Tyler, The Creator, On tour
The trouble with being an outrageous, bright young kid is that, eventually, even that gets old. The brains and dubious sense of humour behind Odd Future, the LA hip-hop collective that has given the world talents such as Earl Sweatshirt and Frank Ocean, Tyler’s mission has more often than not been to outrage. Not that we’re suddenly talking about “mature work” or anything as Paul Weller as that. But his new album Cherry Bomb, with its innovative beats and impressive lyrical focus, suggests he’s unwilling to be a sideshow in his own creation and let his initial promise be lost in a tidal wave of juvenile pranks.
JR
Bryan Ferry, On tour
Beyond smooth, Bryan Ferry is positively slippery. Respected for his 1970s art-rock experiments with Brian Eno, his stack-heeled faithful lost patience with him when, at the decade’s end, Roxy appeared to become simply his backing band on glacial work perceived as yuppie muzak. These days, after a foiled reunion with Eno, Ferry is a stylistic will-o’-the-wisp. Up for a dance remix (his dandyish croon has sat pleasantly atop work by Todd Terje), even re-interpreting Roxy in a hot jazz style for Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby movie, he can style most things out, in a GQ-man-of-the-year kind of way. It’s true that his new album, Avonmore, sounds like it should be a revered Scottish golf course or an expensive single malt. In fact, it’s a return to the gentle, sophisticated pulsing of his 1980s work.
JR
Alabama Shakes, On tour
As smart drivers and rock musicians know, the garage is a beginning, not an end. So it has proved with Alabama Shakes. The band’s debut Boys & Girls was certainly a decent record, but its massive success seemed to reflect a hunger for raw rock’n’roll music performed well rather than anything in particular the band were themselves bringing to the party. However, the new Shakes album Sound & Color sees a more adventurous approach to that proposition. The band have allowed producer Blake Mills to deal with their music as a mechanic might an engine: the elements are still undoubtedly theirs, but it’s now running with a glossy, high-powered efficiency.
JR
Alash Ensemble, On tour
Claiming Sun Ra and Jimi Hendrix as influences, the Alash trio of throat singers hail from Tuva, which lies in the middle of Asia on the southern central tip of Siberia. Comprising Bady-Dorzhu Ondar, Ayan-ool Sam and Ayan Shirizhik, they perform a traditional form of Tuvan overtone singing developed among the area’s nomadic herdsmen, which involves producing a guttural drone at the same time as a sung melody over the top. That bass tone can shift between a high, fuzzy croak and a subterranean rumble that’s part sound, part vibration, the rattling effects of which can only really be fully appreciated live. Throat singing is certainly not obscure, though, having been picked up by Björk, Frank Zappa and even an episode of Frasier, and while Alash play to western tastes, they remain a traditional ensemble at heart.
JA
Hot Sardines, On tour
It’s hardly news to reveal that there are good-time jazz bands taking their cues from 1920s and 30s dance music – often focused on fedoras and flapper dresses as much as on repertoire – and determined to set crowds jumping rather than demurely tapping their feet. New York’s Hot Sardines do that and a whole lot more. They play vintage hits with a mix of Gypsy jazz rhythms and a stride-piano vivacity drawn from Fats Waller, but the wit and smart arrangements to uncork the music of their grandparents as if nobody had ever thought of it until now. Founded by Paris-born singer Elizabeth Bougerol and pianist Evan “Babs” Palazzo, the lineup has grown to include brass, reeds, drums and the tapdancing of Edwin “Fast Eddy” Francisco. They created a stir at the 2014 London jazz festival, so expectations for these shows are high.
JF
Betrayal: A Polyphonic Crime Drama, On tour
Carlo Gesualdo died in 1613, a few years after opera as we know it was first devised, but his own works were confined to sacred music and six books of madrigals that pushed the expressive boundaries of the form much further than any other composer of his time. Gesualdo’s life was dramatic enough for any opera plot. He murdered his wife and her lover in flagrante, then spent most of the rest of his life in self-imposed seclusion on his estate in southern Italy, wracked with guilt. Composers including Schnittke, Sciarrino and Francesconi have based operas on Gesualdo’s life, and now the vocal group I Fagiolini and director John La Bouchardière have created an immersive theatre piece from it, too. Betrayal combines Gesualdo’s madrigals with dance to investigate “what drives someone to such extremes”.
AC
