Her peers consider Dolly Parton to be among the best songwriters around and a singer in the company of legends Mother Maybelle Carter and Kitty Wells.



Country



Dolly Parton, “Dolly” (RCA Nashville/Legacy, four discs).



There are two Dolly Partons. The one most of America has long known is the sunny, jocular, voluptuous woman who volunteered to be America’s be-wigged punchline for 30 years and parlayed all those laughs into a financial empire that is, no doubt, the envy of her supposed “peers” (few of whom, after all, have their own theme park). The other is the one who has—thank Heaven—almost completely obliterated the public punch line for the past 15 years. Dwight Yoakam, on this truly essential set, tosses off mention of her “sublime genius as a songwriter” and puts her voice as the third in a triumvirate in the pantheon of female country music with Mother Maybelle Carter and Kitty Wells. “Right up there with all the best singer-songwriters there are,” says Kris Kristofferson. In her 60s, then, she’s long-since attained the postage stamp, semi-Rushmore status she always deserved (but was too busy marketing her brand to attain with any security). Here, on four discs, is the case for the second, ever-astonishing Dolly Parton. And, as anyone might expect, some of it is jaw-dropping: “Down from Dover,” almost Elizabethan balladry and, also from her “downer” period, “Daddy Come and Get Me.” Whitney Houston notwithstanding, “I Will Always Love You” is an even greater song without Houston’s lung power. In four discs, you hear incredible folk ballads, adapted bluegrass fiddle fiestas, lachrymose mediocrities and so much throwaway from Chet Atkins and the Nashville Establishment that it only underlines the astonishing integrity of Parton’s best work. She has, you should know, embraced bluegrass, among other things, on some late period discs that are irresistible. The liner notes could have been much better here, but this is still a wonderfully luxuriant package of one of the essential American musical lives. ????(Jeff Simon)



Pop



The Bee Gees, “The Ultimate Bee Gees” (Reprise/Rhino,



two discs plus DVD). And then there were two. With the sudden shocking death of Maurice Gibb almost seven years ago, surviving brothers Robin and Barry Gibb were left at odds about whether there actually was such a thing as the Bee Gees anymore—or should be. The announcement of the official answer that they were “staying alive” together after almost a half century came, in part, last Sunday when previously feuding brothers Barry and Robin on “CBS Sunday Morning” said yes, there was such a group, even after a half-century, and kicked off a year of Bee Gees consciousness, of which this set is the first “product.” It’s almost tragic that the two mind-boggling successes of disco—the Bee Gees’ “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack and the music of Donna Summer— obscured how very good their music was. The “Fever” soundtrack may have sold over 40 million records, but it’s still one of the best things they ever did. Listen to this retrospective now and you know how very far they were from the Beatles and the Stones—and how much dreck they put out in between what Robert Christgau once called their “monuments to master-schlock.” On the other hand, they were giants in the great pop music falsetto tradition (beginning with the Ink Spots, going on to Doo Wop, the Four Seasons, the Beach Boys, etc.) even if all the ensemble vibrato could get more than a bit icky. (Boy did they ever need the R&B energy they discovered with disco.) Nevertheless, who can help singing along with “Words,” “To Love Somebody,” “Massachusetts,” “New York Mining Disaster 1941,” “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?,” etc.????(J. S.)



Jazz



Michael Feinstein and Cheyenne Jackson, “The Power



of Two” (Qualiton). Feinstein and Jackson—an openly gay Broadway leading man currently starring in “Finian’s Rainbow —have been teaming up recently at Feinstein’s at the Regency singing romantic songs together. This CD grew out of that show. It includes “Me and My Shadow,” “Someone to Watch Over Me” and the Indigo Girls’ song that gives the disc its name. Both Feinstein and Jackson are excellent performers. And they have terrific arrangements, reportedly by pianist John Oddo. The problem is that Feinstein and Jackson are both guys, so in their duets, you don’t get that nice vocal contrast you would listening to, say, Ella and Louis. The other problem is how you feel about songs being appropriated as gay statements. These guys give new meaning to lines like “Where all my brothers walk hand in hand” and “We kiss in a shadow” (as if anyone kisses in the shadow anymore). Much will depend on the listener. ??(Mary Kunz Goldman)



NYNDK,“The Hunting of the Snark” (Jazzheads). Are you ready for post-bop jazz versions of compositions by Charles Ives, Edvard Grieg, George Perle and Carl Nielsen? Even if you think you are, believe me, you’re not. There’s absolutely none of the kitsch here that usually characterizes jazz versions of classical themes. NYNDK is simply not in the kitsch business. The initials stand for New York, Norway and Denmark, which is where the members of the group come from (drummers are always special guests—in this case it’s Tony Moreno). You haven’t lived until you’ve heard saxophonist Ole Mathison, trombonist Chris Washburne, pianist Soren Moller and bassist Per Mathisen improvise persuasively on a 12-tone theme by George Perle. No wonder they took their title from Lewis Carroll. This is music through the looking glass. ???(J. S.)



Classical



Mario Lanza, “Serenade, A Mario Lanza Songbook” (Sony Masterworks, RCA Red Seal).



Mario Lanza was the original tenor superstar. You could almost have considered him crossover, but classical singers today stand to learn a lot from him, just as they can learn from the masters of Viennese operetta. There is the loving attention Lanza pays to every line, the warmth and enjoyment in his voice, the clear enunciation, the easy virtuosity as he sails up to a high note. The way he can say a world in one rounded syllable —listen to the start of the marvelously dreamy Tosti “Serenade,” one previously unreleased track. This beautiful collection is a Lanza fan’s dream. Many of the 22 tracks are on CD for the first time. Fifteen of them were recorded for Lanza’s radio show. A couple of tracks are in English—including the gloriously excessive, previously unreleased “Because”— but otherwise you’re listening to Lanza in Italian. No translations, but then, who needs them?????(M. K. G.)



••• Janina Fialkowska, “Chopin Recital” (ATMA Classique).



I love this CD for reprinting the Russian composer Balakirev’s little-quoted opinion on Chopin: “Music for a nostalgic old aunt and a depressed young girl.” Ha! Montreal-born pianist Fialkowska gives a highly subjective take on 14 Chopin pieces. They’re wonderful pieces, but her approach is too overengineered. She seems to think she has to pause to draw your attention to every little thing. Even in the Grand Valse Brillante in A flat, a piece that should sweep you off your feet, she keeps stopping and starting and fussing. On the other hand, I liked the energy of the two-minute F sharp minor prelude—it was bold and fiery, and she didn’t have room to take her time.



?? 1/2 (M. K. G.)



•••



Erik Satie, “Piano Music for two and four hands performed by Katia and Marielle



Labeque” (KML). A major disappointment. The Labeque sisters are one of the reigning two piano teams in classical music, but most of this is a depressingly studied and lifeless rendering of the great piano music of Erik Satie. Whether singly or in tandem for the “Three Pieces in the Form of a Pear,” the Labeques sound here as if they’re overwhelmed by duty, when they’re not actually on the verge of sleep. The lyrical genius of Satie’s music peeks through but just barely sometimes. There are so many better recorded performances of this music.



??(J. S.)