Miller captures spirit of cruise – Angello solid on ‘Wild Youth’

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This CD cover image released by New West Records shows ‘Cayamo Sessions at Sea,’ a release by Buddy Miller & Friends. (AP)
This CD cover image released by New West Records shows ‘Cayamo Sessions at Sea,’ a release by Buddy Miller & Friends. (AP)
Buddy Miller & Friends, “Cayamo Sessions at Sea” (New West)

Put Buddy Miller on a cruise ship, and outlaw country becomes Caribbean country.

Miller’s a popular perennial performer on the Cayamo music cruise, and during voyages to such destinations as St Croix and Tortola in 2014 and 2015, he organized recording sessions aboard the ship with some of the other headliners. Here’s the result: 11 songs capturing the collaborative spirit that’s a big part of Cayamo’s success.

The ever-deferential Miller remains in the background much of the time but makes sure the atmosphere is relaxed, and the song selection is typical of his big-tent approach. Shawn Colvin, always masterful at covers, beautifully tenderizes the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” Kris Kristofferson reprises his best tune, “Sunday Morning Coming Down,” the lyrics all the more poignant coming from someone approaching 80.

Persuasive

Doug Seegers evangelizes on the persuasive original “Take the Hand of Jesus,” and for those who worship John Prine, Brandi Carlile and the Lone Bellow bring gospel fervor to “Angel from Montgomery.”

Kacey Musgraves does rousing rockabilly on Buck Owens’ “Love’s Gonna Live Here.” But the best 16 bars belong to Richard Thompson, who delivers a fevered guitar solo on an obscure song by Hank Williams (“Wedding Bells”), as if setting the sea on fire.

Steve Angello, “Wild Youth” (Size)

Steve Angello, the DJ-producer and one-third of the former EDM supergroup Swedish House Mafia, is out with his second solo album “Wild Youth.” It’s a consistent if less-than-daring release pinning its hopes on a strong roster of male guest vocals.

If there was ever an EDM thematic distant cousin to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” this might be it. Songs about youngsters being brave and striking out on their own against the world clamoring to restrain them is the common refrain here.

“Children of the Wild,” featuring Mako, is a solid track to that effect, and it’s followed by the fun and bouncy “Last Dance,” with Franz Novotny. Angello stays within himself in the production sense and eschews the brash edges that have come to define the current direction of EDM. He’s more of a smooth operator here, just as he was in his Swedish House Mafia days alongside Axwell and Sebastian Ingrosso.

The best track among them is “Remember,” featuring the Presets.” Hopefully someone will remix this five-minute gem into a 10-minute marathon track so we can all give the dance floor a good run. It takes a while to heat up, but once it does, it is on fire.

Tedeschi Trucks Band, “Let Me Get By” (Fantasy/Concord)

It’s barely 2016, but the Tedeschi Trucks Band has already released one of the great records of the year.

Expanded to an even dozen — in addition to Doyle Bramhall II guesting on and co-writing several songs — the band led by the husband-and-wife team of singer-guitarist Susan Tedeschi and guitar hero Derek Trucks masters a wide range of styles and sounds on “Let Me Get By,” from Memphis soul to R&B to blues and funk.

For years one of the premier American live acts, TTB’s third studio album reflects the hundreds of days on the road. Not the endless bus rides or the monotonous hotel rooms but the ease with which the 12 musicians gel and the energy and depth they bring.

Recorded in spurts at Swamp Raga, the Tedeschi-Trucks home studio, the songs grew out of collective jams and tour rehearsals. Produced by Trucks, the album achieves a wonderful sonic balance and each tune offers multiple layers to discover.

There’s excellent musicianship throughout but Tedeschi’s steaming, yet never overwhelming vocals, bassist Tim Lefebvre and Kofi Burbridge’s keyboard arsenal deserve special mention.

Check out echoes of the Allman Brothers on opening cut “Anyhow” or the Al Green-meets-Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan combination of “Crying Over You/Swamp Raga,” which fuses a soulful melody drenched with strings and horns with a Qawwali-like coda.

If you can’t catch TTB live on the road, “Let Me Get By” provides no small comfort.

Tony Bennett really belongs in a different category at this year’s Grammy Awards than the one he’s dominated for the past quarter-century.

The 89-year-old Bennett once again finds himself nominated for best traditional pop vocal album for “The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern,” alongside Barry Manilow, Josh Groban, Seth MacFarlane and, surprisingly, Bob Dylan.

It’s a category Bennett has won 12 times since it was established in 1992, including last year for “Cheek to Cheek,” his duets album with Lady Gaga.

But unlike his recent high-profile, chart-topping duets albums with Gaga and other contemporary pop stars, “Silver Lining” is a sublime, intimate collaboration with pianist Bill Charlap.

“I think it should be a jazz album because of Bill Charlap, who’s a great jazz piano player. That’s the reason I made the album,” said Bennett, interviewed at his art studio overlooking Central Park. “I just can’t believe how much he understands the piano, knowing when to stop, when to go on a long run and when to keep it very simple.”

Charlap, the son of Broadway composer Moose Charlap (“Peter Pan”) and pop singer Sandy Stewart, shares Bennett’s devotion to the Great American Songbook. They decided to do a songbook album honoring Jerome Kern, who Bennett says inspired George Gershwin and all the other great American songwriters who came after him.

“Kern’s the angel at the top of the tree of popular songwriters,” said Charlap in a telephone interview. “He’s got one foot in Europe and one foot in America.”

The album includes the 1914 ballad “They Didn’t Believe Me,” which Bennett says “still sounds like a brand-new song.” There’s also “Make Believe” from Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II’s 1927 musical “Show Boat,” whose story-driven theme about racial prejudice transformed American musical theater.

The three piano-vocal duet tracks, including “The Way You Look Tonight” and “All the Things You Are,” evoke memories of Bennett’s two classic 1970s albums with the introspective jazz pianist Bill Evans. Charlap and his wife, Renee Rosnes, play dual pianos on four tracks, including a poignant “The Last Time I Saw Paris,” written by Kern in 1940 after the Nazis overran France.  (AP)

Half of the 14 tracks feature Charlap’s long-time trio with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington.

Charlap says Bennett shares the quality of the great jazz singers because he doesn’t sing on top of the accompaniment but instead becomes part of the band.

“On an expressive level, Tony’s gotten deeper and deeper over the years. … His singing has wisdom and experience in the most beautiful way yet it’s very powerful.”

By Steven Wine

This news has been read 4655 times!

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