Though he was a romantic to the end, tenor saxophonist Stan Getz was not one to let sentiment turn to sentimentality. "I never played a note I didn't mean," he once said. "I hope they write that on my tombstone."
This duet session with pianist Barron was recorded live in Copenhagen just three months before Getz succumbed to liver cancer, at age 64, in June 1991. Raging against the dying of the light, Getz offers a forceful—and rhapsodic—testament.
Buoyed by the supple harmonies and firm percussive touch of Barron, whom he once called "the other half of my heart," Getz glides through upbeat renditions of "Night and Day," "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" and "Hush-a-Bye" with a breezy, Astaire-like self-assurance. His sound is penetrating and energetic, yet soothing because of its cool edge. Barron, also brilliant on a recent session with bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Ben Riley, Lemurla-Seascape (Candid), urges Getz on with his hurtling right hand, adding punctuation with terse, left-hand figures.
Such ballads as "Soul Eyes" inspire a feeling of autumnal sadness. But as Getz caresses each note of the elegiac "I'm Okay," one senses his determination to seek immortality, however painful that quest might be, by staying true to himself. (Verve)
They Might Be Giants
This Brooklyn-based duo of John Flansburgh and John Linnell are like high-school science nerds who grew up listening to Hits of the '70s collections. They deserve a different kind of critic. With that in mind, let's imagine possible reactions to the Giants:
"This record is more fun than a barrel of anthropoids, with simple, catchy pop tunes that tackle issues of substance. 'Mammal' is a perfect example, with a bouncy organ riff to accompany the words, 'So the warm blood flows/ With the red blood cells, lacking nuclei/ Through the large four-chambered heart/ Maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have.' "—Darwinian Daily
"It's got a great beat and you can dance to it. I give it a cube root of 941. 492. Especially the song 'Fingertips,' which manages to cram nearly two dozen different types of pop standard, from ballad to folk to ad jingle, into one regular-length number. This is like getting two records for the price of one, a savings of roughly $11.98 per purchase, depending on state tax laws."—Mathematician Monthly
"These mellifluous melodies are exactly our cup of beverage made by soaking leaves of certain plants. What other maestros make hummable entities of such verbiage as 'palindrome' in 'I Palindrome I' or 'He had the same obsequious manner/ That was the reason I had him killed' in 'Turnaround'?"—Wordsmith World
"The record is totally cool."—PEOPLE (Elektra)
Shakespeare's Sister
Mixing and matching like mad, this distaff duo—Englishwoman Siobhan Fahey and American Marcella Detroit—hits pay dirt on their second release.
"Goodbye Cruel World" blends the muted oomph of "Ruby Tuesday"-era Rolling Stones with the exoticism of the Cocteau Twins. "I Don't Care" sounds like an effervescent version of the Pretenders. "Catwoman" is an electric boogie that brings to mind Norman Greenbaum's classic "Spirit in the Sky."
The ladies are too soulless for the funk of "Are We in Love Yet" or the rave-up "Emotional Thing." But they credibly render such mid-tempo numbers as "My 16th Apology." The best tracks represent well-produced pop craft, all shot through with feverish gothic draftiness.
Neither Fahey (a Bananarama alumna) nor Detroit has an impressive voice, but that is less than ever a factor in pop success. (Let's face it: Madonna ain't no Lena Horne.) In any event Shakespear's Sister, like many of her relatives, lives in a rarefied world where melody is secondary to mood. (London)
Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians
Hitchcock has always seemed to be a mad scientist of alternative rock. In the past his lyrics crawled with images of insects and plants, and were laced with a skewed wit. Now he seems obsessed with only one arthropod species: the Beatles.
His first unapologetically pop record brims with Fab Four influences. It's as if he spent one rainy day with the band's entire catalog. But their style is filtered through Hitchcock's jangly guitar sound, and on, say, the bouncy "Oceanside," the mix works beautifully. There's even a single (gasp!), "So You Think You're in Love," a skeptic's ode to starry-eyed romantics. Egyptians Andy Metcalfe and Morris Windsor provide their usual solid backing vocals. R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe adds his voice to "She Doesn't Exist."
The album's latter half, a return to Hitchcock's cerebral bent, pales next to the Lennon-esque sections. But then his older fans may not care to hear Hitchcock posing as a lost beetle, er, Beatle. (A&M)
Aaron Tippin
Tippin's no-frills country style served him well on his first outing, You've Got to Stand for Something, and works to better effect on this follow-up. Replacing some of the rough edges evident on that first album is a new vocal maturity. Tippin's nasal, high-pitched voice sounds fuller and more resonant.
This change is most obvious on the melancholic ballad "These Sweet Dreams," cowritten with Butch Curry, which has the feel of a classic. "This Heart" also benefits from Tippin's increased ability to invest his lyrics with tenderness. He still may enjoy telling the world what a tough hombre he is, as in "I Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way," but there's another side to him that can sing just as convincingly about pain and regret, as he does on "If I Had It to Do Over."
"My Blue Angel" lets this South Carolinian work his yodel to the hilt. Also invested with back-hill twang is "I Was Born with a Broken Heart," which Tippin wrote with Jim McBride when Tippin was still, as he puts it, a Nashville "greenhorn."
On "The Sound of Your Goodbye (Sticks and Stones)," a six-string bass enhances a so-so song. Recalling "You've Got to Stand for Something" is the bouncy "There Ain't Nothin' Wrong with the Radio," which refers to Tippin's clunker of a car, Daisy.
Second albums, like second novels, often disappoint fans set up by a successful debut. Read Between the Lines doesn't suffer by comparison, it surpasses. (BMG)
- Contributors:
- David Grogan,
- Craig Tomashoff,
- David Hiltbrand,
- Andrew Abrahams,
- Lisa Shea.
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!
