[contextly_auto_sidebar] EVEN a decade after their heyday, when I first heard them in the mid-'80s, there was nothing like Roxy Music. The sleek, almost alien sound, with its world-weary vocals, European touches, and deep, if bruised, romanticism, was among the most bracing things a suburban teenager could put on his turntable. It struck me then, and still does, as some of the first and most … [Read more...]
Jazz Singer Cecile McLorin Salvant
[contextly_auto_sidebar] FOR some reasons, I typically have trouble with jazz singers after, oh, Sarah Vaughan or Abbey Lincoln. There may have been some great ones over the last two decades, but most of the time I'd rather listen to a pianist or horn player. But when the debut LP from a young woman from Miami -- then still in her early 20s -- arrived in the mail to me a few years ago, it … [Read more...]
Herbie Hancock and Miles Davis
[contextly_auto_sidebar] MY interest in Herbie Hancock's music has ranged over the years, but it has not so much gone up and down as much as side to side. I first heard, and loved, the funky stuff. Later I discovered his years with Miles, and then, still later, his Bill Evans-y solo records like Speak Like a Child and Empyrean Isles. My sense of his best and most enduring music varies, but … [Read more...]
Kraftwerk at the Hollywood Bowl
[contextly_auto_sidebar] KRAUTROCK has rarely been my cup of ale; the only German rock band I've ever loved is Neu!, and it took years of listening to Stereolab to adjust my metabolism to the repetitive, minimal, technophile grooves. But I've heard so many good things about the shows Kraftwerk -- who all but invented the genre, and scored its first big U.S. hit with "Autobahn" -- performed at … [Read more...]