Tuesday, January 29, 2013

CD Review – Black & White: 25th Anniversary Edition, by Danny Wright


Danny Wright celebrates his quarter-century career as an internationally renowned pianist by rereleasing several of his landmark albums, chief among them his debut CD.
 
This disc offers a mix of standards, movie music, and Broadway tunes. Highlights include “Moonlight Sonata” and medleys of George Gershwin and Barbra Streisand. Particularly affecting are Wright’s sensitive and nuanced takes of Streisand’s “People” and “Memory,” and “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” from Evita.
 
Wright’s arrangements are tasteful, and his playing is masterful in its temperance.
 
This album is a pleasant excursion through the American pop culture songbook.
 
--Raj Manoharan

Monday, January 21, 2013

CD (Fan) Review – Fundamental, by Andy Summers and Fernanda Takai


Andy Summers’ latest album – his first with a band in nearly a decade (aside from The Police) and his first with vocals throughout (although not his) since his 1987 solo debut – is an excellent addition to his catalog.
 
The songs, written by Summers with the exception of the non-English lyrics on about half of the album, are a mix of bossa nova, pop, rock, and jazz, and are sung by popular Japanese-Brazilian singer-songwriter Fernanda Takai, whom Summers met while working on the United Kingdom of Ipanema concert/documentary DVD with Brazilian guitar legend Roberto Menescal.
 
Takai’s warm, sultry vocals blend perfectly with Summers’ typically brilliant and complex fusion guitar leads, rhythms, and solos, and the balanced sound mix allows both the vocals and the guitars to shine without drowning each other out.
 
In addition to acoustic and electric guitars, Summers plays keyboards and synthesizers, and his tight, solid band includes longtime collaborator Abraham Laboriel Sr. on bass and Marcos Suzano on drums and percussion.
 
Every track is wonderful, but my absolute, instant favorite is “Falling from the Blue.” This is what The Police might have sounded like if Takai were the vocalist instead of Sting (I’m sure Sting still would have been the bassist). Luckily for Sting, Takai was just a little girl when The Police first came together.
 
The melting pot of musical cultures and the outstanding performances of everyone involved make this an exhilarating and rewarding listening experience. Andy Summers’ fans certainly will not be disappointed.
 
--Raj Manoharan

Sunday, January 20, 2013

CD Review – Gypsy Grooves, by Priyo


Multi-instrumentalist Priyo’s latest album is an intoxicating blend of rhythmic grooves from the African, Mediterranean, and Spanish flamenco traditions, with his main instrument of acoustic guitar taking center stage.
 
The CD is truly a fusion of world music, with Priyo’s vibrant guitar playing underscoring a variety of genres, from dance and pop to new age and space jazz. Priyo especially stretches out on the appropriately named, reggae-influenced “Marswalk.”
 
In addition to Priyo’s guitars, the sound mix includes keyboards, bass, percussion, and entrancing male and female vocals. By the way, the female lead vocal on “Mia Amour” is one of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard.
 
This is an excellent guitar-based album full of engaging, buoyant musicality.
 
--Raj Manoharan

Sunday, January 13, 2013

TV – Weekly William Shatner Double "Bill": Double the Bill, Double the Thrill

If you’re as much of a Shatfan as I am, then you’ll be thrilled to know that you can watch William Shatner every Monday through Saturday in all his scenery-chewing and over-the-top gut-busting glory in two different decades in two different uniforms in two different hairstyles (or hairpieces?).

First up, Shatner’s heyday (shortly before he became a self-parodying, perpetually wealth-generating cottage industry unto himself) came in the 1980s, when—at the same time he was reprising his role as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek movies—he pounded the pavement and cleaned the streets of slimy scum as the titular no-nonsense police sergeant in T.J. Hooker, airing most weeknights at 7:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday after midnight, and Fridays at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Universal HD.

Shatner as a uniformed police officer is about as high-concept as you can get, making this the best cop show of all time. Shatner often gets touted for his peerless hood jumping, but he was quite adept behind the wheel as well. He could drift (brake-skidding the car on fast turns) with the best of them. And who could forget that Shatastic ‘80s perm? (Was it real or was it a hairpiece? Find out at www.shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com.) The series also stars the adorably smug Adrian Zmed, a very fresh-faced Heather Locklear, and Shatner’s fellow aging pretty boy James Darren.

Then, catch Shatner two decades earlier in his first iteration of Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series, which airs Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. on Me TV (Memorable Entertainment Television). Nothing beats Shatner hamming philosophic about the quandaries of mankind’s place in the universe, all the while sporting a ‘60s-style“straight-laced” coiffure (again—real or fake? Check out www.shatnerstoupee.blogspot.com). Shatner’s partners in pop cultural perpetuity include Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei.

So don’t forget to enjoy William Shatner in two of his most memorable TV roles. Tune in five nights (and four early mornings) a week, same Shat time, same Shat channel! (Actually, that's five different times on two different channels.)

--Raj Manoharan

TV – Retro TV Roundup

If the current slate of programming on broadcast, cable, satellite, and pay TV hasn’t caught your fancy, there are plenty of old favorites to catch up and relive the good old days with on the slew of retro television networks that are booming in popularity.

First up, you can watch William Shatner in all his scenery-chewing and over-the-top gut-busting glory in two different decades in two different uniforms. Shatner’s heyday (shortly before he became a self-parodying, perpetually wealth-generating cottage industry unto himself) came in the 1980s, when—at the same time he was reprising his role as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek movies—he pounded the pavement and cleaned the streets of slimy scum as no-nonsense police sergeant T.J. Hooker.

Shatner as a uniformed police officer is about as high-concept as you can get, making this the best cop show of all time. Shatner often gets touted for his peerless hood jumping, but he was quite adept behind the wheel as well. He could drift (brake-skidding the car on fast turns) with the best of them. The series, which also stars the adorably smug Adrian Zmed, a very fresh-faced Heather Locklear, and fellow aging pretty boy James Darren, airs most weeknights at 7:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday after midnight, and Fridays at 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. on Universal HD.

Then, catch Shatner two decades earlier in his first iteration of Captain Kirk in the original Star Trek television series, which airs Saturdays at 9:00 p.m. on Me TV (Memorable Entertainment Television). Nothing beats Shatner hamming philosophic about the quandaries of mankind’s place in the universe. Remarkably, 47 years after the show’s debut, with the exception of DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) and James Doohan (Scotty), the other five main cast members are still with us.

By the way, if you love classic television, Me TV should be your first and last stop on the dial. In addition to featuring scores of classic television shows, the network features brilliant commercials touting its various slogans composed entirely of expertly spliced-together clips from all of its shows. This is the ultimate TV channel for the ultimate TV fan.

Between Me TV and Antenna TV, weekend afternoons and evenings make for a veritable bonanza of retro classics. Saturdays and Sundays on Antenna TV, Martin Milner and Kent McCord patrol the streets of Los Angeles as Officers Pete Malloy and Jim Reed on Adam-12 from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Then, Jack Webb and Harry Morgan take over as Los Angeles plainclothes detectives Joe Friday and Bill Gannon on Dragnet from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Saturdays on Me TV, Adam West and Burt Ward star as the caped-crusading dynamic duo Batman and Robin, who race in the Batmobile to save Gotham City from a comical cavalcade of costumed crackpots, with little help from a hilariously inept police force, in the 1960s pop cultural phenomenon Batman. The show airs at 7:00 p.m. and is followed by Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space at 8:00 p.m. and Star Trek at 9:00 p.m.

You can take your pick of Michael Keaton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, or Christian Bale as the various Dark Knights (Keaton and Bale are my personal favorite modern movie Batmen), but no matter what the fanboys naysay, Adam West (who also played Batman on the big screen) made the most indelible and lasting mark of any of them on pop culture. He is the one Batman to rule them all.

Check your local listings or go online to learn about all the great classic shows airing on Antenna TV, Me TV, TV Land, and Universal HD.

--Raj Manoharan

Sunday, January 6, 2013

CD Review – Medicine Melodies: Songs the Healers Hear, by Silvia Nakkach with Christopher Eickmann


Sound healer Silvia Nakkach taps into the traditions of natural healers from time immemorial with this collection of vocal chants encompassing Indian, Sufi, Tibetan, African, and ancient American culture, with musical instrumentation and sound design coordinated and supervised by Christopher Eickmann, as well as others.
 
The vocal chants are entrancing and hypnotic, performed and recorded in such a way that they seem to be emanating from within your own consciousness. The instrumentation is also soothing and relaxing, providing the perfect framework for the vocal chants to work their charms.
 
Of all the tracks, my favorite is “Hymn to Saraswati.” You don’t have to have any particular inclination or leaning to appreciate the earnestness and devotion of the vocalists, who exude utmost humility and supplication. I could listen to a whole album of just this.
 
--Raj Manoharan

TV – Adam-12 and Dragnet on the Move


Antenna TV has changed Adam-12’s and Dragnet’s weekend shifts yet again, with Adam-12 patrolling the 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. beat followed by Dragnet from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
 
--Raj Manoharan