Odds and ends from my CD player:
Angie Stone, Stone Love (J Records): Especially the single “Lovers’ Ghetto,” with a sample of Dynasty’s “Adventures in the Land of Music.” Great production. Stone is refreshingly free of the hyper-acrobatic singing that plagues a lot of today’s R&B.
Yellowjackets, self-titled (Rhino reissue): New liner notes by my colleague Bill Milkowski. Four unearthed bonus tracks include two by the fusion guitar gunslinger Robben Ford, who’s all over this record, the group’s 1981 debut. They’re often dismissed as “smooth jazz,” but I always make a point of hearing their latest.
Ibrahim Ferrer, Buenos Hermanos (Nonesuch): His voice was truly an instrument.
Beenie Man, Back to Basics (Virgin): Good, clean — um, not clean at all — fun.
Richard Julian, Slow New York (Manhattan): Hip, laid-back singer/songwriter who’s usually backed by some jazz players in town.
Boris Berezovsky, Chopin-Godowsky Etudes (Warner Classics): Sick stuff for solo piano. The virtuoso plays Chopin’s etudes and Godowsky’s reworkings (“transcriptions”) back-to-back. Recorded live in concert.
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