Staff Picks

Black Dynamite by Adrian Younge [Music CD]

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Seeing that this is most likely my last post of the year 2010, the natural thing to do would be to compile a best of scroll displaying my favorite things (much like Miss O. Winfrey) from the last three-hundred and sixty some odd time tracking units we shall call “days”. My reply to the reader’s expectation will be as follows, “why, I’m an improviser… I don’t even bring a list to the grocery store!”

And so we raise our glasses to the great compromise. In an action packed year filled with exceptional new music, I will have to award Adrian Younge’s Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra for putting on the best concert of this year. It was a small, intimate show at Ars Nova that cooked and cooked and cooked… and then cooked some more. The band, decked in matching white tuxedos, was gracious enough to corral the audience upstairs for cocktails following their first blistering set. After meeting this very friendly group of musicians, I was invited to see the evening’s second show.

Before attending the concert over the summer, I was familiar with the record pictured in this post’s left hand corner and enjoyed the funky, dirty and melodic blaxploitation soundtrack stylings. I say “blaxploitation” because the album is a soundtrack to a new film that very successfully (in the most comedic sense) rubs elbows with the likes of John Shaft, B.J. Hammer and Dolemite films. Younge, composer/multi-instrumentalist/film editor, hearkens back to the music of these 70’s classics by working with vintage equipment and recording straight onto analog tape. While retaining the spirit of something like Mayfield’s Superfly with chilling vocals by many guest artists and tapping into haunting arrangements reminiscent of Ennio Morricone, Younge somehow takes this retro sound and genre and carries us into a completely new listening experience.

And so at the curtain of 2010, it is announced that Younge and co. are finishing up a follow-up and a release date has been set. It appears we have our first candidate to help keep the pace of this wonderfully musical year.

The Beekeeper’s Apprentice by Laurie R. King [Book]

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This historical mystery, by an Edgar Award-winning author, introduces the strong intelligent character of Mary Russell, with a well-imagined ‘retired’ Sherlock Holmes in a supporting role. Mary Russell first meets Holmes as her neighbor in Sussex Downs in 1915 at the age of 15, as she almost stumbles over him. Holmes, impressed with her wit and intelligence, takes the orphaned Russell under his wing, and gives her the equivalent of an apprenticeship. After working together on a few interesting cases, Russell and Holmes soon find themselves faced with a nefarious foe who wants to make Holmes suffer, and his friends die.

The Pirates of Penzance by W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan [DVD]

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The movie adaptation of Joseph Papp’s Broadway production has everything: swordfights, love affairs, comedy, and the original brilliant lyrics and music. In updating Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta for a modern (i.e. 1983) audience, Papp cast the multitalented Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline in the leading roles. Ronstadt’s soprano is more than equal to Mabel’s vocal fireworks, and Kline embodies the over-the-top macho swashbuckler with panache. The sets are stylistically reminiscent of the stage rather than attempting realism, preserving the sense of watching a musical in the theater. The incomparable Angela Lansbury is featured as Frederic’s old nursemaid Ruth, and the rest of the cast isn’t too shabby either. A perfect introduction to G & S.

Cold Comfort Farm [DVD]

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This witty satire is based on Stella Gibbons’s 1932 comic novel. It’s clever, charming, hilarious, and delightfully twisted in that inimitable British way. A large extended family of eccentric (not to say depraved) characters is brilliantly cast, featuring, among others, Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Fry, and Joanna Lumley. It milks every drop of humor out of its simple premise: a young woman, recently orphaned, goes to live with her relatives in the country and attempts to create order out of generations of chaos. The movie is remarkably faithful to the novel of the same name, which is hilarious too.

A Portland selection [Music CD]

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This CD is a companion to the very excellent tune book The Portland collection. On it you will find recordings of 36 of the tunes from that collection. The tunes are played simply with a small ensemble, but are full of energy; these recordings will be appreciated by all lovers of contra dance music, but especially by those who wish to learn and play the tunes themselves. George Penk is on fiddle, Clyde Curley on mandolin, octave mandolin, and tenor banjo, and Susan Songer on piano.

Still Life by Louise Penny [Book]

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This award-winning book, the first in the Chief Inspector Gamache series, introduces us to the sleepy village of Three Pines, a village difficult to find on a map. This book is a more literary, slower-paced mystery. It has very strong characterization, and a well-drawn setting in the countryside of Quebec. Chief Inspector Gamache and his team are called in to investigate the suspicious death of Jane Neal who has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident, but Gamache suspects something more. Has some similarities to the Commissario Guido Brunetti mysteries by Donna Leon, and to Christie’s Poirot.

ATLiens by Outkast [Music CD]

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ATLiens is Outkast’s follow up album (1996) to their debut Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik (1994). The title is a portmanteau which combines the ATL abbreviation for their beloved Atlanta with the term “aliens”. Outkast have always considered themselves outsiders in the world of hip-hop, geographically, stylistically and lyrically and on ATLiens these lyrical differences, with the emerging sound of production teams Organized Noize and Earthtone III set the album apart. ATLiens has the head-nodding beats, funky synth bass, rhymes about cadillacs and other trappings of typical mid-90’s hip hop but remains a cut above and hints at sonic revolutions to come. Recommended for fans of lyrical hip-hop.

Celestial navigations : Short Films of Al Jarnow [DVD]

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The first DVD release from Numero Group, known for archiving and resurrecting forgotten folk, pop and soul classics and private press musical gems on CD and LP. Beautifully restored 16mm short films and stop motion animation pieces from the brilliant mind of Al Jarnow will evoke memories of mornings and afternoons spent watching 3-2-1 Contact, Zoom, the Electric Company and Sesame Street for any child who grew up in the 70s and 80s. The fact that so many of these shorts, whose geometric shapes, imaginative leaps, and whimsical illustrations of letters, numbers, animals and the world around us were the work of one man is astounding and inspiring. Includes 45 of his award winning shorts and experimental films, including pieces now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art, and a 30-minute documentary with Al explaining his creative process. Highly recommended for young and once-young audiences alike.

City of Thieves by David Benioff [Book]

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Nilsson Schmilsson by Harry Nilsson [Music CD]

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Though RCA records proudly proclaimed, “Harry’s Got a Rock Album” upon the release of 1971’s Nilsson Schmilsson, it’s safe to say Mr. Nilsson had dabbled in rock n’ roll previously. However, his output mostly belonged in the vaudeville and light psychedelic, Sgt. Pepper stratosphere. After his first album, the mysterious solo artist was cited as the Beatles favorite “group”. He followed with two strong lps; one includes his version of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talkin’” (which wound up as the Oscar winning vocal performance for the film Midnight Cowboy). Next Nilsson jumped into an album completely of Randy Newman material (then a mostly unknown songwriter) just before releasing a story and song record that later became the animated classic The Point.

fRoots [Magazine]

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fRoots (formerly Folk Roots) covers modern and traditional music with roots from around the globe. Feature articles, CD and concert reviews, and even advertising span world music from Scotland to South Africa and from ukulele to sitar. Some issues include a CD sampler. With its broad coverage of past, present and the cutting edge and its passion for folk as a constantly-evolving genre, fRoots is the last, best roots music magazine.

Iron Lake : a Cork O’Connor mystery by William Kent Krueger [Book]

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First in a series, Iron Lake introduces us to Cork O’Connor, former sheriff of wintry Aurora, Minnesota. Facing personal problems after being voted out of the office of sheriff, Cork finds himself compelled to follow up on the suspicious death of a leading Aurora citizen, as well as other strange happenings in the town of Aurora and the reservation that shares the eponymous lake. I enjoyed both the character development and the chilly sense of place.