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2006 PREVIOUS COVERS

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84-Column of Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

85-Column of Arlene Peck

CDs NEW REVIEWS

Ann Hampton Callaway

It is BORING BORING! It is not enough to count on your fame to cash on your CD. True, celebrity status sells records. But, quality is to be preserved, originality to metamorphose

Andrea Marcovicci was stunning and monumental. But what is happening to Marcovicci's talent now? She just lost it.

A Bigger Bang
The Rolling Stones (Virgin Records)

No, Jagger can't chicken-strut forever, and Richards has skimmed death's surface a few times already. They're old, but they're not dead, yet. For 40 plus years, the Rolling Stones have strutted their way across rock 'n' roll's youthful terrain

Neil Young
Prairie Wind (Reprise)

Neil Young's Prairie Wind is a gentle-sounding, acoustic-based album that packs an emotional wallop. It rightfully is being cast as the third in a trilogy of albums that started with Harvest in 1972 and continued with 1992's Harvest Moon.

All Jacked Up
Gretchen Wilson (Epic)

Fans of Gretchen Wilson's chart-topping 2004 debut album, Here for the Party, might have braced for a letdown with her latest, All Jacked Up. Feel free to unbrace. This album's even better than the first.

Sheryl Crow
Wildflower (A&M)

Point to ponder while contemplating Sheryl Crow's new Wildflower CD: will a bad review earn a set of tread marks on my back?

Paul McCartney
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Capitol)

Is Chaos and Creation in the Backyard the album Paul McCartney fans have been waiting for him to make? Not quite.

Joan Bender                                                                   Star Eyes

The sweet, tender, yet powerfully cultivated voice of Joan Bender was evident in two of her songs "Cherokee" and "So Nice". STAR EYES has 13 tracks of multi-varied flair and genre

Souls' Chapel

To tout Souls' Chapel as the best gospel record this year gives it short shrift, because Marty Stuart's latest work ranks with the best 2005 albums in any genre. The songs shimmer, and not just because of the tremolo guitars.

Late Registration
Kanye West (Universal)

So this is where Kanye West wants to take hip-hop -- beyond the sped-up soul samples that made him famous, beyond his first album's gospel and R&B influences...

The Outsider
Rodney Crowell (Columbia)

With The Outsider, Rodney Crowell has delivered an album for anyone feeling disaffected with the modern world and its politics. At times funny, other times thought-provoking, frequently angry and nearly always rocking, Crowell follows in the footsteps of icons like Woody Guthrie

Fireflies
Faith Hill (Warner Brothers Records)

It's easy to understand why Faith Hill took her time before releasing her new record, Fireflies.

Daniel Powter
Daniel Powter (Warner Bros.)

Piano-playing Vernon native Daniel Powter evokes a pleasant '70s groove on his major label debut, a record that hit the big time overseas behind the single Bad Day, a No. 1 smash in numerous European countries

Grown & Sexy
Babyface (Arista)

Compared to today's generation of R&B studs, Babyface seems a little old-fashioned on his latest offering, Grown & Sexy. The romantic troubadour sounds as genteel as ever: there are no songs dedicated to baby mama drama, getting trapped in a closet of a married lover, or all-night grinding.

Yerba Buena
Island Life (Razor & Tie)

The skyscrapers and concrete that cover Manhattan make it easy to forget that the bustling place is an island. And considering the influx of Latin immigrants of recent years, life on this island is growing more tropical. Thus a listen to the second album from Yerba Buena, the electic New York-based collective,

The Day After Yesterday
Rick Springfield (Gomer/DKE Records)

Admittedly, it was nostalgia that prompted me to check out Rick Springfield's latest release. And at least his photographs didn't disappoint. The hunky Aussie '80s singer and one-time soap star has aged astonishingly well. With his shaggy brown hair and lanky frame, Springfield's sexy looks belie his

MEDULLA by BJORK

Bjork has said she finds her best, most loved music has been the songs she was selfish in making. On her latest, the Icelandic chanteuse has cast out even the instruments.

BLACK MAGIC

If Bob Marley is reggae's king, Jimmy Cliff is its prince. The veteran Jamaican singer has the royal lineage. He started his career in the early '60s ska scene in Kingston while still a teenager and has grown along with the music through its many permutations.

Mind, Body & Soul

Oh, what feeling there is during Mind, Body & Soul, Joss Stone's follow-up to her debut EP, a compilation of soulful covers. The not-so-pop singer finds the emotional climax in every song on the 14-track disc. Her husky voice is both eloquent and vulnerable, more Taylor Dane than Mariah Carey. And Stone's vocal acrobatics are intentional, not showy.

DURAN DURAN'S ASTRONAUT. More than 20 years since Duran Duran released a full studio album, the original band returns with the sound that made them famous: catchy, simple anthems and harmonies over driving dance grooves and slick electronic sounds. The album is a swath of effects-layered, slow- to mid-tempo songs, ranging from radio-friendly pop anthems like leadoff single Sunrise to more groovy and disco-influenced numbers like Nice, which recall the group's early '80s work on Rio.

DONATELLA BY DONNA RAWLINS. A blend of romance, relaxing moments and musical nostalgia on the edge of vocal virtuosity and sensuality. Donna Rawlins delivered a refreshing bouquet of tunes immersed into an ocean of feelings, remembrance and harmonious beauty, delivered through originality, splendid musical arrangements and sensuality...

LET MY PEOPLE GO

An extremely moving socio-political  statement  made through lyrics and music that capture  the heart and mind  with simple melodies that make the heart sing. This is an historical musical documentation of human struggles,

Bonnie Raitt
Souls Alike (Capitol)

Some things improve with age -- Bonnie Raitt, for example. Raitt, whose first LP was released in 1971, sounds better than ever in her latest album, Souls Alike. She can still wrap her voice around a lyric and effortlessly conjure the appropriate mood -- edgy or sweet, submissive or aggressive, melancholy or joyful.

Back Home
Eric Clapton (Reprise/Duck Records)

Sure legends die and stars inevitably begin to fade. If you're Eric Clapton, though, you simply return home. So it is for the 60-year-old British bluesman's aptly titled Back Home, which brings into sharp focus the reflections of a music man of four decades who has grown to value home and family above all else in the twilight of his years.

Music Of The Sun
Rihanna (Def Jam)

It's not too late for a summer getaway after all. With her debut album Music Of The Sun, new artist Rihanna brings us the sultry dancehall and R&B sounds of the Caribbean islands. The 17-year-old green-eyed cutie, born in the Barbados, made a splash onto the summer scene with her dancehall smash single Pon De Replay.

Tracy Chapman
Where You Live (Elektra)

Even more bare-bones than usual, Tracy Chapman recorded her seventh solo album not in a studio, but in a San Francisco-area rehearsal space filled with trucked-in gear. The result: beautifully written songs in Chapman's signature simple and acoustic style. The memorable tracks are America and the album's first single, Change, which has Chapman posing a string of rhetorical questions.

Liesl Muller

A refined lady who sings like a femme fatale chanteuse of "Les annees folles" and Paris Pigale of 1930. A warm and sinfully evocative voice which brings to life the magic, nostalgia and tender beauty of a vanished golden era of the early days of Cabaret and Kabaret of Paris and Berlin.

NATALIE DESSAY: French Arias ,
Michel Plasson, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse.

Splendid collection of coloratura soprano arias cleverly chosen  from French most lyrical operas by Donizetti,  Massenet,  Thomas, Offenbach and Gounod.  Natalie Dessay,  the world's top coloratura soprano,

 ROBERTO ALAGNA: NESSUM DORMA

French-Italian tenor Roberto Alagna delivered a world-class album of Italian arias, including Giordano's Fedora, Cilea's Adriana Lecouvreur Puccini's Nessun dorma,  Leoncavallo's La Bohème, I zingari, and Zazà. Alagna took on a great vocal challenge, for he has a  medium-bodied voice

While country trends (most of them regrettable) come and go, George Strait has varied little from the buttoned-down traditionalism that's earned him more than 30 No. 1 hits, including Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind and The Chair. Strait's latest, Somewhere Down In Texas, won't change that.

TP.3 Reloaded
R. Kelly (Jive)

On R. Kelly's last album, Happy People/U Saved Me, which was released after he was hit with child pornography charges, R. Kelly chose a family-friendly, spiritual vibe -- praising the joys of God instead of his usual wild sexual shenanigans. With his new disc, Kelly will have plenty to repent for. If you thought the man who came up with such freaky songs as Bump

Made in China
Juliana Hatfield (Ye Olde Records)

Forget Juliana Hatfield the waif. Ditch that memory of her song Spin the Bottle, the one that seemed to emanate from the film Reality Bites. Forget the Massachusetts girl who made up a third of the Blake Babies. She's gone. And that's a good thing. Hatfield has eviscerated her past, exorcised her previous pure-pop lyrics and dumped the foundation of her previous recordings

Roc-a-Fella Records Presents: Teairra Mari
Teairra Mari (Roc-A-Fella Records)

As Jay-Z's appointed Princess of the Roc, Teairra Mari proves she's worth the royalty status with her self-titled debut album. Merging sweet, laid-back vocals with off-the-block swagger and style, the 17-year-old angel-faced songbird from Detroit conveys candid accounts about the whirlwind of emotions felt by girls when dealing with the fellas. The single Make Her Feel Good serves as an open call and challenge to boys who think they have what it takes to bring girls joy

The Legend
Johnny Cash (Columbia/Legacy)

June Carter Cash was an actress, an author and the love of Johnny Cash's life. She also assumed a prominent place in country music's most famous family tree, and Keep On The Sunny Side nicely summarizes her pioneering role as a singer-songwriter. The two-CD, 40-song set is one of two new anthologies from the House of Cash on the 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash's first single.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE. Release William Bolcom. Conductor Leonard Slatkin.

William Bolcom's ambitious setting of William Blake's complete Songs of Innocence and Experience for soloists, multiple choral forces, and orchestra occupied the composer on and off, beginning as far back as the late 1950s, with most of the work completed between 1973-74 and 1979-82. The composer's renowned eclectic bent makes itself felt in the work's nearly two-and-one-half-hour length. Musical eras, styles, and performance

ANDREW MANZE: PORTRAIT

If you're already an Andrew Manze fan, you probably have most if not all of the recordings represented on this compilation (22 tracks from 11 albums, ranging from composers as well-loved as Bach and Vivaldi to the more obscure Pandolfi and Rebel). Even so, hearing these selections back-to-back is a reminder of just how dazzling he is, a virtuoso technician with a limitless imagination. With Manze, there's no need to qualify his talents (something along the lines of "well, he's quite good for one of those early music/period performance fiends").

CORELLI VIOLIN SONATE. OP5/ANDREW MANZE, RICHARD EGARR

 For a large part of the 20th century violinists learned Baroque sonatas and concertos as glorified exercises (even as justification for having to practice all those scales and arpeggios!), as respected historical foundations that must be stood on and conquered, and ultimately as important landmarks on the path to the "really great" solo works ("Now, my boy, I think you're finally ready for the Mendelssohn!"). In other words, these pieces were not regarded as ends in themselves for the soloist, or certainly not as subjects for involved study.