record reviews

May 15, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

Karrin Allyson

Album: “‘Round Midnight” (Concord)

Grade: A

Karrin Allyson’s darkly beautiful and melancholic “‘Round Midnight” offers a sharp contrast to her last album, 2008’s Grammy-nominated CD “Imagina,” a bright and breezy, upbeat homage to Brazil’s bossa nova master Antonio Carlos Jobim. Here Allyson shows her versatility with a tastefully understated, back-to-basics collection of classic jazz and pop ballads (with a few rarities) by such masters as Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Johnny Mandel, Stephen Sondheim and Paul Simon.

Allyson makes this album even more personal and intimate by handling all the keyboard parts herself for the first time on the 13 albums she’s recorded for Concord over the past 20 years. Her classical piano training shows in her elegant introduction to Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile,” while her electric Fender Rhodes adds a more contemporary feel to Simon’s folk-rock “April Come She Will.”

Allyson’s musicianship is evidenced by the fact that she wrote nearly all the arrangements herself, starting with the opening “Turn Out the Stars,” slowing down the tempo of Evans’ tune to elucidate Gene Lees’ bittersweet, nuanced lyrics.

Allyson is a consummate jazz singer whose harmonic feel and storytelling skills enable her to evoke the heartache and pathos of both older and more contemporary songs, from the Chopin-inspired “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows” and “Goodbye,” associated with the Benny Goodman Orchestra, to Fran Landesman’s “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most” and Anthony Newley’s “There’s No Such Thing as Love.”

— Charles J. Gans, Associated Press

BOOKER T. JONES

Album: “The Road From Memphis” (Anti)

Grade: A

Booker T. Jones is in the midst of a late-career renaissance. The organ-playing maestro won this year’s Best Pop Instrumental Album Grammy for “Potato Hole,” his 2009 collaboration with the Drive-By Truckers. That album, his first in nearly two decades, emphasized his country-soul roots, which reach back to his Stax heyday leading Booker T and the MGs. “The Road From Memphis” shifts to funk and R&B, with the Roots as his backing band. It’s a perfect pairing.

“The Hive” and “The Vamp” work deep funk grooves, and Jones plays with judicious restraint; “Harlem House” and “Walking Papers” recall the Meters’ New Orleans syncopation. Guests drop in: Motown guitarist Dennis Coffey (who has an impressive new album of his own) and a stellar cast of vocalists — My Morning Jacket’s Jim James; Lou Reed; Sharon Jones with the National’s Matt Berninger. Jones doesn’t need the extra star power, though: He’s the master.

— Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer

MINT CONDITION

Album: “7 ...” (Shanachie)

Grade: B

Born into the Minnesota R&B scene of the 1980s, Mint Condition was more like slick but sweat-inducing soul classicists Maze and the Commodores than souped-up neighbors such as the Time and Prince. Mint Condition used some of the synth, slap and tickle that made the Purple One reign, but vocalist Stokley Williams had a rich and passionate tone that bordered on the insistent. The harmonies were silken, the rhythms swinging, and the band’s overall musicality earthen and live. There was, and continues to be, something hearty and tactile about Mint Condition’s husky sound, a touchy tradition they follow with elegant, funky aplomb on the heel-clicking “I Want It” and the quietly thundering “Can’t Get Away.” There’s a sonic depth to those tunes you simply don’t (or can’t) hear in nouvelle AutoTuned R&B. That density carries over to the emotionalism of songs such as the woozily midtempo “Walk On” and “Not My Daddy” (with singer Kelly Price), with their sad sentiment intact but without treacle. They even have a tune about moms (“Unsung”). This is what honest, open, mature soul sounds like. Pay attention.

— A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer

CRAIG CAMPBELL

Album: “Craig Campbell” (Bigger Picture)

Grade: B

For our money, Keith Stegall is one of the best producers on Nashville’s Music Row, so anyone he works with is worth checking out. You don’t have to listen to more than the first few lines of the opening track of Craig Campbell’s debut to realize Stegall is on the mark again.

From his neotraditional country approach to his unforced and plainspoken manner, Campbell is very much in the mode of Stegall’s most famous client, Alan Jackson. As co-writer of nine of the 11 songs, however, Campbell brings his own engaging personality to the mix. He sings of being a “Family Man” and the simple joys of country life, such as “Chillaxin’,” without being cloying or superior. With these numbers he follows his own pointed advice: “You gotta tell me how country you are, you probably ain’t.”

On the other hand, “I Bought It” cleverly plays off the title phrase to put a satisfying twist on a romantic loss; “When I Get It” is a defiant blast of workingman’s honky-tonk; and “Fish” is a stream of double entendres delivered with the mischievous charm of Brad Paisley.

— Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer JOHN VANORE & ABSTRACT TRUTH

Album: “Contagious Words” (Acoustical Concepts)

Grade: B

Trumpeter John Vanore projects a coolly assured sound on his latest CD with his pocket big band. Now with 14 pieces heavy on brass (four trumpets, two trombones and a French horn), Vanore continues to mine a stylish Gil Evans vibe, with maybe some Maria Schneider thrown in. These eight tunes meander through various realms of coolness without failing to communicate.

The set flags a bit by the end but generally stays true to Vanore, Widener University’s director of music, whose band is named for Oliver Nelson’s classic album “Blues and the Abstract Truth.”

Pianist Ron Thomas lights up “Envy.” Saxophonist Bob Howell and guitarist Greg Kettinger score, too, with solid work. The session reaches a high point on “You Go to My Head,” with Michael Mee playing some memorable saxophone.

— Karl Stark, Philadelphia Inquirer