Music

Revenge of the hipster folkies! Plus Nigerian juju, world-jazz fusion, and fiery guitars.

David Bromberg, Try Me One More Time (Appleseed)
The Greenwich Village folk star keeps it sublimely simple on his first studio album since 1990. Bromberg's elegant finger picking and no-frills baritone voice refresh timeless material by Bob Dylan ("It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry"), Elizabeth Cotton ("Shake Sugaree"), and the Reverend Gary Davis ("I Belong to the Band") as well as several traditional tunes.

Judy Henske, Big Judy: How Far This Music Goes 1962-2004 (Rhino Handmade)
This two-disc anthology celebrates the bumptious babe that producer Jack Nitzsche deemed "queen of the beatniks." Judy Henske worked coffee shops across the nation during the early-'60s folk boom, combining big-throated folk and blues with an acerbic cabaret sensibility. Highlights include moving versions of Fred Neil's quasi-psychedelic "The Other Side of This Life" and "Dolphins in the Sea," and four cuts from Henske and Jerry Yester's shoulda-been acid-folk classic, Farewell Aldebaran.

Rod McKuen, If You Go Away: The RCA Years 1965-1970 (Bear Family)
Last century's most commercially successful poet-songwriter gets the lavish box-set treatment with this seven-disc set (and hardcover book) released by Germany's small Bear Family label. I've always been fascinated by McKuen, a guarded yet weirdly beloved mixture of Walt Whitman, Jacques Brel, and Hallmark Cards. (He's probably found his most comfortable home online.) McKuen always strikes me as one of America's great outsider insiders, not unlike Elvis Presley or Liberace, and I'm proud to continue listening to the warm as part of his enduring mega-cult.

Joe Zawinul, Brown Street (Koch)
The Joe Zawinul Big Band proves itself a joyful world-jazz juggernaut on this live double-CD recorded last year. The septuagenarian keyboardist expands tunes written originally for Miles Davis ("In a Silent Way") and Weather Report ("Black Market") into mighty groove vehicles that have really never sounded better.

King Sunny Ade, Gems From the Classic Years (Shanachie)
Sunny Ade and his thirteen-piece band blend Yoruba-language vocals and tribal rhythms with lilting rock and Hawaiian steel guitars on an album boasting some of the most joyous and danceable guitar music you may ever hear. Recorded in Nigeria between 1967 and 1974 as Ade's career was taking off, the most valuable of these Gems are four sixteen- and seventeen-minute tracks featuring convivial spaced-out medleys. Highly recommended.

Elliott Sharp's Terraplane, Secret Life (Intuition); The Mahavishnu Project, Return to the Emerald Beyond (Cuneiform)
Composer-guitarist Elliott Sharp makes the blues sound wicked and modern and relevant again on Secret Life, which features both Howlin' Wolf-influenced singer Eric Mingus (son of jazz giant Charles) and Howlin' Wolf guitarist Hubert Sumlin in addition to Sharp's own Hendrixian riffage. Drummer Gregg Bendian leads another remarkably virtuosic group through a two-hour-long live re-creation of the second Mahavishnu Orchestra's original 1975 recording. The Project nails the fiery jazz-fusion virtuosity and soaring electric spirit of guitarist John McLaughlin's most complex and eclectic compositions.

• DreamWorks film studio too out ads in Hollywood trade papers Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter in order to apologize to Motown Records for "any confusion" caused by the label's shady portrayal in the movie Dreamgirls.

• Buffalo Springfield and Poco's Richie Furay has a new album call The Heartbeat of Love, which CMN's Chet Flippo finds "simply striking." Was "Kind Woman" from the 1966 debut Buffalo Springfield the world's first official country-rock song?

• VH1 News asked a bunch of people what Kurt Cobain would be doing if he were still alive. Nirvana producer Butch Vig reckoned he might become a blogger and "just throw something up whenever he felt like talking":

  "But that would also probably be tough for him, because I know he wasn't a very tech-savvy guy. I remember him having a really difficult time trying to figure out how to use a cell phone, and he had no idea how to turn on the coffeepot in the studio."

• Pete Townshend played an unannounced show at Joe's Pub last week with pals Lou Reed, Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, blues singer Amos Lee, and girlfriend Rachel Fuller. His four-song acoustic set included reportedly inspired versions of "The Acid Queen" and "Won't Get Fooled Again." Reed joined him for "I'm Waiting for the Man," and you can watch the whole thing here.

• Steely Dan begin their spring tour May 6 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

• Joyously troubled Canadian band Arcade Fire, who got all prayed up in Manhattan's Judson Church last week, is streaming its entire upcoming album, Neon Bible, for a week at NME.com.
  

"I'm not going to let [the audience] off the hook by saying this is about people who lived 35 years ago," says director John Doyle of his amazing and thoroughly contemporary Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth's musical Company.

Doyle's version, with actors singing and playing instruments amid a sparse stage dominated by a single column, a piano, and several plastic cubes, feels like a bittersweet sequel to the musical's 1970 debut. Plus ça change, etc. While it's now far less unusual for a person to be single on his or her 35th birthday, the bachelor known as Bobby (Raúl Esparza) still epitomizes all the skittishness, fear, and stubbornness that often characterize the emotionally untethered. "You impersonate a person/ Better than any zombie should," a berating female trio squawk. Not that his married friends suffer any less loneliness or loathing in their own lives. As Joanne (Barbara Walsh) sings of married life in "The Little Things You Do Together," just one of the musical's many uncomfortably perfect dissections, it's "The concerts you enjoy together/ Neighbors you annoy together/ Children you destroy together/That keep marriage intact."

The new Company cast album, however, is a far perkier souvenir than the original, which featured Jonathan Tunick's lavish arrangements. The fact that each of the play's 13 cast members acts, sings, dances and plays up to three instruments (adequately) makes Doyle's spectacle a minor miracle of skill, logistics, and nerve. He may have applied the same economic strategy to his 2004 revival of Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, but Company, with its endless epiphanies of ambivalence, feels richer, riskier, and a lot more fun.

Elektra Records was launched in 1950 as a spunky independent alternative to Columbia, Decca, RCA, and Capitol. Its founder, 19-year-old folk nut and audio engineer Jac Holzman, helmed the label until 1973. During that period, Elektra evolved into a comfortable home for hit folk and rock acts including Judy Collins, Carly Simon, Bread, Queen, and the Doors. Elektra also took chances on more experimental and eccentric artists—such as the Incredible String Band, Love, David Ackles, Tim Buckley, and Richard Fariña—whose influence exceeded would exceed their sales.

Holzman's glory years at the label have been distilled into a terrific five-CD box set, Forever Changing: The Golden Age of Elektra Records. Today Holzman heads Warner Music Group's Cordless Records, the first all-digital label to be launched by a major record company. We asked him a few questions recently, and this is what he had to say:

What's your most memorable meeting with a remarkable musician?

In 1954, when Elektra was struggling to find its way, I owned a record store specializing in folk and blues in the heart of Greenwich Village. People visited the store as much to talk as to buy. They were mostly white: teachers, social workers, students, professionals, and a leftish fringe, all of whom lived and roamed the village.

One lonely, very rainy night as I was about to close the store, I saw two eyes set in a dark face, boring through my chicken-wire window display. It was a black man, clearly soaked through. Inviting him in out of the wet we sat, talked, and listened to blues: Sonny Terry, Josh White, Brownie McGhee.

All he said was that he was a jazz musician playing at the nearby Village Vanguard. He was charming company and the soul of politeness. As he turned to go out again into the now merely drizzling night we introduced ourselves to the other. His name was Charlie Parker.

Who's the sleeper genius in the Elektra catalog?

There are brilliant artists I am still disappointed we could not connect to an audience. High on that list would be David Ackles, Paul Siebel, and Tim Buckley. David and Paul wrote deep, soulful songs that explored the human condition from many points of tangency.

Tim Buckley's genius was in his voice. That voice was not of this world, but Tim used it in this world like a paintbrush in the hands of a Michelangelo. Just to hear his multi-octave range was to connect to a higher plane and to connect without resistance. I still shiver when I hear him sing . . . and so will you.

Who would you be signing to Elektra today?

Cat Power, White Stripes, Beck . . . and of course Bob Dylan who just grows funnier, wiser, and deeper.

In what is being called classical music's "scandal of the year" (and there's really no scandal like a classical-music scandal), it turns out that recordings by the late Joyce Hatto, possibly the "greatest [classical] pianist no one has heard of" (according to Gramophone magazine) were allegedly ripped off from recordings by Laszlo Simon, Vladimir Ashkenazy, and others. Indeed, some say that most of her hundred-plus recordings on her husband William Barrington-Coupe's Concert Artist label may be stolen fakes, some of which, Gramophone learned, had been electronically extended. Barrington-Coupe has so far denied the fraud. And the plot thickens.

I've been keeping up with the revelations and rumors on Jessica Duchan's Classical Music Blog.

Steve Kuhn Trio, Live at Birdland (Blue Note); Randy Crawford and Joe Sample, Feeling Good (PRA)
Pianist Steve Kuhn introduced this jazz power trio, with bassist Ron Carter and drummer Al Foster, at the Village Vanguard in 1984. More than two decades later, they reconvened at Manhattan's Birdland, resulting in this ceaselessly inventive album of originals and standards. "Jitterbug Waltz" alone traverses an iPod's worth of pop and classical references in its eleven minutes. Soulful jazz singer Randy Crawford and longtime Crusaders keyboardist Joe Sample, meanwhile, took three decades to reunite on Feeling Good. Their eclectic bag contains everything from "But Beautiful" and Billie Holiday's "Tell Me More" to Peter Gabriel's "Lovetown" and Harry Nilsson's "Everybody's Talking."

Charlie Louvin (Tompkins Square); Southern Culture on the Skids, Countrypolitan (Yep Roc)
"You've already put big ol' tears in my eyes, must you throw dirt in my face?" begins the latest valedictorian effort by seventy-nine-year-old country singer Charlie Louvin. Charlie's voice sounds weathered, rocky, and welcoming (hence a guest list that includes Elvis Costello, George Jones, and Jeff Tweedy), but songs like "The Christian Life," "Great Atomic Power," and "When I Stop Dreaming" sound almost as remarkable now as when Charlie first recorded them with his late, wild brother Ira in the forties and fifties. Southern Culture on the Skids' Countrypolitan is a rollicking country-rock party blend of car-radio hits like "Wolverton Mountain" and "Oh Lonesome Me" with fuzz-driven countrified versions of T-Rex's "Life's a Gas" and the Who's "Happy Jack."

Butch Hancock, War and Peace (Two Roads); Joe Ely, Happy Songs From Rattlesnake Gulch (Rock 'Em)
These two members of Lubbock, Texas's legendary Flatlanders are seldom-seeners whose new records deliver long-awaited goods. Butch Hancock's old-school protest album of anti-war and pro-democracy screeds is his first release in nine years. Yes, he still sounds a little like 1970s-or-so Bob Dylan, and even evokes themes (the endless rattle of shields and stupidity) and moods (lazy and dark summer evenings) similar to Dylan's last few releases. War and Peace, though, is far more stark, direct, and rooted in the Baptist revival meetings ("Sister lift your veil and understand," he sings in "Brother Won't You Shake My Hand") and the country cavalcades that would ramble through his hometown. On his first album in four years, Joe Ely celebrates and romanticizes Southwestern culture through the eyes of a maturing country-rock star with plenty yet to prove. Beginning with Ely's version of Hancock's "Firewater" about halfway into the album, Rattlesnake Gulch takes on an almost biblical aspect as Ely sings of unbearable Texas summers ("July Blues"), desperate critters ("Up a Tree"), and the eternal vagaries of wealth ("So You Wanna Be Rich?").

High Llamas, Can Cladders (Drag City/Caroline)
Highest Llama Sean O'Hagan applies enduring lessons of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and the best of vintage Brazilian bossa nova in this gorgeous and deftly arranged quasi-seasonal song cycle ("The Old Spring Town," "Winter Day," "Summer Seen"). And who else would record a shimmering ode to a virtually unknown jazz harpist ("Dorothy Asher")? Precisely.

• Carlos Santana and his wife, Deborah, will open Maria Maria, a chain of Mexican restaurants kicking off with three Northern California locations. The March 26 release of the short-lived Carlos Santana/Wayne Shorter Band's Live at the 1988 Montreux Jazz Festival should provide more immediate nourishment.
• Roger Waters will tour the United States for a couple of months beginning May 18 in West Palm Beach, Florida. Oh, and he'll perform The Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety at each show.
• The excellent youngish bluegrass band Nickel Creek declares its upcoming tour (beginning April 12 in Savannah, Georgia) will be possibly its last, as the group disperses without acrimony to work on various solo projects. Check The Reunion Watch in 2010 or so for update.
• Festivals are becoming an increasingly robust way of both consuming and marketing music. Plan on taking the last couple of weeks of June off for Manchester, Tennessee's June 14-17 Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival (featuring the Police, Bob Weir, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley, etc.,) and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (Alison Krauss, Sam Bush, Emmylou Harris, Bela Fleck, etc.), June 21-24 in Colorado.

Montreal's Arcade Fire, the flaming apex of greater North America's indie-rock scene, asked their audience to forget they were in church Tuesday night at the start of the second night of five shows at Manhattan's Judson Church on the southern edge of Washington Square Park. That was easier said than done, however. A gorgeous green John La Farge stained glass window glowed above a flickering literal representation of the title of the band's forthcoming album, Neon Bible, which happened to have been recorded in a church outside Montreal. The music consisted in large part of vigorous anthems concerning faith, doubt, and hope.

The ten-member group includes a pair of French horns, a pair of strings, a Moog synthesizer, and a lot of instrument swapping, with echoes of pomp rock ranging from ELO to the Polyphonic Spree. "There's a big black wave in the middle of the sea for me," sang songwriting bandleader Win Butler in a voice pitched halfway between David Byrne and Bruce Springsteen. Butler, who hails from Texas, introduced one song with a wry comment about living in "hard times" when "things can go either way." (Arcade Fire's universally lauded 2004 debut, Funeral, was the group's surprisingly positive method of mourning passings close to the group.) "But isn't there a smidgen of hope?" he inquired later in the show.

After stating that he and his wife don't celebrate Valentine's Day, Butler sweetly dedicated the following song to band member-spouse Regine Chassagne. "My body is a cage that keeps me from dancing with the one I love," he sang in hymn-like phrases as church-organ chords moaned behind him, crescendoing to a climax. "Set my spirit free!"

New dates were just added to The Who's North American tour, which begins February 23 in Reno, Nevada. Get the full itinerary here.

Endless Wire, the Who's first album since 1982's It's Hard, was a stinker, one of the great disappointments of 2006. The mini-opera "Wire and Glass," recycled from guitarist Pete Townshend's dusty notebooks, sounded like a collections of demos. Yet anyone who's seen the group in its more recent incarnations – minus drummer Keith Moon, and then bassist John Entwistle – has to appreciate the undiminished muscle, style, and intelligence Townshend still brings to a stage. Moreover, as this recent Jambase Q&A suggests, he'll likely always be one of rock's top-10 interviewees, even via email:

"We all adored show business for its own sake, too. We liked stunts, tricks, gimmicks, ideas and special effects. But, deep down I think a lot of our power may have come from frustrated anger – a sense of impotence. Other artists didn't seem to share this in quite the way we did. Our music was quite vengeful in a way. The uplifting subtext came from a mixture of humour and a genuine belief that music could set us all free. It seems trite - and I think we knew that if music could do anything at all it would do it only for a short period - but that is what we believed."

The recording industry takes an undoubtedly well-deserved post-Grammy breather, which means it's a robust week for best-ofs - and a few other gems, too.

Lewis Taylor, The Lost Album (Hacktone)
Nearly symphonic and thoroughly funky blue-eyed soul with roots in everyone from Prince and Marvin Gaye to Brian Wilson and Todd Rundgren. Taylor's a one-man studio band on this album packed with heavenly harmonies and guitar pyrotechnics.

Lucinda Williams, West (Lost Highway)
Bruised yet defiant Texas country-blues twister perfumes dusty gas-fumes essence. Sample here.

Vieux Farka Touré (World Village)
The son of Mali guitar master Ali Farka Touré picks up where his late father left off, and the album's two duets mark Ali's final studio recordings. The Tourés' music is strongly reminiscent of Delta blues yet more rhythmically entrancing, elegant, and ancient.

Ella Fitzgerald, The Very Best of the Cole Porter Song Book; The Very Best of the Rodgers and Hart Song Book (Verve)
From "Just One of Those Things" to "Bewitched."

Van Morrison, Van Morrison at the Movies: Soundtrack Hits (Manhattan)
Everyone needs to make a living. Download "Comfortably Numb," recorded live at the Berlin Wall in 1990 with Roger Waters.

Travis Tritt, The Very Best of Travis Tritt (Warner Bros./Rhino)
"It's a Great Day to Be Alive," "Lord Have Mercy on the Working Man," and "Where Corn Don't Grow" = a mini horse opera about growing old gracefully.

Having seen the Broadway musicals Spring Awakening and Company last week with a night off in-between, I felt like the nail hit on the head by the beginning of Ginia Bellafante's piece "Sex, Repressed and Unleashed" in Friday's New York Times:

"Let's say, though, that despite a hypothetical preference for shearing sheep over watching actors sing, you have gone to see 'Spring Awakening' or 'Company' or both, and suppose now that you unexpectedly find yourself re-evaluating the form, perhaps at least in part because both new productions engage with sexual politics in a way rarely seen on the mainstream stage. Taken in tandem, they lay a greater claim to our interest than taken alone, together playing out the debate about the role and relevance of sexual freedom that has consumed us since the 1960s."

I'll have more to say about Company when Nonesuch Records releases its new cast recording of the Stephen Sondheim revival in a couple of weeks. As for Spring Awakening, it may be the less engaging of the two plays for adults, but it's still an earnest yet entertaining blend of crowd-pleasing Andrew Lloyd Webber-isms with the relatively edgy rock attitude introduced by Rent almost exactly a decade ago.

Set in repressive 1891 Germany, Spring Awakening leaps into the present with every song and is basically a poignant musical argument for universal sex education, responsibility, and choice. There are no easy answers here, and while the musical depicts various common forms of sexual activity, it's hardly prurient. At its best, it serves as a timely and frank reminder of the immense difficulty of being a teenager at any time ever. And while my thirteen-year-old daughter has seen both the stage and film versions of Rent more than once, I'd have to say we made the right mutual decision to hold off on this for a year or two, when I'm sure she'll appreciate it.

Steven Slater wrote the book and lyrics to music by singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik. The best moments belong to the failing student Moritz, who, as played by John Gallagher Jr., bears a striking resemblance to Johnny Rotten of punk rock's most theatrical creation, the Sex Pistols. But Spring Awakening is thankfully neither punk lite nor Broadway bland. And it definitely beats sheep shearing as a spectator experience.

Fox News reports that all thirteen core Beatles albums have been remastered and will be available...well, don't hold your breath:

"The Beatles songs - all of them - will be offered for downloading soon. That's what Neil Aspinall, the head of Apple Corps Ltd. and the man who's protected the Beatles legacy for the last 40 years - told me over the weekend.

"'All 13 core albums, the ones originally released on CD in 1987, have been remastered,' Aspinall told me. 'At some point they will all be released, probably at the same time.'"

Beatles Ready for Legal Downloading Soon [Fox News]

The Dixie Chicks were boycotted and excoriated for singer Natalie Maines's 2003 comments about President Bush. Lo and behold, the country-girl group's musical rebuttal, "Not Ready to Make Nice," ended up winning a Grammy for song of the year. "For the first time in my life, I'm speechless," said Maines by way of acceptance.

The only reason to watch the Awards, of course, is for the performances, which haven't arrived on YouTube yet. The reunited Police performed "Roxanne," Christina Aguilera wailed her way through James Browns's "It's a Man's, Man's Man's World," and Gnarls Barkley added an orchestra to the ceremony's shoulda-been best-song winner, "Crazy."

Find out who won which award here.

Enjoy pretty pictures of the festivities here.

And let Billboard sum it up for you here.

And since all roads apparently lead to the Grateful Dead (last hippie post for a while, promise), singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale's version of "Black Peter" was a highlight of the Workingman's Dead evening of last month's weekend-long American Beauty Project. Lauderdale also has two fine new albums, Country Super Hits Vol. 1 (featuring "Single Standard Time" and "I Met Jesus in a Bar") and the even better Bluegrass, which was nominated for a Grammy in the obvious category. (He won a 2003 Grammy for his collaboration with bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, Lost in the Lonesome Pines). Criminally underappreciated though he's written hit singles for the likes of Mark Chesnutt, Lauderdale spoke recently about his bluegrass fantasies, songwriting, Tai Chi, and about how his best-laid plans go awry:

"I've been wrong about most things that I thought were a plan. From the very beginning, when I was in high school, I wanted to make bluegrass records. Then I wanted to make a record that was half bluegrass, half Hank Williams country instrumental with no drums. And then the next record would have drums and then kind of go on from there and have this progression, and it never turned out that way."

Jim Lauderdale Recalls His Bluegrass Roots [CMT]

Speaking of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia looks positively ecstatic while jamming out "Muevete" with Panamanian salsa star Rubén Blades and his band Son del Solar. [YouTube]

A not-bad week for weepers, wailers, and the funniest British comedians ever.

Rickie Lee Jones, Sermon on Exposition Boulevard
The reclusive Los Angeles folknik uses Jesus of Nazareth's literal New Testament words as jumping-off points for some of the most searing yet secular country-rock this side of Lucinda Williams. Jones juggles inward confusion and outward compassion in "Falling Up," "Elvis Cadillac," and other rough and rapturous vehicles. We saw her perform a few of these pieces at a club recently, improvising lyrics halfway between a sermon and a séance.

Patty Griffin, Children Running Through
The sort of record that makes you wonder where you were for Griffin's first six releases. Imagine a one-woman Austin-based sisterhood combining Patsy Cline's country crooning ("You'll Remember"), Aretha Franklin's gospel soul ("Heavenly Day"), and Lucinda Williams's Texas rock ("No Bad News").

Backyard Tire Fire, Vagabonds and Hooligans
The Dexateens, Hardwire Healing
Wild and woolly dirty-South barroom bombast from the musical grandchildren of the Flying Burrito Brothers, Crazy Horse, and Exiles on Main Street -era Rolling Stones as well as such contemporary country-rock stars as Drive-By Truckers, My Morning Jacket, and Wilco. The name and album title tell you pretty much all you need to know about North Carolina's Backyard Tire Fire, while steel-pedal guitar fans should particularly dig Alabama's Dexateens.

Monty Python
Another Monty Python Record
Monty Python's Previous Record
Life of Brian
The Meaning of Life
"Good evening," begins Another Monty Python Record after a false start. "We apologize for the previous apology. This apology was unnecessary and appeared on the record owing to an administrative error. This album is not, as stated in the previous apology, Pleasures of the Dance: A Selection of Norwegian Carpenter Songs, but a new album from the humorous television comedy show, Monty Python's Flying Circus." Cue Norwegian dance music, followed thereafter by the Spanish Inquisition, Spam. Mary Queen of Scots, four bonus tracks, and, in general, some of the most endurably absurd sketch comedy ever etched in vinyl. The other remastered and augmented albums are of course laugh riots too.

Jorge Drexler, 12 Segundos de Obscuridad
The Uruguayan singer is known best for "Al Otro Lado del Río," the 2004 Academy Award-winning song from The Motorcycle Diaries. Drexler alternates between rock, folk, and electronics on 12 Segundos de Obscuridad (Twelve Seconds of Darkness) as he sings about economic globalism and emotional globetrotting.

The Grateful Dead celebrated the bicentennial New Year's Eve 1976 with an especially long, fine evening at the Cow Palace—located right outside San Francisco, naturally. 'Round midnight, the band followed the celebratory love thrash "Sugar Magnolia" with a brilliant half-hour, mostly improvised, study in gorgeous musical contrasts: a lilting and extra-jazzy "Eyes of the World" that morphed into the group's cosmic losers lament, "Wharf Rat." If you've never gotten into the Dead, the combo makes a fine introduction. Fans will love it to death, of course, and you can hear it right about here.

● We skipped the Superbowl (again) for a musical and missed Prince's torrential halftime "Purple Rain" until now. [YouTube]

● Rock corporations like the Rolling Stones and U2 avoid paying United Kingdom taxes by sheltering lots and lots of money in the Netherlands:

"[O]ver the last 20 years, according to Dutch documents, the three [Rolling Stones] have paid just $7.2 million in taxes on earnings of $450 million that they have channeled through Amsterdam — a tax rate of about 1.5 percent, well below the British rate of 40 percent."

The Netherlands, the New Tax Shelter Hot Spot [New York Times]

● The Beatles and Steve Jobs agree to reach an agreement regarding the Apple trademark.

Apple Enters Agreement To Settle Name Dispute With The Beatles' Company Apple Corps – Update [Trading Markets]

Friday at Carnegie Hall, David Byrne mumbled what might be charitably described as a post-verbal introduction to a group of some twenty-five odd and innovative folk singers, folk-rockers, and folk-hip-hoppers. One of the great things about the former Talking Heads frontman is that he remains an avid fan of the sort of quirkily accessible music he creates himself. Just check out the releases on his Luaka Bop record label and his terrific Internet radio station (which is playing a lot of experimental Scandinavian folk music these days). Not to mention this group of mostly young and fairly underground singers assembled under the rubric "Welcome to Dreamland" during a four-night Carnegie Hall Byrne-athon pretentiously titled "No Boundaries."

And dreamy it was indeed, as singers and musicians drifted on and offstage like players in a midwinter night's happening. There was a divalike quality to the two CocoRosie sisters; one an operatic soprano, the other a squeaky-voiced folk-rapper. There was a diva-like quality to the wonderful Adem (born Adam Ilhan), who sang about love on other planets in clear, confident tones, and also to Devendra Banhart, who sang about spiders and flags.

The evening's unlikely focus, however, was Vashti Bunyan, a sixtysomething British songwriter whose 1970 debut album of ethereal folk music, Just Another Diamond Day, was re-released in 2000, just in time to inspire a new generation of smart, wafty singers raised on everything from the Beatles to Talking Heads and hip-hop. Bunyan was maternal, self-effacing, and even seemingly regretful about the decades she had spent in domestic obscurity. But here she was, playing Carnegie Hall.

Byrne didn't reappear until the end of the evening, when everyone reconvened to perform a shaky round by the eccentric blind musician known as Moondog, who used to perform on the sidewalks of 57th Street outside Carnegie Hall. Even after his death in 1999 at age 83, Moondog remains in many ways the freakiest folkie of them all.

The following evening, Byrne presented a strictly musical early glimpse of his forthcoming multimedia opera about former Philippines First Lady, shoe fetishist, disco queen, and so-called "Steel Butterfly" Imelda Marcos. Byrne's Here Lies Love sounded remarkably toothless, like Evita minus the passionate hubris. Byrne's self-deprecating explanations between songs ("The house was full of Heinz sandwich spread," he noted at one point, and at another, "This is not artistic license, this is reportage") didn't so much illuminate the music as make you wonder why he wrote it in the first place. Oh well. After an evening like "Welcome to Dreamland," anything David Byrne dished out could be granted artistic immunity.

Whether for art, love, money, or a strange brew of all three, reunion fever is sweeping the business known as rock. VH1 News attributes the trend to such likely factors as "The Lute Thing Didn't Really Work Out," "Your Drummer's Way Behind On Alimony Payments," "New Bands That Sound Just Like You Are Raking It In," "and All The Other Kids Are Doing It."

Here's a quick roundup of more-or-less confirmed reunion projects — subject, of course, to legal complications, second thoughts, and psychiatric advice.

• The Police to perform at Grammy Awards.
• Van Halen reunite with Diamond Dave.
• A new Dinosaur Jr. album?
• Eagles to release first studio album since 1979's The Long Run this spring.

Remember when a string section was just another part of pop's rich harmonic fabric rather than the syrup singers of a certain age add to their fourth album of standards? Young music director Michael Christie and the Brooklyn Philharmonic apparently do. And they proved it last night at the Brooklyn Academy of Music during "Four-Scored," a program featuring a quartet of anything-but-staid female singer-songwriters.

Deceptively kittenish Nellie McKay and sultry Joan Osborne took particular advantage of the arrangement(s). The young, beautiful, and rather brilliant McKay plays off the contrast between her fabulous retro imagery and often witheringly witty lyrics that chronicle her urge to transform angst into activism. In "Change the World," from her terrific debut Stay Away From Me, McKay sang, "I listen to some rap, I give myself a slap," and did so, a really hard one, before continuing, "come on and use the pain." Ouch.

Osborne, looking vampishly sexy in a tight light-blue gown, debuted four new songs from an album-in-progress. With the help of the Philharmonic's strings, Osborne's music sounded like countrified Motown even before her sizzling encore version of the Manhattans' 1976 hit "Kiss and Say Goodbye," which songwriter Winfred "Blue" Lovett says he wrote originally for "Glen Campbell, Charley Pride, one of those people."

In between, Suzanne Vega and Laurie Anderson opted for regulation Manhattan-black attire and mostly eschewed the strings option. Anderson perversely let the strings sit on their hands while playing dark and dirgelike new works (typical lyric: "everything eventually goes crawling home") on her electrified violin. And Vega let the audience, rather than the Phil, provide the memorable duh-duh-duh-dah chorus to "Tom's Diner." She should give herself a slap.

I made a bittersweet return to New Orleans last spring for the thirty-seventh annual Jazz and Heritage Festival, the best ongoing music celebration ever. Though I was a festival regular through most of the eighties and nineties, I hadn't attended since 2001 but wouldn't have missed last year's edition for the world. I had to see what had happened to this culturally complex and utterly unique American metropolis in the wake of Katrina, broken levees, and ongoing reconstruction problems. Another tough hurricane season could easily have scuttled forever this vital annual vessel for rock, soul, r&b, international music, and of course, jazz.

Outside the French Quarter and Garden District, the city looked worse than I'd imagined, with cars on top of houses on top of cars. Yet New Orleans' citizenry and Festival Productions, which impresario George Wein recently sold, delivered the goods with newfound enthusiasm and pride. I experienced yet another memorable weekend grooving to the likes of Donald Harrison, the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Ellis Marsalis, and Kojo Taylor while stuffing my maw with many variations of oysters, sausage, and crawfish, washed down with countless cans of cold, fizzy macrobrew.

While the city itself is still beset by crime and, many would say, neglect, Jazzfest itself will return April 27-29 and May 4-6 with Steely Dan, Harry Connick Jr., Rod Stewart, Norah Jones, ZZ Top, John Legend, Van Morrison, the Holmes Brothers, Snooks Eaglin, Dr. Lonnie Smith, the New Orleans Social Club, James Carter, the Radiators, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Lucky Peterson, Darrell McFadden, Sonny Landreth, Danilo Perez, and about 500 other acts. The complete schedule is here.

And here's a heap of Jazzfest videos to get you in the mood.

Weekend One: April 27-29, 2007

Dr. John, Rod Stewart, Van Morrison, Norah Jones, Brad Paisley, Jill Scott, Irma Thomas, Ludacris, Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Lee Lewis, Pharoah Sanders, Lucinda Williams, Calexico, Soulive, Rebirth Brass Band, Richie Havens, Johnny Rivers, George Thorogood & the Destroyers, Banda el Recodo, Bobby Jones & the Nashville Super Choir, Gillian Welch, T-Bone Burnett, Pete Fountain, Arturo Sandoval, The New Orleans Social Club, Percy Sledge, Mose Allison, Marcia Ball, Bishop Paul Morton & the Greater St. Stephens Mass Choir, Kermit Ruffins & the Barbecue Swingers, James Carter, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sonny Landreth, JJ Grey & MOFRO, Tab Benoit, Amanda Shaw, Davell Crawford, Troy "Trombone Shorty" Andrews & Orleans Avenue, Subdudes, Terence Blanchard, George Porter, Jr. & Runnin' Pardners, Marva Wright, Zachary Richard avec Francis Cabrel, Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, Bobby Charles, Ba Cissoko of Guinea, Irvin Mayfield & the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, Lucky Peterson, Bobby Lounge, Linda Hopkins, Bonerama, Eddie Bo, Shannon McNally, Rockin' Dopsie Jr. & the Zydeco Twisters, Henry Butler, Alexa Ray Joel, Kirk Joseph's Backyard Groove, Dirty Jerdy, Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, Pine Leaf Boys, Lafayette Rhythm Devils, Astral Project, Bob French & the Original Tuxedo Jazz Band, The Crescent City Allstars feat. James Andrews, Les Amazones of Guinea, Lady Tambourine, James Rivers Movement, Charmaine Neville Band, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Leviticus Gospel Singers, Charles Jackson & the Jackson Travelers, Mari Watanabe, Andrew Hall's Society Brass Band, Leroy Jones & New Orleans' Finest, Some Like It Hot, Heritage Hall Band with Jewel Brown, Second Line til' you Drop featuring the music of Paul Barbarin, Michael Ward, Phillip Manuel, Rob Wagner Trio, Groove Academy, Ray Abshire, Bonsoir Catin, Burnside Exploration, Mem Shannon & the Membership, Rockie Charles, John Rankin, Imagination Movers, Kenny Bill Stinson & the Ark-LA-Mystics, Patrice Fisher & Arpa with guests Marcelo Cotarelli & members of the Ilhabela Big Band of Brazil, New Orleans Klezmer Allstars, C.J. Chenier & the Red Hot Louisiana Band, VisionQuest Chorale of Dillard University, Second Nazarine Gospel Choir, Crown Seekers, Higher Dimensions of Praise, Zulu Gospel Male Ensemble, Local International Allstars, New Leviathan Oriental Foxtrot Orchestra, Gregg Stafford & the Young Tuxedo Brass Band, Dukes of Dixieland, George French, Jean Knight & Knights' of Rhythm, Rosie Ledet & the Zydeco Playboys, Maggie Warwick & the Louisiana Hayride Band, Jesse McBride & the Next Generation, Xavier University Jazz Band, NewBirth Brass Band, Mahogany Brass Band, Theresa Andersson Group, Bluerunners, The Bingo! Show, Robert Lowery & Virgil Thrasher, Lil Ray Neal Blues Band, Guitar Slim, Jr., Bruce Flett & the Bluebirds, Bamboula 2000, Henry Turner, Jr., Fredy Omar con su Banda, Vivaz!, Topsy Chapman, The Johnson Extension, St. Joseph the Worker Gospel Choir, Rocks of Harmony, Val & Love Alive with the Dimensions of Faith, One A-Chord, Jo "Cool" Davis, Chris Clifton, Lars Edegran & the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra, Hot Club of New Orleans, Kidd Jordan, Julliard Jazz Ensemble, Hot 8 Brass Band, Happy Talk Band, Grayson Capps & the Stumpknockers, Bryan Lee & the Blues Power Band, Reggie Hall & the Twilighters feat. Lady Bee, Big Al Carson, Li'l Freddie King Blues Band, Swamp-Blues Summit with Lil' Buck Sinegal and Rudy Richard, Don Rich, Judy Spellman, Panorama Jazz Band, AsheSon, Beyond Measure, McDonogh #35, Wimberly Family, Shades of Praise Choir, Lyle Henderson, Single Ladies, Nine Time Men and New Look SAPCs, Olympia Aid - YMO, Big Nine, Bon Temps Roulez and Popular Ladies SAPCs, Furious Five, Untouchables and Dumaine Gang SAPCs, Tulane Jazz Ensemble, SUBR Jazz Ensemble, NOCCA Jazz Ensemble, New Orleans Modified Drum Circle, Monsieur No of France, David & Roselyn, Mount Pilgrim & Morning Star Youth Mass Choir, Javier Juarez, Johnette Downing, The RRAAMS Drum and Dance, Basin Street Sheiks, Palmetto Puppet Theater, Black Seminoles and Carrollton Hunters Mardi Gras Indians, Big Chief Peppy & the Golden Arrows, Golden Star Hunters and the Red White & Blue Mardi Gras Indians, Yellow Jackets and Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians...

Weekend Two: May 4-6, 2007

Harry Connick Jr., Steely Dan, ZZ Top, John Legend, Allen Toussaint, Counting Crows, New Edition, George Benson, Gilberto Santa Rosa, Allman Brothers Band, Better Than Ezra, Joss Stone, Stephen Marley featuring Jr. Gong, Taj Mahal, Cowboy Mouth, Branford Marsalis, Dottie Peoples, Tony Joe White, Roy Hargrove, Galactic, The Holmes Brothers, The Radiators, Chuck Leavell, Irma Thomas' Tribute to Mahalia Jackson, Clarence "Frogman" Henry, Elder Baab & the Madison Bumble Bees of Winnsboro, The Dixie Cups, Anders Osborne, Nicholas Payton, John Mooney & Bluesiana, Darrell McFadden, Snooks Eaglin, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Judith Owen, John Boutte, Franz Jackson, Lil' Band o' Gold, Luther Kent & Trickbag, Bob Wilber & the Soprano Summit tribute to Kenny Davern, Martha Redbone, Papa Grows Funk, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, Eric Lindell, World Saxophone Group, Danilo Perez, Walter "Wolfman" Washington, Deacon John, Ivan Neville, Ellis Marsalis, Donald Harrison, Joseph "Zigaboo" Modeliste, Big Sam's Funky Nation, Elysian Fieldz, The Iguanas, Buckwheat Zydeco, Terrance Simien, Danza feat. Evan Christopher & Tom McDermott, Jeremy Davenport, The Jazz Jam, The Woodshed feat. Roland Guerin and James Singleton, Poncho Chavis & Boozoo's Dog Hill Stompers, D.L. Menard, Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas, Sherman Washington & the Zion Harmonizers, Clive Wilson & the Original Camelia Jazz Band feat. Butch Thompson, Don Vappie & the Creole Jazz Serenaders, Sunpie & the Louisiana Sunspots with guest Al "Carnival Time" Johnson, Germaine Bazzle, Michael White & the Original Liberty Jazz Band feat. Thais Clark, Johnny Sketch & the Dirty Notes, Benjy Davis Project, Twangorama, Morning 40 Federation, Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band, Kevin Gordon, Savoy-Doucet Cajun Band, The Revealers, Banu Gibson & New Orleans Hot Jazz, Higher Heights, Paulette Wright, Rumba Buena, Julio y Cesar Band, Wanda Rouzan & a Taste of New Orleans, John Lee & the Heralds of Christ, Coolie Family, Unstoppable Gospel Singers, Dynamic Smooth Family, Mount Hermon BC Choir, Gospel Inspirations of Boutte, June Gardner, Lionel Ferbos & the Palm Court Jazz Band, Mark Braud, Last Straws, Batiste Brothers Band, Herman Jackson, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Sharon Martin, Groovemasters, Smitty Dee's Brass Band, Creole Zydeco Farmers, Brian Jack & the Zydeco Gamblers, Goldman Thibodeaux & the Lawtell Playboys, Willis Prudhomme & Zydeco Express, Rotary Downs, Ernie Vincent, Jumpin' Johnny Sansone, Ingrid Lucia, Henry Gray & the Cats, Beth Patterson & Kalafka, Johnny Angel & the Swingin' Demons, Leah Chase, the Plowboys, Percussion Inc., Michael Skinkus & Moyuba, Franklin Avenue BC Mass Choir, Melody Clouds, Providence BC Choir, Voices of Distinction, Treme Brass Band, New Orleans Jazz Vipers, Gov't Majik, Storyville Stompers Brass Band, Pinstripe Brass Band, J. Monque'D Blues Band, Washboard Chaz Blues Trio, Benny Grunch & the Bunch, Lil Nathan & Zydeco Big Timers, Betsy McGovern & the Poor Clares, Nouveau String Band, 007, Rick Trolsen & Gringo do Choro, Watson Memorial Teaching Ministries, Greater Antioch Full Gospel Choir, Tim Laughlin, New Orleans Spiritualettes, The Golden Wings, Chris Burke, Louis Ford with guest Barbara Shorts, Maurice Brown, Tornado Brass Band, Paulin Brothers Brass Band, Lady Sequence, New Generation and Lady Rollers SAPCs, Original CTC, Lady Buckjumpers and Undefeated Divas SAPCs, Big Seven, Westbank Steppers and Prince of Wales SAPCs, The UNO Louis Armstrong Jazz Quintet, Loyola University Jazz Ensemble, Heritage School of Music, Racines, Louis "Gearshift" Youngblood, Po' Henry & Tookie, Coco Robicheaux & Spiritland, Rufus "Rip" Wimberly & the Dreamers, Fi Yi Yi Mardi Gras Indians, New Orleans Mardi Gras Indian Rhythm Section, Chops Funky 7, Wild Apaches Mardi Gras Indians, Big Chief Monk Boudreaux & the Golden Eagles, Curtis Pierre Samba Man, Guyland Leday, Stax Music Academy Revue with Stephen Foster, Kayla Woodson, KidsmArt Performers, Jonno & the Cajun Experience, Guinoleros UAS of Culiacan Mexico, N'Kafu African Dance Ensemble...

The first in a more or less weekly series suggesting ways to wield your purchasing power for the forces of good music.

The Bird and the Bee (Blue Note)
Inara George (daughter of the late Little Feat founder Lowell George) and Greg Kurstin play sophisticated pop with a psychedelic sixties-Brazil lilt on this fetching debut.

Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Polyvinyl)
An unusually rocking, literate, and sonically adventurous break-up album from these independent Americans. Hear "Suffer for Fashion" at Pitchfork.

Sonny Rollins, Sonny, Please (Emarcy/Doxy/Universal Classics)
The tenor saxophone giant sounds rough, gruff, and larger than life on his first studio recording in five years.

Tony Trischka, Double Banjo Bluegrass Spectacular (Rounder)
"How do you improve the aerodynamics of a banjo player's car? Remove the Domino's Pizza sign from the roof" — and 271 other banjo jokes that Earl Scruggs, Steve Martin, Béla Fleck, Alison Brown, Chris Thile, Jerry Douglas, Sam Bush, and all the other pickers on this record possibly may not appreciate.

Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life (Blue Note)
Singer Elvis Costello, saxophonist Joe Lovano, and pianist Bill Charlap's version of "My Flame Burns Blue" Is the highlight of this companion album to a new PBS documentary about the composer that airs the week of February 6.

Caetano Veloso, Cê (Nonesuch)
The Brazilian Bob Dylan's collaboration with his son, Moreno, rocks with electricity and poetry.

Harry Connick Jr.; Oh, My NOLA (Columbia), Chanson du Vieux Carré (Marsalis)
He may not be the city's deepest or funkiest musical force, but give Connick credit for trumpeting unfettered hometown spirit on this pair of new albums tapping into the Crescent City tradition. Connick sings tunes by local writers, such as Allen Toussaint's "Working in the Coal Mine," or merely linked to the region (the Satchmo signature tune "Hello Dolly") on Oh, My NOLA. Chanson du Vieux Carré consists of new, mostly instrumental Connick arrangements of jazzier fare.

Norah Jones, Not Too Late (Blue Note)
That amazingly mellow afterglow of a voice and subtle country-folk-pop instrumentation are back. The edge is in the lyrics, where Norah won't make nice: The opening track's POV is that of a girl who loses her lover to war and the next c