The Virginia-born music and style icon Pharrell Williams, once a partner with his childhood friend Chad Hugo in the producing team The Neptunes, made the solo album In My Mind (2006) and now Girl: Girl has a light, contemporary dance sound. Its attitude is open, flirtatious, and confident. The singer-songwriter’s persona is that of a smart urbanite.
Tag: music
The Expanse of Emotions: Love is the Future by singer-songwriter John Legend
The pianist and singer John Legend’s album Love in the Future is a return to the kind of confident sentimentality that once was the province of most popular music stars, but for years now love has been replaced by sexual aggression and contempt and social violence as focus in a lot of mainstream culture. Legend’s song collection is emotional, lush, and contemporary: it is betting that there is still an audience that wants to hear a young, confident and successful African-American male make such romantic declarations.
The Star-Flung Ramparts of the Mind: Valerie June’s Pushin’ Against a Stone
Of course, the banjo is an African instrument. Valerie June loves old-time music, folk music, the music of banjo and fiddle and violin, the kind of music that people make to fit into country lives, the kind of music that people in cities find a healthy, nurturing relief; and she has added something to that tradition. Valerie June has cited Alan Lomax’s collection of recorded folk songs as being part of her research.
The Importance of Transcendence: Tenor/Countertenor Darryl Taylor’s Fields of Wonder and How Sweet the Sound
Much of classical music has been founded on the sound of the human voice, in imitation of it, or with the voice at music’s center. Darryl Taylor’s album Fields of Wonder is a return to that elemental beauty. The tenor voice—soaring in a high range in its maturity—is the voice with which others seek to harmonize, and it is usually a lyric tenor or dramatic tenor (and, past and present, black male tenors include Lawrence Brownlee, Vinson Cole, Kenneth Gayle, Roland Hayes, Kenn Hicks, George Shirley, Noah Stewart, and Kenneth Tarver).
A review of How Music Works by David Byrne
How Music Works is a little bit of a sprawling mishmash. The title is open enough, and Byrne takes advantage of that to meander along whatever paths take his fancy, from generalised notion of artistry to physics and the music of the cosmos, to his own personal experiences as a performer, songwriter and musician. Though the book is all over the place, it’s always erudite and enjoyable, and always pivoting on the notion of creative expression, whether it’s Byrne’s particular brand of expression or whether it’s more philosophical reflections about the universe, other artists, and music in its many forms.
Modern Femininity and Force: Alice Smith, She
Faith and Fun, Intellect and Invention: Vampire Weekend, Contra and Modern Vampires of the City
Vampire Weekend’s Contra is personable, intimate; exuberant, yet cool: a very particular sensibility: singer and principal lyricist Ezra Koenig, pianist and guitarist (really, multi-instrumentalist) Rostam Batmanglij, drummer Christopher Tomson, and bassist Chris Baio. Modern Vampires of the City has a great sense of drive and energy—even passion.
Familiar Pleasures: Kermit Ruffins, We Partyin’ Traditional Style
Brassily boisterous, pleasantly cluttered with a fragmented, fast rhythm is Kermit Ruffins’ own “Treme Second Line” and Ruffins’ rough delivery, half-spoken/half-sung, is a unique acquired taste. “Over the Waves” is a somewhat mournful instrumental sound; and yet its old-fashioned quality gives it a kind of wit that is confirmed when the rhythm quickens (its shifting structure makes this one of the most appealing pieces on the recording We Partyin’ Traditional Style). “All of Me” has a muted trumpet introduction, joined by a high female voice echoing Billie Holiday’s (singer Mykia Jovan), before Ruffin joins in for a duet. ‘Marie” is an uptempo seduction song, not particularly persuasive. “When the Saints Go Marching In” is joyfully brassy.
A Talent, Disciplined and Wild: Youn Sun Nah, Lento
The singer’s control as she accompanies the rhythm is exceptional. “Soundless Bye” is a ballad of equal quality to what comes before; and “Full Circle,” by Vincent Peirani and Youn Sun Nah, offers wordplay. A Korean tune written by Chun S. Park is offered. “Ghost Riders in the Sky,” a Stan Jones narrative of cowboy adventure, is forcefully sung; and a supernatural warning comes on the western plain. “Waiting,” by Lars Danielsson and Cæcilie Norby, is one of the few Lento songs that sound like established jazz (much of the music of Youn Sun Nah could be considered art songs or a high grade of traditional popular music).
The Harmony of Male Community: This Generation by The Lions
There is a sense of male camaraderie in “Revelation,” and in the other songs, with harmonic and counter-posed male voices, a sense of distance, and the lack of the pretty or the subtle. Strongly instrumental is “New Girl,” featuring a horn—it has warmth, texture, even charm. “Pieces of a Man” is addressed to a woman; it is a romantic promise of care and fidelity, and has an inflection of soul music. Moody is “More/Higher Ways,” consisting of lyrics focused on the limits of current society—and the search for higher ideals and practices.