Tonight’s Netrebko/Villazon London gig: big mistake

Oh dear! What a wasted evening.

I can only imagine that, when I booked it, the programme was still “To be confirmed”. And that I wrongly assumed that the duo would reprise their fabulously successful La Traviata, heavily promoted by DG on CD/DVD.

Instead, for tonight’s London gig, soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Rolando Villazon performed a selection of crossover Romantic repertoire which can most charitably be described as pap.

How two of the world’s best voices – I’d gladly queue to see both at the Royal Opera House again – could produce a programme which left me utterly unengaged, from first to last, was a puzzle - for a short time. Then the penny dropped: it’s the setlist, stoopid.

Dreadful singaglongapopopera. An attractive young couple skirting around the luuurrvvvv theme. Mediocre musical mush for middle aged, middlebrow, middle class Muppets.

Classic Lite? Keep it: it’s junk.



Gerry Smith

James Hunter – overnight sensation!

People Gonna Talk, James Hunter’s current album having, reportedly, been noticed in the US, the sweet-voiced soul singer is being talked about as an “overnight sensation”.

In fact, he’s been a hard-gigging Brit musician, both as himself and as Howlin’ Wilf, for donkey’s years. I saw him first when he was backing Van Morrison on the great tours which produced A Night In San Francisco, the richly melodic live double CD of 1994, and later, playing to maybe 100 people in The 100 Club, on London’s Oxford Street.

Yes, Hunter’s new CD, People Gonna Talk, is a must-buy. But, then, so was his best album, Believe What I Say - released years ago.

James Hunter: a sensation? Yep. Overnight? The critics who've just discovered him really should get out more.


Gerry Smith

Bob Dylan - the Musical

Short version: no, absolutely not!

Longer version: I wouldn’t go to see the new Broadway musical featuring Dylan songs if the producer arranged a door-to-door return flight by Concorde (RIP) and helicopter, seated me in a premium view box, and arranged a private 30-minute post-show meeting with Dylan himself. (OK, forget the last bit – I might be persuaded).

My musical tastes are reasonably wide, and encompass the fabulous Broadway shows of the great composers, such as Cole Porter. But musicals since the South Pacific era leave me absolutely stone cold: I’ve tried, but I can’t think of modern musicals as anything other than meretricious, middlebrow pap.

The Times… on Broadway? No thanks. Keep it.



Gerry Smith

An (almost) ideal free intro to the genius of Miles Davis

Any reader not yet sharing this site’s passion for the music of Miles Davis can hear what the fuss is all about by accessing the magnificent 5 x 1 hour Composer Of The Week programmes being broadcast by BBC Radio 3 this week. They’re repeated at midnight from Sunday, for five nights; they’re also available on the web for 7 days after broadcast:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3

The playlist has 35 unmissable tracks from across most of the Davis catalogue, plus a first-rate script read by the estimable Donald Macleod. The survey stops at the 1983 release, Decoy, ignoring the late-career jazzpop on Warner - which many despise, but others (fr’instance me, babe) believe to be among Miles’ most telling work. Mistake, but we’ll forgive ‘em. No apologies for listing the entire playlist – this is one of the radio highlights of this or any other year.


Miles Davis (1926-1991)
Part One
Monday 23 October 2006 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)
Repeated: Monday 30 October 2006 0:00-1:00 (Radio 3)

Donald Macleod explores the compositions of the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century. He looks at Davis's earliest works, written for his collaborations with Charlie Parker, and his partnership with Gil Evans, which led to the groundbreaking Birth of the Cool.
Duration: 1 hour

Playlist

All Blues,
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis with John Coltrane:Complete Columbia
Columbia/Legacy AC6K65833
CD4 t9

Donna Lee,
Charlie Parker,
Album: Miles Davis: Young Miles
Proper - Properbox 17
CD1 t8

Milestones,
Miles DavisAlbum: Miles Davis: Young Miles
Proper - Properbox 17
CD1 t12

Half Nelson
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis: Young Miles
Proper - Properbox 17
CD2 t17

Boplicity
Miles Davis
Album: Birth of the Cool
Capitol 24353 01172
CD1 t8

Budo
Miles Davis
Album: Birth of the Cool
Capitol 24353 01172
CD1 t5

Down
Miles Davis
Album: Complete All Star Studio Sessions
Definitive DRCD 11237
CD1 t2

The Serpent's Tooth
Miles Davis
Album: Complete All Star Studio Sessions
Definitive: DRCD 11237
CD2 t2

The Leap
Miles Davis
Album: Volume 1
Blue Note 7 81501 2
CD1 t12

Weirdo
Miles Davis
Album Volume 1
Blue Note 7 81501 2, CD1 t14



Part Two
Tuesday 24 October 2006 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Repeated: Tuesday 31 October 2006 0:00-1:00 (Radio 3)

Donald Macleod explores the compositions of the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century, Miles Davis.

By the early 1950s Davis was in the grip of a heroin addiction that threatened to destroy him. But in a supreme act of will he rid himself of the drug and relaunched his career with a new quintet which featured saxophone colossus John Coltrane

Duration:
1 hour

Playlist

Take Off
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis Vol. 1
Blue Note CDP 7 851501 2
cd1 T10

Swing Spring
Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants
Album: Miles Davis and the Modern Jazz Giants
Prestige
OJCCD 20 347-2
CD1 t2

Budo
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis and John Contrane, Complete Columbia
Columbia AC6K 65833
CD1 t8

The Theme
Miles Davis
Album: Prestige Profiles
Prestige 02498 77024
CD1 t9

Miles Ahead
Miles Davis
Album: My Old Flame
Chant Du Monde (Harmonia Mundi)
274 1347.48
CD2 t4

Miles Ahead
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Ahead
Columbia 67397
CD1 t5

Song No. 1
Miles Davis
Album: Quiet Nights
Columbia 67397
CD4 t4

So What
Miles Davis/Gil Evans
Album: Miles Davis at Carnegie Hall
Columbia C2K 65027
cd1 T1



Part Three
Wednesday 25 October 2006 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Repeated: Wednesday 1 November 2006 0:00-1:00 (Radio 3)

Donald Macleod explores the compositions of the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century, Miles Davis.

During the 1950s Miles was changing the nature of jazz composition. For Louis Malle's French film Lift to the Scaffold, he improvised the score to his soundtrack, using small fragments of melodic ideas to construct entire pieces. He also pioneered modal jazz with Milestones, a stepping stone towards the seminal album Kind of Blue.

Duration:
1 hour

Playlist

3/5. During the 1950s Miles was changing the nature of jazz composition. For Louis Malle's French film Lift to the Scaffold, he improvised the score to his soundtrack, using small fragments of melodic ideas to construct entire pieces. He also pioneered modal jazz with Milestones, a stepping stone towards the seminal album Kind of Blue.

Milestones
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis with John Contrane.
Columbia AC6K65833
CD3 t3

Sid's Ahead
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis with John Contrane
Columbia AC6K 65833
CD3 t4

Sur L'Autoroute
Miles Davis
Album: L'Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud
LP : Philips 6444 507
S1 t3

Chez Le Photographe du motel
Miles Davis
Album: L'Ascenseur Pour L'echafaud
LP: Philips 6444 507
S2 t5

Fran Dance
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis with John Contrane
Columbia
AC6k 65833
CD5 t6

Blue in Green
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis with John Contrane
Columbia AC6K 65833
CD4 t5

Freddie Freeloader
Miles Davis
Miles Davis with John Contrane
ColumbiaAC6K 65833
CD3 t3



Part Four
Thursday 26 October 2006 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Repeated: Thursday 2 November 2006 0:00-1:00 (Radio 3)

Donald Macleod explores the compositions of the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century, Miles Davis.

Duration:
1 hour

Playlist

Teo
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Davis with John Contrane
Columbia AC6K65833
CD5 t2

Seven Steps to Heaven
Miles Davis
Album: The Columbia Years 1955-1985
Columbia 5055082000
CD2 t8

Eighty One
Miles Davis
Album: ESP
Columbia 467899 2
CD1 t2

Agitation
Miles Davis
Album: ESP
Columbia 467899 2
CD1 t5

Stuff
Miles Davis
Album: Miles Smiles
Columbia CSK 4353
CD1 t8


Part Five
Friday 27 October 2006 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)

Repeated: Friday 3 November 2006 0:00-1:00 (Radio 3)

Donald Macleod explores the compositions of the most influential jazz musician of the 20th century, Miles Davis.

Miles's later years were plagued by ill health, yet his experiments with fusion, which began with the 1969 Bitches Brew album, once again changed the direction of jazz and pointed the way for a new generation.

Duration:
1 hour

Playlist

5.5 Despite a prolonged period of illness and withdrawal from public life, Miles Davis's last years saw him once again change the face of jazz composition, as he explored rock-fusion and funk.Donald Macleod looks at how Davis's irascible temper accelerated his death, and considers how Kind of Blue in particular changed the way that jazz has been written and performed for almost half a century.

Frelon Brun
Miles Davis:
Album Filles De Kilimanjaro
Columbia. 467088 2
CD 1 t1

It's About that time
Miles Davis
Album: In A Silent Way
Columbia CK 86556
CD1 t2

Miles Runs The Voodoo Down
Miles Davis
Album: Bitches Brew
Columbia 504508-2
CD4 t8

Star on Cicely
Miles Davis
Album: Star People
Columbia 504508-2
CD4 t6

What It Is
Miles Davis
Album: Decoy
Columbia 504508 2
CD4 t2

Flamenco Sketches,
Album: Miles Davis with John ColtraneColumbia AC6K 65833



Five whole hours of pure magic, then.

And absolutely free.




Gerry Smith

Nailed at last: the recorded legacy of the Rolling Stones

Alan Clayson’s new book, The Rolling Stones Album File & Complete Discography (Cassell Illustrated, 464pp, pbk, £14.99), nails the recorded legacy of the finest of all English musicians. It’s a welcome addition to the library of the grown-up music listener.

The companion volume on Bob Dylan was also welcome, though not so necessary. Dylan’s catalogue is straightforward: apart from his brief Asylum interlude, he has been a Columbia recording artist since 1962; there’s no significant difference in Dylan releases around the world; and careful tending of the back catalogue in the Legacy series means that there are no great gaps.

By comparison, the back catalogues of a handful of major artists, notably the Stones and Miles Davis, are notoriously difficult. The Rolling Stones catalogue is, in fact, bewildering.

Confusion reigns because of:
· the Decca/London differences in the early product, which led to different UK and US single, EP and album releases;
· the subsequent split in product when the band moved from Decca/London to their own label, Rolling Stones Records;
· the different labels involved with the Stones – EMI, Atlantic and Virgin have all handled the post-Decca material;
· the intrusion of third party compilers, notably K-Tel and Arcade;
· the Virgin repackaging project in the 1990s;
· the ABKCO remastering project earlier in the Noughties, and
· the new Japanese paper sleeve repackaging project.

I’ve been trying to get to grips with the Stones catalogue, on and off, for 30 years – without once ever feeling confident I’d mastered it.

Now, with Alan Clayson’s new book to hand, I feel I’m almost there. Clayson provides a trustworthy route map through a discographical minefield. I’d find it valuable if it had simply cleared up the mired confusion of the endless Decca compilations of the 1970s. (Tip: Rolled Gold, only ever released on vinyl, in 1975, is the only one you need; it’s a masterpiece).

But Clayson does much, much more than that. He gives you all the detail you’d reasonably expect, on nearly all the Rolling Stones product that’s ever been released in the UK and the US. The inclusion of the lovely album cover artwork is a treat – I’ve had Slow Rollers and No Stone Unturned on tape for years without ever knowing what the hard-to-find original vinyl covers looked like.

And the context and evaluation of the magnificent Rolling Stones legacy, in the Album File part of the book, is worth a careful read: even hardcore Stones fans and collectors will learn something new. Coverage of the individual members’ solo projects is a bonus.

The book ain’t perfect. For example, there’s no mention of the three recent singles boxes; DVD/video – important in the Stones release story – is ignored; and the various reissue projects are crying out for a few pages of the expert explanation that Clayson could contribute. And I’m not overwhelmed, either, by the writing style or the sub-editing of the book.

But these imperfections are minor. Alan Clayson’s The Rolling Stones Album File & Complete Discography is the best introduction to the Stones’ treasure trove that’s been published for 10, possibly even 30, years. It’s a lovely little book. Buy it for the Stones fan in your life – s/he’ll cherish it.



Gerry Smith

The Waterboys – The Platinum Collection: underwhelming

EMI have produced some fine compilations in The Platinum Collection series: triple disc sets, which can be had for about £12, of the best of Roxy Music/Bryan Ferry and Maria Callas, for example, enrich my CD collection.

But EMI’s new 3CD set, The Waterboys – The Platinum Collection is underwhelming. It’s simply a repackaging of three separate albums, Fisherman’s Blues, Room To Roam and This Is The Sea – all prime albums, but all three will surely be already filed on the shelves of virtually all Mike Scott fans.

It’s disappointing that EMI didn’t follow the pattern of earlier issues in The Platinum Collection series.



Gerry Smith

Marvellous Miles Davis series on radio this week

Miles Davis, the five part Composer Of The Week series, got off to an impressive start today as presenter Donald Macleod covered the early years.

The series airs for an hour from mid-day, to Friday. It is repeated for five days from next Sunday, starting at midnight. And the BBC Radio 3 web site will have all the programmes online on its Listen Again feature for seven days after broadcast.

Very, very promising start to what will be a fine series: Composer of the Week excels daily; this Miles series will be one of the highlights of 2006 for grown-up music fans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3



Gerry Smith

Five hours of Miles Davis on radio next week

Miles Davis fans are in for a treat next week: Davis is the featured artist on BBC Radio 3's magical long-running series, Composer Of The Week, expertly presented by the gently didactic Donald McLeod.

The series airs for an hour from mid-day, Monday to Friday. It is repeated for five days from the Sunday of the following week, starting at midnight. And the BBC Radio 3 web site will have all the programmes online on its Listen Again feature for seven days after broadcast.

Very, very promising: Composer of the Week excels daily; it's the first time I've noted a non-classical musician as subject, though. Fitting choice, then....



Gerry Smith

New Beck, Sting, Mozart, Sinatra releases – cures for the autumn-time blues

As well as some great upcoming live music, the autumnal blues are being cured by some outstanding new record releases for grown-ups, including:

* The Information by Beck,

* Songs From The Labyrinth by Sting,

* Tutto Mozart by Bryn Terfel,

* the Columbia Legacy series, the Great American Songbook, with discs by Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, among others

* John McLaughlin’s Industrial Zen, and

* Ali Farka Toure’s Savane.

Autumn doesn’t seem so forbidding, after all.



Gerry Smith

Stones, Herbie Hancock, Shostakovich fending off the autumn-time blues

The shortening of daylight hours and cooling of the temperature is an annual pain for all lovers of nature and the outdoors, but the torrent of renewed musical activity somehow makes it bearable.

This autumn’s sense of loss is being allayed by, inter alia:

* the new DVD release of Stones In The Park, with all the extras

* the prospect of Herbie Hancock at London’s refurbished Roundhouse

* memories of recent exposure to Shostakovich in two great gigs

* bookings for next week’s Anna Netrebko/Rolando Villazon concert at the Barbican

* tickets for the re-arranged Lucinda Williams show at Shepherds Bush Empire.

Hey, autumn’s not all bad!

Gerry Smith

Dylan’s support to include Raconteurs

American Dylan fans currently flocking to see the great man on his tour to promote Modern Times, the commercially successful and critically acclaimed new album, should take their seats early – Dylan has engaged a trio of hot young bands to open for him.

First off are Kings Of Leon, followed by Foo Fighters and then, later in the tour, the pick of the crop, The Raconteurs, the exciting new combo fronted by the supremely talented Jack White, of White Stripes fame.

The Dylan/Raconteurs shows will be one of the hottest tickets of 2006 in the USA. No doubt about that.


Gerry Smith