On the album Kid Man Blues, an album recorded in Sweden, Thailand, Germany, and the United States over a period of years, Bert Deivert does the Paul Jones song “Rob and Steal,” and there’s something very head-down-and-focused about the energy in the song, as if something burning in the music matches the intensity of the scavenging character being described. Downbeat, haunted, “Come Back Baby” is a moodily dramatic request for a lover’s return, featuring blues-rock guitar (that is, Dulyasit Srabua on electric guitar and John Dooley on electric bass).
Category: Music reviews
Meeting and Memorial: Ray Charles’s duet anthology Genius & Friends, with Diana Ross and Angie Stone, Chris Isaak, Leela James, Idina Menzel, George Michael, John Legend, Willie Nelson, and Alicia Keys
The subject is desperation, being down on one’s luck, but the tone is self-aware, self-mocking, in the Charles-Nelson duet “Busted,” which was part of a 1991 television special, “Ray Charles: 50 Years in Music,” and the song has this chastening, truthful line: “I’m no thief, but a man can go wrong when he’s busted.” The collection Genius & Friends concludes with “America the Beautiful,” with Charles and Alicia Keys, whose singular, soulful voice is strong enough to carry the song, though she does not give it any special conviction.
Sunshine on a Cloudy Day: the anthology of Number Ones by The Temptations
Many Motown songs show mastery of that subject, as well as assertions of transcendent love, as in “You’re My Everything,” in which the singer’s high voice issuing dedication and praise may have presaged the work of the Isley Brothers and Earth, Wind and Fire; and certainly musicians such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Terence Trent D’Arby, Brian McKnight, and Maxwell have found much to emulate in this assured, expressive music.
Home, and the Difficulty of Making One: The Whole Love by Wilco, featuring Jeff Tweedy
The music of Wilco on The Whole Love is easy to listen to, not abrasive, not strange. “Sunloathe” is a ballad, with piano and guitar; and the mid-tempo “Dawn on Me” reminds one of 1970s rock; while “Black Moon” could hardly be simpler, with acoustic guitar and plain vocal declarations. It is all more reassuring than some might expect; and it is good and solid work, and a pleasure—work that deserves to be heard.
Music as Memory: David Lang’s This Was Written by Hand, performed by pianist Andrew Zolinsky
David Lang, the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for his work “The Little Match Girl Passion,” inspired by both Hans Christian Andersen and Bach, has created work for dance and film as well as concert performance; and Lang is joined for this album recording by the interpretive pianist Andrew Zolinsky, who has performed Lang’s work before and that of other composers, as well as appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Concerto Orchestra.
Building Sounds: Michael Gordon’s Timber, performed by Slagwerk Den Haag
Six percussionists participate in the music performance: Fedor Teunisse, the artistic leader of Slagwerk Den Haag, and Marcel Andriessen, Niels Meliefste, Pepe Garcia, Juan Martinez, and Frank Wienk. By turns, the sounds are of a pulsing rhythm, and a pecking sound that becomes lower then rises and becomes low again, and a rattling and rolling that is then ringing, a hammering that heralds, and finally something clocklike, with a quickened tempo that subsequently slows. It is fascinating.
The Small Town New York Boy Became a Good Singer and Songwriter: Brian McKnight and his album Just Me
McKnight’s two-disk Just Me collection is, obviously, a generous set. The first part, the studio album, shows that McKnight, whose career has lasted twenty years, has not lost his appeal or his vigor; and were it not for the age-related exclusions of current radio formats, the presence of his work would shame younger artists.
The Varieties of the Rock Experience: Ben Harper’s Give Till It’s Gone
The bearded, brown-skinned, tattooed Ben Harper has been the natural man as rocker and activist, friend and lover; and on the album Give Till It’s Gone, he explores different attitudes and sounds, spanning generations and genres, producing what could be seen as a concise dictionary of rock.
Adventurous American Journeys: Mary Joyce Project: Nothing to Lose, by the Claire Daly Quintet
The Claire Daly Quintet’s album Mary Joyce Project: Nothing to Lose, beautiful and fun music I only have begun to delve into, comes to an end with a multi-part composition containing spoken comments directly addressing the life and spirit of Mary Joyce, her response to nature, her sense of wounds and recovery, her imagination and vision, with music that contains echoes of American blues and gospel, different traditions that have become part of a shared musical language.
It’s Going to Be a Long Fifteen Minutes: On Lady Gaga and Her Generation
Gaga is one of an emergent generation that has acquired great attention in the last three years or so; among them, Taio Cruz, Jason Derulo, Ke$ha, Bruno Mars, Travie McCoy, Owl City, Katy Perry, Mike Posner, Rihanna, and Taylor Swift, performers whose songs do possess a certain seduction, an energy and personality that are first irritating, then persuasive, and finally irritating again.