Theodore Gracyk ~ Music I'm Listening To

Jackson Browne: Late for the Sky (Elektra 1974)
I didn't have much use for Jackson Browne until I was walking up a staircase in my college dormitory and I heard the first song on this album coming from someone's room. I sat down on the top stair and listened right through side one and I was hooked. Let's get clear: this is a batch of introspective, wordy, piano-based songs by a narcissist who would have benefited from fewer literature courses and more philosophy. It could have been as dull as his first album, but it's redeemed by the extraordinary vocal harmonies and David Lindley's contributions on slide guitar and, on "For a Dancer," violin. To this day, the four songs of side one still seem like 22 perfect minutes.
05/03/12

Paul Simon: Graceland (Warner Bros. 1986)
Interesting and striking on so many levels, it's an exemplary example of cross-cultural musical collaboration, and of how liberating it can be to make art when you're washed up and no on cares what you do. Simon was washed up until this record brought him back, giving him hit records in four continuous decades. For my tastes, it doesn't need the zydeco number, but otherwise it's just about perfect, beginning with rhythms that set the stage for the description of a terrorist bombing in the opening verse of the opening song, "The Boy in the Bubble." The tracks dominated by vocal interplay with Ladysmith Black Mambazo are the true highlights: "Homeless" and "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes."
05/03/12

McGuinness Flint: Happy Birthday, Ruby Baby (Capitol 1971)
I bought it 30 years ago, played it once, was bored, and set it aside. Yet it has its rabid admirers, so I finally got back to it. It takes a few listens, but now I get it. This forgotten group was, like Crosby Stills Nash, a home for refugees from other groups; their producer had worked with the Beatles, their pianist had worked extensively with the Rolling Stones, and all but one song was co-written by members Gallagher and Lyle, who'd go on to write major radio hits for others. The sound? A sophisticated pub rock, a lot like their contemporaries, Brinsley Schwarz, but with a knack for odd arrangements. (The trombone solo sounds like a passage from Steely Dan.) It ends with "Sparrow," an absolutely gorgeous song and vocal performance.
04/21/12

Grateful Dead: Workingman's Dead (Warner Bros. 1970; expanded 2003)
If you want to make the case that American Beauty is a better album, I might go along with the argument. But this album was the perfect soundtrack when we found ourselves driving through the north country woods in the rain. If it weren't for the drug reference in the lyric to "Casey Jones," newcomers would never guess that the Dead were a highly experimental, psychedelic jam band. We now call it roots music, but call it what you like, this set of 8 songs sounds more like Appalachia than San Francisco. Assuming there are wolves in Appalachia. Best of all, "Uncle John's Band" is lovely and, dare I say it, spiritual. The newly added tracks are keepers, as well.
04/21/12

Kate Bush: 50 Words for Snow (ANTI 2011)
Her voice is aging exceptionally well and her music feels richer despite its movement toward minimalism. It certainly meanders. The title track is the only thing I don't like here. It really is about the topic of there being 50 words for snow in Inuit, but it's pompous and dull. Detractors may find this low-key music dull anyway, but quiet is not the same as dull. (Or are we about to start debating 50 words for lack of excitement?) Elsewhere, there are two strong duets, one of them with Elton John, which was a delightful surprise when I finally looked at the credits and realized who was singing so soulfully with her. And I quite like how many of her long-time fans HATE this record with vehemence. I admire her willingness to go her own way, fans be damned.
04/4/12

Valerie Carter: Find A River (Pony Canyon 2000)
The music industry is dysfunctional beyond belief, because it's capitalism on steroids. At present, you can purchase exactly one CD by Valerie Carter at Amazon, and buy one album of music downloads. This one? You can buy a used copy for $50. But then again, I play the copy that I keep in the car so often, it really is worth that much to me. In any case, Carter comes out of the 70s southern California music scene and has made a living as a high-profile back-up singer. Here, she offers 23 exquisite minutes of song interpretation, including the obscure Lowell George track that gives us the title. Neil Young is represented, so is Prince, and the two Blue Nile songs are heaven.
03/24/12

Dianne Reeves: A Little Moonlight (Blue Note 2002)
If you look at the title and finish it with the phrase "can do," then this album may be to your liking. Straight-up, no gimmicks treatments of standards by a jazz trio & quartet with a stellar vocalist. It opens with a bass solo, and the first track, a Richard Rogers song, is basically a duet of bass and voice. Although I love her voice, it's her playful phrasing and passages of scatting that seal the deal for me. By the time she gets to "Skylark," she's convinced me that Hoagy Carmichael is the greatest songwriter ever. Although I don't know who Fischer and Laine are, their "We'll Be Together" is a nice find, ending this ten song set with a simmering late-night ballad.
02/24/12

Elvis Costello: Get Happy!! (Warner Bros.1982)
The fake-60s cover, including signs of wear, combine with the double exclamation points of the title to warn you that this a pretense masking a deeper truth. On the other hand, maybe it's what it sounds like: a tossed-together alcohol-fueled rave-up. The original album was 20 tracks on a single LP, so you don't need this with bonus tracks. While there are some outstanding individual songs, the real impact is the cumulative power of the sound of it: I think of a roller rink in Memphis in 1968, late on Saturday night, and the live combo has been hitting the bottle. The tempos have picked up, the drummer is bashing away, the singer is getting hoarse and occasionally making up lyrics, and the only thing holding it together are the R&B bass lines.
02/12/12

Laurie Anderson: Big Science (Warner Bros.1982)
A distillation of Anderson's performance art piece United States, this disc represents a brief moment when the American avant-garde crossed over to the pop charts. It soothes, it grates, it amuses, it surprises. I am delighted that, after thirty years, "O Superman" seems weirder, sharper, and more terrifying than it did when it was new. Rhythmically organized by a tape loop of the single syllable "ha," her electronically filtered voice alternates spoken platitudes and segments of singing, interspersed with bits of music that derive from Phillip Glass. "Let X = X" and "Walking and Falling" are nearly as good. "Born, Never Asked" throws her violin into the mix.
01/31/12

Hummel, Beethoven, Neuling: Works for Mandolin and Fortepiano (Globe 1999)
There is so much music available that none of us know its full range. Even within familiar traditions, there are huge swaths of the repertoire that remain marginal. Or, more to the point, that become marginal with changes of fashion. We forget that the mandolin was once a common instrument. So common, in fact, that major composers wrote for it. While no one is likely to think that Beethoven's multiple compositions for mandolin are his most innovative work, they are fascinating for the glimpse they give into the broader musical culture of the time. To make it all the better, it's what I've listened to while reading Theodor Adorno's attack on listening to "authentic" music.
01/01/12