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By GINA VIVINETTO, SCOTT CHABRAS, BRIAN ORLOFF, JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK and JOHN FLEMING
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 19, 2001
JOHN LEE HOOKER, JOHN LEE HOOKER . . . IS HIP: HIS GREATEST HITS (MUSIC CLUB) John Lee Hooker was a rarity in the world of the blues, a living legend, an artist who enjoyed success while he was alive, thank goodness. Hooker died in June at age 80, but he leaves behind five decades of music, some of the most sizzling on John Lee Hooker . . . Is Hip: His Greatest Hits, a wonderful collection of Hooker highlights.
One thing this Mississippi native loved is how a lady walked. Hear him growl about it on the delightfully fresh Dimples and I'm So Excited. Both tunes showcase trademark Hookerisms: his guitar playing was hypnotic, to say the least, with precious few chord changes. Hooker's sense of rhythm? Utterly erratic, manifested in raucous foot stamping, and stop-time syncopation on his guitar.
The raw and reckless Boogie Chillen, a smash in the late 1940s, still sounds fierce today. I'm in the Mood, recorded in 1951, was an early, innovative exercise in multi-tracking, with Hooker overdubbing his own vocals to eerie effect.
Much of Hooker's music is just plain saucy. Boom Boom is a fiesty, danceable tune. And only the staunchest feminist could resist the oh-so-naughty Big Legs, Tight Skirt. Grade: A.
- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
RES, HOW I DO (MCA) Res' name is pronounced "Reece." Learn it. If there is any sense in this world, we'll be saying it often. How I Do, the 23-year-old Philly singer's stunning debut, is a gorgeous pastiche of soul, R&B, electronica and alt-rock.
Growing up, the classically trained Res fell in love with opera, Marvin Gaye and Pearl Jam all at once. She brings those influences to How I Do. Like the best of the contemporary R&B singers such as Erykah Badu, Macy Gray and Jill Scott, Res makes uncompromising music of her own. The drum 'n' bass opener, Golden Boy, is just a hint of How I Do's offerings. Tsunami, with its trip-hop beats, perfectly surfs love's chaotic ebb and flow. Ice King is a chilling narrative of a woman trying to leave her lover, a drug dealer. Pssst: Don't miss the rawkin' guitar-thrashy hidden track, showcasing Res at her most untethered. Grade: A.
- G.V.
AALIYAH, AALIYAH (BLACKGROUND RECORDS, LLC) When she purrs, "I don't think you're ready for this thing," on More Than a Woman, Aaliyah may be addressing the listener along with the presumed lover in the song. The soul diva's persona exudes such an indomitable cool that she cannot possibly walk among mere mortals. Perhaps having a name that means "highest, most exalted one" in Swahili gives her that kind of confidence. Her third CD, Aaliyah, makes a strong case for celebrity worship.
Cool is all over the disc. Her Prince-y ballad I Care 4 U glides over silky wisps of keyboard. Rock the Boat is an appealing bit of pillow talk. On Extra Smooth she sizes up a guy with nice brown eyes and six pack abs as "way too short for me." When she kicks a guy to the curb, as in U Got Nerve and Those Were the Days, she dispatches him dispassionately, conceding no fault of her own. She never begs anyone to unbreak her heart. At times Aaliyah plays like the Zen breakup album of 2001.
If there is a weakness in Aaliyah, it may be that the singer is a little too aloof. Aaliyah shares none of the songwriting credits, leading one to hear the material more as performance than personification. Aaliyah is not letting us beyond the velvet rope on this one. But when she dashes off a pretty piece of something like It's Whatever, nobody in their right mind would fault her for not being dark or edgy enough. Grade: B+
- SCOTT CHABRAS, Times staff writer
LUCINDA WILLIAMS, ESSENCE (LOST HIGHWAY) After the monumental success of 1998's Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Lucinda Williams shifted the focus of her music on her confessional collection of new songs, Essence. This time around Williams' heartbreaking and evocative vocals take center stage. Williams' tired voice exudes a certain wisdom, drawing listeners into her affecting narratives and honest soul-searching.
Opening number Lonely Girls conveys such emotions in few lyrics. Fragments of sparse imagery are complemented by a soft-spoken acoustic tune and fluid string arrangements. Other songs such as the haunting I Envy the Wind and lush Blue, built around a gorgeous melody, serve as the perfect backdrop for a solitary late-night drive or sleepless night.
But the introspective material is not all slow in tempo. In fact, several of Essence's most powerful tracks serve up heaps of Southern soul with bluesy riffs and edgy guitar work. Get Right With God works itself into a funky groove. In the title track, Williams beckons "I am waiting here for more/I am waiting by your door" in a sultry whisper. The result is an irresistibly sexy track that highlights Williams' immense talents as a songwriter and performer. Grade: A-
- BRIAN ORLOFF, Times correspondent
CRAIG DAVID, BORN TO DO IT (WILDSTAR RECORDS) Craig David is hot, hot, hot in Europe these days. The 20-year-old British DJ-turned-performer has sold millions of CDs featuring his blend of reggae, funk, R&B and garage music and has won more positive press than almost any other recording artist going.
It's hard to understand why.
The first single from the CD, Fill Me In, kicks off the recording with a slow burn groove that showcases the record's slick production. Track 2, Can't Be Messing Around, picks up the pace to danceable and seems to offer promise of a good party album.
But then Born to Do It falls into a brain-numbing sameness. David's voice barely moves from the same few notes in the same monotone delivery, and the backing music with repetitive synthy-drum beats quickly becomes part of the background.
By the time David sings in Time to Party that, "Everybody's feeling all right 'cause we know it's party night," followed by perhaps the lamest "Oh yeah" ever recorded, you might be looking for that party elsewhere, because it is not on this record. Rating: C-
- JEFFREY S. SOLOCHEK, Times staff writer
3HREE (DRG RECORDS) -- Here are three -- or 3hree -- new one-act musicals that combine to provide a full evening's entertainment. Though written by different composers, each has a bubbly style that more or less holds the trio together. Presumably, they also could be performed separately or in tandem with other shows, since each has an overture of its own.
A fine cast of nine takes on multiple roles in the recording made from a performance last year at Philadelphia's Prince Music Theatre.
The theater's namesake, Hal Prince, directed one of the musicals, Robert Lindsey Nassif's The Flight of the Lawnchair Man, which tells of Jerry Gorman (Christopher Fitzgerald), who lifts off from Passaic, N.J., into the stratosphere in a lawnchair tied to 400 helium-filled balloons. With somewhat predictable songs from Charles Lindbergh (Herndon Lackey, doing his Jimmy Stewart imitation), Amelia Earhart (Rachel Ulanet) and Leonardo Da Vinci (Roger E. Dewitt), the show never quite takes off dramatically.
Likewise, Lavender Girl, with nusic and lyrics by John Bucchino, has a slight story about a ghostly belle of the ball in 1920s Montgomery, Ala. Several of the songs are catchy, especially Ulanet's soaring rendition of Dancing. Unfortunately, the Southern drawls are straight out of a spoof of Show Boat.
Sinclair Lewis is not an author who comes to mind when casting around for source material for a musical, but The Mice, inspired by a Lewis short story, is surprisingly successful in the hands of Laurence O'Keefe (music), Neil Dunbar Benjamin (lyrics) and Julia Jordan (book). Set in Chippewa Falls, Minn., in the winter of 1947, it is the story of exterminator Allan Cedar (John Scherer) and his lover, Virga Vay (Valerie Wright). Jessica Molaskey is the wronged wife, Bertha Cedar. With knowing characterizations of Minnesota foibles and witty numbers for two, three and four singers, this is the best of 3hree. B
- JOHN FLEMING, Times performing arts critic