Soundtrack



Crazy Heart: Original Music (New West). It’s official. TBone Burnett is now the MVP of the American movie soundtrack. Nevermind that his soundtrack for the Coen Brothers’ “O! Brother Where Art Thou!” was so much more substantial a work of art than the film itself, his music for the upcoming grunge-country lament starring Jeff Bridges is, similarly, more substantive than the movie itself (which opens Jan. 29). So, too, may the story behind the disc be even more moving than the story of the film. Bridges is superb as a kind of stunted, would-be Waylon of a country singer/composer named Bad Blake—a man whose career ambitions and even his soul have been almost fatally lost in too many bad bookings with too many pickup bands and too many empty bottles of Makers Mark. But Burnett’s partner here in this music was Stephen Bruton, who played guitar for Kris Kristofferson for 40 years until he died in May. And Bruton’s songs are awfully good for the songs of a supposed loser making his way through sweat-soaked gigs in bowling alleys (“It’s funny how falling feels like flying—for a little while” is not the lyric of a hopeless loser). The irony here from Burnett is that the music that is supposedly by a mediocre young pickup band is as tight as can be, and Bridges is ALMOST a plausible country singer (remember, he’s supposed to be far more of a songwriter than a performer). Add songs by Townes Van Zandt, Ryan Bingham, Sam Phillipps, and, yes, Buck Owens and the Louvin Brothers, and you’ve got an awfully good movie soundtrack. ??? (Jeff Simon)



Classical



The Billy Collins Suite, Songs inspired by his poetry (Cedille). Modern poetry is a challenge to set successfully to music. Everyone, reading one of these quirky poems by Billy Collins, will come up with his own way of hearing the rhythms of the words. And for me, the music was painfully at odds to what I liked about the poems. In most instances the sound treatments—no surprise in this day and age—were no more than a grating distraction. And I could not see that they added anything to the words. The screeches that accompany “Vade mecum” reflect the words’ bitterness but stifle their wit. The piano grace notes in “Sonnet” mirror Collins’ mockery of old poetic forms but miss the gentleness of his words, the touch of nostalgia. “Dancing Toward Bethlehem” calls out for better than the flat-footed, academic treatment it gets. I just did not get a feeling any of the composers—for the record, they are Pierre Jalbert, Stacy Garrop, Vivian Fung, Lita Grier and Zhou Tian—“got it right.” I do not know if anyone can. ?? (Mary Kunz Goldman)



•••



L’Ecrit Du Cri: Renaissance and 19th to 21st Century Songs, Ensemble Clement Janequin, Dominique Visse, director (Harmonia Mundi France). This unusual disc is so attractive, with its hot pink packaging, and I am bowled over by the art and effort involved. It is a shame it’s not explained better. The liner notes are confusing and all over the place, a common sin with CDs. And to top it off, the songs have no translations. What the disc seems to be doing is presenting modern and 19th century vocal music inspired by the ancient and regimented art of the medieval Parisian town crier or vendor. It begins with a few Renaissance examples—they sound like medieval carols, before splintering off into individual voices. Of the more recent compositions that follow, some sound like 19th century Parisian cabaret and others like 20th century avant-garde theater pieces. A few of the songs have a frank ugliness that is reflected in their themes: One song, I gather, is about torture victims, and another is about a young woman who has HIV. People who like off-the-wall vocal derring-do will enjoy the gymnastics of the polished and lusty Ensemble Clement Janequin, a septet named for a Renaissance composer represented on the disc. The rest of us will wish they had found a project easier to warm up to. ??(M. K. G.)



•••



Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet (Complete) performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev (LSO, two discs). Even scholars of 20th century music who distrust superlatives would have trouble thinking of a piece of 20th century music more beautiful than Prokofiev’s ballet “Romeo and Juliet.” Familiar mostly from its suites, it isn’t all that often performed in its two-hour, 20-minute totality and even less-often performed that way by a truly major orchestra with a great and completely idiomatically attuned conductor. All of that is what happens here, which makes this an uncommonly welcome disc. Not the best you’ll ever find of one of the great musical scores but more than good enough. ??? (J. S.)



Pop



Annie, “Don’t Stop” (Smalltown Supersound). From La Roux to Little Boots, there was no shortage of indie-approved Euro electro-pop available in 2009. And showing up in the United States a full year after its European release (albeit in altered form) is “Don’t Stop,” the follow-up to Norwegian pop star Anne Lilia Berge-Strand’s 2004 “Anniemal.” But on “Don’t Stop,” Annie’s particularly good at lacing percolating grooves with bummed-out undercurrents, as on the breathy “Bad Times,” in which the escalating beats-per-minute can’t help her escape the reality that “the loneliness reminds you that everything fades.” She’s catty on “My Love Is Better,” which features Franz Ferdinand’s Alex Kapranos on guitar, and suggests a boring rock-boy spice up his sound by buying a sequencer in “I Don’t Like Your Band.” A late arrival to the hipster dance party that’s more than welcome. ???(Dan DeLuca, Philadelphia Inquirer).



Jazz



Al DiMeola World Sinfonia: Live from Seattle and Elsewhere— Limited Edition (Valiana). There is, apparently, no way of convincing powerhouse musicians who should know better that no matter how great an accordionist is, he’s still playing the accordion. Fausto Beccalossi is one virtuoso accordion player, but there’s no question that the new World Music band of thousand-finger guitarist Al Di Meola would be so much more welcome if we didn’t have a squeezebox to listen to. Not only is this an exceptional disc from John McLaughlin’s spiritual heir on guitar, but where else are you going to find a disc that was recorded on tour in Seattle, San Francisco and, oh yes, also Istanbul? Supposedly, this disc isn’t publicly available, but you’ll see it offered on Internet music stores all over the place. ???(J. S.)



•••



Antonio Ciacca Quintet with Steve Grossman, “Lagos Blues” (Motema). What a pleasure it is to hear saxophonist Steve Grossman still playing his tail off. Famous in some circles as the man who replaced Wayne Shorter in Miles Davis’ bands and, in others, as the OTHER, older saxophonist with Dave Liebman in the monolithic two-tenor, pianoless groups that Elvin Jones used to lead, he is part here, too, of a two-saxophone band with Stacy Dillard. The pianist, composer and leader Ciacca is paying tribute with this international band to the most populous city in Nigeria (one where the slave trade was born). But he is also paying tribute to Grossman, one of his first major mentors in jazz. His producer is the estimable Todd Barkan, whose Keystone Korner was a nightclub legend in San Francisco and who currently programs Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club at Lincoln Center. ??? (J. S.)