Earworthy - Review

American Visions, April, 1999 by T. Brooks Shepard

Too often, George Gershwin's tunes are played like frozen church music--cold and existing on some other, more perfect plane. By flat, Gershwin is, basically, repeatedly and monotonously performed the same way every time, and how you feel about that depends on your propensity for just one more version of "I got plenty of nothin' and nothin's plenty for me." The time-space continuum was in serious need of disruption. Enter Herbie Hancock.

With his unique interpretation of Gershwin's World (Verve), 1998 Grammy Award winner Hancock sets us free from the humdrum. The absence of the "new" in Gershwin's music beyond the epic 1958 Miles Davis-Gil Evans Porgy and Bess jazz collaboration is an indication of how difficult it is to transform the familiar. But for Herbie? No problem! Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Kathleen Battle, Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, Ron Carter and Stanley Clarke, as well as the djembe and the talking drum, make classy contributions as the deftly original Hancock breaks new ground.

In Gershwin's World, Hancock includes the music of Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson and Maurice Ravel for a broader view of the era, as well as that of Gershwin's mentor, William Christopher Handy.

Dizzy Gillespie early on predicted what he called "the unification of the music." That day is upon us. An exercise in contrast and compatibility, Mali to Memphis: An African-American Odyssey (Putumayo) brings together African-American and Malian musicians in a compilation of imaginative flow. John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Taj Mahal are among a noble American contingent connected to the artistry of Lobi Traore, Baba Dian, Amadou and Mariam and Habib Koite Mall to Memphis attests to the universality of human experience.

From the first, plaintive note of Ma Ya (Putumayo), the timeless mysteries of African string sounds escort you on a gentle journey through the Malian sonic world of Habib Koite and Bamada. Koite's compositions are hauntingly ancient, yet stunning in their immediacy. Brilliantly performed by this excellent Malian guitarist-writer and his band, Ma Ya validates Habib Koite and Bamada as a new and creative force in contemporary African music.

And Putumayo's Reggae Around the World sings a song so strong by unifying Lucky Dube in South Africa and Blekbala Mujik, an Aborigine band in Australia; by linking' the Sudanese singer Rasha to the Nigerian vocalist Majek Fashek. The illuminating aspects of reggae have created, among Zeca Baleiro of Brazil, Rocky Dawuni of Ghana, and people everywhere a melodic bonding--a spiritual mind meld conquering and transcending all manmade barriers to understanding. Light incense in the name of Bob Marley.

Raise da' Roof: Today's Gospel Music Collection, Volume II (CGI Platinum) is a dynamite showcase of 17 Platinum artists in 10 complete songs and seven 30-second samples. If contemporary gospel is your groove, then this CD is a goody bag chock-full of slick vamps, hooks, melodies, lyrics, time signatures and talent in service to the Creator. Along with its joyous, multivoiced title track, Raise da' Roof is highlighted by a remix of Vickie Winans' "Long As I Got King Jesus." The remix from her Live in Detroit album is a classic demonstration of jump up--as in, you can't sit down--gospel power.

A Chadian breeze, by way of Bordeaux, France, has blown our way, bearing the stylish vocal duo Les Nubians. Princesses Nubiennes (Virgin), their very hip U.S. debut CD, is a refreshingly sophisticated, urban contemporary blend of jazz, rhythm and blues, hip-hop, and traditional African melodies. French and English lyrics add to the mystique.

Hey, it's time for the new ... it could be time for Les Nubians ... time for new flowers to adorn that magic garden called music.

T. Brooks Shepard is a freelance writer in Boston.