To put things into perspective, when the Five Blind Boys of Alabama-the name under which they performed at the time-first recorded in 1948, most of the 1960s' future rock and R&B heroes were still wondering how their lives would change once they got into junior high. Nearly 70 years later, Blind Boys of Alabama-with surviving octogenarian co-founders Clarence Fountain and Jimmy Carter still involved-continue to evolve. Almost Home, divvies up the production four ways, with the tracks cut in four different cities. John Leventhal, who sat at the helm for the first three, collaborates on his segment with singer-songwriter Marc Cohn (Fountain and Carter, who still tours, each grab a co-credit). Interestingly, "God Knows Everything," a tune penned sans Blind Boys help, plays closest to the pure gospel vest. Later, Vance Powell and Charles Driebe utilize the songwriting talents of North Mississippi Allstars Cody and Luther Dickinson and Oteil Burbridge on the swampy "Pray for Peace," and Chris Goldsmith matches the group with Dylan's "I Shall Be Released," a song that you might feel needs a rest until you hear what these voices do with it. Finally, Los Lobos' Steve Berlin, keeps it rootsy, putting a Little Feat-esque backbeat on "I Can See," raving it up gospel-tent style on "I Kept on Walking" and closing it out in a grand way with massed vocals and plenty of jubilation on "I Was Called." Remarkably, given the pedigree, nothing about Almost Home feels retro-this is music that reaches across decades, belief systems and genres, its sole goal to spread some joy.

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The forward slash in Yusuf / Cat Stevens' billing says quite a lot about the folksinger's return to conventional Western recording and performing over the past decade. With each album, Yusuf seemed to have one paw scratching about the musical alleyways of ‘70s icon Cat Stevens while the other foot stood bare at the foot of a prayer mat, drawing inspiration from a different type of spiritual well. An Other Cup (2006), Roadsinger (2009), and Tell ‘Em I'm Gone (2014) often found him reaching back to repurpose old works, composing new songs about life's curious journey, and even employing Islamic theology in his songwriting – occasionally, the artist on either side of the slash appearing to be the odd man out. Now, with The Laughing Apple, that paw stretches even further back into the pre-Tillerman days, and yet never has the pilgrim and pop star sounded more in harmony. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px} READ THE FULL Consequence of Sound REVIEW

 

Thomasville Entertainment Foundation opens its 80th season of great performances with an encore performance by Chris Brubeck's Triple Play on Thursday, September 21. The 7:30 p.m. concert takes place in the intimate 500-seat auditorium at the historic Thomasville Center for the Arts located in Thomasville. Music lovers are invited to take an epic sojourn with Chris Brubeck's Triple Play through the landscape of American music with a lively set list of Delta blues, New Orleans jams, Tin Pan Alley standards and original tunes. This acoustic blues/jazz/folk trio with vocals includes the talents of Chris Brubeck on bass, trombone and piano, guitarist Joel Brown and harmonica virtuoso Peter Madcat Ruth. READ THE FULL Thomasville Times-Enterprise p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Helvetica; min-height: 12.0px}

 

In October, the film "Song of Lahore" and the groundbreaking musical group it documents, Sachal Ensemble, will come to the Capital Region in a collaboration between Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Proctors and Universal Preservation Hall. "Song of Lahore" will be screened at Proctors at 3, 5 and 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 24, and at Bowtie Criterion Cinemas 11 & BTX, Saratoga Springs, on Sunday, Oct. 29. Sachal Ensemble will perform at Proctors - Schenectady at 8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28,  and the Spa Little Theatre, Saratoga Spa State Park, at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 30. In 2014, when SPAC President and CEO Elizabeth Sobol held the same position at Universal Music Classics, watching "Song of Lahore," at a colleague's insistence, had a profound impact on her, she said. The film, by two-time Academy Award-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Andy Schocken, tells the story of Sachal Ensemble - traditional musicians trying to survive under the oppression and brutality of modern-day Pakistan. "We were losing our instruments, losing our musicians, losing our culture - something had to be done about it," Sachal producer Izzat Majeed said. By the early 2000s, Majeed had convened a devoted group of surviving Lahore musicians to rehearse and record privately within his Sachal Studios - to revive their tradition, to keep it alive. "Lahore" illustrates how their expansive music-making - bridging pop and jazz with traditional sounds - not only brought inspiration to their lives, but sustained them in their struggles.  READ THE FULL Daily Gazette ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

 

Not starting the SpongeBob SquarePants musical cast album with "Whoooooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea?" is like not starting an Abe Lincoln musical with "Four score and seven years ago." Okay, maybe not that. Maybe it's more like not starting an Oscar Meyer musical with "my bologna has a first name." Instead, after a quick prologue, the SpongeBob album gets underway with "Bikini Bottom Day," written by Jonathan Coulton. (Disclaimer: Coulton works for NPR on Ask Me Another, and I know him well enough that we say "Oh, hey!") Like nearly all the songs in the show, which opens on Broadway in November after a successful run in Chicago, "Bikini Bottom Day" is a new song brought to the stage by an established artist. In addition to Coulton, composers include Sara Bareilles, Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, T.I., Alex Ebert of Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, members of Plain White T's and Panic! At The Disco and The Flaming Lips and They Might Be Giants and a bunch more. And on top of all that original music, the show includes David Bowie and Brian Eno's "No Control." CHECK OUT NPR: First Listen PAGE

 

"Star Wars" is omnivorous in its inspiration. The saga, which continues in December with "Episode VIII: The Last Jedi," nods to classical mythology, Arthurian legend and even Wagner's "Ring" cycle. John Williams's music for the series - which the New York Philharmonic will perform live, from Sept. 15 through Oct. 7, alongside screenings of the original trilogy and "Episode VII: The Force Awakens" - contain some of the most memorable themes in film history. And like the movies themselves, the score is rooted in the classics. That inspiration crosses centuries: Stravinsky, Mozart and, in one instance, a quotation from the Gregorian "Dies irae" chant used repeatedly by composers. Mr. Williams also associates  brief themes with certain characters and ideas, a strategy Wagner developed with the leitmotifs of the "Ring." "There are dozens of leitmotifs that are used in these films," David Newman, who will conduct the Philharmonic concerts, said in a recent interview. "You can definitely find references in there."
PHOTO: Creditvia Everett Collection & Scott Myers/Lucasfilm READ THE FULL New York Times ARTICLE & WATCH THE VIDEOS p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

 

An inescapable sense of foreboding runs through "Blackness of the Night," the opening track from "The Laughing Apple," the new album by Yusuf, aka Cat Stevens. "In the blackness of the night I seem to wander endlessly, with a hope burning out deep inside," Yusuf sings in the same soft, gravelly baritone that helped make him one of pop music's biggest stars of the 1970s. "I'm a fugitive; community has driven me out/ For this bad, bad world, I'm beginning to doubt." p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px} That's a far cry from such buoyant and exquisitely uplifting pop hits of yore as "Morning Has Broken," "Moonshadow" and "Oh Very Young." "Blackness of the Night" is a prime example of the disillusionment of youth. "I wrote it in a way, in anger against the world, about what I thought were the injustices that were going on," said the artist. "The Laughing Apple," released today, Sept. 15. READ THE FULL Los Angeles Times ARTICLE p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial; min-height: 11.0px}

Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Blackness Of The Night