TOP OF THE STAIRS MUSIC

Went to see Diana Krall this week on her first night at the Royal Albert Hall. This is the 2nd time I have seen her live and this time she was much more relaxed and out to have fun which she did. She had more patter and was very funny and obviously a woman totally in love and enjoying her children. As for the music I will leave it to www.londonjazz.blogspot.com and their much more musically savvy review below. For me it was superb and flawless with a range of contemporary [fab version of Joni Mitchell's A case of You], standards and then all the in between pure jazz stuff that is rarely recorded and makes the ticket money worth it all.

REVIEW FROM Londonjazz.blogspott.com:
Krall was clearly in a mood to enjoy the first of her three evenings back in London, in what seemed like a near-capacity Royal Albert Hall. For such a huge venue, the atmosphere was surprisingly warm. Krall was, understandably, agreeably taken aback by the whoops of delight from the audience in response to completely inocuous lines such as "I'm from Canada" or "Andy Pandy says 'time to go home.' "

The band bounced onto the stage and pounced gleefully on what has become a Krall staple, Peggy Lee's I Love Being Here with You. Fifth gear, crotchet 280, hold on tight...(the version above is tame by comparison) . Krall played a full part in it, but she was also duty-bound: she needed briefly to pose, to grin, help out the dozen or so queuing photographers to catch the shots they needed of a trademark bare shoulder or a resplendent and swirling blonde mane. But duties over, it was back to making good music with a great trio, and to having fun. She was punching bright accented sounds like a woodblock from the very top notes of the Steinway, closing the number with a muttered calming mantra "Ray Brown Ray Brown."

Irving Berlin's Cheek to Cheek had loads to enjoy. A reverie of introductory patter on the themes of Rosemary Clooney, rosaries and vodka (don't ask!) ; a cleverly sleight-of-hand Fats Wallerish intro; a playful raised semitone repeat phrase bar; the best solo of the evening from Krall, leaning back into it, and just -that word again- enjoying it.

The thirteen numbers contrasted well. There were quotes being slipped in all over the place. References to Isn't She Lovely fitted neatly into Let's Fall in Love. The introduction to I don't know enough about you meandered around childrens' songs and boogie-woogie. Soft statements of All I want is a Room Somewhere from My Fair Lady inhabited the intro to I've grown accustomed to her face." The most reflective moment came in a delightfully hushed Joni Mitchell A Case of You. Another excursion into pop ballad territory was a beautiful closing number....[UPDATE: a kind LondonJazz reader tells me it's Departure Bay.]

Krall's piano playing is mostly light touch, hardly any pedal except in a searching intro to Bacharach's Walk On By. Regular collaborators Anthony Wilson, Kareem Riggins and Robert Hurst are all top players. Krall delivers as musician, as singer, as entertainer, as celeb. The tickets are not cheap, and at £10 for a programme, none of the sellers had a mob to deal with. It's the second time I've heard Krall this year, and - let's break the rules, I want use that same word a fourth and last time- I've enjoyed both.

Whilst sorting out my huge music collection, it's great to rediscover stuff and this week it's Tracy Chapman's 2002 album Let It Rain which also enters my Best Albums of All Time list.

It's such a well crafted album and her voice, with it's quick, trembling vibrato is so commanding. She sings in a minimalistic style and whilst creating strong melodies, she does sing on one level and this just adds to the attention factor. Her lyrics are about all the stuff we know and feel and live through and suffer, insecurity, doubt, guilt - but there are also some beautiful love songs on there as well.
You can't classify it either, it's not folk, pop, it's a perfect collection of just pure songs with great meaning.

Tracks of note [though there is not one that is not flawless]: In the Dark and Say Hallelujah which is a modern day gospel.There is something quite old world about this haunting CD, it's a must.

The bucket is kicked
The body is gone
Say Hallelujah

At last something really different which fills my recent musical void, the CD Kiff featuring supreme guitarist David 'Fuze' Fiuczynski. It's avant garde jazz/rock and intelligently cool. Fuze's playing dazzles but more intriguing is the actual sound he extracts from it, most times it's does not sound like a guitar or anything at all that I can describe but it works. The Moroccan flavours add to the overall ambiguity of this unique collection of 'hard to pin down tracks' made all the more flavoursome by the five string cello of Rufus Cappadocia.

If I haven't sold it to you then click http://torsos.com/Website/express/kif.html and listen for yourself.

Track 7 Slapbow could even be called Hendrixesque.....

Awesome!

Whilst have a run with new CD's from Tony Christie and Tom Jones, there are 4 new albums which I don't like and which are so disappointingly run-of-the-mill it makes me angry. Come on - try, try for goodness sake and stop sounding like everyone else and grab our attention!

Here are the CD's in question:

AS I AM Alicia Keys
TRUST ME Craig David
HEAVY ROTATION Anastacia
11 Bryan Adams

Apologies to fans of the above

Another strong album from another singer of some standing. I am truly amazed at this CD as Jone's voice seems to be better than it ever was. I am not really a fan though I do like him but the tracks on this CD are so different from one another that you just keep on listening to see what's coming up next. He has energy and the range and of course the voice just dominates everything.

Feels Like Music and In Style & Rhythm really rock and Seasons and 24 Hours have such tender lyrics, he can reach any emotion with his golden vocal chords plus I really like the Bono/The Edge track that they wrote for him: Sugar Daddy - this is the track which most reviewers seem to say doesn't fit him or the album, well it does.

Flawless and if you don't think you will like it, listen first on www.tomjones.com where you can grab an album sampler.

I am not going to write much about this album as you must trawl the web and see the plaudits is has already received. Suffice to say it is rich and flawless with Christie's voice probably at it's best. Every word is pitch perfect and clear and it has a very intimate feel about it. he pens some of the tracks himself but also gets down tracks by Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker and Phil Oakey. Can't single out any track as a fave because they are all worthy of many, many replays.

Hi,

Here is the playlist for my Halloween Special Show on www.radionowhere.org

Copy and paste this link into your web browser to listen to it.
www.radionowhere.org/8.Oct.2009%20F.mp3

In Track-Composer-Film order:r/Bernard Herrmann/Psycho
Theme: Nightmare On Elm Street/Nightmare On Elm Street
Behind Blue Eyes Roger Daltrey/The Who/Gothica
Clarice/Howard Shore /The Silence of the Lambs
Theme: Jaws/John Williams//Jaws
Main Theme: Dracula Suite/James Bernard/Dracula [1958]
Love Song For A Vampire/Annie Lennox//Bram Stoker's Dracula [1992]
Another Failed Escape /Tyler Bates/Devil's Rejects
Time Warp/Richard O'Brien/The Rocky Horror Show
Tubular Bells/Mike Oldfield/The Excorcist
Theme: Frankenstein/Bernhard Kaun/Frankenstein [1931]
Contest Winners/ Pinno Donaggio/Carrie
Theme: Séance On A Wet Afternoon/John Barry/Séance On A wet Afternoon
Theme: Halloween/John Carpenter/Halloween

Early spooks for you, my Filmic Halloween Special airs tonight on Radio Nowhere at 9pm. A full hour of film music from suspense, thriller and horror movies plus lots of other fun stuff. It was a hoot to put it together so have a listen and let me know what you think. Go to www.radionowhere.org and click 'listen'.

Just a quick line to give a HUGE Thank You to my blog and Twitter friends who have written to me over the weekend about the loss of my little cat Bronte. It has meant a lot and given me a lot of comfort.

Love
topofthestairs

Sure you haven't missed all the Streisand talk in Radio 2, plus there is the Jonathan Ross and Paul Gambacinni interviews - the reclusive lady has a new album out, her first for about 4 years called Love Is The Answer. To me, what's more attractive is that it's producer is Diana Krall and it shows. This is a low impact, minimalist collection, in fact one of the tracks is appropriately enough In The Wee Small Hours of the Morning. It is definately a late night/early morning CD. It's exquisite and whilst I wanted to hear Streisands BIG voice, after a while I settled down and got use to the soft, low register and it's enticing, smooth rhythms.
As well as her production, Krall also uses her own band and this is a huge plus. I urge you to get the orchestral versions of the songs as strings are not often heard these days and they should be as it adds to the lushness and brings a gentle melancholia which matches Streisands phrasing superbly.

Lots of old standards. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, Make Someone Happy, Here Comes That Rainy Day and others. My faves are You Must Believe In Spring and Here's To Life.

After 2 or 3 listens I understood the gentle reflective mood of the album as a whole and thought it was good to not hear the BIG voice as Streisand herself has said that she didn't know if she still could sing good enough to record. She can and she has it's good to enjoy her unique sound in this understated way rather than, like other seasoned performers do, hear her straining for what was once there.

Been a few weeks since I have written, case of work and holidays. And although my blog is about music and films - today it's about my cat Bronte.

Bronte died this morning at 6.30. For those who are not cat/pet lovers then you will think this posting is silly but those of you who deeply understand, I beg your indulgence. I can't explain how I feel today except that I am utterly devastated. I feel like I have been hit by a truck and I need to write about it to make me feel better.

Bronte [also known as Bronts, Brontalooni and 'The Queen' and Queenie] was with us for over 14 years and was about 18 years old. She was a beautiful, cantankerous tortoise shell who liked pasta sauce and who could, at times, have the most 'pissed off' look. About 5 years ago she was diagnosed with diabetes and nearly died then but the brilliant vet we have tried something unique - he tried putting her on human insulin. And it worked - every day, twice a day we injected her and she had a 2nd life. She had bad days but she just slept through them.

As most cats, and especially those with diabetes, she developed kidney trouble about a year ago. Yesterday instead of having breakfast she came down from upstairs and simply went into the garden and layed on the grass. Later we bought her back into the house and realised there was something wrong when she walked very awkwardly. About 6pm she became very lethargic and wedged herself in a corner between a wall and a storage unit, it was very distressing to watch.

At 10pm she was upstairs in her basket, groaning a little. I picked her up and all the muscles in her legs had gone. At midnight we held her for an hour, her head flopping. At 2am her eyes were glazed. We left her as it was obvious she was shutting down. Then at 5am she was the same and it was time to call the vet. When the vet arrived she said there was very little life left in her and so we made it easy for her and after a few minutes, and with no struggle, she fell asleep.

For us it is heartbreaking, she was with us one day perfectly normal and then within a few hours, she was gone. But for Bronts it was perfect. She was quite ill but a soldier and still enjoying her life and she went quickly, with no pain and no distress.

Bless my little Bronte, thank you for being with us for so long.

Damn - just as I published my last post, they all appeared.

I seem to have lost my profile picture and my header photo?
Is anyone else having a problem like this today?