Charles Lloyd: The
Water Is Wide
ECM 1734
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 Tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd seems to just get better with time
-- having produced great music for nearly 35 years, this legendary jazz artist still
hasn't exhausted his creative drive. His latest ECM release features a first rate lineup,
including guitarist John Abercrombie, the late Billy Higgins on drums, Larry Grenadier on
bass and pianist Brad Mehldau, the latter two ranking high among today's "young
lions." On The Water Is Wide, Lloyd’s hauntingly deep, ethereal tone
inhabits every track. However, the compositions here tend more toward the ballad than has
been the case on his previous recordings, such as 1999's Voice In The Night and
1997's Canto; perhaps this is a result of Mehldau’s playing, which has often
been likened to that of Bill Evans. Essentially, what you get with The Water Is Wide
is very accessible jazz with exceptional recording quality, featuring a great band leader
with sidemen who are all bandleaders in their own right.
Tim Story: Shadowplay
Hearts of Space 11403-2
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 A quote from Balthus aptly describes Tim Story's ambient chamber
music: "Beauty is something you discover slowly." Shadowplay asks to be
entered into without haste or effort, and reveals itself in a process of relaxation,
leaving the listener drifting aimlessly in the kind of semi-hypnotic daydream that
listening to rain or watching the waves can induce. Its diaphanous tone poems are narrated
by grand piano, oboe d'amore and cello which hover over synth pedals and other sound
treatments. As soon as any marginal rhythmic fixations arise, they are swiftly undone.
Suggestive time patterns dissolve quickly, undermining regularity. But Shadowplay
isn't purely atmospheric space music. Tim Story's compositions contain sufficient melodic
elements to feel classical, albeit in a modern, hybrid way. While most so-called New Age
music often seems trite or vaporous, Shadowplay is finely crafted and solid. It has
excellent sonics, too. Think of Shadowplay as music for a rainy day, when you want
to gently veg out and be transported to someplace gorgeous in the process.
Pink Floyd: Is
There Anybody Out There? The Wall: Live 1980-1981
Columbia C2K 62058
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 In late 1980 and early 1981, Pink Floyd embarked on a series of
performances in London and Long Island. These shows represented the entirety of the very
brief tour for The Wall studio album. For the last twenty years there has been a
huge demand for an official release of these performances. Is There Anybody Ouy There?
The Wall: Live 1980-1981 finally satisfies that request beautifully. This elaborately
packaged two-CD set is an essential recording for Pink Floyd fans, bringing an excellent
studio recording to the next plateau. Along with insightful print interviews with all of
the band members and key crew personnel, there are excellent photographs and first-rate
liner notes. Then there's the sound, which exhibits a dramatically realistic sense of
acoustic space, which is further accentuated by loads of detail, typical for a Pink Floyd
performance. If you missed this show two decades ago (and you probably did), this release
is truly the next best thing.
Cheb Mami: Dellali
Mondo Melodia 186 850 025-2
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 Algerian raï superstar Cheb Mami penetrated mainstream
consciousness with his cameo appearance on Sting's tune "Desert Rose." On Dellali,
Nile Rodgers, producer of David Bowie and Chic, helps to fashion an album of truly global
and cosmopolitan appeal. Mami sings in French and his native tongue. He also plays the
accordion, which adds occasional zydeco elements to a group that includes Chet Atkins on
guitars, Omar Hakim on drums and Philippe Saisse on keyboards and synths. Dellali's
vibe is alive with a Euro hipness that pervades the entire album, from the reggae-fied
"Madanite" to the love ballad "Tzazae." Mami isn't above revisiting a
classical Byzantine melody in "Yahamami," accompanied by members of the English
Chamber Orchestra -- or following it up by underscoring voices of the London Community
Gospel Choir with slamming club beats over which his melismatic voice rises like a call to
prayer. In short, Dellali is chock-full of surprises, and none are of the
disappointing kind.
Cesaria Evora: São Vicente
Windham Hill 01934-11590-2
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 Evora is the bare-footed diva from the Cape Verde islands who set
world music radio stations ablaze with her Portuguese fado-inspired mornas, songs
laden with the bittersweet melancholy of the untranslatable emotion of saudade. Her
ensemble sound -- de-tuned piano, guitars, cavaquinho, strings, sax, light brass --
is reminiscent of Brazilian chamber music. So are certain samba-influenced rhythms. Above
all, there's the unmistakably happy aroma of island airs. And Evora's vibrato-less but
heavily emotive mature alto voice is the undisputed headline act. On São Vicente, she
performs duets with Pedro Guerra, Caetano Veloso, Chucho Valdes and Bonnie Raitt, while
the Orquesta Aragon stands in on one track for her regulars. The overall flavor is more
celebratory than on earlier releases but still unapologetically romantic, with again
mostly modest to slow tempi. Stylistically, the album explores some new ground.
"Crepuscular Solidão" introduces a surprisingly apt slide guitar and Raitt's
question-and-answer support, which will have country fans wonder who is singing.
"Linda Mimosa" injects Cuban strings and hand percussion. São Vicente is
sophisticated feel-good music tinged with sadness and gratitude, world-weariness and hope.
If you haven't yet met Cesaria Evora, you don't know what you're missing -- she's one of
the greats on the world music stage!
Strunz & Farah: StringWeave
Selva 1008
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 With their 11th album, America's premiere guitar duo of guitarra
Latina style proves again why these genre originators still lead the pack. To add
timbres into the titular warp and woof of stringed instruments, Jorge Strunz picks up
cittern and ronroco on two tracks, while Farhad Besharati makes an appearance on the
Turkish qanun zither. Special guest collaborators include Indian violin maestro L.
Subramaniam, Liona Boyd on classical guitar, Edwin Colón Zayas on cuatro and Bijan
Mortazavi on Middle-Eastern violin. Many different rhythmic and melodic flavors
intermingle here -- Near-Eastern, South American, Moorish -- all occasionally brushing
against minor jazz inflections. "Rimas de Cuerdas" is a slow-motion ballad that
sashays gently alongside Cuban congas, while "Gypsy in the Wood" cunningly
combines a Peruvian rhythm with a melody that might have escaped from a Sultan's palace
across the seas. "Laleh" shifts liltingly between fast waltz- and four-based
rhythms, while "Shamsa" introduces Subramaniam's raga-flavored modal scales and
quartertone quivers. Recorded in HDCD, StringWeave doesn't break much new ground for those
already acquainted with the ensemble. Still, it's another very scintillating, immaculately
groomed feather in their colorful cap.
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