Les Misérables 10th anniversary concert: Review

This article was first published at Blogcritics

The newly remastered DVD of the glorious 1995 tenth anniversary concert of Les Misérables with 5.1 Surround Sound  released last November by BBC Home Entertainment has got to be the definitive recorded version of the much beloved musical to date. Not only is it a presentation of nearly the compete show, but it gathers together what is often thought of as the dream cast for the performance. Music is in the hands of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with the addition of a chorus 150 voices strong. It is nothing less than a complete joy.

That it comes so close in time to the opening of its Academy Award nominated celluloid cousin is perhaps a mixed blessing. No doubt it will profit some from the hoopla and publicity surrounding the film. Those movie goers who enjoy the film may well want to hear what it sounded like on stage. On the other hand there will be those so impressed by the star power of a Hugh Jackman and maybe even an Anne Hathaway that they choose to wait for the film DVD. That would be a mistake. As effective as the film is, it can't compete with the stage version. Even in concert, where the cast is in costume but performs before microphones at the front of the stage, the show is an emotional powerhouse. One gets caught up in it and it is very easy to forget they are on stage.

There is, of course, a more recent concert version celebrating the 25 anniversay of the show available on DVD, and for those of us who thrill to the music of Schönberg and Boublil, it has its excellent moments as well, what it doesn't have is Colm Wilkinson, the original and the definitive Jean Valjean. Not that there is anything wrong with its star, Alfie Boe. He has an operatic voice that soars with power, but he is not Wilkinson. Wilkinson has a voice that is unique and his version of "Who am I?" is a dramatic tour de force, his "One Day More" stirs the soul, his "Bring Him Home" is unmatchable. Indeed once you've heard him, he becomes the measure by which to judge all the Valjeans since and all still to come.

Other definitive performances in the 10 anniversary concert are Alun Armstrong and Jenny Galloway (who also appears in the 25 concert) as the Thénardiers. Lea Salonga who sings the tragically doomed Fantine in the newer version sings the tragically doomed Éponine in the 1995 concert, a role she did in the Broadway production. Moreover in the 1995 concert you get the excellent Michael Ball playing Marius instead of the boyishly miscast Nick Jonas. As for the villain, Philip Quast an Australian, though no Russell Crowe) is a perfect Javert.

From some of the critical reaction to the current film, there are those it would seem, not quite enthralled with the music. They find much of the recitative puerile. They call much of it treacle. They dislike the repetition of the melodies. Of course, they are not the first to find fault with the show. London reviewers dumped on it when it opened in 1985; the London reviewers were wrong, and if popular reaction is any indication so too are the current complainers. While the verdict is still out on the film and its handling of the music, the verdict on the music has long been in. Puerile, treacle, repetitious be damned—audiences love it. There are musical moments in this show that stay with you forever—the comic "Master of the House, "the majestic finale of the first act, Javert's suicide, the death of Valjean, the. . . . but why go on, you really have to list every musical number in the show.

Bonus material on the two disc set includes some twenty minutes of newly discovered interview material with producer Cameron Mackintosh, composer Claude-Michel Schönberg and lyricist Alain Boublil. There is also a British documentary from 1988, Stage by Stage: The Making of Les Mis which was included on the DVD's original release. It features performance footage from a number of productions from around the world. There is also a little commemorative booklet with some nice pictures, but no complete cast listing, and a replica of the ticket to the London reception after the show. 

DVD Review: The Tin Drum (Criterion Collection)

This article was first published at Blogcritics

In spite of the critical success of Günter Grass's novel The Tin Drum, the first volume of The Danzig Trilogy, after its publication in 1959, for many years it was considered a daunting if not impossible project to adapt to the screen.  There was the great span of time it covered, the proper tone required to handle its fantastic events, as well as the salacious nature of some of the content. But even more problematical was the novel's central character Oskar Matzerath, a child who on his third birthday refuses to grow any further. He it seemed would have been impossible to cast. That director Volker Schlöndorff and his collaborating screen writer Jean-Claude Carrière were able to come up with a script that impressed Grass with its possibilities and then find a child actor small enough in starure, yet old enough to play Oskar is among the most remarkable things about this most remarkable film.

Originally released in 1979, the film which won both the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film was a shortened version of Schlöndorff's initial cut which ran well over the producer's requirement that it run no more than two and a quarter hours. With the film's great success, Schlöndorff wanted to restore the cuts, but producers were adamant that it would be a mistake to tamper with a winner. When in 2009 Schlöndorff was made aware that the original film negative which was being stored in Berlin was about to be destroyed, he agreed to take charge of it and convinced the powers that be to restore the cuts, adding  about 30 minutes to the film's running time. 

This restored director approved high-definition digital transfer of the complete version with a newly translated English subtitles is the centerpiece of the new two disc set in the Criterion Collection.

Although the film begins with a scene in which Oskar's grandmother squatting in a potato field hides a man running from a pair of decidedly Keystone-type Kops under her skirts, the man who is to become Oskar's grandfather, most of the narrative takes place after Oskar's birth, the period after WWI and the rise of the Nazis in what was then the free city of Danzig, now the Polish city of Gdansk. While the novel carries through to 1959, the film ends in 1945 with the Russian invasion of the city and the removal of much of the populace. Of the terms used to characterize the film, absurdist and surreal are the most apt. Schlöndorff, talking about Grass's reaction to their initial screenplay, says that he found it too logical. It needed to emphasize the fantastic. In the end it had to be treated as dark or black comedy, almost slapstick.

Oskar's refusal to grow up, when on his third birthday he receives what is to become his ubiquitous tin drum, is seen as a rejection of the responsibilities that come with adulthood. He wants a darker version of a Peter Pan-like freedom to do as he pleases. Not only does he want to march to his own drum, he wants everyone else to march to it as well. When he discovers that his high pitched screams can shatter glass, he learns that he can manage the adults and get them to do what he wants, without any responsibility for his behavior.  On the other hand, given the childish often immoral behavior of the adults around him, his rejection makes sense. His mother, father and uncle are engaged in a love triangle. They do little to keep their sexual peccadilloes quiet. The German neighbors and townsfolk fall prey to the Nazi pomp and propaganda. If this is what it is like to be an adult, why not remain a child?

Punctuating Oskar's narrative of some of the major historical events of first half of the last century are a series of memorable set pieces, unforgettable moments and images that will bury themselves deep in the consciousness: Oskar's birth as we emerge with him out of his mother's womb almost fully grown, the horse's head filled with eels pulled out  of the ocean by a fisherman as the family walks the beach, the Nazi rally that turns into a waltz fest, the Nazi attack on the nuns walking on the beach. Not to mention the troublesome sexuality of the scene in the bath house between Oskar and Maria the young girl who is destined to become his stepmother—a scene, along with one or two others that was to create some trouble for the film with censors in Canada and Oklahoma.

The Tin Drum is a challenging film that defies easy interpretation. It depicts a world in chaos, a world where traditional values have lost their meaning, and if there are any new ones they aren't working. It is that world where that famous beast has already slouched toward Bethlehem and been born. Schlödorff presents an insane vision of that insane world, a nightmarish vision that is shocking in its visceral accuracy.

Besides the trailer, this new Criterion Collection set includes an illuminating hour long interview with Schlöndorff filmed in 2012, a recording of Grass reading the passage from the novel describing Oskar's disruption of the Nazi rally illustrated by the scene in the film, and a number of early French television interviews with Schlödorff, Carrière and a few of the actors, most notably David Bennent who plays Oskar. The accompanying booklet has an essay, "Bang the Drum Loudly," by critic Geoffrey Macnab and some comments from Grass about the adaptation. It does not include the documentary Banned in Oklahoma which was included as bonus material in Criterion's 2004 release.

Book Review: The Flame Alphabet, by Ben Marcus

This article was first published at Blogcritics

Near the end of The Flame Alphabet Ben Marcus's rhapsodic apocalyptic novel of a world where language has become toxic, Sam, the narrator, commenting on a fable of a young bird blindfolded as a rite of passage, says: "I am no fan of stories, perhaps because they seem more like problems that will never be solved. . . ." And although in many respects, The Flame Alphabet may be the most accessible of Marcus's books, he will find few fans among readers who like Sam prefer problems with solutions. Certainly there is a story here. Certainly that story seems to be saying something about language, communication and human socialization, but just as certainly, exactly what that story is saying may indeed seem like a problem that will never be solved.

Set in an America where adults are becoming mysteriously sickened by the speech of children, the story chronicles one man's attempt to find an antidote and save his family from the growing menace. Sam and his wife Claire seem a normal family with a young teen age daughter. Or at least they would be, if it wasn't that every time the girl speaks, indeed every time they hear any child speak they are sickened. Claire is wasting away, drying up, calcifying. And it isn't only them, all the adults  all over the country are having the same problem. Sam, an amateur, is doing his bumbling best to find a cure. 

They are members of a sect of reconstructionist Jews who worship secretly in huts in the forest, where they listen to sermons piped in electronically from holes in the ground. It is suggested that at least some people think that the sickness originated with these Jews and that somehow there are answers to be found in these hidden "Jew holes." Whether this is an anti-Semitic society looking for scapegoats is never really clear. Much of what is done to deal with the problem is at least a metaphoric allusion to Nazi solutions, final and otherwise. Children are carted away to unknown destinations on buses. People are forced out of their homes. People are used in medical experiments. These measures however are not particularly aimed at the Jews.

If at first the sickness is caused by the speech of children, gradually all language—written or spoken, indeed any form of human communication from any source becomes poisonous. While this would seem to suggest that Marcus is saying something about the existential betrayal of language, it would also suggest that using language to make a point about the failure of language is doomed to fail.  It goes beyond language: "This was not a disease of language anymore, it was a disease of insight, understanding, knowing." The book in a sense becomes the ultimate example of itself. Of course it provides no definitive answers; no answer is the answer. Like the blindfolded bird in the story which learns to live with the blindness, we must learn to live without the noise of language. Yet when it comes right down to it, Sam like Marcus turns to language. This is the ultimate paradox for the writer. Language is as likely to confuse as not. Words don't work, but what else does he have?

On the other hand, if in fact, Marcus is maintaining the inadequacy of language it is as likely as not that everything I have just said is inadequate. In the end, what can one say about The Flame Alphabet with any definitiveness. Certainly nothing definitive about what it all means. Any reader looking for definitive would do well to look elsewhere. On the other hand the reader happily willing to be teased out of thought by the venom of language will find The Flame Alphabet one of the most interesting of books of recent years.

Book Review: Unusual Uses for Olive Oil, by Alexander McCall Smith

This article was first published at Blogcritics

After a hiatus of some eight years in which the prolific Alexander McCall Smith devoted his attention to his many other popular series, Unusual Uses for Olive Oil marks the return of the hapless hero of his Portuguese Irregular Verbs Series, Professor Dr. Dr.(he is fond of including his earned and his honorary doctorate in his title) Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld. It is a long overdue return. Professor von Igelfeld is a comic gem and his misadventures had this fan laughing out loud. Smith skewers the pomposity of academic pretension with an irresistible dead pan insouciance.

Rather than a novel, Smith calls the book an entertainment, and while 'entertainment' may suggest a lack of seriousness on the author's part, it is more likely an indication of humility and a sense of playfulness. Besides 'entertainment' is not a bad characterization of a book that reads more like a collection of short tales than it does a coherent novel. Each of the five sections that comprise what is in truth a slender volume while featuring a similar cast of characters and in some cases flowing from each other feels more like an individual tale than part of a larger whole.

Von Igelfeld (hedgehog field in English as we and he are reminded again and again) is an academic working at the Institute of Romance Philology in the Bavarian city of Regensburg home of the University perhaps best known now for Pope Benedict's tenure there as professor of theology. Von Igelfeld is the self centered author of  the very much neglected academic study Portuguese Irregular Verbs, and he is much impressed with his status, and quite jealous to ward off any perceived lack of respect. His nemesis is his colleague Detlev-Amadeus Unterholzer, an absolutely undeserving (in his opinion)  rival who meets all of von Igelfeld's pontificating with biting sarcasm. Herr Huber, the unpretentious dull librarian obsessed with his aunt in a nursery home but always suitably impressed with von Igelfeld and Prinzel an almost rational colleague round out the cast of major characters.

The narrative itself is episodic. "The Award" deals with von Igelfeld's reaction to the news that Unterholzer has been short listed for a scholarly prize. The second chapter, "An Intriguing Meeting," has Prinzel's wife arranging a dinner for von Igelfeld and an eligible widow. "Lunch at the Schloss Dunkelberg" follows with the date that results from the dinner. The fourth chapter deals with the annual reading party in the mountains that the professor supervises for selected students, and the book ends with the title chapter or story which details von Igelfeld's experience as an after dinner speaker and climaxes with a dinner party at the Unterholzers and a description of the unusual use to which olive oil is put.

This may not be the stuff of serious literature, but it doesn't pretend to be. Besides, it is well written, witty, and most importantly funny as hell.

Music Review: Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship - Song of Simeon

This article was first published at Blogcritics

If you're looking for a  jazz album for the Christmas season with a more spiritual orientation than Vince Guaraldi's evergreen , A Charlie Brown Christmas, you might want to give a listen to Song of Simeon from the Will Scruggs Jazz Fellowship. As Scruggs explains in the liner notes, "My vision for this recording was to create a musical journey through the deeper themes of the Christmas narrative." To this end he selected 11 pieces "to formulate a layered chronology that illustrates the profound, spiritual mystery of the radical Biblical story of the birth of Christ." The album he came up with is certainly a testament to his spiritual journey, but it is also a testament to his musical artistry and that of his collaborators as well. Song of Simeon is straight ahead jazz played with skill and spiritual intensity.

Joining Scruggs, who plays tenor and soprano saxophone, are pianist Brian Hogans, guitarist Dan Baraszu, drummer Marlon Patton, bassist Tommy Sauter, and percussionist Kinah Boto Ayah. Trumpeter Joe Granden, along with a horn ensemble, is featured on a Dixieland version of the Black spiritual, "Go Down Moses" in an arrangement, we are told in elaborate artist's notes on Scruggs' website, based on a setting by Louis Armstrong. Although not usually a song associated with Christmas, it is one of the album's many highlights.

The album is divided into two parts.  The significance of these is explained by Scruggs' father and spiritual advisor, the Reverend C. Perry Scruggs, Jr. Based on Luke 2:32 where the "Song of Simeon" proclaims the Nativity as “A light to enlighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel," Rev. Scruggs points out that the first part called "the glory" celebrates the "fulfillment of the promise to God's people. The second part, "the light," is the "gift of new light to the world." Both parts utilize musical material both well known and more obscure.

Part I begins with "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" from a 19^th century adaptation, and just to give an idea of some of his thinking, he explains: "Three different voices state the theme, each with the same melody but different harmony to symbolize the Holy Trinity."  "The Annunciation—Gabriel's Message" based on a Basque carol is next with a triumphant emphasis. "The Song of Mary—Magnificat" in a 1928 setting and the familiar "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" follow. "Nunc Dimittus—Song of Simeon" and the stirring "Go Down Moses" close out the first part.

Part II opens with "Lo, How a Rose E're Blooming" arranged from a 16^th century melody by bassist Sauter. It includes "T'was in the Moon of Wintertime," known as "The Huron Carol," a powerful  "Ideo Gloria" based on another 16^th century melody and the very well known "We Three Kings." A swinging version of "Joy to the World" with the return of the horn ensemble closes out the album's second part.

The album includes a little booklet with the English translations of all the lyrics which are also available on the website, along with extensive explanations and analyses of what is going on musically in each of the piece.

 

Music Review: Big Bands Live: Duke Ellington Orchestra

This article was first published at Blogcritics

Joining the initial release of a 1959 concert of the Benny Goodman Orchestra in the Jazzhaus Big Bandbands Live series culled from the archives of German radio and television broadcaster Südwestrundfunk is a remastered recording of a previously unreleased 1967 Stuttgart concert featuring the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Recorded only a few weeks before the death of the inestimable Ellington right hand man Billy Strayhorn, the set list for the date avoids most all of the iconic Ellington repertoire and dips into the wealth of the orchestra's material less often featured. Still, except for one tune, all the songs on the album are Ellington or Strayhorn compostions, yet for the more casual  fans there may well be more than a few of these dozen tracks they have never heard before.

And that's a shame, because as even a cursory hearing will make clear there is some truly fine music here, and the individual solo work is often as good as anything you're likely to hear on any of the more famous Ellington repertoire. Just listen to Cat Anderson's virtuoso trumpet solo on Raymond Fol's "Salome" or Cootie Williams strutting his stuff with witty perfection on "The Shepherd" and the swinging "Tutti for Cootie." It's not only the trumpets. Lawrence Brown plays some low down 'bone' on "Rue Blue." The bass of John Lamb is featured in "La Plus Belle Africaine" along with Harry Carney.  Johnny Hodges is up front with the alto sax for an elegant take on "Freakish Lights." The final piece on the album is a spot for a show ending ovation for drummer Rufus Jones on an Ellington original, "Kixx."

The album begins with a short nod to the orchestra's theme, "Take the 'A' Train." The rest of the concert includes "Johnny Come Lately" and "Swamp Goo," which features some nice clarinet work from Russell Procope. Paul Gonsalves has the honors on the Latin Anerican vibed "Knob Hill." "Eggo" and "A Chromatic Love Affair" round out the album.  Ellington, of course, handles the piano throughout, and makes sure to acknowledge the featured soloist at the end of each number.

This album is a gift for all fans of big band music--forget that: this album is a gift for all music lovers, big band or otherwise. This is a concert that shouldn't have been moldering in some broadcaster's vault. Turns out those vaults contain about 1,600 audio and 350 television recordings of more than 400 ensembles and soloists—3,000 hours most of it previously unreleased and ripe for the pickings. Jazzhaus with its Bigbands Live  and Legends Live series have barely made a dent in the stash. If what they've put out so far is any indication, there have to be gems to come, and the jazz audience as a lot to look forward to.

 

A Vince Guaraldi and Charlie Brown Xmas

This article was first published at  Technorati.

In the nearly 50 years since its original debut A Charlie Brown Christmas has become as much a tradition of the holiday season as Santa Claus, Christmas stockings and candy canes, for many far outstripping its animated rivals Rudolph, Frosty and even the Grinch. For the sentimental joy of the remembrance of things past, it is unsurpassed, guaranteed to bring a happy tear to the eye of even the most jaded among us. And there is no denying that the film's success is in no small part due to the score created by pianist Vince Guaraldi and played so joyfully by his trio.

So Fantasy Record's newly released 2012 remastered and expanded edition of the original 1965 recording comes as something of an early Christmas gift to the show's many fans. Although the album had been released on CD in 1988, this new edition utilizes many of the advances in digital conversion to enhance its sonic qualities. And while I don't claim to be much of an audiophile myself, I must say that the recording sounds excellent, whether so excellent that it justifies those of you who still have your copy of the '88 disc buying this new one I leave to better ears than mine.

 Audio engineering and nostalgia aside this is a truly important album. As the media release upon the album's induction into the Library of Congress explained A Charlie Brown Christmas was responsible for introducing "jazz to millions of listeners." Guaraldi's score is appealingly melodic. The music is accessible, and while the jazz 'maven' may have found it a bit too facile for his taste preferring something more innovative and complex, the novice has found its simple lyricism a welcoming entry point. This is one of those many cases where simple is better.

Guaraldi may not be the most virtuosic of jazz pianists, but there is no denying he has style, and it is a style all his own. As he told critic Ralph Gleason back in 1958: "I don't think I'm a great piano player, but I would like to be able to have people like me, to play pretty tunes and reach the audience." As early as his Grammy Award winning chart topping "Cast Your Fate to the Wind," Guaraldi  got that wish, and the Charlie Brown themes like "Linus and Lucy," "Christmas Time is Here," and "Christmas is Coming" leave no doubts he deserved it.

The new release includes three bonus tracks not included on the original LP: "Greensleeves,"  "Great Pumpkin Waltz," and "Thanksgiving Theme." There is also an accompanying booklet featuring an introductory essay by Derrick Bang, author of the 2012 study, Vince Guaraldi at the Piano and some nice illustrations with the Peanuts characters.