A Time For Love
Stevie Wonder (Universal/Motown)

Each May, hundreds of people pack a trendy New York club for a Stevie Wonder birthday bash. Wonder doesn't attend -- but that doesn't stop the party. That's because the evening's draw is not the man, but a night of his Wonder-ful music: hours of classics, from Isn't She Lovely to Golden Lady to Living for the City, all a testament to his undeniable musical genius. Sadly, if any material from his newest album, A Time for Love, makes the cut next year, it might clear the dance floor. Comprised mainly of so-so ballads and rote uptempo numbers, this album reinforces the familiar knock on Wonder -- that he hasn't made any compelling material since groundbreaking albums like Original Musiquarium and Innervisons decades ago. Which actually isn't true. His 1991 soundtrack to Spike Lee's Jungle Fever was a dazzling disc that should be ranked among his classics, and 1995's Conversation Peace had plenty of strong material that proved his relevance after more than three decades in the business. It's hard to hear that relevance in A Time To Love. Much of it sounds dated, particularly the funk grooves, which sound like they're stuck in some early '90s time warp, weighed down by heavy drum machines and synthesizers. The first track, If Your Love Cannot Be Moved, sounds mechanical and soulless, despite the presence of gospel star Kim Burrell. From the Bottom of My Heart ranks with Wonder's saccharine hit For Your Love. And So What The Fuss, featuring Prince on guitar, sounds too much like a George Clinton song -- disappointing from an artist of paramount originality and creativity. Wonder's best music has always stirred the heart and soul with sparkling musical arrangements and spellbinding lyrics. There are few examples of that here. How Will I Know, a duet with his daughter Aisha Morris, is lovely and touching -- Wonder's voice complements his daughter's sweet soprano perfectly, and his crisp piano melody is truly enchanting. The jazzy arrangement of Moon Blue gives it life, and Shelter In The Rain is an inspiring, uplifting anthem. But those are the exceptions. While the album is certainly not bad, it's not compelling enough to merit multiple listens -- a painful statement to make (especially for this die-hard Stevie fan). It's hard to believe this album took ten years to complete. Anyone needing their Stevie Wonder fix would do better reaching into their archives. Review by Nekisha Moody.

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Walk the Line Soundtrack
Various Artists (Wind Up)

As Johnny Cash, Joaquin Phoenix out-mimics Jamie Foxx in this year's four-star biopic Walk the Line. Reese Witherspoon is also top-notch as June Carter, while Tyler Hilton and Jonathan Rice are perfectly fine in their respective roles of Elvis Presley and Roy Orbison. But what astonishes on celluloid sounds second-rate on CD. Good as they may be, these are mainly actors playing roles -- though Waylon Malloy Payne (Jerry Lee Lewis) comes to his part naturally, as the son of country singer Sammi Smith and Willie Nelson's guitarist Jody Payne. Payne, incidentally, is named after his godfather Waylon Jennings, whose son Shooter Jennings's sparing take on his late father's 1966 album track I'm a Long Way From Home is the most artistically credible cut here. Strangely, Jennings, a budding recording star in his own right, is not at all made up to look like Waylon in the movie: that he sounds more like himself than his dad makes his version stand out next to the others' copies. Not to slight such suitable facsimiles as the Phoenix-Witherspoon duets It Ain't Me Babe and Jackson, but the true Cash and Carter fan will opt for the real thing every time. Review by Jim Baseman.

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The Body Acoustic
Cyndi Lauper (Epic)

On her new disc The Body Acoustic, 52-year-old Cyndi Lauper recasts a slew of her old hits -- from She Bop to True Colors and Time after Time -- in acoustic form. It's an experiment that could soar or crash. Alanis Morissette released an acoustic version of her breakthrough, best-selling 1995 album Jagged Little Pill to lukewarm reviews just a few months ago. But Lauper -- both slinky and spunky in a bodiced red dress and platinum hair on the album's cover -- has penned or performed some of the most durable tunes to come out of the '80s. And her voice, at once raspy, perky and thrillingly powerful, can still pull emotion out of the deep crevices of those 20-year-old words. The Body Acoustic, while not earth-shattering, shakes up an old formula with new tricks, from Lauper's own dulcimer playing to talented guests. First of all, Lauper co-produced the album with Rick Chertoff, the whizz behind her 1984 Grammy-winning debut She's So Unusual, and William Wittman, who produced 2003's At Last. Quietly unassuming, She Bop -- which was originally a bouncy, naughty hit from Lauper's debut, She's So Unusual -- could fuel a spaghetti western with its dusty dulcimer chords and whistling interlude. Noteworthy songs include Money Changes Everything with Lauper and Taking Back Sunday's Adam Lazzara harmonizing along to a hand-clapped beat. Sarah McLachlan's breathy duet with Lauper on 1984's Time After Time provides good contrast to Ani DiFranco and Vivian Green's inspired yelps on Sister of Avalon. True Colors, from 1986, is frankly beautiful: simplified to acoustic strings and Lauper almost sobbing its theme of love and acceptance. Of course, Lauper wouldn't be who she is without the lasting legacy of 1984's Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. The only purely un-acoustic song on the album, it's a cute but fluffy take on the original with Japanese pop duo Puffy Ami Yumi giggling to a ska-influenced groove.

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Pixies Sell Out 2004 Reunion Tour
The Pixies

It's a simple fact: the Pixies still matter. Big time. Since they first took the stage in Boston during the Reagan era and achieved immortality of sorts by having Where Is My Mind? featured prominently in the film Fight Club, the quartet has always managed to stand apart from its contemporaries. Their melodies were soaring, amplified and -- to be frank -- a bit bizarre. The group blended rockabilly with piercing vocal cries, subtle wah-wahs that belied sexual undertones and melodies so sharp they could peel back your face. The band's canon -- Surfer Rosa, Trompe Le Monde and the premier Doolittle -- stand out as the soundtrack of choice for the 1990s. But a bitter and acrimonious breakup in the mid '90s, and separate projects by the members -- Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago and David Lovering -- left the Pixies in the past. In 2004, though, they set aside their differences, kissed and made up for a tour which was captured on the band's latest DVD, Pixies Sell Out 2004 Reunion Tour. And it couldn't have come at a better time. The 142-minute DVD captures a band still in its prime. The signature songs are in abundance: This Monkey's Gone to Heaven, Velouria, Bone Machine and Here Comes Your Man. So, too, is the primal energy that made the Pixies stand out back in their heyday. The main portion of the DVD features 28 tunes captured at the Eurockeennes Festival in Belfort, France, last year. There are 15 bonus tracks, too, from sets at the Fuji Rock Festival in Japan; Coachella in California; and the Move Festival in Manchester, England, among others. Regardless of the venue, the sound, showmanship and performances are stellar. And watching the DVD is truly the next best thing to being there. Review by P. Moore.

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Nowadays, few flutists and musicians can match the amazing creative talent of Mark Weinstein. This man is a musical phenomenon. Mesmerizing, authoritative yet, charmingly and tenderly captivating. His recent CD "O Nosso Amor" as expected to be or to appear is no less than a monumental musical accomplishment. It is a masterpiece at so many levels. A pure musical magic. The album contains 12 tracks of an exquisite beauty, delivered with luxurious musical wealth, superb arrangements and utmost musical  nostalgia. The highlights of the CD are: Bahia, O Nosso Amor and  Sampa 67.The amazing aspect of this CD is not exclusively the authentic delivery of pure Jazzy-Brazilian repertoire, but the unmatched improvisation and musical virtuosity of Mark Weinstein on flute, Nilson Matta on bass, Romero Lubambo on guitar. The beauty of the music on the CD metamorphosed through delightful strokes and vibs by Paulo Braga on drums, Guilherme Franco on percussion, and Jorge Silva, also on percussion. "Bahia" one of my favorite tunes of the CD is an all time international favorite of world music lovers. It has been recorded by leading performers like Placido Domingo, the legendary John Coltrane and Carme Miranda. But Mark Weinstein's recording is quite different. It is more vivacious with its haunting Jazz-swing tempo. It comes to life with burst of joy and enchanting romance. "O Nosso Amor" is a wonderful CD, warm, luxurious, lyrical, rich and infinitely haunting. Grab a copy. It is almost perfect. He is listed in the World Who's Who in Jazz, Cabaret, Music and Entertainment 2007

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Frank Jackson's "New York After Dark"

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REBOOT STEREOPHONIC RELEASES THE 1959 FRED KATZ CLASSIC
FOLK SONGS FOR FAR OUT FOLK

West Coast Jazz with Stops in Africa, Brooklyn and the Kabbalah Plus Communism and Star Wars

Reboot Stereophonic, the acclaimed non-profit record label committed to recovering lost music and the stories connected to them from  attics across America is proud to announce the July 10 release of its fifth album, a long coveted 1959 gem, FOLK SONGS FOR FAR OUT FOLK from the eclectic jazz pioneer, Kabbalist, magic man, and eternal left-winger Fred Katz.  Katz is best known for introducing cello to jazz, which he perfected in the 1950s with his famous stint with west coast jazz legends, the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Katz, now 86, has had an extraordinary career, from his early days as a cello student of Pablo Casals to his work in Hollywood scoring Roger Corman films like Little Shop of Horrors and A Bucket of Blood, from his anti-Vietnam War piece for solo cello "The Soldier Puppet" to his late 50's stint as an A&R man for Decca Records where he created the experimental Jazz Moods series; from solo jazz cello albums like Fred Katz and His Jammers to his conducting jazz arrangements for Sidney Poitier (the forgotten Sidney Poitier Reads Plato) and Harpo Marx (the almost forgotten Harpo in Hi-Fi) and his 1980s stint teaching jazz in a Benedictine monastery with a bongo-playing nun and a sax-playing priest.

FOLK SONGS FOR FAR OUT FOLK is a musical triptych of orchestrated jazz based on Hebraic, African, and American folk songs. "Those were the three cultures that were most important to me at the time," Katz says. "The American culture I was very interested in but mostly as a radical guy who had to learn about folk music and protest songs. And the African element just followed because of my belief in the oneness of man. The reason for the Jewish stuff was the mystery. It's impossible to ever know what God is. The trillion-faced God!" From the American folk tradition he chose "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," "Been in the Pen So Long," "Foggy Foggy Dew," and "Old Paint" which Katz says he "treated as sort of an erotic thing." From the African songbook he went with "Chili'lo," "Manthi-ki," and "Mate'ka," and from the Hebrew side "Baal Shem Tov" and "Rav's Nigun." FOLK SONGS FOR FAR OUT FOLK was produced by pedal steel guitar pioneer and famed bandleader Alvino Rey and recorded in 1958 during three separate sessions in Hollywood, one for each set of folk songs. Each session also had its own set of musicians, an impressive list of 50s jazz stalwarts hand-picked by Katz. The American songs include jazz guitar great Billy Bean and on piano, Johnny T. Williams, better known nowadays as Hollywood film composer and Oscar mainstay John Williams (Star Wars, Jaws, Schindler's List). The Hebrew sessions featured the flutes and saxophones of Buddy Collette and Paul Horn, Katz's esteemed Los Angeles colleagues from the Chico Hamilton Quintet, and the African songs include appearances by bongo king Jack Costanzo and trumpeters Pete Candoli (alum of the Woody Herman and Stan Kenton bands) and Irving Goodman (brother of Benny). After Reboot Stereophonic co-founder Josh Kun first heard the original LP a few years ago, the team began searching for Katz. Kun headed south from L.A. to Katz's home in Fullerton for a series of long visits in the fall of 2006. "He is an inspiration as a musician, an intellectual, and a human being," says Kun. "Spending time with Fred, hearing his stories, listening to him play his cello, learning about his life, only made Folk Songs that much more powerful, a true testament to his boundless creativity as an artist. I'm so honored that we're able to make this music available again." The project is the fifth release by Reboot Stereophonic following the critically acclaimed re-issue of the 1959 Latin-Jewish hybrid, BAGELS AND BONGOS by 92-year-old IRVING FIELDS, GOD IS A MOOG by moog pioneer, Gershon Kingsley, and the JEWFACE collection, the world's first and only anthology of Jewish minstrel songs that took vaudeville stages by storm at the turn of the 20th century. The label is an outgrowth of a fast growing national network called Reboot which engages some of the most talented young creatives in the music, film, television, technology, politics, literature and media realms in the examination of generational changes in identity, community and meaning. Reboot Stereophonic, which is releasing a series of titles based upon music found in archives and buried in thrift store dustbins, has been developed as a work of passion by an eclectic team of music industry tastemakers, volunteers all, led by Courtney Holt at MTV, David Katznelson at Birdman, USC writer/academic Josh Kun, and Roger Bennett, co-founder of Reboot. By Ann Braithwaite Ann@bkmusicpr.com

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