Concert Previews
Norman Connors Norman Connors was a Philly jazz cat - a drummer, a composer - who played with Coltrane, Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders before turning to R&B. For a guy who played such incendiary jazz, the soul sounds he recorded, produced an
Norman Connors
Norman Connors was a Philly jazz cat - a drummer, a composer - who played with Coltrane, Sam Rivers, Archie Shepp and Pharoah Sanders before turning to R&B. For a guy who played such incendiary jazz, the soul sounds he recorded, produced and/or wrote came out as smooth as warm milk - so smooth they practically required their own category: the quiet storm. That's a stride Smokey Robinson also hit after the flash of his early Motown sound dissipated. But Connors gave that swirling storm a jazzy, spacey twist and pushed out heavenly hits in the mid-'70s like "Valentine Love" and "You Are My Starship" with the likes of Phyllis Hyman and Michael Henderson. Now, touched by those same intergalactic spirits, Connors has released his first CD in nine years, the warm, spaced-out Star Power. It may feature old hits (the aforementioned "Starship") and singers like Peabo Bryson and Howard Hewett, but Connors' sense of production and songcraft is what fuels the power of this Star.
- A.D. Amorosi
Juana Molina
On last year's Un Dia ("One Day"), Juana Molina stretched and bent songs so that they seemed like extended electronic remixes right from the start. The Argentine loops layers of precisely articulated sounds - some electronic keyboards and drones but mostly acoustic guitars and handclaps or other hand percussion - and sets them behind her cooing and whispering vocals. While earlier albums such as 2003's enchanting Segundo built on folk and pop structures, Un Dia is something more elastic, abstract and challenging, and it's still beautiful. Live, Molina builds the songs from the ground up, creating loops and layering (and unlayering) melodies and patterns. It's songcraft as work-in-process. The experience is like witnessing an artist create a painting: Something magical gradually emerges before your eyes, or in this case, ears.
- Steve Klinge
Ian McLagan
He has long been one of rock-and-roll's most storied sidemen, a member of the Small Faces and Faces who has also played with the Stones, Dylan and many others. But Ian McLagan has also proven to be a solo artist of considerable might. The British keyboardist, who has been based in Austin, Texas, since 1994, offers the latest proof with Never Say Never. The album is dedicated to his late wife, Kim, who was killed in a 2006 car accident. It's heartwrenchingly poignant without being self-pitying, and while the overall mood is understandably somber, McLagan still serves up some of that rollicking rock-and-roll spirit he has done so much to perpetuate. And you can expect more of it when he takes the stage with his Bump Band.
- Nick Cristiano
Thievery Corporation
Through a dozen years, five original studio albums and much remixing, Washington, D.C.'s, Thievery Corporation has grown into a potent enterprise. Founders Rob Garza and Eric Hilton began as a down-tempo electronica duo with worldly tastes. Releasing music on their own Eighteenth Street Lounge label (also the name of their bar/nightclub), ThievCo has consistently pushed global boundaries, incorporating Latin, Indian, reggae, funk and more: last year's Radio Retaliation features contributions from Seu Jorge, Anoushka Shankar, Femi Kuti, even D.C.'s go-go music godfather Chuck Brown. The knock has been that TC can be a bit bloodless in presentation - reportedly not an issue onstage these days, with 10-plus members including multiple (language) vocalists, sitar and, most notably, the ferocious dub-bass bombing of Ashish Vyas (who throbbed memorably in the influential SoCal post-punk-funk band GoGoGo Airheart for a decade).
- David R. Stampone