Audio Files

By GINA VIVINETTO, ROBERT FRIEDMAN, GERRY DOYLE, PETER A. COUTURE and PHILIP BOOTH

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 3, 2001

MISSY ELLIOTT, MISS E . . . SO ADDICTIVE (ELEKTRA) So Addictive is the third and finest album from hip hop's reigning queen, Missy -- we used to call her "Misdemeanor" -- Elliott. As on her smash debut Supa Dupa Fly and Da Real World, its less engaging follow-up, Missy is again in cahoots with pal and producer Timbaland, whose seamless, mellifluous, funky beats partner perfectly with Missy's free-flowing rap. And Missy can sing, too. Check out that soprano on Scream a.k.a. Itchin'.

Again, this time Missy invites more guests than Mr. Rourke and Tattoo did to Fantasy Island. Method Man, Redman, Ludicris, Jay-Z, all the good-time boys are here, rapping about dirty sex and X and "weed" and so many of Missy's favorite topics. (Later Eve, Busta, Da Brat and Ginuine drop by.)

You know from titles such as One Minute Man and Dog in Heat that the party onSo Addictive isn't for all ages. (Who am I kidding? This stuff will be all over radio and MTV.) Despite the adult adages, the tunes sound great, particularly back-to-back jams Lick Shots and Get Ur Freak On, with its world-beat rhythms. Grade: B+.

-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic

MARIA MULDAUR, RICHLAND WOMAN BLUES (STONY PLAIN) Most blues revivalists are like archaeologists who unearth the bones of their material but don't know how to get under its skin. Not so with Maria Muldaur. This collection of American blues from the 1920s and '30s wouldn't sound any more authentic if Memphis Minnie and Kansas City Joe had come back from the crypt to collaborate with her.

Maturity has brought an extra dimension to Muldaur's limber voice. Muldaur has always specialized in the sly come-on -- 1973's Don't You Make Me High (Don't You Feel My Leg) stands as the sexiest recording of the late 20th century -- but she brings a hint of vulnerability, and even desperation, to these songs of lost love, lost time and last rites.

Muldaur is joined by a who's who of neoclassical blues artists, including Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt and Alvin Youngblood Hart, who give fresh yet respectful attention to archetypes such as Put It Right Here, In My Girlish Days and I Got to Move. With the possible exception of Moby's strangely affecting Play, no recent undertaking has so fully captured the spirit of the earliest recordings of the blues progenitors. Grade: A.

-- ROBERT FRIEDMAN, Times staff writer

STABBING WESTWARD, STABBING WESTWARD (KOCH) Stabbing Westward's new self-titled album is all about bad news. The good news is, it's an entertaining effort at unhappiness.

The Chicago-based outfit hammers together songs about the horrors of love, life and music with power chords and melancholy metal echoes. Its past few albums sounded a little like Trent Reznor after a fistful of downers. Now, the sound is a little more organic: The second track on the new album sounds exactly like the Deftones' Knife Prty. Not that it's a bad thing. This album sounds great, if not exactly uplifting.

Despite its determination to be uniformly gloomy, the band delivers a high-energy disc full of driving, head-nodding music. This Stabbing Westward project looks doomed to succeed. Grade: B

-- GERRY DOYLE, Times staff writer

MONTGOMERY GENTRY, CARRYING ON (COLUMBIA) It says more about Nashville circa 2001 than it does about this country duo that they can be branded as "outlaws." Funny, I thought outlaws took chances with their music instead of recycling Southern rock and reciting live-by-your-own-rules cliches. Grade: C

-- PETER A. COUTURE, Times staff writer

TAMMY COCHRAN, TAMMY COCHRAN (EPIC) The buzz on this country newcomer would have you believe she is the second coming of another Tammy: Queen Wynette. Well, don't call King George for a duet just yet. But take a listen to If You Can and you'll certainly understand how others have gotten ahead of themselves with praise. This Ohioan shows P-R-O-M-I-S-E. Grade: B

-- P.A.C.

VARIOUS ARTISTS, CALLE 54: MUSIC FROM THE MIRAMAX MOTION PICTURE (BLUE NOTE) Calle 54, the essential Latin-jazz concert film from noted Spanish director Fernando Trueba (Belle Epoque), with any luck will yield a tidal wave of attention for the genre.

The film's soundtrack contains exuberant performances. Cuban-born alto saxophone and clarinet dynamo Paquito D'Rivera leads his 12-piece band, with vibraphonist Dave Samuels, on the opener, the anthem-like suite Panamericana. Afro-Cuban and Caribbean rhythms are also at the center of the grooving, aptly titled Earth Dance, from trumpeter-percussionist Jerry Gonzalez and the Fort Apache Band, with his brother Andy on bass and Larry Willis on piano; pianist Michel Camilo's delicate-then-burning From Within, with bassist Anthony Jackson and drummer Horacio El Negro Hernandez; the late Tito Puente's New Arrival; and Chico O'Farrill's classic Afro-Cuban Jazz Suite from his big band, still swinging and deeply modernistic. Brazil is represented by pianist Eliane Elias' refined, passionate stroll through Baden Powell's Sambe Triste, with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Satoshi Takeishi.

The selective program (Gato Barbieri and Chano Dominguez but no Arturo Sandoval, Gonzalo Rubalcabo or Danilo Perez?) also includes a pair of duets that may go into the history books. Bebo Valdes, the pioneering Cuban jazz pianist, hooks up with his son, the brilliant Chucho Valdes, and also gets together with legendary bassist Cachao. It's a joy to hear the two octogenarians, in their first recording together, making all the old connections on the gentle, lilting rhythms of the classic Lagrimas Negras. Grade: A-

-- PHILIP BOOTH, Times correspondent

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