Shopping List: The New and the Notable
The Beatles, "Help!" (Capitol/Apple DVD)
The Beatles' second movie with director Richard Lester was a colorful contrast to the black-and-white revelation of "A Hard Day's Night." With their increasing clout, the Beatles could shift the focus off their private lives (at least on film) and compel Lester to shoot this 1965 James Bond takeoff in the Bahamas and the Alps, while inventing the modern rock video along the way. It's great, lightweight fun all the same, the newly restored print looks terrific, and the band's seven songs are more than adequate.
Carla Bley, "The Lost Chords Find Paolo Fresu" (ECM)
Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu joins pianist Carla Bley and her sterling quintet for an album focusing on Bley's six-part (!) "Banana Quintet." Bley writes and performs with the cool lucidity of a perfect dry martini, even when the music drifts briefly into rock territory. Compositions such as "Death of Superman/Dream Sequence #1—Flying," inspired by the life and death of Christopher Reeve, epitomize Bley's inspiring autumnal intelligence and jazz cool in general.
Gram Parsons, "Archive Volume One" (Amoeba/Fontana)
In April 1969, alternative-country pioneers Gram Parsons (1946-73) and the Flying Burrito Brothers opened a couple of San Francisco shows for the Grateful Dead, in whose vaults the music languished. Parsons sings Willie Nelson, Mel Tillis, and Hank Williams on this double-CD album consisting of two nearly identical shows, as well as self-described "cosmic country" originals, such as "Sin City," "Hot Burrito #1," and "Thousand Dollar Wedding." Parsons is a compelling, if emotionally limited singer, and pedal-steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow is his secret weapon.