"Hable Con Ella" OST

Original released on CD Milan 050466.3085.2.8  

(EU 2002, April 8)

RICK WAKEMAN: "The Real Lisztomania"

Original released on CD Voiceprint VPTCCD1

(UK, 2002)

ERIC CLAPTON: "Live On Tour 2001"

Original released on Double CD Reprise 48374-2

(US 2002, November 5)

The cover of Eric Clapton's 2002 live album "One More Car, One More Rider" - no less than the sixth live album in his solo career - suggests the problems in the record. It's designed to look a classic blues album sleeve or poster, but it's self-conscious and affected, the work of somebody that knows the form but not the substance of the blues. Certainly that accusation can't be reasonably leveled at Clapton who, after all, has proved throughout his career that he knows the substance of the blues, but ever since his canonization to the MOR mainstream with 1992's "Unplugged", there's a sinking feeling that EC dabbles in the blues instead of lives there. Sure, he had a fierce testimonial to his favorite music with "From the Cradle", but "One More Car, One More Rider" arrives nearly a decade later, and the difference is stunning. Though he goes through the motions of playing the blues - a cutting version of the perennial "Key to the Highway," "Hoochie Coochie Man," "Goin' Down Slow," among others here - the heart of this album is closer to the NPR instrumental jam of "Reptile" than blues. This is mannered, "classy" playing which sounds perfectly fine but is never interesting, particularly since the song selection favors either warhorses or recent hits. In short, it's a record for those that like the idea of Clapton more than his music. (Stephen Erlewine in AllMusic)

CHANTAL CHAMBERLAND: "Autobiography"

Original released on CD evosound EVSA 335

(HONG KONG 2016, February 5)

Every music genre is characterized by a unique style and specific instrumentation. For French Canadian jazz vocalist and guitarist Chantal Chamberland her sensuous, smoky voice is her trademark instrument. With some of Chamberland’s personal musical influences as her canvas, this Quebec born chanteuse delivers knockout performances that are as unforgettable as the singer herself. With 7 contemporary jazz releases, Chantal’s star shines brightly on an international stage. While always avoiding vocal gymnastics, Chamberland moves from quiet and intimate to sultry, sensual and soulful with seamless ease. From multiple appearances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival to headline concerts from Hong Kong to Cartagena, Chantal’s success internationally is not only a testament to her personal evolution but cements her role as one of the finest female interpreters of jazz today.

"Frida" (OST)

Original released on CD Deutsche Grammofhon 289 474 150-2

(US 2002, October 22)

  

FAITH HILL: "Cry"

Original released on CD Warner Bros 9 48001-2

(US 2002, October 15)

Lavishly produced and packaged, "Cry" marks the continued ascent of Faith Hill from the lowlands of down-home authenticity to the heights of pop superstardom. Though plenty of Nashville A-team players back her up, the sound they churn out has almost nothing to do with country music. Riding a tide of massed synthesizer textures, sweeping orchestral strings, thundering drums, rock guitar licks, and melodramatic dynamics, Hill strives for the biggest possible gestures in her performance. The result is the kind of glitzy fireworks normally associated with Star Search or American Idol, in which the lyric takes a distant backseat to raw exhibitionism and only the most cursory nod is made toward country lyrical convention. (The nod is particularly schizoid in "This Is Me," as Hill proclaims, «I try to love Jesus and myself...yeah, yeah.») Beyond the general issue of taste, this approach raises twofold problems for Hill in particular, in that her established skills as a song interpreter are lost in all this sturm und drang and her voice, while undeniably powerful at its peak, doesn't have the range that allows most singers in this style, from proto-diva Barbra Streisand to flameout icon Mariah Carey, to at least milk the material at some superficial level. With all this in mind, it may be significant that Tim McGraw, a guest on previous Hill albums, makes no appearance here. Perhaps there's no room for country credibility, or even for a spouse, when one's career trajectory is as hot as Hill's. (Robert Doerschuk in AllMusic)

BARB JUNGR: "Every Grain Of Sand"

Original released on CD Linn AKD 187

(UK, 2002)

"Every Grain of Sand" is a breathtaking revelation on several fronts. First, Barb Jungr treats Bob Dylan as one of the great tunesmiths of the American popular tradition. Not merely as rock & roll's preeminent songwriter, the direction from which virtually all others have approached his canon, but as a sophisticated composer the equal of the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, or Cole Porter. Jungr dramatically re-reads that canon and she fearlessly reshapes it in the process. To cite the most radical instances, she turns "Things Have Changed" into an Eastern European jig and "Tangled up in Blue" into a jaunty, jazzy western, while "Born in Time" is a marvel full of Baroque voicings. One may quibble - and Dylan fanatics, known to be provincial on occasion, certainly will, perhaps vociferously - with an arrangement here or a lyrical interpretation or subtle shading there without - and here is the magic of the album - in the least invalidating the singer's choices. Indeed, part of the sublime beauty of "Every Grain of Sand" is that it inspires, even challenges, one to make personal revisions and reinterpretations. Ultimately, Jungr is one of the few artists who has managed to not only come out on the other side of this songbook unscathed, but to actually come out having enhanced its gravity, significance, and unvarnished beauty as well as her own. She is not merely singing, but telling stories. She opens up a window of vulnerability and sensuality that had previously sat stoic beneath the surface of these songs and suffuses them with such a delicate, gauzy luminosity that they seem to glow from the inside out. Her singing is soulful and emotionally naked, and the performances are so expressive that you take something new away with each listen. The treasures ("I'll Be Your Baby Tonight," "Ring Them Bells," "Not Dark Yet," "Is Your Love in Vain?," and "What Good Am I?") tucked away here are endlessly rewarding. If you think you've heard Bob Dylan - or Barb Jungr - before "Every Grain of Sand", you are, simply put, mistaken. (Stanton Swihart in AllMusic)

ART GARFUNKEL: "Everything Waits to Be Noticed" (With MAIA SHARP And BUDDY MONDLOCK)

Original released on CD Manhattan 7243 5 40990 2 1

(EU, 2002)

Making his technical debut as a songwriter (technical in that his prose poems serve as a lyric source on several tracks), Art Garfunkel takes top billing in what actually qualifies as a collaboration with two other singer/songwriters, Nashville's Buddy Mondlock and L.A.-based Maia Sharp; producer/songwriter Billy Mann plays an essential creative role as well. For all the diverse input, this remains a Garfunkel project at heart. His airy, delicate singing, remarkably identical in quality to his earliest recordings some 40 years earlier, provides the essential textural reference; Mondlock's vocals uncannily replicate Garfunkel's from the opening moments of "Bounce" and elsewhere throughout the album. Only two of these songs were written by outsiders, and these - the self-consciously buoyant "Young and Free" and uncomfortably precious "What I Love About Rain" - don't match the rest in either musical or lyrical accomplishment. Two in particular create near-magical spells, and both are draw from Garfunkel's writing: "The Thread," a wistful chronicle of love lost amidst references to romantic landmarks in New York, and "Perfect Moment," an account of strangers exchanging glances in a theater lobby and achieving, in that timeless second, all the perfection and connection two people might expect. This performance, musically reminiscent of the Simon & Garfunkel classic "For Emily," is exquisitely crafted and impeccably performed - a high point not only here, but in all of Garfunkel's catalog. (Robert Doerschuk in AllMusic)

CARLA BRUNI Debut Album

Original released on CD Naive NV 43411

(FRANCE, November 2002)

Carla Bruni is an Italian supermodel and this is her first album. Like Milla Jovovich's debut, this caught everyone by surprise. It's a very good effort, far beyond what one would have expected. It's an acoustic and intimate album, and the songs are from her own harvest. She also plays guitar. The talented French guitarist Louis Bertignac produced the album. Although she's Italian, most of the album is sung in French with some Italian touches, like in "Le Ciel Dans une Chambre." The result is a kind and smooth album that mixes folk and chanson Française in equal parts. Although she's not breaking any new ground, the result is compelling. (Iván Adaime in AllMusic)

NORAH JONES Debut Album

Original released on CD Blue Note 7243.5.32088.2.0

(EU 2002, February 26)

Norah Jones' debut on Blue Note is a mellow, acoustic pop affair with soul and country overtones, immaculately produced by the great Arif Mardin. (It's pretty much an open secret that the 22-year-old vocalist and pianist is the daughter of Ravi Shankar.) Jones is not quite a jazz singer, but she is joined by some highly regarded jazz talent: guitarists Adam Levy, Adam Rogers, Tony Scherr, Bill Frisell, and Kevin Breit; drummers Brian Blade, Dan Rieser, and Kenny Wollesen; organist Sam Yahel; accordionist Rob Burger; and violinist Jenny Scheinman. Her regular guitarist and bassist, Jesse Harris and Lee Alexander, respectively, play on every track and also serve as the chief songwriters. Both have a gift for melody, simple yet elegant progressions, and evocative lyrics. (Harris made an intriguing guest appearance on Seamus Blake's "Stranger Things Have Happened".) Jones, for her part, wrote the title track and the pretty but slightly restless "Nightingale." She also includes convincing readings of Hank Williams' "Cold Cold Heart," J.D. Loudermilk's "Turn Me On," and Hoagy Carmichael's "The Nearness of You." There's a touch of Rickie Lee Jones in Jones' voice, a touch of Bonnie Raitt in the arrangements; her youth and her piano skills could lead one to call her an Alicia Keys for grown-ups. While the mood of this record stagnates after a few songs, it does give a strong indication of Jones' alluring talents. (David R. Adler in AllMusic)

Original released on CD Columbia COL 506169

(EU, April 2002)

Patricia Kaas' 2002 release "Piano Bar" is a lovely, seductive collection of romantic mood music, pulled directly from the chanteuse tradition but sounding utterly contemporary. Some credit must go to producer/arranger Michel Legrand, who keeps the polished surface softly glimmering, yet this is merely a stage for Kaas, whose vocals are never flashy, but always alluring. The album consists primarily of mid-20th century songs from such stalwart European composers as Charles Anzavour and Jacques Brel, who were covered frequently during the '60s by European and American singers alike. As such, "Piano Bar" can feel a bit like a '60s vocal pop album at times in terms of approach and material, but Legrand's synth-heavy arrangements help bring it into the modern era as much as Kaas' unhurried delivery. The end result is a lovely, winning album, another fine recording by a fine vocalist. (Thomas Erlewine in AllMusic)