Music for Grownups Reviews: Elvis Presley, Issa Bagayogo
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | 2008-08-05
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City. His reviews for AARP.org appear every Tuesday; his columns on Thursdays.
Elvis Presley
"Elvis: The Complete '68 Comeback Special: 40th Anniversary Edition"
RCA/Sony/BMG
After putting his perhaps most profitable star in a series of B movies, “Colonel” (so-dubbed by recording artist and two-term governor of Louisiana, Jimmie “You Are My Sunshine” Davis) Tom Parker thought he could raise Elvis's flagging profile with a polite and profitable Christmas-theme TV special. What he got instead, thanks to hip, young producer Steve Binder, was one of the more exciting comebacks in show-biz history.
Dark, sexy, and vaguely menacing in hot black leather, Elvis seduced his enthusiastic studio audience with a thrillingly arranged musical biography consisting of symphonic arrangements, intimate acoustic jams, some awkwardly funny storytelling, and infinite charisma. In addition to the official soundtrack recording, this four-CD set includes all four "sit-down" and "stand-up" shows from which the special was drawn, and a disc's worth of casual, hilarious, and revealing rehearsals.
Issa Bagayogo
"Mali Koura"
Six Degrees
Mali singer-songwriter Issa Bagayogo provides the perfect gateway to the percolating polyrhythms of West African pop music. After Bagayogo recorded his basic tracks outside his producer Yves Wernert's home in Bamako, Mali's capitol, they were shipped to Nancy, France. There, the multi-instrumentalist Gaël LeBillan enhanced them with snazzy backup vocals, electronica, and three-dimensional arrangements that lend the music depth and richness without sacrificing either Bagayogo’s homegrown soul or the strains of his six-string “kamélé n'goni” (a harp-lute). While tracks such as "Sebero" and the funky "Dunu Kan" are obviously intended for the dance floor, others, such as "M'Ba Fodi," reflect Mali music's intimate storytelling tradition.
"Elvis: The Complete '68 Comeback Special: 40th Anniversary Edition"
RCA/Sony/BMG
After putting his perhaps most profitable star in a series of B movies, “Colonel” (so-dubbed by recording artist and two-term governor of Louisiana, Jimmie “You Are My Sunshine” Davis) Tom Parker thought he could raise Elvis's flagging profile with a polite and profitable Christmas-theme TV special. What he got instead, thanks to hip, young producer Steve Binder, was one of the more exciting comebacks in show-biz history.
Dark, sexy, and vaguely menacing in hot black leather, Elvis seduced his enthusiastic studio audience with a thrillingly arranged musical biography consisting of symphonic arrangements, intimate acoustic jams, some awkwardly funny storytelling, and infinite charisma. In addition to the official soundtrack recording, this four-CD set includes all four "sit-down" and "stand-up" shows from which the special was drawn, and a disc's worth of casual, hilarious, and revealing rehearsals.
Issa Bagayogo
"Mali Koura"
Six Degrees
Mali singer-songwriter Issa Bagayogo provides the perfect gateway to the percolating polyrhythms of West African pop music. After Bagayogo recorded his basic tracks outside his producer Yves Wernert's home in Bamako, Mali's capitol, they were shipped to Nancy, France. There, the multi-instrumentalist Gaël LeBillan enhanced them with snazzy backup vocals, electronica, and three-dimensional arrangements that lend the music depth and richness without sacrificing either Bagayogo’s homegrown soul or the strains of his six-string “kamélé n'goni” (a harp-lute). While tracks such as "Sebero" and the funky "Dunu Kan" are obviously intended for the dance floor, others, such as "M'Ba Fodi," reflect Mali music's intimate storytelling tradition.
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