Music
Henry Butler, PiaNOLA Live (Basin Street)
Henry Butler’s new album is exactly what the title promises, a pure, uncut blast of New Orleans piano. Solo piano albums at their simplest present the musician in the midst […]
Helena, Fraise Vanille (Sunnyside)
French singer Helena Noguerra sings the songs of songwriter/painter/novelist Serge Rezvani on Fraise Vanille, and if none of that means much to you, it’s okay. I’d never heard of Rezvani […]
Dame Shirley Bassey, Get the Party Started (Decca)
Dame Shirley Bassey got a renewed lease on musical life when Propellerheads featured her voice on “History Repeating” in 1997, and she’s enjoying interest again because the Arctic Monkeys are […]
Rock City Morgue, The Cat’s Meow (Independent)
I admire bands that have a clear vision of what’s happening in their careers because I run into so many that don’t. Singer Rik Slave says Rock City Morgue made […]
Jeremy Lyons and the Deltabilly Boys, Death of a Street Singer (Five Eighths)
The title of Jeremy Lyons’ new album is appropriate, not because it’s about death—thought getting busted figures prominently—but because the street singer’s life is central to the album. The album’s […]
Irvin Mayfield and Ellis Marsalis, Love Songs, Ballads and Standards (Basin Street)
The standards album has become, well, a standard itself. It’s a well-known, time-honored thing, and each artist’s challenge is to put his or her individual stamp on the standard. Irvin […]
Decisions, Decisions
She doesn’t have to do this. As a member of the Cowsills, Susan Cowsill performed on Playboy After Dark, countless talk shows, the Dean Martin Variety Hour, and the family […]
Don Cavalli, Cryland (Everloving)
Cryland is the sort of album that will find a cult—a French singer who has figured out how to make an album that sounds like a lost Fat Possum […]
Box3, Prototype (Ears & Eyes)
Somewhere, Stanley Crouch’s brain is exploding. If John Coltrane and free jazz represented a repudiation of everything Crouch holds dear, how would he react to Box3 and Beautiful Bells, […]
Bayou Riders, Volume One (Flight Life)
I really want to recommend this album. “Got Ya Fire” samples “Fire on the Bayou,” the beat for “March Step” comes from the intro to “Brother John,” and it […]
