World Class

New CDs groove to a global beat

By Greg Cahill

Afrocelt Sound System Volume 3: Further in Time (Realworld)

SINCE 1995, this tightly woven group of musicians–which includes whistle player James McNally of the Pogues, Irish vocalist Iarla O’Lionard, and a revolving troupe of African artists–has been fusing the traditional music of West Africa and Ireland while wowing crowds on the annual WOMAD tour, Peter Gabriel’s world music showcase. This third outing delivers percussion-heavy techno-based sounds and features Gabriel singing on “When You’re Falling” and Robert Plant’s vocals on “Life Begins Again.” Energized, ebullient, and incredibly contagious.

Anourag Anoushka Shankar (Angel)

Ravi Shankar Bridges: The Best of Ravi Shankar (Private Music/BMG)

AT THE TENDER AGE of 19, the daughter of sitar legend Ravi Shankar delivers the follow-up to her impressive 1999 debut, teaming up with her famous father on several ragas. Pops once said it takes several lifetimes to master the complicated Indian instrument the sitar, though Anoushka shows a lot of mastery and maturity. These father-and-daughter duets are often intense and show that Anoushka is filled with promise. As for dad–who did, indeed, build a formidable bridge between East and West with his tutelage of Beatle George Harrison (who appears on this Best of Ravi package)–this new collection of material culled from the Private Music years is a mixed bag, centering around a variety of nontraditional cross-cultural projects that include his late-’80s collaborations with Philip Glass. These experimentations often were hit or miss, but when Shankar scores the results are memorable.

Various Artists Gardens of Eden (Putumayo)

THIS WORLD-music label has built a following by placing its festively decorated CDs on the counters of cafes and bookstore–sort of an eco-tourist guide to the sounds of the planet. These releases have become so ubiquitous that it’s sometimes easy to take them for granted. Gardens of Eden, a collection of ethno-pop songs focusing on the mystical, suggests that it’s best not to ignore these little gems. From Papua New Guinea to Tibet, it’s a most pleasant trip–a veritable magical mystery tour.

Trilok Gurtu The Beat of Love (Blue Thumb)

FOR SOMEONE who tortures his children by watching Namaste America (the low-budget Indian film showcase on KTSF/cable channel 26) each and every Sunday afternoon, this is second heaven. Percussionist Trilok Gurtu (who performs this week at the Justice League in San Francisco) is the son of a popular Indian light classical singer and has collaborated with the likes of Bill Laswell and Pat Metheny. On his latest CD, Gurtu is five steps above those up-tempo and hokey Bollywood videos, having pulled together a talent-laden conglomeration of top-ranked Indian and African musicians that include sitar player Ravi Chary and Benin-born Afro-pop singer Angelique Kidjo. “Ola Bombay,” indeed.

Spin du Jour

Centuries of displacement in Eastern Europe have created a deep sense of longing and a rich folk-song tradition that laments the plight of the Hungarian Roma. On I Left my Sweet Homeland (Rounder), the Okros Ensemble gathers songs from Transylvania and Hungary that beautifully evoke this wayward Gypsy culture and features the virtuoso violin of Aladar Csiszar. The title track was first collected by Béla Bartók in his early field recordings.

From the July 5-11, 2001 issue of the Northern California Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.

Photograph by James Minchin

Classical Rock

Elvis Costello provides torch-song settings for diva Anne Sofie von Otter on ‘For the Stars’

By Gina Arnold

THOSE SEEKING the newest Elvis Costello album, For the Stars, shouldn’t go to the “C” bin in the rock/pop section at the local record store. They should head instead for the “V” section in classical music, where their record will sit behind the card marked “Anne Sofie von Otter.” Strange to say, former punk songwriter Costello and Swedish mezzo-soprano von Otter have just collaborated on an album of pop songs written by Costello, Tom Waits, Brian Wilson, Lennon and McCartney, Ron Sexsmith and Abba (to name a few), and the results are at times quite painfully beautiful.

For the Stars (Deutsche Grammophon) is a genre-breaking record that should charm anyone who likes Costello’s verbosity and the pristine sound of the female voice, since von Otter–best known for singing roles in works by Berlioz (Faust, etc.)–possesses a voice considered by many to be one of the most gorgeous in opera.

As a pop instrument, however, it comes off slightly different: unlike more untrained voices, von Otter’s is cool, perfectly accurate, and slightly unemotional (at least by pop standards). She’s no Odetta or even a Christina, but then, the music that Costello has written–or chosen or fashioned–for her is quietly effective anyway.

For the Stars contains 18 tracks, about half of which are newly written but sonically old-fashioned torch songs. The rest are covers of standards that have been transformed into something wholly other by this extremely subdued, orchestral treatment.

COSTELLO’S ability to write for different genres is well known, but some of these songs sound downright Merchant-Ivory. On the opening track, “No Wonder,” for example, Von Otter sings against a background of piano and cello that has more in common with Lieber and Stoller than with the angry author of “Pump It Up”: “I dreamed I stood as you were passing/ Just as the horse-drawn carriage sped away/ Of petticoats in puddles dragging . . . and my high-button boots were splashed with clay.”

“Baby Plays Around” is even quieter and more orchestral, as are many of the lost-my-love songs on the record. A real high point comes with “Broken Bicycles” by Waits, which is sung in exactly the opposite manner from Waits’-but which sounds just as good, especially when Costello and von Otter’s voices mesh for the finale.

And what von Otter does with two different Pet Sounds-era Brian Wilson songs–“Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder)” and “You Still Believe in Me”–proves to be really quite astonishing.

For the Stars is all about interpretation. Costello’s own voice is sparingly used (although it appears on occasion). There are several covers that are almost unrecognizable, while on the original numbers Costello collaborates with a number of other diverse musicians, including Ruben Blades, Burt Bacharach, Svane Henryson, his latest group, Fleshquartet, and his wife, former Pogue Cait O’Riordon.

You wouldn’t know from the seamlessness of this record, however, that it wasn’t the work of one artist, which is a tribute to von Otter’s vocal power.

THE ALBUM does not represent Costello’s first foray into classic forms by any means. In 1993, he collaborated with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters. Costello has also made music with an eclectic group of folks, including jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, Burt Bacharach, the Chieftains, Paul McCartney, and many others, in addition to creating soundtracks for British TV shows like Jake’s Progress and G.B.H. and a PBS special called The Irish in America, and even making a recent appearance on Third Rock from the Sun.

In fact, Costello seems to do everything but rock music these days, and that is to his credit. Compared to his more successful contemporaries–Tom Petty, say–his repertoire is far more sophisticated and interesting; one can’t help but imagine that his daily life is probably all those things as well. No rock-star clichés–drug ODs, ugly divorces, or the consequent Behind the Music episode–for him; instead he has pursued a career that has much more scope in it for aging.

But Costello’s interest in all types of music is one thing. The trick is training one’s own taste in music to embrace a palette as wide as his. Luckily for him, those of us who really enjoy mid-tempo rock in 4/4 time are having a hard time staying interested in pop stars these days–and hip-hop, country, and metal are even more commercial and less fulfilling. No wonder everyone’s looking backward at classic rock, oldies, and now (judging by Costello) classical music for inspiration.

Costello’s venture is only the latest in a long line of projects by artists who’ve searched out new media to inform their old ones: Metallica now works with the San Francisco Symphony, members of Primus have joined the Blue Man Group, and Steve Earle, Britney Spears, and Paul McCartney all have published books–and the list goes on.

Given the profusion of such projects, one can’t help but feel that these are signs that artists are frustrated with the confines of rock. They find straight-ahead pop music a fallow field, and so do many listeners. Hence, records like For the Stars, which have almost no contemporary cultural relevance or contextuality, but which are at least exciting and fun to listen to: accessible, pretty, and yet totally unique.

From the July 5-11, 2001 issue of the Northern California Bohemian.

© Metro Publishing Inc.