Shopping List: The New and the Notable
Caliente y Picante (Time Life DVD)
Salsa stars Tito Puente, Celia Cruz, and Rubén Blades are joined by rockers
Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia at this solid Cinemax special filmed in Los Angeles's Biltmore Hotel in 1989. Garcia's rarely appeared happier onstage than he does ripping an uncharacteristically sharp-edged solo during Blades's "Muevete."
Dobet Gnahoré, Na Afriki (Cumbancha)
Born in the Ivory Coast, Dobet Gnahoré lives in France and sings in seven African languages including the Congolese pygmy whistles and tweets explored by Zap Mama. She sings about womanhood, the exploitation of children, incest, and, naturally, the need for Africans to solve their own problems on Na Afriki (To Africa) in an extremely lovely voice accompanied by a light, tight band.
Osvaldo Golijov, Oceana/Tenebrae/Three Songs (Deutsche Grammophon)
A dark undercurrent runs through the (intermittently optimistic) music of this increasingly relevant and thoroughly international composer. Brazilian singer Luciana Souza and the Atlanta Symphony Chorus give warm, watery life to Pablo Neruda's poetry in Oceana; the Kronos Quartet offers a sad, lofty view of earthly malaise in Tenebrae; and soprano Dawn Upshaw and the Atlantans unify three contrasting songs in Yiddish, Spanish, and Emily Dickinson's English.
The Gourds, Noble Creatures (Yep Roc)
Even goofy country bands can grow up, and the joys and sorrows of adulthood are all over this unabashedly literate Austin group's fun and satisfying ninth album. Twangy ballads like "Promenade" and "Last Letter" are a nice change of pace, but songwriters Kevin Russell and Jimmy Smith really get into it on the ambivalent yet nevertheless anthemic "How Will You Shine" ("Sleeping like a fat raccoon/ A diabetic on a honeymoon") and the spare-tire inspired ode to anticonsumerism, "A Few Extra Kilos."
Fionn Regan, The End of History (Lost Highway)
There's a definite Dylanesque sense of mystery to this twenty-six-year-old Irish songwriter who's been compared to everyone from Nick Drake to Paul Simon. And they may be right. Regan's voice is as clear and appealing as his words are cryptic, witty, and refreshingly melodic. In short, this old-fashioned guitar plucker's the real deal.