New Music

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This article was published 19/02/2015 (4202 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROOTS

Murder By Death

Big Dark Love (Bloodshot)

Adam Turla isn’t one of those guys people would call a “great” singer. However, much like legends Neil Young, Leonard Cohen or Bob Dylan, Turla is a unique and effective vocalist.

On album opener, I Shot an Arrow, Turla expounds, “This weave of events fools attribute to fate / is like calling bones meat ’cause they’re on your plate.” He continues to deliver his compelling and often dark poetry with an unwavering conviction and a pleasant, yet odd, delivery that brings the whole disc to life, even when death — or an agent thereof — is waiting in the wings.

The members of the Bloomington, Ind.-based quintet work seamlessly together to create the haunting, invigorating cinematic aural backdrops for Turla’s characters, but cellist Sarah Balliet is especially important in creating that drama.

Meanwhile, when they’re not creating mini-movies in your head, multi-instrumentalist David Fountain’s roots-driven banjo and mandolin are working to propel you onto the floor to revel and dance in the darkness as if they were Mumford & Sons much cooler cousins.

It may be only February, but the sixth offering from Murder By Death is a disc I predict will be on many a year-end Top 10 list. HHHHH

DOWNLOAD: The Last Thing, It Will Never Die, Hunted

— Bruce Leperre

 

ROCK

Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins

Garden Songs (Pheromone)

One positive effect of music business splintering is the proliferation of boutique labels putting out albums by artists whose recordings are happily consumed by loyal niche audiences.

Ron Hawkins is one of those artists. A literate, leftist singer-songwriter and painter from Toronto, Hawkins brief claim to fame was as frontman of the Lowest of the Low, a quartet whose first two albums, Shakespeare My Butt and Hallucigenia, sold more than 100,000 copies in the 1990s. For the past 20 years, he’s been putting out records at the rate of one every two or three years, either as a solo artist or with the Rusty Nails and Do Good Assassins.

Hawkins’ guitar-based rock isn’t world-changing, but the allure of these songs lies in his lyrics and his conversational, observational storytelling style. Every song of these 10 tracks harbours a memorable line or three, and his narrators are middle-aged romantics who pine for youth and loves lost and remembered.

“I get these visions in my head and I go downtown and look for you,” is a typical lament, while acknowledgement of what happens when “the words you never should say meet the things you can never take back” will be an evocation of time and place for many. Producer Joe Dunphy and the Do Good Assassins do a splendid job of augmenting Hawkins’ tales, with strings, subtle horns, tasteful guitar and, occasionally, a swirling organ all bringing colour to the palette without making it muddy, ponderous or overbearing.

When Garden Songs is done, as it is all too quickly, you’ll find yourself playing it again to find out what else it might reveal.

Download: Peace and Quiet, South Ontario, Small Victories

— John Kendle

 

SOUL

Bettye LaVette

Worthy (MVD)

American soul singer Bettye LaVette stepped off the road to obscurity in 2005, and since that time her career has been on a steady forward and upward trajectory. With Worthy she has again delivered on the promise that was made in Detroit way back in 1962. This is a covers album, which detracts absolutely nothing from its value. At a mere 11 tracks, LaVette and her exceptional band create a comfortable, late-night atmosphere that leaves much to the imagination.

The song choices are a perfect fit for the singer’s crackling Tina Turner-meets-Mavis Staples resonance. Whether it’s the sly, tinkling piano in Stop, the charged electric guitar in Complicated or the slow-motion shuffle that is Just Between You and Me and the Wall You’re a Fool, the purpose of serving LaVette’s smoky voice of understanding is obvious. This singer makes no attempt to sound commercial and producer Joe Henry (Allen Toussaint, Mary Gauthier) has created an atmosphere worthy of this singer’s current stature. HHHH 1/2

Download: Complicate, Unbelievable

— Jeff Monk

 

JAZZ

Rudresh Mahanthappa

Bird Calls (ACT Music)

Alto saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa is a modern musician with a sound of his own — someone who is moving jazz forward. Yet, like so many musicians who came of age in the six decades since Charlie (Bird) Parker died, he embraces the influence of the jazz legend.

Bird Calls is Mahanthappa’s tribute to Parker, without exactly playing any of Parker’s music. Mahanthappa’s tunes are based on Parker’s: On the DL (Donna Lee); Chillin’ (Relaxin’ at Camarillo); and Gopuram (Steeplechase), for example.

There are five Bird Calls, all under three minutes, interspersed throughout the album.

Parker is the jumping off spot for the alto player and his terrific band of trumpeter Adam O’Farrill, pianist Matt Mitchell, bassist François Moutin and drummer Rudy Royston.

The rhythm section is great and Mahanthappa and O’Farrill are a dynamic duo whose interplay, push and pull, conjure Parker’s swinging spirit while driving the music ahead.

Mahanthappa is superb, and continues to prove he is a fitting beneficiary of Parker’s legacy. HHHH1/2

Download: On the DL

— Chris Smith

 

CLASSICAL

Astor Piazzolla

Escualo (Harmonia Mundi)

Think tango, and chances are the name Astor Piazzolla comes to mind. The beloved Argentine-born composer, who nearly single-handedly re-invented the sultry genre at the urging of his fabled composition teacher Nadia Boulanger, died in 1992, leaving behind more than 3,000 works that only seem to gain in popular appeal.

This new release offers 11 inventive arrangements of Piazzolla’s stylized “nuevo tangos,” waltzes, and milongas inspired by his homeland. Former Boston Symphony Orchestra principal harpist Ann Hobson Pilot, Illinois-born violinist Lucia Lin and Argentine bandoneon virtuoso/composer/arranger J. P. Jofre infuse each with authentic flair and Latin soul.

The four-movement Histoire du Tango (1986) is both heartfelt tribute and fascinating time travel through the historical development of the dance form. Bordel 1900 springs right from Buenos Aires’ early bordellos, while Café 130 is a more contemplative excursion. Nightclub 1960 gives way to the more abstract and thoroughly modernistic Concert d’aujourd’hui featuring Hobson Pilot’s unusually percussive harp accompaniment.

But die-hard Piazzolla fans will embrace the wonderfully imagistic Angel Suite that includes one of the composer’s most famous works: the unabashedly sentimental Milonga del Angel, performed with sinewy ease by this terrific ensemble. HHHH

— Holly Harris

 

THIS WEEK’S SINGLES

NICKI MINAJ FEAT. DRAKE & LIL’ WAYNE

Truffle Butter (Universal)

Originally an iTunes exclusive from her latest album The Pinkprint, now released as a proper single, Truffle Butter nicks the beat from Maya Jane Coles’ club hit What They Say, slows it down and transforms it into a propulsive, sexually charged rap banger. By the way, if you’re a bit of a prude, do not look up the definition of truffle butter. HHH 1/2

 

ARIANA GRANDE

One Last Time (Universal)

Written by David Guetta, this fourth offering from Ariana’s enormous My Everything album is about as close to EDM-pop perfection as you can get. Featuring some simple but effective synths, crackling percussion and soaring, impassioned vocals, it’ll sound just as good in the club as it will on the radio. HHHH

 

SHAWN DESMAN

Victoria (Universal)

“Victoria’s got a secret…” Nudge, nudge. Get it? This is supposed to represent a departure for Desman, leaving behind his fairly squeaky-clean image for something edgier and seedier. While the guitar line sounds a bit like it was lifted from a Tarantino soundtrack, the rest of this innuendo-riddled affair is pretty cheesy. HH

— Steve Adams