New music

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This article was published 30/03/2017 (3400 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ROOTS / COUNTRY

Valerie June
The Order of Time (Concord)

Valerie June is likely an acquired taste. Her voice is a nasally but tuneful soprano/mezzo soprano, imbued with a Tennessee twang when the material calls for it, and she sings so quietly you’ll strain to hear her. So the first thing you’ll need to do is turn this album up loud. You won’t be disappointed, either, as the 12 songs here are deceptively rich and volume helps separate the arrangements.

The Order of Time is the second solo outing from this Memphis-based singer-songwriter and it’s a smooth encapsulation of her genre-shifting capabilities, encompassing all sorts of southern roots traditions — from country and folk (Man Done Wrong, If And) to blues and soul (Love You Once Made, Slip Slide on By) to what could even be called simmering southern rock ballads (Two Hearts, The Front Door). The trio of songs at the heart of the record — Astral Plane, Just in Time and With You — are ethereal lullabies that defy genre, featuring strings and doubled vocal harmonies.

Lest you think there’s no punch to June, she and her studio band also get down and dirty in Memphis’s red Mississippi mud, riding chiming guitar riffs on Shakedown and a slow-building Hammond organ groove on Got Soul to horn-filled crescendos that are sure to get bodies moving. ★★★★1/2

DOWNLOAD: Love You Once Made, Astral Plane, Slip Slide On By

— John Kendle

 

 

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POP / ROCK

Bridget Kearney
Won’t Let You Down (Signature Sounds)

With the recent success and ensuing world tour of her main band, Boston’s Lake Street Dive, it’s surprising multi-talented songwriter/instrumentalist Bridget Kearney has had time to generate a solo outing.

With Won’t Let You Down, she delivers a sound that, though it has tendrils that stretch toward the modernist Motown groove of the Dive crew, reveals a singular stylistic voice. The opening salvo of the title track perhaps most closely resembles the pep and verve she shows with LSD. With an incessantly catchy beat, peculiar keyboard blurbs and great double entendre lyrics (“Let me put your pin on my jacket/key in my locket/bone in my socket”) it’s an attention-getter and a great start.

The soft edges of tracks such as What Happened Today, Who Are We Kidding and the lovely Nothing Does It reveal the breadth of Kearney’s songwriting power — the songs have a real depth of emotion, delivering unique yet somehow familiar-sounding arrangements not unlike early Elton John/Bernie Taupin collaborations. Wash Up would be a perfect fit for Fleetwood Mac to cover and Kearney’s use of her falsetto at the chorus gets the job done well. Living in a Cave features guitarist Ryan Scott’s George Harrison-informed slide work, impeccably branding the lovely melody straight onto your short-term memory.

Obviously Kearney will keep pressing forward with her Lake Street Dive cohorts, but with Won’t Let You Down, she has carved out a musical trail she could revisit successfully should anything change. ★★★1/2

DOWNLOAD: Love Doctor, Serenity

— Jeff Monk

 

 

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JAZZ

Jimmy Greene
Flowers — Beautiful Life Volume 2 (Mack Avenue)

Saxophonist Jimmy Greene has a special place in the hearts of Winnipeg jazz folks. He worked at the University of Manitoba jazz program for years and lived here with his family. Tragically, shortly after they returned home to Connecticut in 2014, his beautiful six-year-old daughter Ana was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre.

Greene’s album from several years ago was called Beautiful Life and was a tribute to Ana. Next month he will officially launch Flowers — Beautiful Life Volume 2, which continues Greene’s stated imperative of “reflecting the way that Ana lived.”

Obviously the memories are still raw — December is still a tough month for the family — but this album is generally much more upbeat and reflects Ana’s love of dance, with dance rhythms present throughout. Personnel include pianists Renee Rosnes and Kevin Hays, bassists John Patitucci and Ben Williams, drummers Jeff (Tain) Watts and Otis Brown III, guitarist Mike Moreno and vocalist Sheena Rattai, who sang with Greene when he was in Winnipeg. Several titles are related to his daughter, including Big Guy, which is what Ana called her six-foot-six father, and Stink Thumb, which refers to Ana giving up thumb-sucking on her first day of kindergarten. Both are up-tempo and danceable. There is some very fine playing here – worth checking out when it comes out April 28.

The Jimmy Greene Quartet plays the Winnipeg International Jazz Festival on June 21. ★★★★1/2

DOWNLOAD: Second Breakfast, Fun Circuits

— Keith Black

 

 

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CLASSICAL

Grigory Sokolov
Mozart & Rachmaninov Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon)

Russian pianist Grigory Sokolov, as well known for his reclusiveness as for his legendary concert career, has just released two archival recordings of Mozart and Rachmaninov concertos. It’s the third in a deal made with the Deutsche Grammophon label in 2014, with “Grisha,” as he is known, eschewing technical engineering wizardry and stipulating that only his live performances be featured.

The Soviet-born artist, who won a gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition at age 16, treats listeners to the Wunderkind’s Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major, K. 488, recorded in 2015 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra led by Trevor Pinnock. Sokolov displays a buoyant touch during the opening Allegro, followed by a more melancholic Adagio, including an overly lugubrious tempo. However, all ends well with his ebullient finale, Allegro assai.

Sokolov also infuses Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor op. 30 with Russian temperament, recorded in 1995 with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra led by Yan Pascal Tortelier. His unbridled intensity during the Allegro ma non tanto is matched equally by the Finale: Alla breve. However, it is during his luminous Intermezzo that his pianism speaks most eloquently, as though a voice from a far and distant land. ★★★1/2

— Holly Harris