Karen and Richard Carpenter first made it onto the charts with soft ballads like Burt Bacharach's Close to You and Paul Williams' We've Only Just Begun and Rainy Days and Mondays. In this, their ninth album, the versatile brother and sister expand their repertoire to include space rock (as in Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft) and even some Latin-sounding salsa with B'wana She No Home. But the Carpenters really hit the nail when they revert to the kind of easy listening their reputation was built on. With the lilting All You Get from Love Is a Love Song, Karen reaffirms her standing as one of the best vocalists pop has to offer.
Keith Jarrett
Keith Jarrett (PEOPLE, Aug. 22) has a backup band comprising some of the finest musicians in the business. Paul Motian is the preeminent drummer of the jazz genre (he was with the Bill Evans trio from 1959 to '61). Sax player Dewey Redman and bassist Charlie Haden complemented Ornette Coleman for years. Jarrett is the Dave Brubeck of the '70s, and college students flock around him. His music is a pastiche of popular piano styles of the last 20 years, stitched together by his own version of the blues. Jarrett fans won't be disappointed.
Kansas
A highly accomplished six-man group, Kansas is best when it sticks to the heavily instrumental classical-rock sound (with violins yet) for which it has become well-known. The cuts Closet Chronicles and Portrait are simple and clear, but too often the band crosses the line from inventiveness to bombast. Manic rhythm changes and clamorous power-riffing simultaneously on three instruments make this album more nerve-racking than entertaining.
Itzhak Perlman
Perlman's reverent tribute to the storied violinist is a delight that does justice to two prodigious talents. While the first album concentrated on Kreisler's own compositions, Perlman here draws on his transcriptions of short works and excerpts by composers from Albéniz (Malagueña) to Wieniawski (Caprice in A-Minor). Accompanied on piano as usual by Canadian Samuel Sanders, Perlman is dazzling without being mechanical, moving but not melodramatic. The only caveat is the inclusion of Londonderry Air—better known as Danny Boy. Even if you can stand the tune otherwise, it is unbearable when played on the violin.
Phoebe Snow
Phoebe Snow is a big girl by now, and she should have long since decided whether she wants to sing or yodel. Perhaps it is not much of a choice—singers make a lot more money. In any event, the quintessential quaverer of pop music has released her first album in over a year, and it's of the same caliber as the last—small. But she does have her admirers, and they will no doubt be delighted. The cover art is intended to be fetchingly understated; Phoebe knows her audience. If only she could hold a single note for more than half a bar...
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
