Shopping List: The New and the Notable
Charles Mingus, In Paris: The Complete America Session (Sunnyside); Charles Mingus Sextet With Eric Dolphy, Cornell 1964 (Blue Note)
The Cornell concert is an instant classic. Recorded only a few months before saxophonist-flutist Eric Dolphy's death (its fifteen-minute "So Long Eric" is particularly eerie), this live double-CD is a remarkable memorial a great ensemble, led by one of the century's finest and funniest composers, at the height of their musical mind-meld. The Paris sessions, recorded in 1970, represent Mingus's alleged rebirth after several depressed and impoverished years. And while it lacks the earlier album's psychic crackle, it's still a lower-key keeper filled out with a second disc of disconcerting false starts and incomplete tunes.
Joan Stiles, Hurly-Burly (Oo-Bla-Dee)
This New York pianist-educator mixes a wicked sense of humor with exemplary taste and a smoking horn section on her second album. It opens with "The Brilliant Corners of Thelonious' Jumpin' Jeep," a colorful collage of Monk and Johnny Hodges, and ends with a weird and wonderful vocal version of "In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee," a bebop tune co-written by another Stiles touchstone, Mary Lou Williams.
Stephen Stills, Just Roll Tape, April 26, 1968 (Eyewall/Rhino)
Between his departure from Buffalo Springfield and the formation of Crosby Stills and Nash, Stephen Stills spontaneously recorded a reel of demos in a New York studio following a session by then-girlfriend Judy Collins. This low-tech, Stills-freak treausre trove includes blueprints of future CSN classics such as "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" and "Wooden Ships" as well as Stills solo tunes like "Change Partners" and "Black Queen."
Teddy Thompson, Upfront and Down Low (Verve)
Richard and Linda Thompson's son does justice to a dozen country and western classics on his third album. His secret weapon is strings player Greg Leisz, who bring considerable credibility to songs by Ernest Tubb, Dolly Parton, and Boudleaux Bryant. The big surprise, though, is Thompson's title track, a tune every bit as haunting as any other drinking and hurting hit on this tear-stained collection.
Suzanne Vega, Beauty & Crime (Blue Note)
"Tom's Diner," Vega's a cappella 1987 hit, nailed her knack for capturing New York street life. On Beauty & Crime, her album-length love song to her hometown, Vega warns a visiting businessman that "she will make you cry" in "New York Is a Woman." Vega might even have another club hit in "Unbound."