Music for Grownups: Dianne Reeves, The Clash
By: Richard Gehr | Source: AARP.org | Date Posted: 2008-04-15
Richard Gehr is a veteran music critic based in New York City.
Dianne Reeves
"When You Know"
Blue Note
Jazz singer Dianne Reeves waxes autobiographical on her first album since 2005, when she re-created the sultry spirit of the '50s for George Clooney's movie, "Good Night, and Good Luck." Here she recalls her Motown childhood with a sweet, adolescence-evoking take on the Temptations' "Just My Imagination," transforms the Shawn Colvin hit "When You Know" into a gospel-driven echo of her Baptist upbringing, and memorializes her 83-year-old mother's can-do spirit in the rollicking blues original, "Today Will Be a Good Day." Reeves can make almost anything swing. But lest you forget that jazz is her main music, Reeves also delivers thoughtful, beautifully phrased renditions of the bossa nova standard "Once I Loved" and pays homage to Ella Fitzgerald with Jon Hendricks's subtle and sophisticated "Social Call."
The Clash
"Revolution Rock"
Epic/Legacy DVD
English punk's most politically savvy, musically adventuresome, and best-dressed group (how many zippers can one jumpsuit bear?) still delivers a walloping shot of adrenaline three decades later, as demonstrated by this hour-long DVD time capsule containing 22 songs filmed onstage between 1977 and 1983. While the quartet performs early tunes, such as "White Riot" and "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.," like heavily caffeinated Tasmanian Devils, the stern Klaxon chords of "London Calling" and reggae-rock of "This Is Radio Clash" display an immensely more ambitious band. The 1982 Shea Stadium performance of their hit single, "Should I Stay or Should I Go," finds them almost, but not quite, devolving into U2.
"When You Know"
Blue Note
Jazz singer Dianne Reeves waxes autobiographical on her first album since 2005, when she re-created the sultry spirit of the '50s for George Clooney's movie, "Good Night, and Good Luck." Here she recalls her Motown childhood with a sweet, adolescence-evoking take on the Temptations' "Just My Imagination," transforms the Shawn Colvin hit "When You Know" into a gospel-driven echo of her Baptist upbringing, and memorializes her 83-year-old mother's can-do spirit in the rollicking blues original, "Today Will Be a Good Day." Reeves can make almost anything swing. But lest you forget that jazz is her main music, Reeves also delivers thoughtful, beautifully phrased renditions of the bossa nova standard "Once I Loved" and pays homage to Ella Fitzgerald with Jon Hendricks's subtle and sophisticated "Social Call."
The Clash
"Revolution Rock"
Epic/Legacy DVD
English punk's most politically savvy, musically adventuresome, and best-dressed group (how many zippers can one jumpsuit bear?) still delivers a walloping shot of adrenaline three decades later, as demonstrated by this hour-long DVD time capsule containing 22 songs filmed onstage between 1977 and 1983. While the quartet performs early tunes, such as "White Riot" and "I'm So Bored With the U.S.A.," like heavily caffeinated Tasmanian Devils, the stern Klaxon chords of "London Calling" and reggae-rock of "This Is Radio Clash" display an immensely more ambitious band. The 1982 Shea Stadium performance of their hit single, "Should I Stay or Should I Go," finds them almost, but not quite, devolving into U2.
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