New music: Willie Nelson, Bon Iver, Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra, Lea Birringer

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This article was published 25/04/2025 (490 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

COUNTRY

Willie Nelson

Oh What A Beautiful World (Legacy)

It’s fun to hear Willie Nelson sing such words as “ninja,” “fishmonger” and “absinthe,” which are among the many pleasures found in the songbook of influential country songwriter Rodney Crowell.

Oh What A Beautiful World is Nelson’s latest album devoted to the songs of a specific songwriter, and in Crowell, he’s interpreting a kindred spirit. While Crowell has a slightly different lyric vocabulary, both are Texans with a deep love of Hank Williams.

The pairing — great songs and a great singer — works beautifully.

Nelson turns 92 on April 29 and has long sounded ageless, but more than ever, Nelson sings like a sage. His reedy tenor can be a little whispery, but he displays surprising vocal range. His relaxed, conversational delivery is filled with warmth and wisdom. He’ll start a phrase late, end it early and make it seem perfect.

When he reminisces about childhood on Banks of the Old Bandera — originally recorded by Jerry Jeff Walker — Nelson sounds just like he did in 1976, the year the song was written. Other material ranges from Shame on the Moon, a 1982 pop hit for Bob Seger, to Crowell’s overlooked gem She’s Back in Town.

Among the highlights is The Fly Boy & The Kid, a prayer-like shuffle with playful lyrics that Nelson leans into. He’s equally frisky doing roadhouse blues on She’s Back in Town, while elsewhere the mood tends toward contemplative.

More than any other song in the set, Still Learning How to Fly seems as if it was written for Nelson. Nearing the end of the album — his 154th, according to Texas Monthly’s herculean ranking of his prolific discography — he sings, “I’ve got a past that I won’t soon forget / And you ain’t seen nothing yet.”

He sounds as if he means it.

Four stars out of five

Stream: Still Learning How to Fly; The Fly Boy & The Kid

— Steven Wine, The Associated Press

FOLK

Bon Iver

Sable, Fable (Jagjaguwar)

On Bon Iver’s Sable, Fable, Justin Vernon sings about his fear of change. And then he strives to embrace it.

The album is the first in six years from Vernon’s project, an epilogue to the reluctant pop star’s three-song EP Sable, released in the fall. Those minimalist, dark tunes open the album, with Vernon lamenting impermanence while also seeking something new.

On the Fable songs that follow, he finds what he’s looking for: love. The album traces the arc of a courtship as Vernon plugs a hole in his heart.

“I don’t know who I am without you,” goes a lyric on Day One, the album’s most impassioned vocal performance thanks to contributions from Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner and alt-R&B musician Dijon. Much of the music is less convincing, alas, and fails to convey the heat of the moment.

Bon Iver’s sonics have toggled between his early, recorded-in-a-cabin ballads and the dense layers of more recent releases. Vernon and Jim-E Stack co-produced the new music and it’s the opposite of organic.

Multi-instrumentalist Greg Leisz contributes lovely pedal steel, but the primary instrument seems to be a computer. Synthesizers serve up digital dissonance, samples are part of a robotic patchwork, and vocals often sound chilly and disembodied.

The album’s techno-folk sound evolves as Vernon sings about growth, and his gauzy romanticism settles on an R&B aura built around his formidable falsetto. At times it seems he’s about to launch into Betcha By Golly, Wow, or some other ’70s soul hit. Nothing here is that catchy, but his rising vocal line does distinguish the lead single Everything Is Peaceful Love, and he borrows a Jackson 5 title on the soulful I’ll Be There.

A fetching retro dance groove makes From appealing, and a shimmering keyboard provides a big hook on the final song, There’s A Rhythmn. The spelling, like the album, falls shy of Bon Iver’s best efforts.

Two stars out of five

Stream: Day One; From

— Steven Wine, The Associated Press

JAZZ

Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra

East Meets West: Connections (Chronograph)

The Winnipeg Jazz Orchestra simply gets better and better. Its latter albums show increased challenge with tight complex arrangements and terrific solos.

There is also a trend to feature Canadian composers and players from different parts of this country. The album title here reflects that pattern. The album has new music by prolific composers Fred Stride and Jean-Nicolas Trottier, who also appears as lead trombonist. The band has 20 players who present an obvious big sound that works perfectly with the tunes of both composers.

The opening track, Sounds of Joy, has drummer Fabio Ragnelli introducing an up-tempo romp with fine solos by Niall Cade on tenor and Kyle Wedlake on bari. It sets the stage for a wonderful treat of multi-rhythm, melodic and sometimes not melodic moods that get better and better with each listen. Stride’s tribute to Trottier, Hello Jean-Nicolas, gives Trottier a terrific groove. Leave No Stone is a lovely ballad with Cade shining again.

There is a wonderful, brief track called Echoes From Within that is totally a brass chorus. It is a small nugget among many.

Another standout is Trottier’s The Healing Song with solos by guitarist Larry Roy, pianist Will Bonness and bassist Karl Kohut within the full ensemble of the band. Halfway Point has joint solos by Jonathan Challoner on trumpet and Neil Watson on soprano in a swinging arrangement. Stride’s gentle Another Look features Victoria Sparks on vibes and Andrew Littleford on trumpet.

Throughout there is a maturity and confidence that is simply excellent. Moods from many places – such as Trottier’s The Great Return referencing the recovery of his lost cat. Bonness’s solo is lovely and a bari was chosen for solo simply because Trottier’s cat is fat. Love it.

This is a great album from a local treasure. The Connections are even unifying, if you will.

Four and a half stars out of five

Stream: The Healing Song; Leave No Stone

— Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Lea Birringer

Sibelius, Szymanowski, Järnefelt

Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie (Rubicon)

German violinist Lea Birringer tackles Sibelius’s lone Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie artfully led by Benjamin Shwartz.

Following the opening movement I. Allegro moderato’s hushed tremolo introduction in the strings evoking the forested landscapes of Finland, Birringer launches into the notoriously difficult work with aplomb. A particular highlight is his extended solo cadenza that further highlights his bravura, including broken octave passages, string crossings and fingered harmonics. The subsequent II. Adagio di molto in turn teems with lyricism, while the finale III. Allegro, ma non tanto, once colourfully described by British musicologist Donald Francis Tovey as a “polonaise for polar bears,” is infused with rhythmic punch throughout.

The work is paired with Sibelius’s brother-in-law Armas Järnefelt’s Berceuse in G Minor, penned around the same time in 1904 and inspired by the sight of the latter composer’s two-year old daughter sleeping. The unapologetically sentimental piece rocks gently like a baby through its single-movement; an ear-pleaser that speaks to both the mind and heart.

The album’s second pillar is Polish composer Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 61, with the 1916 work eschewing traditional tonality and then still fashionable romanticism regarded one of the first contemporary violin concertos. Its denser structures prove no match for the soloist’s keen artistry, with its final movement as another highlight propelled by rhythmic drive as both soloist and orchestra hurtle towards the triumphant finish line.

Four and a half stars out of five

Stream: Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47, Allegro moderato; Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 61, Andantino molto tranquillo’

— Holly Harris