Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Rhapsody in Gershwin” (Missing Records)

Jazz

For several years, singer/pianist Susan Artemis has been pleasing local audiences with her concert concept of Gershwin On Gershwin. She has arranged a show that presents 10 popular songs by George and Ira Gershwin woven into George’s more serious composition “Rhapsody in Blue.” The songs are “S’Wonderful,” “Someone To Watch Over Me,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” “Embraceable You,” “They All Laughed,” “The Man I Love,” “How Long Has This Been Going On,” “Our Love Is Here To Stay,” “But Not for Me” and “I Got Rhythm.”

It is a substantial list delivered in her straightforward manner, warming the words as she cares for the phrasing. This unadorned approach shows great respect for the Gershwin brothers’ melodies and imagery. Artemis is also kind enough to include those less familiar verses introducing each song.

She welcomes equally sparse accompaniment by bassist Mike Levy and drummer Alejandro Canelos. What makes the magic work is giving the classic material so much room to breath in such a seamless presentation. Spreading out all those familiar hooks from Gershwin’s “Rhapsody,” Artemis can make a single hook sound downright haunting when she lets it dangle in the air between two intimate vocals.

Find copies at cdbaby.com/ cd/sartemis3

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First Look: CDs

“here & gone”

(Decca Records)

The saxophonist calls it playing in “the space between gospel, R&B and jazz.” A space richly cultivated by Hank Crawford and Ray Charles. “Soul-jazz” is another name David Sanborn likes for the emotional roots of the music that fills this album, which lists such titles as “St. Louis Blues,” “Basin Street Blues” and “I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town.”

Through all nine tracks of lengthy jams in both big and small band formats, Sanborn maintains a most un-Sanborn-like gutsy sound, smacking hot notes both juicy and sizzling. Forget the smooth jazz guy or the penetrating pop and rock solo spotlights on the albums of James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt and the Rolling Stones.

Suspicious souls could accuse Sanborn of trying to stir up some commercial attention with this recording, wanting to eschew all that post-modern jazz gobbledygook in favor of some down-home sweaty, mashed potatoes and gravy comfort food for the brokenhearted. Never mind pushing on the envelop or thinking outside the box, on all nine tracks Sanborn is only after one thing – to be right straight down the middle of the groove. Phil Ramone is listed as the producer. That tells you something, too.

The only genuine complaint is the CD only lasts for 41.9 minutes. A little short by today’s standards.

GRADE: A-

CHUCK GRAHAM

Citizen Staff Writer
First Look: CDs

“Tuscan Prelude: Jazz Under Glass” (Consolidated Artists Productions)

Anyone who remembers the Third Stream jazz movement will be able to connect with this collection of 11 original compositions reflecting an improvised blend of jazz rhythms and the harmonic structure of classical music. The chords, progressions and lyrical lines are all drawn from the concert hall traditions of European art music. Pianist Jay D’Amico employs a light touch to present a sophisticated experience reminiscent of the Modern Jazz Quartet and others of that ilk.

An accompanying news release credits the music of Frederic Chopin and the playing of Oscar Peterson with inspiring young D’Amico to leap into the Third Stream. When the impressionable young pianist met MJQ bassist Milt Hinton and they hit it off musically, D’Amico’s artistic course was set.

The selections here are for the most part moderately paced. Marc Johnson, bass, and Ronnie Zito, drums, make sure everything swings from top to bottom. D’Amico rides this rhythmic wave, a graceful surfer in a tuxedo playing melodies just as balanced. With such titles as “G minor Ballade,” “Fuga,” “Nocturne” and a sonata in three movements, you know it will be a good time to lean into the loudspeakers.

GRADE A

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“A Long and Winding Road” (PS Classics)

Pop

Grade: A

If your memories of the 1960s don’t include the lyrics to many of the songs, here’s a chance to catch up. Former folk singer now turned classy cabaret artist Maureen McGovern has returned to the melodies she loved coming of age in the 1960s.

In this sophisticated recording, she revisits performers as diverse as Bob Dylan and Jimmy Webb. John Lennon and Paul McCartney are well-represented in the 18-track CD as well. The other songwriters will be equally familiar, even if the songs won’t be in McGovern’s more proper approach to the material. Instead of the adolescent demands heard in the original raucous hit recordings, we receive each piece appropriately dressed as an adult.

McGovern is looking into the thoughts behind the lyrics, pronouncing all the words clearly as she discovers contemporary meaning in lines penned early in America’s cultural revolution. This album is no blowzy nostalgia trip into the open arms of a warm-hearted Earth Mother. The effect at first is a bit unsettling, like seeing in middle age a photo of yourself as a teenager in a street demonstration against The Man.

A trio of Webb favorites – “MacArthur Park” (without any reference to the cake left out in the rain), “By the Time I Get to Phoenix” and “The Moon’s A Harsh Mistress” – are best at stirring the excitement of first love made bittersweet by time. All three are sung with plaintive piano accompaniment by Jeff Harris.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Concerti” (Ambient Records)

Jazz

Grade: A

There is just something warm and comforting about jazz played on a nylon-stringed acoustic guitar. With a sound so fat, the phrasing must be St. Bernard friendly. Angry people simply never play this instrument.

Gene Bertoncini loves his acoustic guitar with nylon strings. It has always been his instrument of choice. On this album, the veteran jazzmaster’s chosen accompaniment is a string quartet plus jazz bassist David Finck. This recording is filled with good taste, to be sure.

The centerpiece is the Adagio movement of “Concierto de Aranjuez” by Spanish composer-guitarist Joaquin Rodrigo. Even if you don’t recognize the title, you will recognize the melody. With the selection’s running time of 13:04, both Bertoncini and his string section have room to unfold ideas that are steeped in Spain’s romantic traditions.

Deep musical feelings also blossom from the guitarist’s combining Jobim’s “How Insensitive” with excerpts from Chopin’s equally haunting “Prelude, Op. 28 No. 4.” While this piece has a more rhythmic groove, it retains the same thoughtfulness that defines the entire album.

Several pop classics fill out the song list: “East of the Sun,” “You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To,” “Every Time We Say Goodbye,” “Invitation” and, from the Beatles songbook, “Eleanor Rigby.” Bertoncini also adds his plaintive tribute to the tragic trumpeter Chet Baker, simply titled “For Chet.”

Find a copy at www.AmbientRecords.com

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Tales of Love and Longing” (Candid Records)

Grade: A

Just in time for a hot summer season comes this extremely cool collection of ballads perfect for martini evenings on the patio. Sheila Cooper is a subtly dramatic storytelling vocalist and alto sax player who creates the pictures while Austrian pianist Fritz Pauer sets the frames.

Listening to the heartfelt empathy between these two is like watching dream weavers create poetic tapestries in the air. Everything shimmers, yet every song is weighted with the tension of minor keys and thoughtful rumination. Broken hearts are never sunny places.

With all the tracks having a slow to moderate tempo, the excitement comes from feeling so much intensity in the interplay between Cooper and Pauer. Whether she is singing or playing alto, her music has a plaintive quality that gives every phrase extra poignancy. Pauer answers this with his own feathery accompaniment that, in a way, comforts Cooper. Together they create musical moments that could be considered blues for the very sophisticated.

The song list includes “A Kiss To Build A Dream On,” “He’s Funny That Way,” “I’m a Fool to Want You,” “I Didn’t Know About You” and my personal favorite, “Winter Moon.”

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Midnight Boom” (Domino)

Grade: A+

Genre: Rock

The Kills needed to inject their dark blues-rock with something fresh, and on “Midnight Boom” London-based Alison Mosshart and Jamie Hince do just that. While “No Wow” (2005) and the “Keep on Your Mean Side” (2003) EP (both on Domino), offered up a compelling, raw mix of songs, the duo’s second full-length ups the bar in many ways.

The most noticeable addition are the hip-hop beats on several songs – Armani XXXchange (aka Alex Epton), who’s worked with Spank Rock, co-produced four tracks – and it’s a perfect match. “Last Day of Magic” is the obvious single, backed by a steady beat and propelled by catchy boy-girl vocals and Hince’s guitar flourishes. (He’s one of those guitarists who squeezes the most he can out of every note.) The lyrics are often nonsense – here, “my little tornado, my little hurricano” – but the importance comes from the emotion behind the delivery and how the words sound, not what they are.

Vocally, Mosshart demonstrates incredible growth. Earlier songs only hint at the lovely melody line she delivers on the hand-clap-backed ballad “Black Balloon.” And when she rap-sings (“Alphabet Pony”), it works, too.

“Midnight Boom” has great variety, from the dance-beat-driven “Cheap and Cheerful” to the down-tempo, droney “U.R.A. Fever.” The Kills are still a rock duo, absolutely, but years of touring and writing together find the two cleverly infusing a number of other genres.

POLLY HIGGINS

Tucson Citizen

See The Kills May 22 at The Brickhouse in Phoenix.

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Songbird” (KGB Music)

Grade: A

Genre: Jazz

The future of jazz lies in the artistry of young talents such as Los Angeles vocalist Kathleen Grace and her co-writer/guitarist Perry Smith. They hear the old tunes with new ears, find spring rhythms in fringe-topped songs from “Oklahoma!” They turn a favorite of the Beatles’ into Latin jazz. They write new stuff that sounds like alternative pop but swings with contemporary vigor.

They do not think jazz is something you put in a box to bring out only on special occasions. As jazz moves into its second century of improvisation, Grace and Smith hear music that’s fun and fresh. They create feelings filled with instant communication, zipping with digital quickness at times, but still able to haunt the heart with sensual ruminations played slowly in a minor key.

In hands like these jazz can find a newer, younger audience that knows how to party in high-sheen places. Classic cool comes naturally to this band, but like a good George Clooney movie, there is always a twist.

Just putting “Sunrise Sunset” from “Fiddler on the Roof” alongside Lennon and McCartney’s “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” visualizing a languid “Red Sales in the Sunset” and adding three originals that maintain the same intensity is a bungee jumper’s feat of courage. A stretch of the imagination, to be sure.

Another twist is noting Grace comes from Tucson, is a graduate of Canyon Del Oro High, was drum major in the marching band. Check her out yourself Saturday when the Kathleen Grace Band comes to the Hut, 305 N. Fourth Ave., for Speakeasy Night in the Old Pueblo.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Raya Yarbrough” (Telarc Recording)

Grade: A

Genre: jazz

Anybody can record something strange, weird and offbeat. But to record something strange, weird and offbeat that is also engaging for its contemporary sense of other musicians working out there on the outer edges of creativity – that is someone worthy of your attention.

Singer Raya Yarbrough is your woman. Born and raised to be a Los Angeles survivor (both parents are in show business), she sings with an ironic confidence in her choices. There is “Dreamer’s Ball” by Queen, right alongside Clifford Brown’s “Joy Spring.” The Duke is in there, too, represented by “Mood Indigo.”

Other bits have been taken from the digital torture chambers of re-treated electronica. She’s a cynical dancer spinning while waiting for the apocalypse. Mixing superficial anguish with the roots of hope, she captures a quivering glimpse of the future’s emptiness. Then she uses raspy violins that give a radioactive dusting to “Early Autumn.”

No one gets out of here alive.

Of the CD’s dozen tracks, eight are originals. Each song (original or not) is filled with so much imagination. She makes Diana Krall, Tierney Sutton and all the rest sound like nothing but lounge singers.

Yarbrough is not about using jazz to escape. She wields the music like a weapon, carving new shapes out of society’s chaos. For if she can find new shapes, perhaps others can find a new order.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Sun and Moon” (self-distributed)

Grade: A

Genre: SOFT ROCK/POP

From out of great sadness has come an album of beautiful music by Tucson composer/guitarist Bob Huff, the father of Sam Huff, an American soldier killed in Iraq on April 17, 2005. She recorded flute solos on several tracks in this collection of 15 original instrumentals.

Sam was 18 and on an Army patrol when a roadside bomb took her life. Bob Huff said his daughter’s last words were, “Tell my mom I love her and tell my dad good luck with his album.”

Bob Huff finished the album, then raised the money to send copies to more than 3,000 families of other fallen soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Back in the early 1970s, Bob played and performed on world tours of Up With People. From 1974-1979 he was lead guitarist with the pop-rock singing group Arizona, which recorded four albums for RCA. Bob ended his rock star days to serve 25 years with the Tucson Police Department.

About a year before retirement, Bob started writing music again. Since retirement in 2004, this album has been his life. It is filled with sunny riffs and rhythms, exactly the sound you would expect from someone so closely associated with the positive thinking of Up With People. The production qualities are excellent.

Elements of smooth jazz, country, soft rock and R&B ripple through the song list. Each track creates its own atmosphere, with the titles often defining the moods, such as “Malibu,” “Transcontinental Highway” and “Sonoran Sky.” To get a copy, www.bobhuffmusic.com.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Bungalow” (One Bun Music)

Grade: B+

Genre: folk

An easy rider and saddle tramp for the 21st century, Bob Einweck is one Tucsonan who sings and plays with the cotton comfort of the Old Pueblo’s laid-back uniform – T-shirts and jeans. In this new collection of 14 original songs you also can feel the back country’s two-lane blacktop wanting to stretch out under his feet.

While the melodies and arrangements have a folkie, homespun quality, the lyrics can crackle with post-graduate brilliance. Einweck has a sense of humor that reassures us in more civilized situations he would know exactly which fork to use.

The nicest part is how he keeps the sound so friendly. Even when the tone of a piece sounds a little worried or wary, it is reassuring to feel the singer’s loyalty to resonant harmony and a sure-footed rhythm. There’s shuffling “Lucky,” with a traveling man’s optimism. “The Back of My Mind” gives nostalgia a fresher sense of deja vu.

“Don’t Say Goodbye” might seem sad at first, but we always feel certain there will be a better life after the separation.

Join the CD release party March 29 in the Terraza Grill at Hacienda del Sol. A free show begins at 6:30 p.m. Copies of the album will be for sale, too. Check myspace.com/bobeinweck for details.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Andrea Marcovicci Sings Rodgers & Hart” (Andreasong Recordings)

Grade: A

Genre: cabaret

It takes a little maturity (as in: a divorce or two, a couple of near-fatal broken hearts, more than one story of unrequited love) to relish the rue of cabaret. These little nightclub islands of civility celebrate saloon songs with a vengeance. More than a blues bar, less than Alcoholics Anonymous, the cabarets we remember are filled with anonymity.

Nobody has a last name. The bartender never assumes anything, never judges anybody. Drinks are always a bit stronger than you remembered them.

But for some poorly understood reason, cabaret thrives only in big cities with a modicum of sophistication. Tucson is getting there. The Baked Apple has long been famous as a place to give life a second chance. Let a few more people lose a few more fortunes. That should do it.

Then book a few singers like Andrea Marcovicci, applauded by the International Herald Tribune as “the greatest cabaret star of her generation.” Her exploration of bittersweet happiness in this collection is a great place to start appreciating the lifestyle. Listen to the words of the revenge anthem, “To Keep My Love Alive.” Enjoy the sly sensuality of “Bewitched (Bothered and Bewildered).” Hear the hope in “Little Girl Blue.”

Marcovicci’s voice has an operatic veneer with a huskier steeliness underneath. Polite enough to make your mother smile, but also promising more earthly delights.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Canopy of Stars” (PJL Polystar)

Grade: A

Style: jazz

Want to feel mainstream and hip at the same time – like a Republican who knows where to find all the cool nightspots? Then dig into this piano trio’s offering of jazz introspection worthy of Bill Evans that at the same time is also a joyfully accessible album chock full of lyrical melodies and glistening chords. Yoko Miwa is a Berklee College of Music graduate and faculty member, spreading the word on her winning approach to moving the music forward.

Working with Boston drummer Scott Goulding and a couple of bassists – Massimo Biolcati and Bronek Suchanek – Miwa’s trio becomes a seamless jazz machine of effortless improv. All the tracks spotlight her own compositions, 11 varying moods of singular sophistication. The most intriguing titles are “Appalachian Trail (North)” and “Appalachian Trail (South).”

Ferde Grofé this is not, though the assumption would be understandable. Miwa is much more indirect, eschewing any mountain melodies or folk song sound effects. Perhaps the pieces were inspired by a visit. All of Miwa’s playing has a natural flow that implies deep mysteries, and a certain sadness, too. She may be rueful, but never depressed. Just . . . wondering at the enormity of life.

The delicate beauty of her music continues to defy analysis. Repeated plays will keep inspiring different impressions, but always there will be elegance, grace and an intricately swinging balance.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Brooklyn Suite” (Fleur de Son Jazz)

Grade: A

Style: Classical/Jazz

Prices are so high in Manhattan, musicians can’t afford to live there anymore. That’s the story, anyway, and it is the economic factor that produced the inspiration for this major symphonic work.

With so many musicians moving to Brooklyn, including composer/guitarist Chris Jentsch, the players and landscape have merged into artistic impressions that don’t involve famous nightclubs or towering skyscrapers, chaotic traffic or neon in the night. For Jentsch, Brooklyn is expressed in layered textures. These soundscapes stretch out like broad brush strokes of horizontal color. Some smooth, some soft, some deep, some shiny.

There is a sprinkling of atonality and splashes of clashing chords, too. But overall the suite rises out of musical elements working together, not fighting each other. Structurally there are five major pieces plus two mood-connecting interludes. The piano-less instrumentation is for five saxes, four trumpets, four trombones and a rhythm section of bass, drums and Jentsch on guitar.

Sometimes “Brooklyn Suite” is performed in concert by his quartet. The composition could easily be expanded to a full symphonic treatment, as well. While someone searches around for the money to do that, consider this recording as the subway version – maybe not as luxurious as a symphonic limo but full of movement, nonetheless.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen

Citizen Staff Writer
First look: CDs

“Dean and Dudley Evenson present Healing the Holy Land, A Musical Journey of Faith” (Soundings of the Planet)

Grade: A+

Genre: New Age

Remember when hippies believed if we just held hands around the planet for a few minutes and sang the same folk song we would finally have world peace? The married couple Dean and Dudley Evenson are equally idealistic musicians. They started this record label in Tucson in 1979, dedicated to the belief that music could heal the spirit. Soundings of the Planet has since moved to the Northwest, but their dedication remains strong.

In the spirit of this holiday season the Evensons have compiled from the three Abrahamic faiths of Jews, Christians and Muslims this collection of sacred chants and songs that share a common yearning for peace. For 2,000 years these “People of the Book” have claimed and counter-claimed the crescent of civilization we call the Holy Land.

So many centuries of difficult times have inspired a rich musical heritage reflected by these 12 tracks. Many contain the sadness implied by minor chords. Some ride on the loping rhythms we associate with camel caravans. A few reflect the serenity of contemplation in prayer.

To sit quietly and listen with thoughtfulness to all the tracks is to feel the significance of how much the three faiths really do share. And to wonder what has fed so many centuries of hatred and suspicion.

Surely what we have in common is so much greater than our differences.

CHUCK GRAHAM

Tucson Citizen