Discs
Rock
John Mayer
Where the Light Is: Live in Los Angeles
[Columbia]
• • •ø
Anyone still clinging to the notion that John Mayer is some sort of pretty-boy flash-in-the-pan whose highest aim is to attain heartthrob status will be disabused of such a notion by the appearance of the remarkable “Where the Light Is.”
The double-disc set reveals the delicate balancing act Mayer has been able to negotiate — one that in essence allows him to have his cake and eat it, too. Mayer wants to be the estimable pop tunesmith he is, but also demands to be taken seriously as a top-notch blues singer and guitarist, and an artist fully capable of turning in a torrid acoustic set when the mood takes him.
So if the female portion of the crowd wants to scream giddily while Mayer gets sensitive-guy sexy during “Daughters,” well, they’ll pay for the privilege later, when he insists on a continuity between straight pop and deep blues, a la “Every Day I Have the Blues,” replete with Stevie Ray Vaughan-inspired lead break. Three seperate ensembles provide the music spread across the twin-disc set: Mayer’s acoustic ensemble; the John Mayer Trio, which joins the considerable gifts of veterans Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino to Mayer’s own funk-blues chops; and the full band, featuring, among others, former Paul McCartney and Pretenders guitarist Robbie McIntosh.
The trio format offers Mayer a chance to step out as guitar soloist, and he does so to considerable effect during soulful takes on Jimi Hendrix classics “Wait Until Tomorrow” and “Bold as Love,” as well his own sultry “Who Did You Think I Was.” The acoustic set is bolstered by an irony-free delivery of the Tom Petty/ Jeff Lynne chestnut “Free Fallin’,” while the full-band performance filling disc two finds Mayer more than comfortable in “arena- soul” mode, as he offers inspired takes on recent fare such as “Waiting on the World to Change” and “Why Georgia.”
Listening to Mayer solo while the Jordan-Palladino rhythm section churns beneath him provides the most joyous moments during “Where the Light Is.” But everything here is well-played, deeply musical and smartly constructed, be it pop, the blues, rock or a combination thereof. It’s old news by now that Mayer is the genuine arti- cle, but let’s take a moment to note as much one more time.
John Mayer plays the Darien Lake Performing Arts Center on Aug. 22.
— Jeff Miers
Pop
Vanessa Hudgens
Identified
[Hollywood]
•ø
Is there life after high school? More importantly, is there life after “High School Musical”? Personally, I’m not always convinced that there’s life after breakfast, to borrow a phrase from Ray Davies.
For Vanessa Hudgens, though, life is just beginning, and the ready-made Disney audience provided by the much-adored “High School Musical” film and attendant soundtrack disc means that continued stardom is hers to have, if she’s willing to play the game properly. “Identified” identifies the clearly talented Hudgens as a bit player in her own career, one more than happy to follow the “go along to get along” paradigm. This is cookie-cutter modern dance-pop that offers a tourist’s-eye view of the past eight years or so of mindless radio music.
If “Identified” lacks a discernible personality — a little Britney here, some Gwen over there, liberal doses of Mariah when the mood to show off can’t be subdued, loads of multi-tracked, auto-tuned plasticity no matter what the style of the tune — it’s certainly not likely to suffer for being homogenous. Hudgens is still willing to act the part of the hot-but-still-pure cheerleader, the nice girl who just wants to have a good time. This is super creepy, but it is the common way these Disney-trained divas-in-waiting take their first steps into the broader world.
Sadly, Hudgens might actually be a good R&B singer, if only she’d forge a personality of her own. Opener “Last Night” presents the album’s least-processed vocal and hints at some throaty soul. But by the time we’ve fallen into the quicksand of “First Bad Habit” and “Don’t Ask Why,” our Mickey Mouse ears have grown weary of such high-tech redundancy. There can be no forgiving Hudgens’ refrain of “hottie body” during the shameless pop-hip-hop hybrid “Hook It Up,” either. That’s just wrong.
Vanessa Hudgens and guest Rooney play at America’s Fair on Aug. 9.
— J. M.
Classical
Messiaen
Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps Trio Wanderer and
Pascal Moragues
[Harmonia Mundi]
• • •
Olivier Messiaen: 1908-1992
[Naive, six discs]
• • •ø
A persuasive argument could be made that Olivier Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time” is the great chamber masterwork in all of 20th century music— greater, perhaps, than any single string quartet of Bartok or Shostakovich (a dicey proposition at best and a blatant absurdity if you’re talking about the body of Bartok’s or Shostakovich’s string quartets.) Certainly, no chamber work in all of 20th century music had a history as compeling as Messiaen’s “Quartet for the End of Time.” He composed the work while a prisoner of war in Silesia. He was, quite literally, composing for the musicians he had available to him — pianist, cellist, violinist and clarinetist. According to Messiaen’s exaggerated version, its first performance on Jan. 15, 1941, was for a large crowd of camp prisoners under the worst circumstances — foul weather, broken string on the cello, out-of-tune piano. The reality seems to have been smaller and less dramatically arduous, but it is, nevertheless, a magnificent exemplar of art itself as a kind of triumph over life tragedy.
It’s such a great work in some of its moments that there are no bad performances of it on disc. There is, though, a surprising number of them that are lacking in some way. The Trio Wanderer and clarinetist Pascal Moragues seem dry occasionally and not effortlessly virtuosic at other moments. This is, nevertheless, a good new performance of one of the great cornerstones of 20th century music.
The big six-CD box of late- ’80s and early ’90s performances of Messiaen on the French Naive label includes another of his great chamber works, the two piano “Visions de l’Amen” with Messiaen specialist Reinbert De Leeuw as one of the pianists. But, crucially, also included for a full Messiaen portrait are two of the massive, mountainous, overgrown and slightly mad behemoth masterworks for orchestra he was famous for: “The Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ” and “From the Canyons to the Stars,” as well as Pierre Boulez conducting four of the shorter works at the composer’s 80th birthday concert in 1988.
— Jeff Simon
Soundtrack
Mad Men:
Music from the Series Vol. 1
[Manhattan]
• •ø
There are good reasons why Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino and the Drifters seemed a kind of pop-music deliverance in the mid-’50s, and you’ll find quite a few of them here in a large dollop of ’50s musical kitsch for AMC’s series about Madison Avenue hijinks in 1960: Rosemary Clooney’s “Botch-a-Me,” Bobby Vinton’s “P. S. I Love You,” the McGuire Sisters’ “Volare,” Vic Damone’s “On the Street Where You Live.” It’s all very ’50s atmospheric and definitely relieved by Ella Fitzgerald’s “Manhattan,” Julie London’s “Fly Me to the Moon” and even Gordon Jenkins’ “Caravan.” (Even though no one tells you who the alto saxophonist is. Too bad. The dude can play.)
Mostly, it’s music to smoke Chesterfields and apply Bryl- Creme by. The series returns July 27.
— J. S.
