Abdullah Ibrahim and Ekaya: Sotho Blue

"Ekaya, meaning 'home,' was the name of the brightly soulful ensemble introduced by the great South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim on a 1983 album, now out of print. 'Sotho Blue,' due out on Intuition/Sunnyside on Tuesday, features a mellowed-out successor to that group, with different musicians and an air of dignified reflection. Some of Mr. Ibrahim’s songs are arranged as chorales, with hymnal voicings for three saxophones and trombone. Other pieces receive the ministrations of a rhythm section, suggesting late-period Duke Ellington with a languid backbeat. The opener, 'Calypso Minor,' begins with just bass and drums on a stark, nearly plodding groove, before the horns bleat the simplest of melodies, phrasing behind the beat: funk without toil" (Nate Chinen, "Playlist," New York Times, 4/3/11).
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Muse: The Resistance

Winner of the 2010 Grammy for best rock album.
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Richard Danielpour: The Enchanted Garden (Xiayin Wang, piano)

"Richard Danielpour (born 28 January 1956 in New York) is an American composer. ... Danielpour is born of Persian/Jewish descent. He studied at Oberlin College and the New England Conservatory of Music, and later at the Juilliard School of Music, where he received a DMA in composition in 1986. His primary composition professors at Juilliard were Vincent Persichetti and Peter Mennin. Danielpour currently teaches at the Manhattan School of Music (since 1993) and the Curtis Institute of Music (since 1997). In common with many other American composers of the post-war generation, Danielpour began his career in a serialist milieu, but rejected it in the late 1980s in favor of a more ecumenical and 'accessible' idiom. He cites the Beatles—along with John Adams, Christopher Rouse, and Joseph Schwantner—as influences on his more recent musical style. He also makes frequent references to Hemingway and Whitman, saying the emotion in prose and verse can be translated to music" (Wikipedia).
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Gary Higgins: A Dream a While Back

"If a certain sliver of music fans ... want old obscure recordings, Connecticut singer and songwriter Gary Higgins is willing to oblige. Higgins, 63, got rediscovered ... in 2005, 30 years after he released Red Hash, a record of mellow and spacey acoustic songs, of which only a couple thousand vinyl copies were originally pressed. The Chicago label Drag City re-issued the recording, and Higgins, who grew up in western Connecticut and lives in Falls Village and had been playing music the whole time, was suddenly in demand, relearning and performing songs from three decades ago. Now Higgins is back with A Dream a While Back ... a collection of previously unreleased raw solo acoustic songs recorded in 1970 and '71, prior to Red Hash. The songs sway and swing around droned low-notes, with Higgins's careful fingerpicking mapping out the spare rhythms, and his subdued voice swooping and swooning, sliding in slow, vaguely Indian curves" (John Adamian, "Journey Through the Past," New Haven Advocate, 3/31/11).
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Franz Liszt: Harmonies du soir

"The music of the late nineteenth century would have been impossible without Franz Liszt, and yet he never wrote a piece that seems as indestructible as the masterworks of those he influenced (Tchaikovsky, Wagner, et al.). But the fervor of his invention refuses to die. For Liszt, the constant variety of musical options that arose in the creative process became part of the work itself; pieces went through as many as nine revisions, as if their composer would forever be around to take care of their changing needs. It was as a pianist that Liszt first made his reputation, and it is through his solo works for the instrument that most listeners still know him best. Nelson Freire's new recording, 'Liszt: Harmonies du Soir' (Decca), is as balanced in its choice of repertory (early, middle, late) as it is in its poised, patrician style, a suitable tribute for the composer's bicentennial year" (Russell Platt, "Classical Notes," New Yorker, 6/13&20/11).
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Cold War Kids: Mine Is Yours

"The Cold War Kids, from Long Beach, California, made their name with raw, herky-jerky songs; their third studio album, 'Mine Is Yours,' puts a little bit of polish on their sound" ("This Week," New Yorker, 3/28/11, p. 16).
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Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze, Fantasie in C

"The masterly pianist Mitsuko Uchida is widely acclaimed for the refinement and intelligence of her playing. Schumann brings out her fanciful and impetuous side, as is clear on a wonderful recording of two major Schumann works, the 'Davidsbündlertänze' and the C major Fantasie (Op. 17). ... His piano music invites freedom and fantasy, especially 'Davidsbündler,' a suite. ... Ms. Uchida captures the music’s unbridled imagination. But at her core, since she is such an elegant and insightful musician, she also plays with an acute sensitivity to harmonic shadings and contrapuntal complexities and, when it is called for, uncanny textural clarity. This makes for an uncommon blend of rhapsodic freedom and revealing detail. The three-movement Fantasie is a homage to Beethoven and, despite its title, one of Schumann’s most ingeniously structured works. Ms. Uchida conveys both the architectural and fantastical elements in her magisterial performance" (Anthony Tommasini, "Classical Recordings," New York Times, 4/10/11).
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Wye Oak: Civilian

"Some bands sound great in the studio, others sound good live; only really good bands can do both. Consider: (1) Wye Oak's new album, Civilian, is excellent on headphones (2) leading lady Jenn Wasner told the Onion's AV Club 'Sometimes it's really important to explode with huge amounts of volume. Whether it's out of a creative impulse, or just an angry one where it's like, "Hey everyone, look over here!"....It's fun to absolutely dominate a room for a couple of seconds.' Therefore I'm willing to bet Wye Oak is a really good band" (Mark R. Collins, "Top SXSW Bands You Haven't Heard of Yet, But Soon Will," Huffington Post, 3/23/11).
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Zac Brown Band: You Get What You Give

Includes "As She's Walking Away," winner of the 2010 Grammy for best country collaboration with vocals.
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tUnE-yArDs: whokill

"tUnE-yArDs is the musical vehicle of 32-year-old Connecticut native Merrill Garbus. You might have heard bits of the lo-fi debut album, BiRd-BrAiNs, in a Blackberry ad if nowhere else. The ad is set in the Bay Area, Garbus's adopted home since leaving Montreal to devote her time to music, and sets a bike courier blathering about his 'future phone' to a wobbly, backyard lovesong. Sophomore album whokill comes out in April, and few sophomore albums present such an intriguing prospect, particularly because the debut was a scrappy, lo-fi affair, recorded as cheaply as possible before Garbus had much idea that anyone else would be listening. How she takes on her growing audience will be as interesting as the evolution of her songwriting. ... Garbus's success hasn't much changed her approach to performance -- supplemented only by [Nate] Brenner's terse bass, she layers loops of vocals, a floor tom and anything else within reach of her sticks, and one hard-worked ukulele" (Andrew Iliff, "Festival Findings," New Haven Advocate, 3/24/11).
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Alejandro Sanz: Paraíso Express

Winner of the 2010 Grammy for best Latin pop album.
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The Boxer Rebellion: The Cold Still

"The members of the Boxer Rebellion come from England, Australia, and America and have had a rocky ten-year history below the radar. Despite touring with such heavyweight acts as the Killers and Lenny Kravitz, the Boxer Rebellion's self-released music (their one record label went belly-up in 2007) has been the object of fascination for a small audience of influential aficionados and music supervisors. Now enter producer Ethan Johns (Ray LaMontagne, Kings of Leon), determined to bring the Boxer Rebellion to the mainstream. Is the world ready for big panoramic guitars, vocals rich with reverb and romance, urgent rhythms, and epic songwriting? Please, if there's a God, let it be so. The Cold Still will send a shiver down your spine from start to finish. It's dark, broken, lovely music" (Shawn Amos, "PLAY > SKIP," Huffington Post, 2/1/11).
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Smokey Robinson: The Solo Albums, Vol. 4

"Hip-O Select continues to mount impressive reissue campaigns for sixties and seventies soul. In the midst of James Brown and Complete Motown retrospectives, the label has started in on the solo albums of Smokey Robinson, who created one of the most enduring catalogues in pop-music history with the Miracles, before leaving the group, in 1972. He resurfaced as a solo artist a year later; his albums, which Hip-O is packaging two to a set, include 'Pure Smokey' (with the tables-are-turned classic 'Virgin Man') and 'Big Time.' ... Now we're on to 'The Solo Albums: Vol. 4,' which collects 'Love Breeze,' from 1978, and 'Where There's Smoke ...,' from 1979. 'Why You Wanna See My Bad Side,' the opener of 'Love Breeze,' has a percolating disco beat, stabbing horns, and a typically Robinsonian lyric, formalist but slippery -- 'You have me doing things against my nature/Sometimes I think I overrate you' turns against itself before you're even out of the couplet" (Ben Greenman, "Pop Notes," New Yorker, 2/14-21/11).
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The MC5: Kick Out the Jams

"If you listen to a 1968 MC5 album or a 2008 White Stripes album, the song crafting, the musicianship and what is sonically appreciated, is all extremely similar. ... From February 2010 to February 2011, according to data from dice.com, Detroit is in fact leading the new technology job openings on a national scale. ... But this piece isn't about how Detroit's foray into new tech has been successful -- it is about how Detroit's ingredients can help new technology firms grow and be relevant. By keeping your work force separated, (both physically and mentally), keeping information that is unique (and tailored to you) infiltrating your inbox, becoming excruciatingly supportive, and holding true to your mission. By doing these things your firm will become more relevant, hardworking, long lasting and more like Detroit rock music. In the infamous words of the legendary MC5, your workforce will finally 'Kick Out the Jams'" (Jason Schmitt, "What New Technology Firms Can Learn from Detroit Rock and Roll," Huffington Post, 3/22/11).
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Bebe & Cece Winans: Still

Winner of the 2010 Grammy for best contemporary R&B gospel album.
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