Madeleine Pyroux - Half the Perfect World (2006)

Smokey-voiced chanteuse Madeleine Peyroux's third CD is a lovely collection of after-hours ruminations and should confirm her rise to fame. Credit producer Larry Klein for doing a bang-up job with the album's sound: the elegant, pared-down arrangements are all brushed drums, acoustic guitars, and cool organ licks. But of course it's Peyroux's voice that brings it all home--preferably one where the shades are drawn, embers are smoldering in the fireplace, and the white wine is kept dry. Two-thirds of the songs are well-chosen covers, including a duet with k.d. lang on Joni Mitchell's "River"; a relaxed version of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin'," from Midnight Cowboy; a delicately lilting samba take on Leonard Cohen and Anjani Thomas's title track; Serge Gainsbourg's "La Javanaise," performed in the original French; and Charlie Chaplin's "Smile," from Modern Times. The four originals, all coauthored by Peyroux, easily keep up with such august company, especially "I'm All Right"--written with Klein and Walter Becker, it captures the easy sophistication of Becker's regular band, Steely Dan. Fans of Norah Jones (whose collaborator Jesse Harris cowrote three of the songs) should gobble up this album, but Peyroux is no mere imitator: She's her own, very real thing. --Elisabeth Vincentelli

Madeleine Peyroux doesn’t simply interpret songs, she possesses them…and vice versa. Half the Perfect World is the much-anticipated follow-up to Peyroux’s breakthrough album, Careless Love, which drew critical raves from around the world and sold more than a million copies. This time around, Peyroux focuses primarily on songs written by artists from her lifetime, including Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits and Fred Neil. The album also features an unforgettable duet with k.d. lang on the Joni Mitchell classic "River" and four original songs co-written by Peyroux, including the single "I’m All Right" which she penned with producer Larry Klein and Steely Dan’s Walter Becker. Half the Perfect World is a sublime showcase for Peyroux’s eloquent, understated delivery and timeless one-of-a-kind voice.
   


Tracks

1- I'm All Right
2- Summer Wind
3- Blue Alert
4- Everybody's Talking
5- River - Peyroux, Madeleine & kd lang
6- A Little Bit
7- Once In A While
8- Looking For The Heart Of Saturday Night
9- Half The Perfect World
10- La Javanaise
11- California Rain
12- Smile

Madeleine Peyroux - Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
Dean Parks - Guitars
David Piltch - Bass
Jay Bellerose - Drummer
Scott Amendola - Drums
Sam Yahel - Keyboards
Gary Foster - Saxophonist
Greg Leisz - Pedal Steel

Stanley Jordan: Magic Touch (1985)

Every great musician has his or her own unique quality that sets them apart from all their peers. Thelonious Monk had his baffling style of piano playing, Jimi Hendrix made distortion in his Fender Strat a trademark, recording artists Take 6 made six part harmony appear simple. Now there's yet another name to add to the list of extraordinary talents--Stanley Jordan. "Magic Touch" is appropiately named. From the moment it begins with the colossal remake of 'The Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby", you are introduced to the ridiculous skills of Jordan. The sounds of what could easily be mistaken for 2 or 3 guitars have all derived from one. His display of talent continues on tracks like "'Round Midnight" (my personal favorite) and "Lady of My Life". If you are a serious jazz lover or even a casual listener, "Magic Touch" is a must have. A sparkling debut album for one of the most amazing guitar players I have ever heard.
 Tracks :

Eleanor Rigby
Freddie Freeloader
Round Midnight
All The Children
The Lady In My Life
Angel
Fundance
New Love
Return Expedition
A Child is Born

 Personnel :

Stanley Jordan
Onaje Allen Gumbs
Charnett Moffett
Peter Erskine
Sammy Figueroa
Omar Hakim
Eddie Daniels
Wayne Brathwaite
Bugsy Moore

Pat Metheny & Ornette Coleman: Song X

Amazon.com essential recording
Pat Metheny confounded fans and critics alike with this opening salvo for his new label, Geffen, delivering among the most uninhibited, collective meltdowns ever released on a major pop label. Song X served notice that this was one artist who refused to be pigeonholed. In joining forces with jazz maverick Ornette Coleman, Metheny midwifed a compelling declaration of principles on behalf of experimental musicians. Jack DeJohnette and Denardo Coleman throw down on acoustic and electronic percussion, and stalwart bassist Charlie Haden holds down the time. Metheny and Coleman journey through the interstellar regions of collective improvisation on the saxophonist's fulminating title tune and "Video Games" (with Metheny's room-full-of-mirrors synth guitar inventions) while unleashing a horde of killer bees on "Endangered Species." Still, for all the collective freneticism, the lyrical, swinging side of each artist is well represented on the Tex-Mex airs of "Trigonometry," the bluesy "Mob Job" and the elegant "Kathleen Grey." --Chip Stern

PAT METHENY: BRIGHT SIZE LIFE

Amazon.com essential recording
Larger ensembles may have provided Pat Metheny with his most visible successes, but he's repeatedly fired up his most fluid and personal playing in leaner trio settings, starting with this, his 1976 debut as a leader. Bob Moses brings both delicacy and effortless dynamics to his drumming, but it's the late Jaco Pastorius's lyrical electric bass that clinches the guitarist's coming-out party: with Metheny already displaying the liquid tone and exquisite touch that define his sound, old friend Pastorius radiates a sympathetic lyricism and unerring sense of swing. Metheny would match, but not transcend, this level of interplay in justly celebrated troikas with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins (on Rejoicing) and Dave Holland and Roy Haynes (on Question and Answer). --Sam Sutherland.

PAT METHENY : TRIO 99 --> 00

Think "Pat Metheny trio record" and you'll probably recall his groundbreaking Bright Size Life or the more abstract Rejoicing (with Charlie Haden and Billy Higgins) or even Question and Answer (Dave Holland, Roy Haynes). Well, keep thinking. Trio 99-00 is the popular guitarist-composer's most straight-ahead, no-muss, no-fuss recording yet. Recorded over two days with the remarkable team of drummer Bill Stewart and bassist Larry Grenadier, Trio 99-00 covers much compositional and stylistic ground but is essentially a hard-bop-tinged blowing session. Metheny's Sonny Rollins-ish originals include "(Go) Get It," "Soul Cowboy" (featuring amazing chordal guitar), "What Do You Want?" and a blazing trio variation on "Lone Jack," which appeared on the first Pat Metheny Group album. Unusual choices are made throughout: a sensually swinging "Giant Steps," an elegant "A Lot of Livin' to Do," and inclusion of Wayne Shorter's queasy gem, "Capricorn." And as always, Pat can't help but get sentimental on acoustic guitar, culminating in the first studio rendition of "Travels." This isn't for the faint-hearted, nor those waiting for another PMG travelogue like We Live Here or Letter from Home. This is pure jazz slam, a trio showdown with the gloves off. --Ken Micallef

PAT METHENY : REJOICING

Metheny joins bassist Charlie Haden and drummer Billy Higgins, one of Ornette Coleman's finest rhythm pairings, for this 1983 recording. Rejoicing looks closely at Coleman's group dynamics and three of his tunes (though it's Horace Silver's "Lonely Woman," not Coleman's, that opens the album). The three mesh perfectly on Coleman's "Tears Inside," "Humpty Dumpty," and "Rejoicing," with Metheny generating long lines of melody over sprung rhythms. While the guitarist often shifts musical direction from CD to CD, his compositions on Rejoicing offer remarkable contrasts. He creates a rich overdub of electric and acoustic guitars for the ballad "Story from a Stranger," then generates an almost Albert Ayler-like sound for the intensely electric dirge "The Calling," the mood enhanced by Haden's bowed bass and animated by Higgins's free drumming. --Stuart Broomer