Sonneck Society for American Music
Bulletin, Volume XXIV, no. 3 (Fall 1998)
Reviews of Recorded Material
Edited by Orly Leah Krasner, Boston University
Friday at Last. Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys. Swallow Records, SW 6139,
1997. One compact disc.
You'd Be Surprised! Keith Frank. Maison de Soul, MdS-1063, 1997. One compact
disc.
Zydeco Sensation. Rosie Leder. Maison de Soul, MdS 1064, 1997. One compact disc.
Creole Nightingale. Tim Williams. Great Southern Records,, GS 11022, 1996. One
compact disc.
Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys burst onto the national scene in 1990 with the release of their first,
self-titled album, produced by Acadian composer and musician Zachary Richard. Standing next to the
only traffic light in Mamou in the cover photo, Riley hardly appeared to be out of high school,
much less as the mover and shaker of Cajun music he has been through the 1990s. Although Friday at
Last is Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys' sixth album, it is their first for Louisiana-based
label Swallow. All their other albums have been recorded for Rounder, where they returned for their
upcoming release Bayou Ruler.
The band depends primarily on three talents: Riley, David Greely and Peter Schwarz. The multi-talented
Riley sings, plays Cajun accordion an fiddle. David Greely is a singer, violinist and saxophonist. He
is the oldest band member and has spent time as a session player in Nashville. Peter Schwarz is the
son of Tracy Schwarz, bluegrass fiddler with the New Lost City Ramblers. Father and son Schwarz have been
involved in Cajun music for many years, learning from and recording with Dewey Balfia, the towering
giant of traditional Cajun music. Peter Schwarz plays bass for the band, and switches to fiddle
for wonderful performances with two and three fiddles.
Harmony vocals are one of the key features of the band's sound. Their lush three-part harmonies are
a departure from the usual single voice found in Cajun music. They have found their wellsprings
of inspiration in many palces. A large number of songs are originals, ritten by Riley, Greely or Schwarz,
together or in combination. Classic songs by masters Clifton Chenier, Canray Fontenot, Dewey
Balfa, Iry LeJeune, Dennis McGee and Lawrence Walker are an important part of their repertoire.
The band began recording traditional Cajun music, but on their fourth album, Live!, ventured into
zydeco and rhythm-and-blues. Riley and band's success has taken them to venues well outside the state,
going as far afield as Norway, England, and Germany.
Friday at Last is one of the foremost Cajun music releases of the past three years. From the first
accordion notes of the "Mamou Playboys Special" to the closing chords of "Vendredi enfin," there
is no more finished or sophisticated band. Many strains of Cajun music are beautifully rendered here, from the rough,
traditional "Adieu Rosa" through the Western swing-influenced sound of the "Mamou Playboys Special" to the
Creole playfulness of "Bee de la manche." (A "Special" is the theme song for a band, such as the classic
"Scott Playboys Special.") This album relies primarily on standard material with only three originals out
of seventeen cuts. "Adieu Rosa" starts with triple fiddles and vocal, but halfway through the full band
breaks in transporting it from back porch to dance hall. Peter Schwarz's lyrical waltz "Le
père de la nouvelle mariée" is fast become a local standard., here showcasing his violin playing
with Freely on harmony violin. Three cuts feature Riley overdubbing all instruments: "La Valse du
bamboucheur," "Traveler Playboys Special" and "La vale que j'aime." "La valse du bambocheur" and
"Enterre moi pas" pay homage to Riley's mentor Dewey Balfa on these songs Balfa wrote. Riley was
a protégé of Dewey Balfa, studying with and performing with the brothers. Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys
returned home to make this album, home to a Louisiana label and home to the richness of Cajun music.
This album is the finest collection of traditional Cajun music recorded in many years.
There are very few women in zydeco music and fewer headliners. The doyenne is Queen Ida Guillory, though
she has considerably reduced recording and performing during this decade. Ann Goodly was poised to make a
splash as recently as 1996, though she has since sunk without a trace. Rosie Ledet can now claim the crown
by default. Zydeco Sensation is Ledet's third release in four years. It is nearly
indistinguishable from her earlier material, containing twelve originally composed songs. The melody
lines and accordion parts are all quite simple and repetitive. It is her voice that leaves an
impression. Its mark comes not because of her vocal abilities but because zydeco is chiefly a man's field.
Her vocals are primarily breathy and impoloring, with little difference between the joyous "Brown Eyed Boy," the
sexy "Sweetheart Style" and the bluesy "Old Love." The swamp pop song "Stay with Me" shows her best
side; perhaps with time Ledet will develop more expression. Ledet also plays Cajun diatonic accordion. There
are very few French lyrics in this collection, further eroding the language's importance in zydeco.
Several of the songs rely on double entendre, with titles like 'My Joy Box" and "Roll it Over."
Lyrics like this are popular in the dance halls, so her suggestive image is likely to endure. Her
band is a family enterprise, with husband Morris on bass, Lanice Ledet on scrubboard and Corey Ledet on
drums. Unless Ledet develops additional musical prowess or becomes more of a standout as a composer, she
will be distinguished primarily because of her gender.
Keith Frank is one of a generation of the youngest zydeco musicians, exponents of what is sometimes
called nouveau zydeco, alongside Rosie Ledet, Chris Ardoin, Geno Delafose, and numerous others. This style
features more repetition and syncopation with the Beau Jocque double backbeat, many original songs, and little
French; it borrows from blues, rhythm-and-blues, reggae, rock and even rap. Once of the oldest of this group at
26, Frank's place in southwest Louisiana is secure, routinely filling dance halls like
Hamilton's in Lafayette. Frank is the son of Preston Frank, former leader of the Family Zydeco Band. Continuing the family
tradition, Frank's Soileau Zydeco Band features sister Jennifer on bass and brother Brad on drums.
Like many of the younger musicians, Frank plays the Cajun or diatonic accordion as well as
double-row, triple-row, and piano key accorions with equal ease. His playing on "Bad Boys" is first-rate,
and "The Stole My Chicken" has a groove that just won't quit. Keith's singing is neither better nor
worse than most of his contemporaries. All but two songs are originals. There are two reggae numbers, the humorous
"Fred the Rasta Man" and the socially concious "Who Remembers." There is also one swamp pop number,
"A Fool Is a One Man Show." Frank's link to New Orleans rhythm-and-blues shows in his performance of the
Domino-Bartholomew composition "Hello Josephine." As in his last release, unfortunately, there is virtually
no French. "Patate douce" contains only a count to four and a one-line refrain in French with spoken comments
and a verse in English. "Why You Do All That" has one French verse. You'd be Surprised! covers
no graound not already covered in his last release Movin' on Up! The success of thise album, however, cannot
be judged simply by whether it is innovative. Zydeco is music performed in a social context; the ultimate question
is, "Can you dance to it?" The answer here is an unconditional yes.
Tim Williams is originally from Natchez, Mississippi but has been playing in New Orleans for many years.
Most of her performances have been in French Quarter clubs, with one appearance at the New Orleans
Jazz and Heritage Festival several years ago. She's been out of the limelight until the release of
this collection of eighteen songs. This recording comes from Great Southern Records, Marshall Seahorn's
label. Seahorn is one-half of the legendary SeaSaint Studios, alongside Allen Toussaint. None of
the songs are by Williams, and she has chosen country, blues and rhythm-and-blues. The sound blends modern
country with New Orleans rhythm-and-blues, juxtaposing pedal steel guitar with saxophone in a jumble of
sound. She is posed with a guitar on the front cover but there is no indication that she plays it;
Williams is curiously omitted from the musician's credits except for background vocals. Her vocal
sound relies on vibrato for emotional effect and is conventional and untrained with little range. A singer
who performs "Blue Moon of Kentucky," "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" and "Someday Soon" alongside
"Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me" makes a promise about her musical versatility; Williams does not keep
her promise.
--Jim Hobbs
Loyola University
Cassatt. Tina Davidson: Cassandra Sings (1988); Julia Wolfe: Four Marys (1991); Andrew
Waggoner: A Song . . . (Strophic Variations for String Quartet) (1988); Eleanor Hovda: Lemniscates (1988);
Daniel S. Godfrey: Intermedio (1986). The Cassatt String Quartet. Composers Recordings, Inc., CRI
Emergency Music CD 671, 1994. One compact disc.
George Rochberg; Slow Fires of Autumn; Duo Concertante; Ricordanza; String Quartet no. 2 with Voice.
Carol Wincec, flute; Nancy Allen, harp; Mark Sokol, violin; Norman Fischer, cello; George Rochberg, piano; Janice
Harsanyi, soprano; Philadelphia String Quartet. Composers Recordings, Inc., CRI American Masters 769, 1997.
One compact disc.
The Cassatt String Quartet disc of five compositions by American composers -- all born between 1940 and
1960 -- presents a diverse panorama of one-movement works. As stated in Alex Ross's lively notes, the
compositions by Tina Davidson, Andrew Waggoner and Daniel Strong Godfrey "participate in the twentieth-century
continuum or mainstrem that has its roots in the nineteenth." Like many twentieth-century string quartets,
Davidson's Cassandra Sings owes a great debt to Bartok. The work displays a rhapsodic writing for
every member of the quartet, and, like every work on the disc, is convincingly played. The writing is soloistic
and virtuosic, with some fine colorist effects. Similarly, Waggoner's Variations and Godfrey's
Intermedio both entice the listener with frequent mood changes and facile, idiomatic, colorful
string writing. Intermedio is a work deeply indebted to European forms from the late
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is expertly crafted, accessible but not derivative, and
generally appealing.
The works by Julia Wolfe and Eleanor Hovda find inspiration in technique and textures rather than
melody and rhythm, and are frequently minimalist in effect, if not intent. Wolfe's Four Marys is
in loose ABA form, with long sections of drones and sliding lines surrounding a rhythmic, dance-like middle
section. Hovda's Lemniscates explores the shadowy world of harmonics and overtones for most of its
nearly eighteen minutes. And just when one thought everything possible had been done with string
techniques, she creates a new bowing method in which the bow moves from fingerboard to bridge, presumably
in continuous motion. This, combined with the consistent use of harmonics, results in "a continuously
shifting sound-texture composed not of notes but ghosts or 'glints' of notes." This disc represents an
interesting cross-section of late twentieth-century styles, with good performances and brief but descriptive
liner notes.
An examination of the CD of works by George Rochberg provides a survey of twentieth-century style, with a
brief foray into the nineteenth century. Mr. Rochberg, long a highly respected figure in American music,
has grappled with major twentieth-century aesthetics in music during his career, absorbing influences of
Bartok, Hindemith and Stravinsky in the 1940s, followed by Schoenbergian serialism in the early 1950s. In
1963, the date of his last serial composition, he abruptly abandoned atonality and embarked on an
exploration of other forms of expression including neo-tonality and neo-Romanticism.
Slow Fires for flute and harp was commissioned and performed by Carol Wincenc in 1979. Growing out
of a traditional Japanese lullaby, it exploits the full palette of colors available to both instruments, sounding
at times like French Impressionism, at other times like a Japanese shakuhachi with koto. The Duo
Concertante for violin and cello (1955) exhibits Mr. Rochberg's superb craftmanship and knowledge of writing
in the best tradition of string duos, often a less than satisfying genre. mr. Rochberg, like Ravel and Kodaly before
him, can make two string instruments sound like four, creating a fluid dialogue with sounds and textures
ranging from delicate to expolsive. The style in this work is expressionistic, with sudden shifts in direction,
character and mood.
Ricordanza for cello and piano is a cipher; the perfect composition with which to stump one's most musically
knowledgeable frineds. Only a highly respected and psychologically secure individual would have dared to
write a compositon in the style of Beethoven and Brahms in the 1970s. No matter, the work is lovely, a pleasure
to hear and play, and cellists with their relatively small (albeit exquisite) repertoire, need all the pieces
they can find. There are extensive quotations from the Beethoven Cello Sonata Op. 102 no. 1. Indeed, a
good propoertion of the work is a reriting of the opening of the first movement, with an approximate
70-30% Beethoven-Rochberg mix.
The dense, imposing, expressionistic String Quartet No. 2 with soprano, composed in 1962, closes this disc. All the
performances, most originally recorded in the 1960s and 70s and digitally remastered, are excellent.
A separate, companion CD (CRI American Masters 768; 1997) includes the String Quartet No. 1, Contra
Mortem et Tempus, and the Second Symphony.
--Amy Camus
Queensborough Community College, CUNY
Notes in Passing
El Lobo: Songs and Games of Latin America. Rounder Records, Rounder Kids CD 8078, 1998.
One compact disc.
This delightful album of three dozen songs performed by children was recorded by Henrietta Yurchenco on location
in Mexico, Ecuador and Puerto Rico in the 1960s and 70s. The engineering is superb; the voices sound
as crisp and clear as the ones outside the window on a summer's evening. The occasional adult voice or
extraneous sound only adds to the air of authenticity. The liner notes, written by Yurchenco, include the
Spanish texts and English translations of all the songs, as well as directions for playing the circle
games. The song texts reflect the timeless and universal concerns of children, in addtion to the values and
gendered behaviors traditionally imparted in children's literature. "La negrita Tonga" ("The Girl from
Tonga") and "Arroz con leche" ("Rice and Milk," sung on this recording in versions from Puerto Rico and
Ecuador) deal with sweethearts and marriage. "Rice and milk, I'd like to get married/To a widow from the
capital:/Who know how to knit, who knows how to embroider/Who puts her needle in the same place." The
recording also includes an assortment of animal songs, such as "El puerquito" ("The Little Pig") and the
title number "El lobo" ("The Wolf"). Others deal with historical events whose significance is lost to the
performers in favor of the repetitive and alliterative patters of the words. "Mambru refers to the Duke
of Marlborough, who fought in the Spanish Wars of Secession. "Mambru" went to war/What pain, what pain,
what sorrow/Mambru went to war/Who knows when he'll return/Do, re, mi, do, re fa/Who knows when he'll return."
The tune is recognizable as a variant of "For He's a Jolly Good Fellow" or "The Bear Went Over the Mountain." The
youngest children recorded here sang a charming condensed version of "Ring Around the Rosey" skipping the
usual third line. Other songs follow an accumulative pattern in which the last verse repeats all the
previous numbers. "La Madrugada" ("The Dawn"), for example, is a Christmas song performed by
eleven-year-old Deisy Falu who admirably sings the last stanza on one breath. Although most of the singers
seem to be female, one accompanying photograph shows a percussion section of three young boys playing large
empty tins. This is an ideal album for children; they will quicly catch on to these appealing melodies and winning rhythms.
Adults will probably want to join in the fun, too!
Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller. Original Broadway Cast Album. Atlantic
Recording Corporation, Atlantic 82765-2, 1995. Two compact discs.
Yes, Smokey Joe's Cafe is still running on Broadway. But this cast album isn't just a souvenir of an
evening at the theater; it will remind you of how exciting the music itself is. John Swenson, Editor of the Rolling
Stone Jazz and Blues Guide wrote the brief liner notes; he encapsulated the relationship of songs to
show: "This material, without the aid of a book stringing dramatic action together and without ever being
intended to exist as a coherent body of work on its own, provides the basis of an electrifying performance that
recapitulates a golden age of American culture." This dynamic cast, consisting of five men and four women,
performs thirty-eight of Leiber and Stoller's songs from the 1950s and 1960s (only two are from the
seventies). The repertoire compliments the selections on the 1978 Nonesuch recording Other Songs by
Leiber & Stoller performed by Joan Morris and William Bolcom. The arrangements here are flashy and
vibrant, and capture both the panache of the Broadway production and the enery of their era. "Yakety Yak"
epitomizes tenage sass. "Fools Fall in Love," "Love Potion #9," "Love me/Don't," and "Loving You" are just
a few of the songs dealing with love in its infinite literary and musical variety. Some Juxtapositions --
"Don Juan" following "Poison Ivy" -- are particularly felicitous in a tongue-in-cheek way. Unlike many
contemporary Broadway cast albums, this one can stand on its musical merits; the dancing and glittery
prodection values make for a lively theatrical experience that, in this case at least, support rather than
carry the music.
--Orly Leah Krasner
Boston University
Updated 1/04/99