Journal
- Thursday,January 28,2010
The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, receives four stars from MusicOMH, which calls the album "a stunner in every sense." Following their performance at the 2010 Celtic Connections festival, The Scotsman reports: "From opening chord to closing note, this talented threesome had the audience in the palm of their hands. Impossible to pigeon hole, and equally impossible to dislike, the Carolina Chocolate Drops are first and foremost musicians" who "refuse to be tied to any one genre."
Tuesday,January 26,2010Realism, The Magnetic Fields' latest album, is aptly titled, says NPR's Fresh Air, given that singer-songwriter Stephin Merritt—that "master of the cutting understatement, as well as the elegant overstatement"—has created in these songs "a realism that is vivid, hard-headed and never half-hearted. He does something true," perhaps even creating "a statement bigger than their creator may have intended." SPIN gives the album four stars.
Tuesday,January 26,2010Pat Metheny's new album, Orchestrion, is out now. In a review on the ABC News site, the Associated Press says the latest project from this "inveterate tinkerer who constantly imagines new soundscapes" finds Metheny taking "the notion of a solo album to a new dimension through some technological wizardry."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseReviewsTuesday,January 26,2010Chris Thile joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and conductor Jeffrey Kahane for the California premiere of his Mandolin Concerto this past weekend. The Los Angeles Times compares Thile to Duke Ellington and Astor Piazzolla for his ability to move beyond the confines of genre, calling the new piece "surprising and often amazing," its composer "an astonishing exponent of his instrument" with "protean talent."
Journal Topics: ReviewsMonday,January 25,2010Pat Metheny's Orchestrion—which pairs him with remarkable, custom-made robotic instruments for a "solo" recording unlike any other—is out tomorrow. The Kansas City Star says that "one of the most creative performers and composers of his time, has now blazed another trail." The Lexington Herald-Leader, calls it "a grand reminder of Metheny's gift for compositional melody." All Music gives it four stars, exclaiming: "Metheny exceeds our expectations, and perhaps even his own."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseReviewsMonday,January 25,2010The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, is out now. The Sunday Times says to "file under quality music." After a Boston show, the Boston Herald said "an evening spent in this young trio’s exciting presence proves they are really about one thing: entertainment." The reviewer described Rhiannon Giddens voice as "among the most dynamic, startling instruments" he has ever heard.
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseOn TourReviewsFriday,January 22,2010Chris Thile's Mandolin Concerto gets its California premiere ... Carolina Chocolate Drops concludes the first leg of its US tour ... Bill Frisell Trio plays the Pacific Northwest ... Richard Goode plays Bach, Haydn, Schumann in San Francisco ... Glenn Kotche joins Bang on a Can All-Stars at Emory ... NPR's Fresh Air remembers Kate McGarrigle ... Brad Mehldau performs two solo sets in California ... Stephen Sondheim revisits his alma mater, Williams College, to talk with Frank Rich ... and more ...
Journal Topics: On TourReviewsWeekend EventsFriday,January 22,2010Orchestrion, Pat Metheny's adventurous new "solo" recording, is out now. The Guardian calls it "Metheny's most ambitious experiment," one the Star-Ledger says has paid off: "The chiming, undulating result feels organic and joyous." All About Jazz would agree, calling it "not just an unqualified and unequivocally successful experiment, but as one of the most innovative and compositionally profound albums of his career."
Journal Topics: ReviewsFriday,January 22,2010Today we bring you the third of a five-episode video series about The Magnetic Fields' forthcoming Nonesuch release, Realism. In this latest segment, Sincerity Is an Odd Duck, band members Stephin Merritt and Claudia Gonson continue their conversation about the new record, examining the oft-pondered notion of fact vs. fiction in Stephin's lyrics. The Guardian gives Realism four stars, citing its mix of "withering put-downs and gorgeous tunes."
Friday,January 22,2010The Carolina Chocolate Drops' Nonesuch debut, Genuine Negro Jig, is set for release in the UK this Monday, January 25, one day before the band launches the UK leg of its current tour. The US release has now moved up one week, to February 16. The Times of London gives the album four stars, as does the Guardian, saying the band is "sounding as fresh and enthusiastic as ever ... They are well worth checking out."
Journal Topics: Album ReleaseArtist NewsReviewsTuesday,January 19,2010The Carolina Chocolate Drops have added a special performance to their tour schedule: an Emergency Benefit Concert for Haiti at New York's City Winery this Wednesday with Patti Smith, The Swell Season, John Wesley Harding, Yo La Tengo, Young People’s Choir of New York City, Joshua Bell, and others. Proceeds go to Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and the Jewish Renaissance Medical Center's emergency mobile hospital unit.
Journal Topics: On TourArtist NewsReviewsTuesday,January 19,2010The Magnetic Fields' latest release, Realism, is out now. The BBC says the album confirms Stephin Merritt's "stature as the most inventive rhymer in the American lineage since Tom Lehrer," its sound "absolutely prime Merritt ... consistently confirming what unusually inventive arrangers Merritt and his cohorts are." MusicOMH gives it four stars, saying Merritt's "talent for bathing his songs in wonderful arrangements and limpet-like melodies seals his genius status."
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