THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701090025
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Music Review
LENGTH: 86 lines
Costello & Nieve, ``For the First Time in America'' (Warner Bros.)
When ``All This Useless Beauty'' didn't get the PR push he felt it should, Elvis Costello didn't pout and write ``slave'' on his face. He and Attractions' pianist Steve Nieve set off to showcase it.
Recorded live last May in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York, the five EPs in this limited edition boxed set make Costello's case. Most of ``Beauty'' is included, and several tracks - notably the caustic ``Starting to Come to Me'' - are as fine as anything he's written.
But the beauty of the collection is in its spare, inventive arrangements - not just those given the new material, but the familiar ``Watching the Detectives,'' the less-familiar ``My Dark Life'' and covers of ``My Funny Valentine'' and Jerry Garcia's ``Ship of Fools,'' recorded, appropriately, in San Francisco.
Costello is in fine form and high spirits throughout. His anecdote about being interviewed by a German reporter, dropped in the middle of ``Little Atoms,'' is priceless.
If you have the time, and at just over two hours it doesn't require much, play the discs back to back. It's almost as good as being there.
Craig Shapiro, Virginian-Pilot
Jazz
Tony Williams, ``Wilderness'' (Ark 21)
A jazz fan gets his hopes up when a new album features drummer Tony Williams, tenor saxophonist Michael Brecker, bassist Stanley Clarke, keyboardist Herbie Hancock and guitarist Pat Metheny.
But violins? Oboes? Bassoons?
Williams has been studying composition, and he's decided to spring a little surprise on us. Half of this record consists of his orchestral material. Not that the longhaired stuff is so terrible - ``Wilderness Rising,'' the main theme, echoes the classic American strains of Aaron Copland, and several of the variations are interesting. The jazz cats, though, have little to contribute.
Moreover, the program is puzzling. Lively, but forgettable, funk vamps and R&B grooves make up most of the non-orchestral music.
Best bets are Clarke's moody ``Harlem Mist '55'' and Williams' ``Cape Wilderness,'' a quintet version of the centerpiece. But they amount to a fraction of the disc.
All in all, a curious mixture. Who'd have thought that a Tony Williams album would need a warning label?
David Simpson, Virginian-Pilot
Blues
Magic Slim & the Teardrops, ``Scufflin' '' (Blind Pig)
Son Seals, ``Live - Spontaneous Combustion'' (Alligator)
Sometimes, a CD can be judged by its cover. These releases by two of Chicago's most prominent guitar slingers promise hefty chunks of no-frills urban blues. And they deliver, with a twist or two.
With his big Big Joe Turner vocals, Magic Slim (real name Morris Holt) tosses off jump-blues, gospel and New Orleans rhythms with equal aplomb. ``Just Before You Go'' could have come from the Allman Brothers songbook. Slim's sibling, bassist Nick Holt, joins him on ``Down in Virginia,'' one of the disc's highlights.
Seals, now recovering from a recent gunshot wound, brought the house down when he recorded at Buddy Guy's Legends. Dan Rabinovitz's trumpet solo on ``Your Love Is Like a Cancer'' is worth the price, Red Groetzinger's flute takes ``The Sun Is Shining'' in jazzy directions and the funky ``Landlord At My Door'' belongs on the soundtrack to ``Across 110th Street.''
Craig Shapiro, Virginian-Pilot
Folk
Fairport Convention, ``Old. New. Borrowed. Blue.'' (Woodworm)
This seminal folk band has been around since the '60s, when it combined the electric folk-rock of Dylan and the Byrds with traditional Celtic music. In England, Fairport is considered a hallowed institution; this new offering adds to that rep.
Guitarists Maartin Allcock and Simon Nicol, bassist Dave Pegg and violinist Ric Sanders play up an acoustic storm. The only electricity on the 70-minute-plus disc is their amazing wizardry; in fact, it crackles with more energy than a dozen current rock recordings. Nicol and Pegg add warm harmonies.
The group performs songs by Loudon Wainwright III, James Taylor and Richard Thompson along with originals and Celtic standards. On a live club recording, the quartet breathes new life into the Fairport classics ``Matty Groves'' and ``Crazy Man Michael.''
With this classy recording, Fairport Convention adds lustre and adventure to ``unplugged.''
Eric Feber, Virginian-Pilot