Artist: Bridge and Tunnel
Genre(s):
Ambient
Discography:
Bridge and Tunnel
Year: 2000
Tracks: 11
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Brazzaville
Artist: Brazzaville
Genre(s):
Latin: Dance
Indie
Rock: Pop-Rock
Jazz
Discography:
East LA Breeze
Year: 2006
Tracks: 12
East L.A. Breeze
Year: 2006
Tracks: 12
Welcome To...Brazzaville
Year: 2005
Tracks: 16
Hastings Street
Year: 2004
Tracks: 15
Rouge On Pockmarked Cheeks
Year: 2002
Tracks: 11
Somnabulista
Year: 2001
Tracks: 11
Brazzaville
Year: 1998
Tracks: 11
Led by Beck saxophonist David Brown, Brazzaville's alien, globally minded indie pop was as much a product of Brown's extensive travels as it was the Los Angeles coffee shop scene from whence most of its members came. Born in L.A., Brown had been a teenage fugitive and diacetylmorphine addict in front cleaning up and finding a new take on sprightliness from his sexual love of traveling the earthly concern on the cheap. He crisscross Europe, South America, and Asia, picking up melodious influences from the Far East, Brazil (bossa nova and Tropicalia), Africa, and France (night club pop), among others. Eventually, he returned to California, where he studied the saxophone at L.A. City College. There he first met Beck, and was introduced to a community of artists and musicians centered some the Los Feliz/Silver Lake area of L.A. When Beck tally the big time, he tapped Brown as the saxophonist in his touring band, and invited him to play on the Odelay album.In 1997, during the human race tour encouraging Odelay, Brown conceived the mind for Brazzaville, pickings the name from the working capital of the Congo, which in a recent work had been branded with the worst timber of liveliness of whatsoever major urban center in the world. Brown added guitar to his implemental repertoire (which grew to let in pianissimo, trombone, and percussion as good), and when he returned to Los Angeles in 1998, he cast together a diverse lineup of musicians -- scenesters and sitting manpower -- that reflected his own wide-ranging tastes. Trombonist/saxophonist David Ralicke worked with numerous acts, including Natalie Merchant, Ozomatli, Ben Harper, Macy Gray, and Ziggy Marley, and later coupled the L.A.-based Cambodian rock candy band Dengue Fever. Guitarist/bassist Kenny Lyon, who'd full-grown up in Zaire and Spain, had performed with alternative bands like the Lemonheads and the Divinyls, as well as singer/songwriters like Mark Curry, Jann Arden, and David Baerwald. Guitarist Smokey Hormel was another Beck regular wHO besides performed and recorded with Cibo Matto, Sam Phillips, John Doe, and Tom Waits, among others. Percussionist Danny Frankel had played with musicians from Victoria Williams to Luscious Jackson to bluesman Ted Hawkins. Pianist Mike Boito was another Beck cohort who'd besides played with Ralicke in the ska isthmus Jump With Joey.Together with turntablist DJ Swamp and several other players, this version of Brazzaville recorded a self-titled debut record album and released it on Brown's possess South China Sea imprint in 1999. It standard favourable reviews of its crossbreed of indie pop, sofa jazz, world medicine, and noir-ish air, and was most ofttimes likened to Tom Waits or Morphine. Later that yr, the Engine mark picked up the record's distribution rights and reissued it under the title 2002. The reexamination Somnambulista, released in 2001 on South China Sea, welcomed several new members, including Guadalupe-born/Paris-raised percussionist Joel Virgel Vierset (who'd worked with Nina Hagen), bassist Joe Zimmerman, and Latin-influenced trumpeter/accordionist Mick Bolger. Brazzaville's third uncut, Paint on Pockmarked Cheeks, appeared in 2002 with much the same frame of characters. Afterwards, Brown relocated to Barcelona and assembled an alternate European lineup of Brazzaville, which included guitar player Paco Jordi, keyboardist Richie Alvarez, bassist Brady Arthur Lynch, and drummer Ivan Knight.
Friday, 6 June 2008
New Deutsche Grammophon 'La Boheme' CD showcases Netrebko, Villazon
"La Boheme"
Giacomo Puccini (Deutsche Grammophon)
With at least a dozen recordings of Puccini's "La Boheme" readily available from Amazon.com, why another?
The answer lies in the commercial opportunities suggested by the pairing of Russian soprano Anna Netrebko and Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon, two of the more glamorous young singers on today's opera scene. In numerous joint appearances at major houses they have demonstrated a palpable on-stage chemistry (though in real life they are not romantically linked).
The new two-CD set was recorded during live concert performances in Munich in April 2007. That was just about the time Villazon encountered a vocal crisis that caused him to crack on some high notes and display other signs of fatigue. (He returned to performing early this year after a break of five months.) But you'd never suspect the problems from the evidence here. He sounds relaxed and lyrical as the young poet. His high notes in the climaxes are vibrant and attacked cleanly, though he omits the high C at the end of Act 1.
Netrebko, too, is in excellent voice, her gleaming soprano filling out Mimi's wistful phrases with grace and sensitivity. But the qualities that make her so special as an artist have to do with more than her voice - it's the way she throws herself into her roles on stage and that visual element is, unavoidably, missing here. What's left is a more-than-passable vocal performance but it's not likely to eclipse memories of Renata Tebaldi, Victoria de los Angeles or Mirella Freni, to name just a few of her recorded competitors.
Heading the supporting cast that surrounds the bohemian lovers is the young American soprano Nicole Cabell, an emerging star in her own right. She makes a strong impression as the flirtatious Musetta, the soft grain of her voice contrasting well with Netrebko's slightly metallic sound. Boaz Daniel, an Israeli-born baritone, proves a sturdy Marcello.
Bertrand de Billy conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in a brisk performance of the tuneful score.
All in all, this "Boheme" will appeal most to fans of the two principals. For those seeking a definitive interpretation of Puccini's masterpiece, there are worthier choices, starting with the classic EMI recording with de los Angeles and tenor Jussi Bjoerling, and Thomas Beecham conducting.
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