. The story was complicated … by the fact that the record was recorded with a jail sentence hanging over Higgins’ head. He’d been busted for marijuana possession. … At the time of the 2005 re-issue, Higgins was slightly incredulous about the interest in his old material. … Though he’d been playing and writing all along, it took him a while to get a manager and an agent and to throw himself back into performing. He had to relearn those old tunes. This month Higgins is faced with a new challenge. With his new record, Seconds — his first in over 35 years … he’ll be introducing music to fans who’ve appreciated a version of Gary Higgins that’s decades old (though he’s still playing with musicians who played on Red Hash" ("Second Coming," New Haven Advocate, 9/24/09, pp. 34-35).

Wynton Marsalis on Thelonious Monk

"Monk is an interesting study in contradictions because his behavior was eccentric — wearing strange hats, dancing 'round and 'round while others soloed, employing long periods of silence — but his music is not eccentric at all. It's very logical, mathematical, and coherent. His improvisations show more attention to consistent thematic development than any other jazz musician's. He gets an idea and then plays it up and down and forward and backward. He liked to say that musicians were mathematicians. Monk had the sound of the church in his playing, and he had the spiritual inevitability that comes only to somebody who knows the depth of the human soul. It made him at once wise and childlike, a rare combination in a full-grown man. … He played in a swing-era, 1930s shuffle time, but he was also the chief architect and high priest of 1940s bebop, a style that is still recognized as the dividing line between modern and premodern jazz. He came up with his own way of addressing the fundamentals of the music … and his own way of playing the blues. … Recommended Listening: Solo Monk, The Complete Riverside Recordings, Live at the It Club" (Moving to Higher Ground, pp. 143-145).

Eric R. Danton on Mark Mulcahy

"Connecticut has produced musicians more famous than Mark Mulcahy, but few who have been more influential. Just how influential is evident on 'Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy' (Shout Factory), a CD and digital collection of songs by the singer, songwriter and one-time leader of the New Haven band Miracle Legion. After Miracle Legion, he fronted Polaris, which wrote the theme for the Nickelodeon show 'The Adventures of Pete and Pete.' The 41-song collection (21 on a CD, an additional 20 available online only) features covers of Mulcahy and Miracle Legion songs performed by artists that include R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, the Pixies' Frank Black, Fountains of Wayne's Chris Collingwood, Dinosaur Jr. and the National. It's a loving tribute, to be sure, but not to Mulcahy. Rather, 'Ciao My Shining Star' is a remembrance of his wife, Melissa Rich, who died unexpectedly a year ago, leaving Mulcahy to raise their 2-year-old twin daughters. The idea for the album came from a fan, Nathaniel Smalley of West Virginia, who persuaded many of the artists to contribute before Mulcahy even knew there was something afoot" ("CD Review," Hartford Courant, 9/29/09).

Wynton Marsalis on Dizzy Gillespie

"His playing showcases the importance of intelligence. His intelligence was greater than his musical ability. Of the great musicians, he probably had the least blues-down-home feeling. I've heard Dizzy say that himself. He didn't have a huge sound and he wasn't the most melodic player, either. That's why his playing didn't engender a certain warmth. … But his rhythmic sophistication was unequaled. He was a master of harmony — and fascinated with studying it. He took in all the music of his youth — from Roy Eldridge to Duke Ellington — and developed a unique style built on complex rhythm and harmony balanced by wit. Dizzy was so quick-minded, he could create an endless flow of ideas at unusually fast tempi. Nobody had ever even considered playing a trumpet that way, let alone had actually tried. All the musicians respected him because, in addition to outplaying everyone, he knew so much and was so generous with that knowledge. … Recommended Listening: Dizzy Gillespie and His Sextets and Orchestra: Shaw 'Nuff!; Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, and Sonny Stitt: Sunny Side Up; Dizzy on the French Riviera" (Moving to Higher Ground: How Jazz Can Change Your Life, pp. 136-138).

Russell Platt on Bernstein's Haydn

"It was the special task of Leonard Bernstein to remind us that under the granite mask of Papa Haydn there was a living, breathing human being, as 'Bernstein/Haydn' (Sony), a reissue of his recordings of the 'Paris' and 'London' symphonies, proves. (The set also features performances of four Masses and of 'The Creation.') These albums, made with the New York Philharmonic between 1958 and 1975, feature the same hands-on attention — call it love — that marked Bernstein’s trailblazing accounts of Mahler and Ives. Blissfully ignorant of authentic performance practice, he gives Haydn’s melodies an almost Romantic weight and curvature: the minuet of No. 95 in C Minor offers all the drama of a Strauss opera, while the first movement of the valedictory No. 104 in D Major ('London') has … a Tchaikovskyan ardor and subjectivity. … The performances of the gallant 'Paris' set (Nos. 82-87) offer unexpectedly lunging rhythms and unabashedly rich string tone. Bernstein’s profound knowledge of the scores — as well as his insight into Haydn’s buoyant sense of humor — keeps these often daring interpretations from running off the rails" ("Classical Notes: The Classical Style," New Yorker, 9/7/09, p. 15).

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Up from Below

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: 40 Day Dream, Janglin, Up from Below, Carries On, Jade!*, Home, Desert Song, Black Water, Come In Please, Simplest Love, Kisses over Babylon, Brother*, Om Nashi Me.
Personnel: "Aaron plays bass and percussion and sings, Christian Letts plays guitar and sings, Edward sings and plays guitar, harmonica, and percussion, Josh plays drums and sings, Nicolo plays guitar and keys and sings, Jade sings and plays percussion, Pico Cole plays trumpet and sings, Tay plays piano and sings, Orpheo plays percussion and sings, Nora plays accordion and sings, Anna plays viola and sings, and Aaron Embry plays keys and sings!"
"Even the Babylonians probably wouldn't have grokked singer Alex Ebert's math theory: '0 is magnetic, and 4 + 3 might equal 1 or 2.5, depending on the magnitude of 0.' Lucky for Ebert, the absolute value of his psychedelic folk pop is much easier to calculate. Filled out by musicians, including trumpet and conga players, the 13 songs on the troupe's effervescent debut Up From Below add up to |a|wesome" ("Playlist," Wired, 8/09, p. 45).

Ben Ratliff on Allen Toussaint

"From a distance Allen Toussaint might look like a jazz musician: he’s a sophisticated gray eminence of New Orleans. In fact he’s a pop musician and producer, a great one. He has nothing to apologize for. It’s just that jazz as we know it is not part of his working life. So 'The Bright Mississippi,' his first solo album in 10 years, a largely instrumental record of jazz standards and old New Orleans songs, is a work of the imagination. The record aims at the kind of listener who might have liked the Robert Plant and Alison Krauss album 'Raising Sand': it’s reconfigured Americana, magic regionalism. It’s a producer’s record. And it works, possibly because Mr. Toussaint is no pushover. As a pianist he has his own musical identity, and he’s naturally conceptual. He didn’t produce this record. Joe Henry, the ever-curious singer-songwriter, did. But Mr. Toussaint brings to these songs his own elegant, reserved sensibility. He doesn’t rip them apart or interrogate them on the harmonic or rhythmic terms with which they’ve usually been met; he shines them up and levels them out into slow-rolling and grandiloquent New Orleans songs, full of tremolo chords and serenity" ("New CDs," New York Times, 4/19/09).

Nate Chinen on Jack DeJohnette

"For about the first 10 minutes of their opening set at the Blue Note on Tuesday night the drummer Jack DeJohnette, the pianist Danilo Pérez and the bassist John Patitucci seemed mildly adrift. Their interaction began as a formless wash with percussive grace notes: bell chimes played with soft mallets, left to resonate. Finally a rhythm emerged, and then a theme, played by Mr. DeJohnette on a melodica. The song, 'Tango African,' was his, and it had a center. But its coalescence felt diffuse, like watching weather patterns form. Perhaps the initial vagueness was a cost of transaction for a trio this intent on mystery. … Whatever the case, it was deceptive: once the band limbered up, its actions came as a series of jolts, locking fast into a groove. The musicians found common ground, along with sharp new ways of contesting it. … They first joined forces four years ago at the Panama Jazz Festival, over which Mr. Pérez presides as artistic director, and reconvened just last year, in a studio in upstate New York. This week’s run celebrates the release of the resulting album, 'Music We Are' … which features pieces by each player" ("At the Blue Note," New York Times, 4/16/09).

Pete Yorn: Back and Fourth

Copy at Case Memorial Library
Contents: Don't wanna cry (3:56) — Paradise Cove (3:57) — Close (4:30) — Social development dance (4:55) — Shotgun (4:00) — Last summer (5:00) — Thinking of you (3:44) — Country (4:57) — Four years (3:45) — Long time nothing new (4:16).
"With his 2001 debut, musicforthemorningafter, Pete Yorn seemed poised to be the next big male singer-songwriter until John Mayer came along and racked up hits, Grammys and Hollywood honeys. Yorn himself has been linked with Winona Ryder and Minnie Driver, and he's got a duets album with Scarlett Johansson due later this year. First, though, comes Back and Fourth, his fourth studio effort, which delivers more perfect music for the morning after. Recorded in Omaha, Neb., with producer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), this tight, 10-song set has a rootsy vibe on Ryan Adams-esque tracks like 'Don't Wanna Cry,' the standout single. Meanwhile, 'Last Summer,' a Cali-kissed soft-rocker, provides just the right breeze for the season" (Chuck Arnold, "Music," People, 6/29/09, p. 46).

Jon Pareles on Green Day

"'American Idiot' left Green Day determined to top itself — and with '21st Century Breakdown,' the band has done just that. The music is more expansive in every way, encompassing more styles and arriving in a newly spacious, three-dimensional production. At a time when younger punk-pop bands are singing about girl trouble and professional envy, Green Day has dared to offer something far denser and more demanding: a whirlwind of thoughts about activism, redemption and destruction. The rage and sorrows of 'American Idiot' are pushed even further in '21st Century Breakdown,' in songs where idealism and the urge to annihilate are constantly grappling, never far apart. It’s not an agitprop, sloganeering album. '21st Century Breakdown' poses more questions than answers, from its supercharged first single, 'Know Your Enemy,' which asks, 'Do you know your enemy?' to its surging finale, 'See the Light,' which finds no triumph or resolution. 'I just want to see the light,' Billie Joe Armstrong — Green Day’s singer, guitarist and main lyricist — insists over ringing power chords. 'I need to know what’s worth the fight'" ("The Morning After 'American Idiot,'" New York Times, 5/3/09).

Mike Ragogna on Arctic Monkeys

"Looks like some Arctic Monkeys have been listening to Doors albums. And, reportedly, Jimi Hendrix riffs. After absorbing their new release Humbug's first track, 'My Propeller,' you immediately get the hypnotic, pseudo-psychedelic lay of the land for the rest of the album, which turns out to be quite a trip. Virtually gone are all of these Sheffield boys' post-punk affectations which have no relevance to the universe 23-year-old Alex Turner's lyrics creates. At times, those stanzas and their partnered melodies sound borderline art house in comparison to past Monkeyshines, though nothing comes off particularly pompous as much as risky. … It's refreshing that a young, promising group like Arctic Monkeys and its producers were smart enough to reinvent the brand before it got stale and formulaic, which this project absolutely is not. Though fans of Arctic Monkeys' early rockings and those enticed by the band's 2006 Saturday Night Live appearance with Matt Dillon probably are going to quote this album's title as their opinion of its content, they should be grateful Arctic Monkeys is taking its evolution seriously" ("Arctic Monkeys' Humbug," Huffington Post, 8/31/09).