Reviews

Some of the thousands of revellers at Glastonbury 2010

First Night: Glastonbury Festival, Pilton, Somerset (Rated 3/ 5 )

Old-timer starts off at a leisurely pace as the temperature rises

Inside Reviews

Album: Jimmy Webb, Just Across the River (E1 Music/RSK Entertainment) new (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

The aim with the duets retrospective Just Across The River is to emphasise Webb's contribution to the Americana traditions of folk and country, which means the voluptuous cabaret pleasures of "McArthur Park" and "Up, Up And Away" are sacrificed in favour of the rustic mythopoeicising of "The Highwayman" and "Oklahoma Nights", the latter tinted with pedal steel and speckled with banjo; along with a nod to the Sixties' singer-songwriter tradition in the form of Webb and Jackson Browne's duetting on "P.F. Sloan", a tribute to the man who wrote "Eve Of Destruction".

Album: Black Helicopter, Don't Fuck with the Apocalypse (Ecstatic Peace!) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

Like The Black Keys and Kings Of Leon, Boston combo Black Helicopter manage to find something fresh and distinctive in the kind of heavy rock music that's the musical equivalent of an army-surplus greatcoat.

Album: Various Artists, Cumbia Beat Vol 1 (Vampi Soul) (Rated 5/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

Back in the late Sixties, when Western pop culture was turning paisley, something similar was happening in Peru, paralleling the Tropicalismo movement revolutionising Brazilian music.

Album: The Flaming Lips & Stardeath and White Dwarfs, The Dark Side of the Moon (Warner Bros) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

The tribute album is often damned by the diffidence of disciples wary of offending against their holy musical text.

Album: K'Naan, Troubadour Champion Edition (Octone/A&M) (Rated 5/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

In Somalian, K'naan Warsame's name means "the traveller who carries the words of peace".

Album: Seth Lakeman, Hearts and Minds (Relentless/Virgin) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

To follow-up Poor Man's Heaven, Seth Lakeman has brought in the producer Tchad Blake, known for maximising the power of acoustic music without sacrificing its subtleties.

Loudon Wainwright III and Richard Thompson, Royal Festival Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 25 June 2010

The programme for Richard Thompson's Meltdown festival carries a photograph of Thompson in his salad days – taken, probably, in the late Sixties or early Seventies, some time around his founding of Fairport Convention and his marital and musical union with Linda Thompson. A little Nick Drake-like, he gazes wistfully off-shot. It feels iconic. But while for a lot of people Thompson's name might ring a bell, ask them to hum one of his tunes and you'll probably draw a blank.

The Duckworth Lewis Method, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Thursday, 24 June 2010

It's difficult to overstate the brilliance of The Duckworth Lewis Method's cricket-themed album, and even harder to do it without descending into a kit-bag of cricketing terminology – like noting, for example, how Neil Hannon and Thomas Walsh's maiden delivery hits all the sweet spots; or how each plays a captain's innings worthy of a leg up the indie batting order. See? And it's a terrible compulsion, because actually what they've managed to achieve is a good deal subtler than that; a collection of songs that are certainly about cricket, but that also manage to push the boundaries of their designated plot and become about other things, too.

Elvis Costello, Royal Festival Hall, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

"I've been wading through all this unbelievable junk/ And wondering if I should have given the world to the monkeys," he spits out with relish on "God's Comic" in this blistering solo set. It's about time we reclaimed our very own Elvis, and thanks to Richard Thompson's Meltdown we get a rare sighting (he now lives in New York with his wife, Diana Krall) of this British new-wave whiz.

Wynton Marsalis & Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Hackney Empire, London (Rated 4/ 5 )

Wednesday, 23 June 2010

Given the crippling costs of keeping 15 musicians in gainful employ, big bands are largely a thing of the past. But this sumptuous performance by Wynton Marsalis's stellar unit was a reminder that an orchestra remains a vital resource to any jazz musician. It offers both power and precision. Since the early 80s the New Orleans trumpeter has been exploring and extending the heritage of acoustic jazz, using 30s swing, 40s bebop and 50s post-bop as templates for his own creations and this final night of a five-day residency at various venues in London presented a panorama of those vocabularies. There were arrangements of legends like Herbie Hancock, Joe Henderson and Jackie McLean and there were also original pieces by JALCO members such as saxophonist Ted Nash. His Dali suite, set in the tripwire time signature of 13/8, was a highlight for the intoxicating swirl of the horns, which culminated in Nash's alto becoming a dramatic echo to a stabbing improvisation by trumpeter Marcus Printup. However, the presence of British guest musicians also raised the bar. Vibraphonist Jim Hart, tenor saxophonist Jean Toussaint and pianist Julian Joseph all took hard swinging solos and vocalist Cleveland Watkiss was imperious on an express train rendition of McLean's "Appointment in Ghana", in which his scat choruses revealed a timbral richness and phrasal trickery that had the horn players nodding in approval. In a delicious passage of his solo, Watkiss quoted the first part of the theme of Thelonious Monk's "Green Chimneys" at lightning speed before twisting its harmony in an entirely new direction. Yet what became apparent throughout the evening was the relevance of big band music to other genres, simply because of its enormous sonic range. On slow passages the ornate, rippling textures evoked ambient music, on faster numbers, as the brass plunged deep into the low register, there was funk aplenty, and when the whole ensemble was in full flow, there was a soundtrack in search of a movie. Decked out in sharp suits and seated in three rows under the Hackney Empire's proscenium arch, Marsalis's orchestra indeed offered a big-screen spectacle for eyes and ears alike.

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