Music
It might seem a stretch to pair drummer Andrew Cyrille’s disc with composer/trumpeter Amir ElSaffar’s. But both spent time under the tutelage of the redoubtable Cecil Taylor, and it shows.
Interpretively, this installment in the BSO’s cycle of Dmitri Shostakovich’s fifteen symphonies is occasionally (and a bit surprisingly) spotty.
Leon Bridges is the master of soft sensual tones, particularly when he intermingles the romantic and the steamy.
The Everly Brothers’ close harmony work was so sinuous it sometimes seemed close to witchcraft.
Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein gave Charlie Watts a shout-out, while Wilco’s Glenn Kotche displayed the words “Charlie is my Darling” (the title of a 1966 Stones tour documentary) on the head of his bass drum.
Watts’ relentlessly unembellished drive on dozens of classic songs, from “Satisfaction” and “Shattered” to “Connection,” is what makes them so danceable.
Texturally, François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles’ serve up diaphanous performances.
“Once we have the chemistry in the room, it’ll come back,” says the Zulus’ guitarist Rich Gilbert.
One of the year’s stand-out releases: full of wonderful music, all of it well worth getting to know, and played to the hilt.
Music Remembrance: Gospel singer Lee Williams
A household name in Black America, Lee Williams had little need for the kind of crossover project that can earn a gospel act attention from the secular music media.
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