Seven seems like a lucky number this month. The first Friday was the 7th and logically each subsequent Friday is evenly divided by seven. So it’s entirely appropriate (or curiously rationalized) that for this third week of the month I have seven titles for you in New In Music This Week: March 21st.
My top choice for New In Music This Week: March 21st is:
JAZZ: DEFIANT LIFE – Vijay Iyer and Wadada Leo Smith – ECM
Sometimes you first listen to an album and it just resonates with you down to the depths of your soul. That’s exactly how I felt listening to Defiant Life. Keyboard player Iyer and trumpeter Smith have collaborated on a beautiful album that moves, inspires, stimulates and calms you during troubled times. The music they have written/created is simply stunning.
The journey Iyer and Smith take us on begins with the very dark opening track, Prelude: Survival. Included in the six compositions on the recording are two pieces dedicated to two people who died tragically: an assassinated leader (Congolese prime minister Patrice Lumumba) and Refaat Alareer, a writer/poet killed in Gaza in 2023. The last piece, Kite (for Alareer), leads us to the final track, Procession: Defiant Life. Survival is one their minds. Not just physical survival, but emotional and mental survival, too. Defiant Life goes from dark to light, but not in a frivolous or calculated way. This is music that comes straight from the heart.
Iyer is quoted on press notes as saying their recording session, “was conditioned by our ongoing sorrow and outrage over the past year’s cruelties, but also by our faith in human possibility.”
If you’re like me, you might wonder if there’s any reason to have faith right now. If music this powerful can be created during this time of worldwide upheaval, then there is a reason to believe.
The other fine new releases this week are:
CABARET: MOSTLY MARLENE – Kim David Smith
I’ve seen singer Kim David Smith a couple times in New York. He’s called the Male Marlene Dietrich for a reason. And if you can’t see him in person, you can now listen to Mostly Marlene which features a live performance by Smith from New York’s Joe’s Pub.
He doesn’t just celebrate Dietrich in this show, but also the music of composer Friedrich Hollaender whose music was performed by Dietrich. Smith performs nine of the Hollaender’s songs on this thoroughly entertaining album.
As any good cabaret artist might do, Smith also includes music associated with other artists including Liza (do you need a last name) and Kylie (same question).
Smith has a great sense of humor, a smooth singing style and his personality comes through on this album. Most importantly, he owns his queerness and celebrates it from the opening moments of Mostly Marlene through to the very end.
There are a slew of special guests on the album including Joey Arias, Charles Busch and Bright Light Bright Light.
Mostly Marlene is marvelously magical.
You can watch my interview from last year with Kim David Smith HERE.
CLASSICAL: TAKE ME TO THE WATER – Ashley Jackson – Decca Records
When is a harp more than a harp? In the capable hands of Ashley Jackson that question gets a clear and moving answer.
Her debut recording features music by Margaret Bonds, Coleridge-Taylor, Alice Coltrane, Debussy and more. Plus there are arrangements of three traditional songs along with River Jordan, composed by Jackson.
The theme is water. Not just the life-sustaining qualities of water, but the challenge of access to water, keeping water safe and the healing powers of water.
This is a deeply spiritual album that surprised me with how emotional it made me feel while listening to it.
CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: SONGS WITH WORDS – Malakoff Kowalski – Sony Classical
One of these things is not like the other: Amy Beach, Frédéric Chopin, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Allen Ginsberg, Edvard Grieg, Aram Khachaturian, Maurice Ravel, Robert Schumann and Germaine Tailleferre. Who is the outlier here?
What if I told you none of the above? Composer/vocalist Kowalski has paired the sung poems by Ginsberg with existing miniature pieces composed by the men and women listed above.
The result is something entirely unique. Listening to Kowalski’s vocals reminded me first and foremost of Tom Waits. What started as a curiosity became infinitely more compelling as each song revealed itself.
The title is inspired by Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words and features pianists Chilly Gonzales, Igot Levitt and Johanna Summer.
JAZZ: NOW PLEASE DON’T YOU CRY, BEAUTIFUL EDITH – Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Verve Acoustic Sounds
This classic album by multi-instrumentalist Kirk is considered one of his most seminal recordings. Released in 1967, the title refers to his wife and is one of Kirk’s more emotive albums.
He composed six of the eight tracks with the two covers being Burt Bacharach’s Alfie and Bily Taylor’s It’s a Grand Night for Swinging.
Joining Kirk on this recording are Roland Boykins on bass; Lonnie Liston Smith on piano and Grady Tate on drums.
This is a vinyl reissue of an album that should be a part of any jazz aficionados collection.
JAZZ: HAPPY FACES – Dave Robbins Big Band – Reel to Reel
The setting is Vancouver’s Cave Supper Club in the early 1960s. Jazz Workshop broadcasted from there and trombonist/composer Dave Robbins and his band were featured. There are a dozen tracks on this album that were recorded from 1963 to 1965.
This album was a great introduction to the Vancouver jazz scene at the time. Bass player Paul Ruhland composed two of the tracks. Many of the songs were written by Al MacMillan.
You will certainly recognize one song, the title song written by Sonny Stitt and arranged by Quincy Jones. The rest, probably not so much.
It didn’t matter that I wasn’t familiar with any of the musicians on this record or most of the songs. I enjoyed it from start to finish.
DISCO (JUST FOR THE HELL OF IT): ELI ROTH’S RED LIGHT DISCO – CAMSugar/Ume
The subtitle for this album is Dancefloor Seductions From Italian Sexploitation Cinema. Which means only Eli Roth could have or would have curated this double album.
Sexploitation films were films that had a boatload of nudity but were not explicit. It’s a term that dates back over 80 years.
But if you like disco and want to get an idea of how Italian musicians and filmmakers put their own spin on the 1970’s music sensation, this album is, quite frankly, a lot of fun. I don’t like every track here, but there is so much to enjoy.
The composers are not household names. Among them are Stelvio Cipriani, Franco Companino, Gianni Ferrio, Nico Fidenco, Vasil Kajucharov, Riz Ortolani, Carloa Savina and Alfonso Zenga.
Okay, maybe that last title was a bit of a curveball. But it is so unique and I found it a mostly enjoyable album to listen to and certainly good for a party where you don’t want the same songs everyone else plays.
That’s all for New In Music This Week: March 21st. Enjoy your weekend and enjoy the music.
Main Photo: Part of the album art of Kim David Smith’s Mostly Marlene