Jack Johnson: To the Sea

"Jack Hody Johnson (born May 18, 1975) is a singer-songwriter, surfer and musician known for his work in the soft rock and acoustic genres. In 2001, he achieved commercial success after the release of his debut album, Brushfire Fairytales. He has since released four more albums, a number of EPs and surfing movies/soundtracks. He is also known for organizing an annual event, the Kōkua Festival. He currently has sold 8 million albums worldwide. His highest–selling album is Sing-A-Longs and Lullabies for the Film Curious George, with 4 million albums shipped worldwide, due to the success of the 2006 Curious George film. He resides in Hawaii" (Wikipedia).
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Chatham County Line: Wildwood

"For its fifth album, Wildwood, North Carolina-based quartet Chatham County Line decided to expand its bluegrass sound by utilizing instrumentation that is rarely a component in a bluegrass band: the drums. As CCL frontman Dave Wilson explains, drummer Zeke Hutchins (who plays with Tift Merritt) had contributed to the songs on Wildwood in their seminal state, so it was only right that he should have a hand in finishing them. 'We felt like this was a record that could reach out to a lot more people than just the bluegrass audience,' Wilson says. … Wildwood benefited from a great deal of pre-production. In fact, the band recorded at least two albums’ worth of sessions — one in Wilson’s basement and another at a friend’s general store in Virginia — before entering the studio, using the actual general store track of 'Porcelain Doll' for the album" (Brian Baker, "Up the County," New Haven Advocate, 7/15/10, p. 38).

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Los Lobos: Tin Can Trust

"Some bands make more sense as time goes on. Los Lobos fused Chicano East L.A. with Middle American rock long before such artists as Los Lonely Boys, Ozomatli, Ricky Martin, and Shakira opened up the radio border. Nearly 35 years after their debut single (a charity release for the United Farm Workers of America), Los Lobos have made an album that recalls the genre-bending of the '92 classic 'Kiko.' The five-piece vets bounce effortlessly from blues to Grateful Dead-esque stretches to mariachi romps. 'Tin Can Trust' is an album that could only be made in America. It's also the story of America, full of sounds that come from juke joints, barrios, street corners, and after-hours jams where the food, language, and stories all get mashed up into one brilliant stew. Viva Los Lobos" (Shawn Amos, "PLAY > SKIP," Huffington Post, 8/3/10).

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Les Urnes de l'Opera

"On Dec. 24, 1907, a group of bewhiskered men gathered in the bowels of the Paris Opera to begin a project that by definition they could never see to fruition. … Now the 100 years are up, and after lengthy examination, cleaning and digitizing of the records, EMI, the heir to the Gramophone Company, is reissuing them on three CDs. … The great tenor Enrico Caruso can be heard in three excerpts from Verdi and one each from Donizetti and Puccini, and the Australian soprano Nellie Melba sings a solo from Verdi’s 'Rigoletto' and Cherubino’s 'Voi che sapete' from 'Le Nozze di Figaro.' The legendary Russian bass Feodor Chaliapin could hardly be omitted, although he sings only a Russian ballad. In contrast, the Italian tenor Francesco Tamagno, who created the title role in Verdi’s 'Otello' in 1887, offers a dramatic reprise of the Moor’s dying aria, 'Niun mi tema,' to piano accompaniment" (Alan Riding, "From a Vault in Paris, Sounds of Opera 1907," New York Times, 2/16/09).

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Tracy Bonham: Masts of Manhatta

"Ms. Bonham herself drifts back and forth between Woodstock and the Boerum Hill section of Brooklyn. That duality is central to 'Masts of Manhatta' (Engine Room), Ms. Bonham’s first full-length album in five years. Due out on Tuesday, it’s rootsier and more relaxed than her previous work, with her vocals and violin set against Smokey’s Roundup, a Western swing band based in Brooklyn led by the guitarist Smokey Hormel. The album reflects changes in Ms. Bonham’s personal life — falling in love and getting married, moving upstate and studying yoga — as well as her embrace of music making on a human scale, removed from old pressures, both industry-driven and self-imposed. Mixed by the veteran engineer Tchad Blake, it is a modest but rewarding album, easily the most personal of Ms. Bonham’s career" (Nate Chinen, "Foot in the City and Cowboy Boot in the Country," New York Times, 7/11/10).

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Wyclef Jean: Welcome to Haiti -- Creole 101

"Music, not politics, made Wyclef Jean a household name in Haiti and a multimillion-record-selling international star who has always proclaimed his Haitian origins. That was before he announced that he would run for president of Haiti. … Mr. Jean’s music positions him as a cultural unifier, merging pan-American sounds — particularly hip-hop, Jamaican reggae, Haitian compas and other Caribbean rhythms — to blend party tunes with political righteousness. At times he has reached for the mantle of … Bob Marley. … Mr. Jean’s 2004 album, 'Welcome to Haiti Creole 101,' includes a song called 'President,' timed to the United States presidential election. In it Mr. Jean rapped, 'Instead of spending billions on the war/I can use that money so I could feed the poor.' He also sang the chorus, 'If I was president/ I’d get elected on Friday, assassinated on Saturday, buried on Sunday/ Then go back to work on Monday'" (Jon Pareles, "From Musical Unity to the Political Kind," New York Times, 8/5/10).

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Prince Rama: Shadow Temple

"Thanks to groups like Animal Collective and its peers, the shamanic impulse is as alive as ever in indie rock. … And so there was Prince Rama … at the Mercury Lounge on Monday night. … The band members met while living in a Hare Krishna community near Gainesville, Fla., then moved to Boston to focus on art and music. Named for a Hindu deity … this band has only gotten more forceful as it’s become more abstract. The fourth Prince Rama album, 'Shadow Temple,' will be released next month on Paw Tracks, the imprint spearheaded by Animal Collective. It’s a denser rush than the band’s previous albums, which have emphasized grating vocals. But now, the vocals have become obscured howls, like desperate cries of joy, and Nimai’s oceanic but nimble drumming has taken the spotlight, bolstered by shimmering, hazy keyboard work by Mr. Collins and Taraka. All together, it’s psychedelic, disorienting and vital" (Jon Caramanica, "Summoning the Spiritual with Just Enough Cowbell," New York Times, 8/10/10).

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Ralph Alessi: Cognitive Dissonance

"Ralph Alessi, an adventurous and crisply proficient trumpeter, has a new album, 'Cognitive Dissonance' (Cam Jazz), featuring … excellent rhythm partners … each a bandleader in his own right: the pianist Jason Moran, the bassist Drew Gress and the drummer Nasheet Waits" (Nate Chinen, "Jazz Listings," New York Times, 8/6/10).
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Jonathan Kreisberg: Night Songs

"Mr. Kreisberg’s crisp guitar style marks him as a student of the mainstream jazz tradition, as does the repertory on his most recent album, 'Night Songs' (Criss Cross). He works this weekend in a quartet featuring the pianist Gary Versace, who appears on the album" (Nate Chinen, "Jazz Listings," New York Times, 7/16/10).

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Easy Star All-Stars: Lonely Hearts Dub Band

"Sugar Minott, a popular Jamaican singer whose joyful, lilting voice bridged four decades of transformation in reggae music, died Saturday. … 'Sugar brought his trademark sweetness and humor, even to what can be quite a violent genre,' said Vivien Goldman, the adjunct professor of reggae at the Clive Davis Department of Recorded Music at New York University. … 'One of the outstanding aspects of Sugar Minott was his commitment to poor youth,' Ms. Goldman said. … In recent years Mr. Minott recorded with the Easy Star All-Stars, singing 'Exit Music (for a Film)' on their album 'Radiodread' (2006), a reggae interpretation of the Radiohead album 'OK Computer,' and 'When I’m Sixty-Four' on Easy Star’s 'Lonely Hearts Dub Band' (2009), which took a similar approach to the Beatles’ 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band' and reached No. 1 on the Billboard reggae chart" (Dennis Hevesi, "Sugar Minott, Reggae Star, Dies at 51," New York Times, 7/14/10).

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Liszt: Après une lecture du Dante, and other works

Performer: Claudio Arrau.
"Après une Lecture de Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata (French for After a Reading of Dante: Fantasia quasi Sonata; also Dante Sonata) is a piano sonata in one movement, completed by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt in 1849. It was first published in 1856 as part of the second volume of Années de Pèlerinage (Years of Pilgrimage). This work of program music was inspired by the reading of Dante Alighieri's most famous epic poem, The Divine Comedy. It is considered to be one of the most difficult pieces in the standard repertoire. Called 'the crowning achievement' of the group and 'one of Liszt's more formidable compositions', it is a substantial work in a single movement that requires about 18 minutes to perform" (Wikipedia).
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Britney Spears: Circus

"Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American recording artist and entertainer. Raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album in 1999. During her first decade within the music industry, she became a prominent figure in mainstream popular music and popular culture, followed by a much-publicized personal life. Her first two albums established her as a pop icon and broke sales records, while title tracks '...Baby One More Time' and 'Oops!... I Did It Again' became international number-one hits. Spears was credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s. … In 2008, her erratic behaviour and hospitalizations caused her to be placed in a conservatorship. The same year, her sixth studio album Circus was released, with the global chart-topping lead single 'Womanizer'" (Wikipedia).

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Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse: Dark Night of the Soul

"The 2009 labor of love by Danger Mouse and Mark Linkous (a.k.a. Sparklehorse) gets a deluxe release, complete with … an indie-rock who's-who guest list. It's spooky, beautiful and — considering Linkous' untimely death — bittersweet" ("The Short List of Things to Do," Time, 6/18/10).
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