John Legend: Love in the Future

"Lately soume younger neo-soul men -- Miguel, Frank Ocean, the Weeknd -- have stolen the spotlight from John Legend. But the Grammy winning singer-pianist gets us lifted once again with Love in the Future. Thankfully the title of his fourth solo album doesn't refer to Legend going all futuristic electronica on us, although there is some ambient moodiness that goes from trippy ('The Beginning...') to tribal ('Made to Love'). As in the past, there are samples (Marvin Gaye) and the occasional rap cameo (Rick Ross) for some hip-hop effect, but this is really all about Legend serenading you with that killer voice. When he strips it down on the classic ballad 'All of Me,' it's clear that his is the kind of talent that is timeless" ("Music," People, 9/16/13, p. 46).

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Janelle Monáe: The Electric Lady

“'There’s nothing that I will not try,' Janelle Monáe said by phone from a car traversing Maryland. The album she is releasing on Tuesday, 'The Electric Lady' (Bad Boy), bears her out. Its 19 tracks hint at Stevie Wonder and spy-movie soundtracks, Jimi Hendrix and hip-hop, reggae and gospel. It has guest appearances by Prince, Erykah Badu and Esperanza Spalding. ... And then there’s the album’s overarching concept, which follows through on Ms. Monáe’s 2007 EP, 'Metropolis: Suite I (The Chase)' and her 2010 major-label debut album, 'The ArchAndroid.' In the lineage of sci-fi-loving, high-concept musicians like Sun Ra, George Clinton and David Bowie, Ms. Monáe is a trouper whose songs dance to big ideas. ... 'The Electric Lady' extends, with Suites IV and V, the tale of Cindi Mayweather, a fugitive android in danger of being disassembled" (Jon Pareles, "'What Would the Electric Lady Think?,'" New York Times, 9/6/13).

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Angelika Nebel: Bach Transcriptions for Piano

"This is Nebel's second disc of Bach transcriptions I have had the pleasure to listen to. ... We should be thankful for the likes of Nebel, who seems to have an unerring sense of great arrangements, and plays them with every nuance. This marvelous recital is framed by two large works, the Prelude & Fugue in A, S 536 arrranged by Walter Braunfels and the 'Ricercar a 6' from the Musical Offering, arranged by Wagner Stefani D'Aragona Malheiro Prado (what a name!). ... While I also enjoy the more virtuosic flashy piano transcriptions of Bach, this program has given me great pleasure over many more hearings than typically necessary for a review. Simply put, this is all beautiful music, beautifully played" (James Harrington, American Record Guide, July/Aug. 2013, p. 57).

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Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project

"For more than a decade, [Vijay] Iyer has worked with poet and performer Mike Ladd on a series of musical works about the lives of people of color since Sept. 11. The latest installment is called Holding It Down: The Veterans' Dreams Project, and features lyrics culled from interviews they conducted with Iraq and Afghanistan vets, who shared their still-fresh memories of combat. NPR's Arun Rath recently spoke with Vijay Iyer and Holding It Down contributor Maurice Decaul, who served in Iraq as a Marine and led a battalion into an-Nasiriyah in 2003. ... Vijay, how did you and Mike Ladd first come up with this project? VIJAY IYER: We had done two previous large-scale projects considering American life since 9/11: The first was called In What Language? and the second was called Still Life With Commentator. And we came to realize we were sort of looking at life in the shadows of war — you know, these two wars that the U.S. has been conducting on our dimes for the last decade or so. But we also realized that we hadn't really come face to face with the lived experience of war. So it seemed like if we were going to continue in that vein, the thing to do was to speak with veterans ..." (Arun Rath, "Vijay Iyer on Learning from War," All Things Considered, 9/29/13).

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Daft Punk: Random Access Memories

"The group laid the groundwork for the growing contemporary dance genre by making music that was slightly rougher and almost comically synthetic—the latter symbolized by their habit of wearing robot helmets in their public appearances. 'Discovery,' from 2001, is perhaps the most influential dance record in recent memory. ... Daft Punk’s fourth studio album, 'Random Access Memories,' is an attempt to make the kind of disco record that they sampled so heavily for “Discovery.” As such, it serves as a tribute to those who came before them and as a direct rebuke to much of what they’ve spawned. Only intermittently electronic in nature, and depending largely on live musicians, it is extremely ambitious. ... The duo has become so good at making records that I replay parts of 'Random Access Memories' repeatedly while simultaneously thinking it is some of the worst music I’ve ever heard. Daft Punk engages the sound and the surface of music so lovingly that all seventy-five loony minutes of 'Random Access Memories' feel fantastic, even when you are hearing music you might never seek out" (Sasha Frere-Jones, "Pop Music," New Yorker, 5/27/13).


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Timo Andres: Home Stretch

"The centrepiece of this latest collection is a perfect example of Andres's playful intelligence and individuality. The manuscript of Mozart's penultimate piano concerto, the so-called Coronation Concerto in D major K537, not only omits written-out cadenzas, but for many passages there is also no left hand for the solo part; presumably, when Mozart was the soloist, he instinctively added the necessary bass lines, and, when the Concerto was published, the missing lines were added by someone else. In 2010, though, Andres made his own completion; it's sometimes disconcerting, sometimes witty. His additions often take very circuitous routes between the fixed points of the existing text, visiting surprisingly remote keys, while his cadenzas seem to pack two centuries'-worth of piano music into their rhetorical gestures. Andres is also the immensely accomplished soloist in Home Stretch, a work for piano and orchestra that he composed in 2008 while still a student at Yale. It's a piece of wonderful subtlety and subversive understatement that seems constantly to avoid putting the soloist centre stage" (Andrew Clements, "Review," Guardian, 7/31/13).

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Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass: Passages

"... I hear you dislike the term "minimalist" (2). Should composers resist such labels?
It's not that I dislike the term – it was accurate for 10 years, from the mid-60s to the mid-70s. But you have to realise that no one's written 'minimalist' music in 30 years: it's like people talking about impressionism when nobody's painting like that any more. Young composers are writing wonderful new music that we don't even have a name for yet.
Where do you seek inspiration?
In stories, images, movement – if I'm working with a dance company, I actually go and watch the dancers; I don't think many composers do that. And within the world of music, from a great master of another tradition. I was Ravi Shankar's assistant in the 60s (3), and his ideas about the language of music had a tremendous effect on my writing. ...

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... (2) He is widely reputed to prefer the term 'music with repetitive structures'.
(3) Their best-known recording together, Passages, came later in 1990. ..."
(Laura Barnett, "Philip Glass, Composer," Guardian, 8/13/13)

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Mendelssohn: Complete Solo Piano Music, vol. 1

"The early Sonata in E, Op. 6, may be the product of a 17 year old, but [Howard] Shelley plumbs the depths of its early sophistication. He does so with sparse use of pedal and magical attention to phrasing that consistently rewards the listener, who can't fail to be seduced, especially in II. The following Adagio shows meticulous preparation and careful study (perhaps too careful). What at first may seem lacking in spontaneity wins me over by its passion at climaxes, and the final movement does burst forward with all of the composer's bubbly joy for life and its wild but controlled exuberance. This one would have me instantly on my feet with energetic applause. Capriccio in F-sharp minor, Op. 5, moves like lightning in the pianist's hands. Mendelssohn was a genius at writing fast movements, and this one is an exhausting whirlwind of activity. It never lets up until the closing measures, and Shelley is hardly one to underplay" (Alan Becker, American Record Guide, July/Aug. 2013, p. 118).

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Dave Brubeck: One Alone

"Q. What Dave Brubeck CD, recorded in Stamford in 2000, features his solo piano music?
"A. One Alone."
(Connecticut Trivia, p. 44)

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Photo of Dave Brubeck in 2005 by Frank C. Müller.

Christoph Bernhard & Christian Herwich: Baroque Lieder

"This program brings together the accompanied songs of Christoph Bernhard (1627-92) and instrumental music of Christian Herwich (1609-63). ... The songs by Bernhard ... are rather simple, syllabic, tuneful songs, sung to a continuo accompaniment of theorbo (Ulrich Wedemeier), bass viol (Simone Eckert), and organ or harpsichord (Michael Fuerst). Klaus Mertens's warm baritone evokes just the right character. ... Herwich's ... Sonata La Chilana for violins (Annegret Siedel and Renate Gentz), bass viol, theorbo, and organ, explores extreme regions of pathos and exuberance. His 'Ruggiero' shows his skill for writing divisions, played virtuosically here on the bass viol" (Peter Loewen, American Record Guide, Sept./Oct. 2013, p. 253).

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Yellowcard: Ocean Avenue Acoustic

"It’s been ten years since the release of Yellowcard’s Ocean Avenue, arguably one of the most well known pop-punk albums of the 2000′s. It also marked a huge turning point for the band. Though only their sophomore effort, it catapulted Yellowcard into the mainstream and around the world. For the album’s anniversary, Yellowcard revisited Ocean Avenue and reworked the entire thing acoustically. The band plays the Oakdale this Sunday, Sept. 8, to perform the new rendition in its entirety. In advance of the show, frontman Ryan Key responded to a few questions via email looking back on the album and talking about what’s next for Yellowcard. Take us back to when 'Ocean Avenue' was written. What was the process and how did it flow? What influenced the album? Key: The core of the music was written in Lake Arrowhead, CA. Our guitarist at the time had a family vacation home there. We had been on tour for two years straight so we retreated to the mountains to clear our heads and start writing. We then brought what we had to Neal Avron, our producer. It was our first time working with Neal and man did we have a lot to learn ..." (Nick Caito, "Yellowcard's Ryan Key Looks Back on 10 Years of 'Ocean Avenue,'" Sound Check, 9/5/13).

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Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 1 and 15

"Roll up, roll up for a circus of musical meaning, a surreal carnival where nothing is quite as it seems, where strange musical machines and even a glittering musical toyshop become an existential journey into the beyond. Welcome to the world of Dmitri Shostakovich's 15th, and final, symphony. Composed in 1971 in just a few weeks, the 15th Symphony belongs to the period of Shostakovich's darkest music. ... Every bar of the piece demands a variation on the same simple but utterly profound question: what does it all mean? What is that chirruping little tune at the start of the symphony about? Why does Shostakovich quote from Rossini's William Tell in the first movement, from Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and Ring cycle in its last movement? Why does the whole thing end with a coda that on the surface could be a memory of childish things, but is far more likely a musical transliteration of the hum and clatter of hospital machines ... ? And why, as Shostakovich surely knew this would be his last symphony when he was writing it, does the piece scrupulously avoid any trace of the bombast and boisterousness of his earlier symphonies?" (Tom Service, "Symphony Guide: Shostakovich's 15th," Guardian, 9/23/13).

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Delicate Steve: Positive Force

"Winning candidate for the next incarnation of Guitar Hero: Delicate Steve was the sleeper hit of Saturday—largely due to the otherworldly slide-style shredding of the band’s namesake, founder Steve Marion. Though the band had the cooperation of both the weather (it wasn’t freezing yet) and the sound system (which, sadly, didn’t cooperate very well during Man Man) it was the magical songs from his Luaka Bop debut Positive Force that had the crowd mesmerized" (Erin Osmon, "Wizard Jokes and Ted Leo: The A.V. Club Goes to Chicago's Wicker Park Fest," A.V. Club, 7/29/13).

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Rossini: Stabat Mater

"Of the Israel Philharmonic releases from Helicon that have crossed my path, this is the best by far. Rossini's jaunty spirituality is nurtured with commendable brio by Maestro [Asher] Fisch, who is very happy to sell the big tunes without apologizing for their operatic spunk. ... [F]or a robust, spirited, but still respectful approach to Rossini's delightful writing, this is worth considering. The IPO sounds terrific, and the recording is superb. Choral singing is pretty good too. ... [W]hen Fisch turns them loose in the concluding Amen, the energy is infectious. ... [A]n enjoyable account of an elusive piece" (Philip Greenfield, American Record Guide, July/August 2013, p. 142).

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Queens of the Stone Age: ... Like Clockwork

"It was a good week for the rock and country genres, as five of the Top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 came from rock bands of various flavors and three belonged to country singers. Queens of the Stone Age earned its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 on Wednesday, as their latest disc '… Like Clockwork' (Matador) sold 91,000 copies in its first week, Nielsen SoundScan reported on Wednesday. The band, a five-piece rock outfit from Palm Desert, Calif., led by Josh Homme, has never before topped the chart, though it has put out six other albums. Mr. Homme’s group bumped Daft Punk’s 'Random Access Memories' (Daft Lite/Columbia) from the top slot, where it has been for two weeks, pushing it to No. 2" (James C. McKinley Jr., "Queens of the Stone Age Earns Its First No. 1," New York Times, 6/12/13).

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Johnny Marr: The Messenger

"David Tennant is a Scottish actor whose work ranges from his critically acclaimed performances as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company to roles in various popular BBC television programs including 'Dr. Who' and 'Broadchurch,' which premieres in the United States next month. ... LISTENING 'Johnny Marr’s "The Messenger." He was the guitarist in The Smiths. He’s always been sort of regarded as the king of a certain type of credible indie-pop. On this album, he’s kind of let loose. It feels like he’s allowed himself not to be pretentious'" (Kate Murphy, "Download: David Tennant," New York Times, 7/14/13).

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Dominican Sisters of Mary: Mater Eucharistiae

"Mater Eucharistiae is the first ever recording from The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The fifteen peaceful and serene songs of this debut release will include original compositions written by the Sisters that reflect their Dominican spirituality, along with a selection of modern and ancient hymns and chants in English and in Latin. Singing both a capella and with the accompaniment of organ, trumpet, and chimes, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist have created a collection that is reflective of the music in their daily community life. ... The Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist, founded 16 years ago and with 110 sisters currently in the Community, also have teaching missions in schools all over the US. They chant the Divine Office throughout the day and their favorite hymns throughout the year, while also composing music of their own. They follow in the thirteenth-century footsteps of St. Dominic, while very much engaging the modern world. Their Motherhouse is in Ann Arbor, MI, and they are in the process of raising funds to construct a new priory in Texas" (website of the Dominican Sisters of Mary).

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Baba Salah: Dangay

"The melancholy title track of his latest album was 'Dangay,' which means 'north.' In the song, he asks listeners to pray for the people of the region. ... Onstage, he picked up the guitar and said a few words about how happy he was that the north was free, which drew applause and joyful shouts. Then he and his band began playing. Their music, driven by his guitar, was a looping, riffing, electric sound that evoked the sixties underground yet was distinctly African. Baba Salah's singing was casual, comfortable, and as he launched into the first song people filled the floor to dance" (Jon Lee Anderson, "Letter from Timbuktu," New Yorker, 7/1/13, p. 47).

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KT Tunstall: Invisible Empire // Crescent Moon

"Scottish singer-songwriter made her latest album in Arizona, of all places. Working with musician and producer Howe Gelb, she recorded the first six songs in the spring of 2012, and the last six in November. But a lot changed for Tunstall in the months between.
'I lost my father. He was a Parkinson's sufferer, but he was taken a little early due to an accident — so although he was declining, it was still quite unexpected,' Tunstall says.
The singer's 10-year relationship with her husband ended that summer as well. Though she says she'd found her way back to positivity by the time she returned to Arizona, the shake-ups in her life had a profound effect on how the later songs sounded — and caused the earlier ones to take on some new meaning.'Songs can have a very weird, precognitive nature to them where they're almost fortune telling for you, and at the time of writing you don't know what they mean,' she says. 'Then a few months later, you're like, "Oh, okay. This is what it means." It's like your subconscious is ahead of you'" ("Heartache Gives KT Tunstall's New Album a Split Personality," Weekend Edition Sunday, 8/4/13).

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Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida

"Aida (also known as Elton John and Tim Rice's Aida) is a musical with music by Elton John, lyrics by Tim Rice, and book by Linda Woolverton, Robert Falls, and David Henry Hwang, and produced by Walt Disney Theatrical. ... The Aida (2000 Original Broadway Cast) Cast recording won the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album. ... The show is performed in two acts based on Giuseppe Verdi's Italian-language opera by the same name. ... Elton John's music for Aida is stylistically eclectic. 'Another Pyramid' is a modern reggae number; 'My Strongest Suit' draws heavily on Motown, 'The Gods Love Nubia' draws on gospel. There are numbers, e.g., 'Not Me,' 'Elaborate Lives,' 'A Step Too Far,' 'Written in the Stars,' that reflect Elton John's pop style. There is also a strong influence of African music, notably in 'Dance of the Robe' and 'Easy as Life'. These styles are used without much attention to historical authenticity; rather, there is a mix of African (mostly West African), Indian and Middle Eastern influences. Probably the nearest stylistic parallel to the work as a whole is to Elton John's The Lion King, another musical with strong emphasis on ethnically diverse stylistic influences" (Wikipedia).

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