This week, a cross-cultural premiere, a new elbow song with an old elbow title, and a stunning soul revue from the Apollo Theater.
PREMIERE: NY Gypsy All-Stars and Global Cast Play “Balkan Bollywood”
The worlds of Persian classical, Western orchestral, South Asian soundtrack, and Balkan dance music all come crashing together in the upcoming album Blue As The Turquoise Night, in which conductor Eric Jacobsen, cellist Karen Ouzounian, and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony play with Iranian kamancheh (fiddle) master Kayhan Kalhor, Indian tabla virtuoso Sandeep Das, and the New York Gypsy All-Stars. To whet your appetite, the latter three have released a lovely animated video for the track “Balkan Bollywood.” In an act of almost comical optimism, this is their “radio edit.” (Really, have they heard American radio lately? Plus, anyone crazy enough to play this on the radio will be playing the full version.) But the track is a fun and catchy blend of the All-Stars’ Balkan/Turkish grooves with some wistful Persian fiddling and, towards the end, a lush orchestral platform for composer Ismail Lumanovski’s swirling clarinet.
elbow Release “The Seldom Seen Kid” – But Not THAT Seldom Seen Kid
The Manchester-based group elbow won the prestigious Mercury Prize for their bestselling 2008 LP The Seldom Seen Kid. Now comes a song with that same title. It’s the first single from elbow’s upcoming ninth record, Flying Dream 1 (another self-referential title), and like the earlier LP, it is a tribute to the late Manchester musician Bryan Glancy. With the pandemic raging, songwriter Guy Garvey seems to have been in an elegiac mood, and this lovely song shuffles along on a brushed drumbeat and an absolutely beautiful woodwind arrangement – lush and flowing but with the occasional piquant harmony. Garvey’s lyrics are nostalgic and bittersweet, without ever descending into melodrama.
The new album comes out on November 19.
Charles Bradley Hits The High Notes In Daptone’s Star-Studded Live Set
Daptone Records celebrated its 20th anniversary by releasing a 3-LP set on Friday, recorded live at the fabled Apollo Theater back in 2014. Back then the label’s two biggest stars, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, were both still alive and enjoying the unexpected late-career acclaim that Daptone brought them. Both of them did sets with their respective bands, full of vintage soul and pop, while the label’s other stalwarts did their things as well: gospel from Naomi Shelton, Afrobeat-inspired ensemble work by Antibalas, and more. But some of the best moments came when the label’s different artists mixed it up with each other, as happened in this track: “Ain’t It A Sin” features the late Charles Bradley singing with the Budos Band rather than with his own group The Extraordinaires. The Budos Band offers horn-heavy funk, while Bradley… well, let’s just say he shows why he was called “The Screaming Eagle of Soul.”
Dark Orchestral Pop From Circuit des Yeux
Circuit des Yeux is the stage name of singer and songwriter Haley Fohr. The “and” is important there: call her a “singer/songwriter” and you might expect a folksy singer with an acoustic guitar. Fohr is definitely not that. With an almost operatic voice and a flair for the dramatic, her songs have often trended big, and her new single “Vanishing” has a cinematic, almost gothic orchestral sound. It’s a tribute to Fohr’s vocal talent that despite the Big Sound surrounding her, the focus never wavers from her singing – especially when she drops into her startling low octave, as she does several times here.
The new Circuit des Yeux album, -io, comes out on October 22.
Susana Baca Celebrates Peru’s Black Soul
Susana Baca is a singer, folklorist, and one-time Minister Of Culture in Peru; for many years she has been the leading voice of the Afro-Peruvian community centered on that country’s coast. Her new album, Palabras Urgentes (“urgent truths”), comes out this Friday, but she’s just released the album’s beating heart, a song called “Negra del Alma.” It’s a traditional song from the Ayacucho region, driven by the unlikely combo of marimba and a rough-and-ready brass band. Baca’s vocals are at once impassioned and celebratory, and while clearly rooted in traditional sounds, it has a contemporary attitude thanks in part to Snarky Puppy’s Michael League, who produced the album.
Tori Amos To Deliver Her Pandemic LP
Tori Amos has spent the pandemic at her home in Cornwall, in the far southwest of England. That doesn’t sound too bad, but she describes her forthcoming LP Ocean To Ocean as the “universal story of going to rock bottom and renewing yourself all over again.” The single, “Speaking With Trees,” is full of eerie imagery: “I’ve been hiding your ashes under the tree house/don’t be surprised I cannot let you go,” for example, which sounds a little more worrisome than a coronavirus. Her piano playing is crystalline as usual, but the atmosphere is made ominous by Matt Chamberlain’s restless drumming. Amos has often been compared to Kate Bush, and while I’m sure she’s sick of it, it’s actually an apt comparison for this richly-produced track.
Ocean to Ocean comes out on October 29.