Music
Two recommended discs: James Brawn’s complete Beethoven piano sonata series continues while Simone Dinnerstein and A Far Cry execute Philip Glass’s chorale-like writing with remarkable fervency and warmth.
Jesse Colin Young’s best material is worthy of favorable comparisons to Tom Rush, Gordon Lightfoot, and the unrelated Neil Young.
The mainstream country trappings of the Oak Ridge Boys have obscured their crowning achievement: they helped bring the white gospel quartet tradition to the pop charts.
Kevin Leong is unquestionably an inspired choice to lead this chorus.
A listener’s response to this album would largely depend on whether or not the sound of Jeff Denson’s voice and the instrumentation strike a chord.
Even after decades, The Damned is still grandly flying its freak flag.
“It seemed worthwhile to me to think about how the spiritual currents Billie Holiday navigated might have shaped her life and her sound and what she and others made of them.”
Sometimes Pharoah Sanders came back and played like a primordial saxophone deity, cutting into the rhythm section like an act of penetration.
The players are striking out into the unknown: you may find the journey inspiring and you may sometimes find yourself lost in the woods.
The Annual Francis Davis Jazz Critics Poll at Mid-Year: Warming Up a Riff — How It Happened, and Why It Matters