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Genere: Jazz

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Trama: His two decades of success as leader, main composer, and arranger of the supercharged Cuban jazz fusion group Irakere have often obscured the talents of Jesus "Chucho" Valdés as a pianist. Now Valdés seems ready, indeed eager, to take his playing center stage. <I>Bele Bele en la Habana</I>, recorded in Toronto early in 1998, features Valdés with a stripped-down quartet playing a program of originals and Cuban standards. It's an impressive show. With sure technique, Valdés seamlessly blends elements of jazz (postbop phrasing and rich harmonies reminiscent of Bill Evans), classical, and Afro-Cuban music. He offers high energy and lyricism ("Son Montuno"), an implacable groove ("Con Poco Coco," "La Sitiera," "But Not for Me"), and even a dash of melodrama now and then (the classic "Tres Lindas Cubanas"). Irakere might have lost their leader, but jazz has gained a superior pianist. <I>--Fernando Gonzalez</I>

Genere: Jazz

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Trama: Born in Quivicán, Cuba in 1941, Chucho Valdés is one of Cuba's most famous pianists, bandleaders, composers and arrangers. Perhaps best known for founding the famous Latin jazz band Irakere in 1972, Chucho's illustrious career has also garnered him 6 Grammy wins and 16 nominations over the past three decades. His most recent win, a 2009 Latin Grammy for the record Juntos para Siempre, saw him collaborate with his father, Bebo Valdés, a major player on the Cuban jazz scene in his own right. Chucho Valdés has recorded over eighty CD's and performed with everybody who is anybody in the world of jazz; from Herbie Hancock and Dizzy Gillespie, to Wynton Marsalis and Chick Corea. His reputation as one of the greatest living Cuban jazz pianists has earned him appearances on the great stages in music, including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center and The Hollywood Bowl. Chucho's new album with the Afro-Cuban Messengers, which will extensively tour the USA in October 2010, marks Chucho's return to the US for the first time in 7 years.

Genere: Jazz

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Trama: We Are Proud to Present the Exquisite Malanga Music Collection, Established with the Purpose of Uncovering Outstanding Rare Material by the Most Legendary Figures in the History of Cuban Music. This Material Had Been Previously Locked Away in the Vaults Collecting Dust, but Two Years of Extensive Investigation in Havana's Areíto Studio Archives have Brought These Gems to Light. Includes a 16 Page Comprehensive Booklet.

Genere: R&B

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Trama: Van Hunt’s self-titled debut record is a sultry trip back in time, where the single named musician conjures up the heady specter of '70s R&B, channeling vintage Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield, then punctuating that smooth soul with some Sly Stone rhythm and grit, and early Prince naughtiness, without managing to sound hopelessly derivative. Why? Because behind every old school nuance is an ingenious vocal tic or instrumental fillip that reveals the quirky genius of this newcomer who not only sings but writes, produces, and arranges all his own material. The sinuous guitar, brash off-rhythms, and bubbling bass lines are perfect foils for the musician’s decidedly modern tales of thwarted love and commitment. Van Hunt may be a fan of retro soul, but to his credit he doesn’t even attempt to resurrect some the social anachronisms of the times. --Jaan Uhelszki

Genere: Country

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Genere: Country

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Genere: Country

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Trama: The first and best album the late Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt made for Sugar Hill Records, this 1987 set mixes older material ("For the Sake of the Song") with fresh material (the instant classic "Buckskin Stallion Blues"). As is usually the case with Van Zandt albums, the originals shine. The funky "Ain't Leavin' Your Love" comes complete with an unlikely saxophone solo, while "Catfish Song" boasts the kind of gospel melody that marked this gentle, hard-living man as one of the finest songwriters to have ever worked in a country-folk vein. His voice--never the acquired taste of a Jimmie Dale Gilmore or Bob Dylan--had lost some of its certainty and range by this time. Fortunately, what's absent in reach is more than offset by a very appealing world-weary hue. This set features a raft of first-class supporting players, including bassist Roy Huskey Jr., fiddler Mark O'Connor, and guitarist Mickey White. Horn accents abound in the arrangements, and the whole session hangs together in a warm, rewarding way. Van Zandt's last studio album stands as his final bona fide classic. <i>--Robert Baird</i>

Genere: Country

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Trama: When considering the catalog of the late, great Townes Van Zandt, <i>The Highway Kind</i> is a dicey matter. All but three of the tracks are cut live, but these selections represent a weathered and weakened man. His picking isn't quite so fleet; his phrasing is fleeting. Listen to his version of Texas sidekick Guy Clark's "Dublin Blues" to hear a man not long for this world. Still, somehow the notes that fall flat are the ones that ring most true. Which just goes to show that perhaps the best epitaph for Townes Van Zandt is the same he'd given the outlaw Lefty in his most famous song: "They only let him slip away out of kindness, I suppose." <I>--Steven Stolder</I>

Genere: Country

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Trama: If Townes Van Zandt is known at all, it may be only for writing the Willie Nelson/Merle Haggard hit "Poncho and Lefty" a decade back. But the voice and music of this care-worn country-folk veteran (who passed away in January 1997) connotes something more sublime. With his warm folkways and dark ruminations, Van Zandt is like a lost wanderer who can link generations of songwriters, from Woody Guthrie to Nick Cave. On <I>No Deeper Blue</I>, his first studio release in seven years, Van Zandt strings a trail of small and intimate folk-blues numbers that lead us down paths both empty and bright. With "The Hole," a ghost story works as a metaphoric battle with personal demons, whether they be alcohol or depression; in "Billy, Boney and Ma," the graveyard tale takes a comic turn. Songs like the poetic "Hey Willy Boy" and the whimsical "If I Was Washington" build on simple folk conceits and wordplay, while others such as "Goin' Down to Memphis" make effective use of the basic blues form. If, perhaps, the thin, dry voice of the Texan troubadour has limited Van Zandt to being a cult songwriter instead of a recording star, it is that same quiet and understated vocal delivery that adds weight and dignity to his tunes. He's living proof the songs of yesterday's ramblers hold their mystery and charm through the years and despite changing musical fashions. <I>--Roni Sarig</I>

Genere: Country

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Trama: <i>Rear View Mirror</i> is one of the first two titles in a live-and-obscure series Sugar Hill began preparing prior to the great folksinger's death. Originally given limited release in 1993, it provides an overview of the songwriter's career, reaching back frequently to his most productive period, 1968-72. Backed by second guitarist Danny Rowland and fiddler Owen Cody, Van Zandt works his way through tunes he'd performed hundreds--perhaps thousands--of times in coffeehouses and clubs from Arkansas to Australia. He does so, however, with enduring verve and veracity. <I>--Steven Stolder</I>

Genere: Country

Durata: 69:54

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Trama: Packaged as two albums on one disc, these are among the best of Van Zandt's erratic studio recordings. The first is often overlooked, but it has many songs of dark, marvelous realism, true and accurate as arrows. Kevin Eggers's production is never heavy or busy: he mostly lets the songs breathe beside piano and guitar. And the poetic heights of the title track and "The Highway Kind" are remarkable by any standard. <I>Late Great</I> is important for a little known Guy Clark song "Don't Let the Sunshine Fool You," as well as an orchestrated "Pancho and Lefty" and the sweetly simple "Heavenly Houseboat Blues." Both records show Townes's belief in the abracadabra of words, that their magic is as primary to being human as love and death and kindness and cruelty--those intense qualities that distinguish his work. <I>--Roy Kasten</I>

Genere: Jazz

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Trama: Like a gifted actress, Sarah Vaughan always makes lyrics come alive, whether on poignant ballads or buoyant pop novelties. Vaughan "plays" her voice as if it is a "real" instrument, and on this 1955 marvel, she is matched with musicians of an equally high caliber. On "Lullaby of Birdland," she trades harmonically advanced scat lines with Herbie Mann, Paul Quinichette, and Clifford Brown. Vaughan is hauntingly romantic and Brown is at his most lyrical on "September Song." She shows her unbelievable bop-influenced creativity on "You're Not the Kind"; Brown's hard-swinging solo and Quinichette's Lester Young-styled softness set up an incredible ending cascade from Vaughan. Pianist Jimmy Jones's beautiful chords on the infectious "He's My Guy" show why he was one of the most sought-after vocal accompanists, while Vaughan's phrasing, deliberately behind the time, adds perfectly to the relaxed feel. "April in Paris" reveals her operatic quality as Brown's tingling riffs fill in the space behind her. Throughout, Sassy combines exquisite elegance, impressive range, and an effortless delivery. <I>--Marc Greilsamer</I>

Genere: Jazz

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Trama: Sarah Vaughan had already mastered the roots of gospel music and the intricacies of bop when her overarching talents led her to be packaged as a pop-singing canary. Fortunately her work with EmArcy allowed for some straight-ahead, unadorned jazz performance, where Vaughan's talent could shine without the frills. On <I>Swingin' Easy</i>, Vaughan is backed by a pair of trios, both featuring the great drummer Roy Haynes, whose supple rhythms give Vaughan's voice the context it deserves. "Shulie a Bop," "Lover Man," "All of Me," "Body and Soul" and "They Can't Take That Away from Me" are masterful performances. <i>--John Swenson</i>

Genere: Blues

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Trama: <i> In Step</i> embraces blues and rock without compromising the primal joys of either. This is Stevie Ray Vaughan's best studio album and the first he recorded sober. "Travis Walk" offers a heady rush of flat-picking, "The House is Rockin'" is full-tilt roots- boogie, "Let Me Love You Baby" and "Leave My Girl Alone" are sweet blues epiphanies and the nine-minute instrumental "Riviera Paradise" is a truly soulful mix of blues and jazz. By this stage, just a year before his untimely death, Vaughan had also tamed his bawling voice into a rich instrument. In short, this 1989 session is Vaughan at his artistic peak. It's raw blues-rock perfection. <i>--Ted Drozdowski</i>

Genere: Blues

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Genere: Rock

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Trama: Suzanne Vega emerged in the mid-'80s, and while her intimate voice and acoustic guitar brought to mind Joni Mitchell, her urbane lyrics suggested a sensibility that was as much reportorial as confessional. Vega's second album, which replaced the delicate acoustic textures of her self-titled debut with more dramatic arrangements, includes Vega's career song, "Luka," surely one of the biggest hits ever written about child abuse. But it was the energetic folk-rock production of "Luka," thick with ringing guitars and pushed by perky drums, that let the listener luxuriate in a song that suggested the darkness that can lurk behind a neighbor's door. The title tune confronts personal loneliness with a similarly powerful performance, while "Ironbound/Fancy Poultry" makes a downtown landscape sound downright homey. Well-turned tunes like "Calypso" and "Gypsy" recall the softer textures of her debut. Ironically, Vega's next big hit would come when the English production duo DNA made a dance hit out of "Tom's Diner," a nursery-rhyme tribute to a coffee shop that opens the album. <I>--John Milward</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: Suzanne Vega remains one of the most relentlessly, mercilessly tasteful recording artists alive. Every note on <I>Songs in Red and Gray</I> has been arranged with the meticulous precision of a butler laying silver on a table. Every sound is so polished and buffed that you barely notice you're listening, every syllable of every lyric only admitted to the melodies after painstaking reviewing and rewriting, and every song sung as if Vega believes that her core audience consists of elocution teachers. This has worked, occasionally, for Vega before--it should not be forgotten what an original presence she was with "Left of Center" and "Marlene on the Wall"--and it works, occasionally, for Vega now. There are a few fine songs here, notably the gently acerbic "Last Year's Troubles" and the wryly subversive "Maggie May" (not the Rod Stewart standard), but there is also a whole lot of glutinous, over-refined suet. Vega still needs to give her songs a much longer leash. <I>--Andrew Mueller</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: Though not the songs that would put her on the pop music map--that would come with 1987's <I>Solitude Standing</I>--Vega's first album shows her folky songwriting origins and, song for song, may still be her best. Produced by Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye, the sound is softly sculpted by Kaye's silvery guitar and an airy, occaisonal string section, matching the dream-like introspection of "Queen and the Soldier" and the surreal word play of "Small Blue Thing." Vega's philosophical, quiet, but confident approach would open the door for a second generation of female singer-songwriters like Dar Williams and Shawn Colvin. Her debut remains an unassuming sleeper for one of the '80s best folk or pop albums. <I>--Roy Francis Kasten</I>

Genere: Jazz

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Trama: On this new studio CD, Brazilian composer/singer/author Caetano Veloso reinterprets classic and contemporary American pop songs. Veloso's feathery, Miles Davis-like, Portuguese-inflected vocals negotiate the English language with silken skill with a 28-piece orchestra led by his long-time arranger, cellist Jaques Morelenbaum--featuring Carlinhos Brown on percussion and Veloso's gifted son Moreno on guitar--over Afro-bossa rhythms and spacey, echoplexed synth/guitar strains. Veloso sings the melody straight on the stunning string-accompanied "Feelings," and on a brave a capella reading of Cole Porter's "Love For Sale." But the fun begins when he reggae-fies Bob Dylan's "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)," sings "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" with boppish sax lines and offers a twangy take on Kurt Cobain's "Come as You Are." From Stevie Wonder's "If It's Magic" to Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" and Arto Lindsey's edgy "Detached," Veloso shows that he's a master of sonic subversion. <I>--Eugene Holley, Jr.</I>

Genere: Rock

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Trama: This comprehensive five-disc retrospective of the Velvet Underground chronicles the band from its earliest demo tapes, recorded in 1965, to Lou Reed's final work with band, in 1970. At their notorious peak, Reed, John Cale, Sterling Morrison, and Mo Tucker epitomized the sound of intellectual art punks being spontaneously creative in Andy Warhol's Manhattan. Rock & roll has never been the same since Reed's gutter-rock observations and Cale's cool, droning electric viola blanketing the band's mysterious three-chord innovations. It's all here: loads of feedback, classic songwriting, and Reed's transformation from Dylan imitator to sonic-rock auteur. With previously unreleased gems, live performances, and other oddities, this is everything you wanted to know about the Velvets but were afraid to ask. --Mitch Myers

Genere: Rock

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Genere: Jazz

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Trama: On her 12th release and Motema debut, renowned jazz vocalist Roseanna
Vitro applies her masterful storytelling panache to the music of Randy
Newman, one of America s most prolific and beloved composers.
Newman s wry portraits of life in America and beyond take on fresh
dimensions via the fertile imaginations of Vitro, her stellar pianist/arranger
Mark Soskin, rising-star violinist Sara Caswell, and a top tier band.
Follows successful tributes to Ray Charles (Catchin Some Rays, 1997) and
Bill Evans (Conviction, 2001).

Genere: Classical

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Genere: Rock

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Genere: R&B/Zydeco

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Genere: Country

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Trama: There was a time when nobody besides Manfred Mann really bothered to cover Bruce Springsteen songs. All that changed once <I>Born To Run</I> turned the singer-songwriter into an American pop icon. Still, it was in the bleak character studies of 1982's <I>Nebraska</I> that he reaffirmed himself as a literate everyman steeped in the tradition of John Steinbeck, Flannery O'Connor, Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. And that's the side of Springsteen that clearly appeals to Johnny Cash, Los Lobos, Hank Williams III and the dozen other artists who participate in this remake of <I>Nebraska</I>. Chrissie Hynde, Ani DiFranco and Deana Carter all deliver haunting performances, but as far as the menfolk go, the album's most striking covers are "bonus" tracks that were recorded for but not released on <I>Nebraska</I>: "I'm On Fire" sounds even creepier with Cash's craggy vocal; the Mavericks' Raul Malo brings out the pop sheen of "Downbound Train"; and "Wages of Sin", in the hands of Damien Jurado and Rose Thomas, shows just how depressing Springsteen can be. All of this makes this a fine companion to the original recording. --<I>Bill Forman</I>

Genere: Jazz

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Genere: Rock

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Genere: Blues

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Genere: Jazz

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Trama: Like 1997's Grammy-winning new Broadway cast recording, this disc benefits from CD length by featuring music and dialogue cut from 1975's original Broadway cast recording. Plus, time's been very kind to the Kander and Ebb musical, which was initially critically panned for its decadent cynicism...but that was before O.J. Simpson and, in the words of Chicago's Roxy Hart (played by the terrific Ruthie Henshall here), murder became an art. Ute Lemper can't touch Chita Rivera's wonderfully sex-drenched original Velma Kelly, but, then, neither did Bebe Neuwirth in 1997--and still, "All That Jazz" remains one of the greatest opening numbers in musical-theater history. Everything else here is as fine as, if not better than, the U.S. recordings, and all 23 tracks are just good old-fashioned Broadway gems. <I>--Bill Holdship</I>

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Trama: In 1993, Nashville's biggest young stars--Alan Jackson, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill, and others--recorded an album of Eagles songs called <i>Common Thread</I>. When the disc went platinum, everyone hailed it as the rebirth of country-rock. If you listened closely, though, you heard neither the down-to-earth twang of country nor the metallic aggression of rock & roll. What you heard instead was the romantic sweetness of pop. More specifically, the Eagles represented the southern California pop tradition of harmony-drenched groups like the Beach Boys, the Mamas & the Papas, and Crosby, Stills and Nash. It's a wonderful tradition, but it's misleading to call it something else. Out there in the hinterlands you can still hear authentic country-rock, an exhilarating combination of blunt adult storytelling and blazing guitars as practiced by the likes of Joe Ely, Shaver, the Bottle Rockets, Mike Henderson, and Jason and the Scorchers. Real country-rock remains a marginal commercial force, however, and the real money is in the new Nashville version of southern California harmonies. Call it "suburban pop." <i>--Geoffrey Himes</I>

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Trama: It's rare that a great tunesmith is also a great lyricist, but Porter was both, and the formal perfection of his best songs made them favorites among both singers and instrumentalists. These three discs (two vocal, one instrumental) raid the archives for renditions by jazz types (from Ella Fitzgerald to Roland Kirk), more straightforward pop singers, and a few ringers, like Fred Astaire, who does nicely by "I Concentrate on You." The singers love Porter for the depth, wittiness, and just-repressed-enough sentimentality of his lyrics, and for the melodies clustered around a few notes that let them show off whatever they've got; the non-singers dig his deft, unpredictable chords and adaptability of mood. --Douglas Wolk

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