Like wine, Miles Davis’s ageless Kind of Blue gets better with time. With his all-star players including saxophonist John Coltrane and pianist Bill Evans, Davis’s experimentation of modal scale changed the sound of jazz. He not only proved that less is more, but also that slow is not boring. Newcomers who want a piece of jazz, just hand them this joint.
Nowadays male pop singers try to outdo each other by the number of chicks they can get on their album. Even Dan Truong got his pimp on. His new duet album featured a line up of twelve female vocalists ranging from the young My Tam to the old Huong Lan.
Like his baby face, his baby voice, unfortunately, only makes the ladies more superior. I can’t tell if Ho Ngoc Ha’s timbre has gotten raspier or it seems that way next to him. She makes him sound like a bitch, but at least she gives him some room to breathe on Lam Phuong’s “Co Ua.” On Le Minh Son’s “Anh Can Em,” Thanh Lam just sucks up everything out of him. Like a drill sergeant, Thanh Lam shows no sympathy toward the spineless, pretty boy. Her powerful delivery suggests: Can’t keep up with me? Fuck you. Pay me.
It turns out Dan Truong is the one got pimped. The ladies crushed him on his own album. How mess up is that? And this is only the duet disc of the album. I don’t even have the temerity to come near the solo disc.
Give Verve Jazz Masters 30 a spin and it becomes clear how Lester Young was the master of ballad playing. On the slow-burning “I’m Confessin’,” Young made his tenor sax sang like an emotional human voice. On the up-swinging “All Of Me,” he flourished like wild flower in the spring. The classic “Love Me or Leave Me” still gets me every time. Young had such a sensual tone that one must hears it to appreciate it. This collection has been played constantly in my car, home and work for the past week.
Shaggy, the dancehall virtuoso, returns with Intoxication, an album that will guarantee to get you hooked, make you sweet and irritate the shit out of you. His remake of Mary Hopkin’s “Those Days” has, unfortunately, stuck in my head and I can’t get rid of it. The rhythm is groovy; the flow is unmistakable; the chorus makes me want to slap myself for singing: “Those were the days my friend / we thought they’d never end / we sing and dance forever and a day / la la la la…” Another the track that is ridiculously addictive is “Mad Mad World.” The keyboard riff is as sweet as Starbuck’s Caramel Frappuccino. Need some workout? This album will keep you pumping for 56 minutes.
By singing a jazz standard over a rock song or the other way around, Jacqui Naylor invented a style of her own called “acoustic smashes.” With The Color Five, she dressed Gershwin’s “Summertime” lyrics in Gregg Allman’s southern-rock “Whipping Post” and Rod Stewart’s “Hot Legs” in Herbie Hancock’s funk-jazz “Cantaloupe Island.” She pulled both tracks off with her slightly scratched voice, versatile phrasing and rhythm sensitivity. Unfortunately the album loses its spell with mundane pop-rock covers like REM’s “Losing My Religion” and U2’s “I Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
Khanh Linh needs to cut out that operatic shit. Her wailing soprano on Le Minh Son’s “Tieng Hat Em” is as irritating as screeching chalk against the board. Maybe she shouldn’t have worked with Le Minh Son, the composer who seems to enjoy hearing singers scream all out. Her cover of Duong Thu’s “Tieng Song Bien” isn’t so bad until the annoying adlib kicks in. The Latin-grooved “Tuoi Nui Doi” is the only track that stands out.
Whether Alicia Keys floats like an old slinky songbird on “Where Do We Go From Here” or drenches her emotion into “The Thing About Love,” her third studio album, As I Am, proves that the R&B singer still has soul, chops and grooves. With her powerful, slightly cracked vocals, she delivers each song in effortless commend. Even when she boosts “I am a superwomen,” you have to concur: “Yes she is.”
On Tinh Ca Muon Thuo, composer and pianist Nguyen Anh 9 turns toward nostalgia as he plays a soliloquy on the keyboard. From the opening “Khong,” Nguyen Anh 9 gives give his own ballad tune a classical tinge. Although his technique—gliding from quiet diminuendo to pounding crescendo—is elegant and exciting, all the tracks get a similar treatment except for the melody. Some syncopation on the left hand and arpeggios on the right are necessary to spice up his execution, especially on the bluesy “Mua Thu Canh Nau.” Still the album is perfect for relaxing and stress releasing.
At 86, Dave Brubeck is still at the top of his solo ballad playing. Indian Summer catches Brubeck at his melancholic mood. Every track is treated with calm, gentle strokes. Even the stride pieces like “Sweet Lorraine” and “Summer Song” are relaxed and reflective. His soft, sensual touches turn “Georgia on My Mind” into a bluesy intimacy and give his own “Thank You” a classical sensation. The album is best experienced in a private setting.
The title of Phuong Thanh’s new album alone damn near made me felt off my chair. She goes all out “sen” on this one. With tracks like “Lan va Diep,” “Bac Trang Lua Hong,” “Cau Cau Dua,” “Mat Nhau Roi” and “Sau Tim Thiep Hong,” Chanh is trying to make the most of her limited vocal range. Sure she had been mediocre before, but never to this extreme.