Shopping List: The New and the Notable
Robert Glasper, In My Element (Blue Note)
Scintillating grooves take precedence over changes on youngish jazz pianist Robert Glasper's terrific trio album brimming with smart, nervous energy. Subtle hip-hop rhythms percolate under most of the tunes on an endlessly inventive album that includes a colorful urban cartoon of a track ("Silly Rabbit"), gorgeous tunes like "One for 'Grew," and a deep gospel centerpiece ("Y'Outta Praise Him").
Kronos Quartet/Henryk Górecki, ...Songs Are Sung (Nonesuch)
Polish composer Henryk Górecki's String Quartet No. S, Op. 67 erects another monument in a long career of slow and melancholy—yet at the same time beautiful and compellingly melodic—works. Górecki finished it in 1995 but waited a decade before sending it to the commissioning Kronos Quartet. "I don't know why," he wrote in a commentary attached to the work.
Robert Plant, Nine Lives (Rhino/WEA)
On the nine solo albums collected in this snazzy, nautically themed package, the former Led Zep singer shakes, wails, and rolls from honeydripping fifties rock to rediscovered African blues roots.
Henri Salvador, Révérence (Circular Moves)
Eighty-nine-year-old Henri Salvador is an otherwise ageless French crooner with a special affection for the sambas and bossas of Brazil. Arranged by Jacques Morelenbaum (Brazil's Nelson Riddle), Révérence pins blithe French chanson to the rhythms of Rio, where much of it was recorded. Brazilian stars including Joao Donato drop by to pay homage on tunes like "Mourir à Honfleur" and "Tu Sais Je Vais T'Aimer."
The Barry White Story: Let the Music Play (Eagle Vision DVD)
The main virtues of this Horatio Alger-like story of a South Central LA gang member who literally walks to Hollywood to seek his fortune lie in the music itself. So admire and bemoan the rise and fall of the soulful larger-than-life bass singer, but pay attention when producer Jack Perry explains the method behind soul music's most memorable singing aphrodisiac.