MUSIC RECORD REVIEWS
V ALBUMS
I Steve Turre: Right There (Antilles) Steve Turre‘s caustic trombone playing first caught my ear in Lester Bowie‘s Brass Fantasy, but this excellent set from his Sextette with strings takes a different, less parodic tack on jazz history. It succeeds in simultaneously encompassing the excitement of post-bop with a refreshingly different textural feel from the cello and violin. Turre’s bright. imaginative charts, including tributes to Woody Shaw, Art Blakey and Duke Ellington, are a plus, while Wynton Marsalis and Benny Golson make guest contributions, although I am less taken by the singing of his wife, cellist Akua Dixon Turre. Antilles also release a new set by veteran saxman Teddy Edwards, Mississippi Lad (with guest vocals from Tom Waits), and trumpeter Charlie Sepulveda‘s colourful Latin-bop set The New Arrival. (Kenny Mathieson)
I The Paragon Ensemble: Paragon Premieres (Continuum) The Glasgow-based new music group have contributed an immense amount to contemporary Scottish music, and this first disc is a convincing demonstration of their qualities. They have chosen their material well. and it is especially good to see James MacMillan‘s work begin to appear on CD. ‘The Exorcism of Rio Sumpul‘ is a typically powerful piece, based in unobtrusively programmatic fashion on a violent incident in El Salvador. The disc is essential for this alone, but it is strongly supported by William Sweeney‘s. setting of Pablo Neruda’s poetry, ‘El Pueblo‘, and Lyell Cresswell‘s inventive ‘Passacagli‘. Cresswell is even more strongly represented on Orchestra! Works — I (Continuum), which contains his masterly ‘Cello Concerto‘ and the orchestral song-cycle ‘A Modern Ecstacy‘. Both discs are recommended for anyone with an interest in the evolving shape of contemporary composition in Scotland. (Kenny Mathieson)
. Oregon: Always, Never and Forever (veraBra) A typically thoughtful and inventive set from a band many people wrote off after the tragic death of Collin Walcott in 1984. Instead, Trilok Gurtu brought a new dimension to their music, and they have continued to achieve a remarkable standard of creativity. Never a band to
[— VARIOUS ‘ARTISTS’
Bend lt (Exotica)
Bit of a Renaissance man, that Terry Venables. He's written a hit TV detective series, managed Barcelona, bought Gary Lineker twice, won the FA Cup and saved Spurs. But these are achievements that pale into insignificance, however, when placed next to his divine rendition of ‘Bye Bye Blackbird’ which appears on this album. Godlike.
‘Bend lt’, in case you haven’t guessed, is an immaculate collection of football kitsch, collected into one all-seater stadium for the first time and told to get out there and play its little heart out. The beautiful game has been responsible for some of the most heinous crimes committed in the name
of music and this indispensable record rounds up some of the more obscure suspects. Peter Osgood leads the hirsute 70s Chelsea squad in a deep soul version of ‘Chirpy Chlrpy Cheep Cheep', Jackie Charlton remembers a Geordie childhood, backed by a choir of angels, and countless Continentals sing paeans to the genius of Johann Cruyff with an oompah band pushed high in the mix.
Cynics will carp that Gazza or Glenn and Chris hold a tune like Jim Leighton holds weak shots from outside the area, but so what? When’s the last time Voice Of The Beehive stuck one in the top corner from 30 yards, or New Kids On The Block rounded three defenders and chipped the keeper? Take ‘Bend lt’ to your Hogmanay party. You’ll be two up by half-time and away goals count double. (Tom Lappin)
_ VARIOUS ARTISTS
Until The End Of The World (WEA) Nineteen tracks and 69 minutes oi haunting severity. ‘Until The End OfThe World’ is Wim Wenders’s imminent new pic, a three-hour magnum opus road movie. The soundtrack, comprising fifteen or so stellularly-inclined artists, is accordingly elongated, expansive, brooding and just a tad grim. Hence the general air oi foreboding that shrouds the whole exercise, as epitomised by the almost-twin title tracks rendered by U2 and a rambling, Cathal Coughian-esgue Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds.
REM’s ‘Fretless', a bare-boned
NICK DRAKE
The Fruit Tree (Hannibal/Bykodisc) It’s been available before, but the relaunch of this material as a four-CD boxed set is a good enough reason to celebrate Drake’s brief (1968—74) career. Although over the years it’s become synonymous with morbid bedsit angst, his graceful and moving debut, ‘Five Leaves Left’, announced an English artist who could hold his own against Tim Buckley and Van Morrison. Sometimes, the string arrangements veer towards the melodrama that the vocalist himself never resorted to, but at least they're sympathetically scored. lt's chilling to hear Drake predict his own fate in the track ‘The Fruit Tree’. Having to die before he could become famous was only one possible outcome -
but he sings it with resignation.
although its arrangements are busy, Drake is never beaten down by them. Beginners, start here. ‘Five Leaves Left’ has been compared to ‘Astral Weeks’, but that honour should really go to ‘Plnk Moon’, Drake's starkest and
was recorded over two nights with lust vocals and guitar, and the transfer to CD brings an already intimate record uncomfortany close. The unreleased tracks on the final disc, ‘Time Of No
that he never got the chance to make
another. (Alastair Mabbott)
‘Bryter Layter’ is far more upbeat, and ,
Beply’, bring home what a waste it was i
The eponymous hero of ’Willie Morgan On The Wing'
leftover from the ‘Out Of Time’ sessions, is plaintive and passionate and, natch, most excellent. Crime And The City Solution's ‘The Adversary’ is fulsome hypnotism. Depeche Mode return to the maudlin ‘Blasphemous Bumours’ territory with the ultra-technology-free ‘Death’s Door'. Such is the tone of the seriousness on show.
Thankfully, this intent-of-purpose trip, so redolent of Wenders's movies, is here interpreted and delivered with such variety of craft — see Jane Siberry and k d Lang's beautiful ‘Calling All Angels’, or the rocking angst of ‘What’s Good’ by Lou Reed - as to uplift and ensnare. This Wenders Stuff sure is a potent brew. (Craig McLean)
purest record - and his masterpiece. it s; , '- ‘
“The List 20 December 1991- 16 January 1992