record reviews

August 19, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Various artists

Album: “Sparkle: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack” (RCA Records)

Grade: C

Curtis Mayfield and Aretha Franklin’s union for the soundtrack of the 1976 musical drama “Sparkle” made for an instant soul classic, so the 2012 remake already has a lot to live up to. The burden for greatness is shared among the main cast, which includes Whitney Houston, Jordin Sparks, Carmen Ejogo, Tika Sumpter and Cee Lo Green. Sparks emerges as the leading lady of the album. She shines bright on various collaborations and her three solo tracks. It’s another winning moment for the former “American Idol” champ.

With that said, Houston has become the focus of the film and soundtrack since she died earlier this year. Her songs here should have served as a high note for the icon, but, unfortunately, her swan songs — “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” and “Celebrate” with Sparks — falter as the singer struggles to find her once sparkling, soaring voice. Perhaps choosing a gospel tune that requires a melodious voice and a song that shares a performer who outshines her wasn’t the best way to seal Houston’s legacy.

Four Mayfield-helmed originals make the 11-track album (“Jump,” “Hooked on Your Love,” “Something He Can Feel” and “Look Into Your Heart”), while R. Kelly gets in on the action by writing and producing a few funky, but too-modern- sounding contributions (“Love Will,” “Jump” and “Celebrate”). Mayfield’s compositions stand the test of time as the most vibrant and nuanced: Kelly doesn’t deliver, and at times his contributions sound cheesy.

Though the record is adequate enough in reproducing the sound and cheerful naivete of the 1960s, the period in which the film is set, it ultimately fails to linger in one’s heart, mind or feet past its last note.

—Cristina Jaleru, Associated Press

TOM JONES

Album: “Spirit in the Room” (Island)

Grade: A

Even when he became a big pop star and the quintessential Las Vegas showman in the ’60s, with hits such as “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat,” Tom Jones was a more than credible singer of blues and R&B. It’s a talent he revealed again on 2010’s great, gospel-drenched “Praise and Blame,” and more recently on his Jack White- produced cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Evil.”

On “Spirit in the Room,” the 72-year-old Welshman tackles bluesman Blind Willie Johnson’s “Soul of a Man,” but he also ventures into different territory. Most of the material comes from contemporary songwriters such as Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Tom Waits, Richard Thompson and Joe Henry. Jones shows the old sexy strut on Wait’s boastful “Bad as Me,” but mostly he takes an understated approach that reflects the stripped-down but evocative arrangements. The mood is often autumnal or reflective, but thanks to Jones’ unerring and worldly-wise interpretations, the performances still pulse with spirit.

—Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer

Branford Marsalis Quartet

Album: “Four MFs Playin’ Tunes” (Marsalis Music)

Grade: A

Don’t let the understated title of the new Branford Marsalis Quartet album mislead you into thinking this is some loosely arranged jam session. Saxophonist Marsalis leads one of the most cohesive, intense small jazz ensembles on the scene today. The group’s three long-standing members — Marsalis, pianist Joey Calderazzo and bassist Eric Revis — each contribute original tunes to “Four MFs Playin’ Tunes,” and there are covers of Thelonious Monk’s “Teo” and the 1930s ballad “My Ideal.”

The quartet’s tight interplay reflects that the group has undergone only one lineup change in more than a decade. That came in 2009 when Marsalis’ collaborator of a quarter century, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, left and was replaced by then 18-year-old high school senior Justin Faulkner, who propels the band with new energy on his studio recording debut with the quartet. Faulkner confirms his rising-star status as he engages in intricate dialogues with the tenor saxophonist and pianist on Marsalis’ “Whiplash” before climaxing with a riveting, powerhouse drum solo. On the next track, Calderazzo’s ethereal ballad “As Summer Into Autumn Slips,” the drummer displays his finesse with his soft mallet-and-cymbal accompaniment.

The CD begins with two tunes showcasing Marsalis’ prowess on soprano sax — Calderazzo’s playful, energetic “The Mighty Sword,” with a catchy calypsolike theme reminiscent of Sonny Rollins, and Revis’ bluesy Monk-influenced “Brews,” where Marsalis turns in a blazing solo. It closes with Marsalis turning down the heat on the romantic standard “My Ideal” with a touching, tender tenor sax solo and on the bonus track “Treat It Gentle,” an original old-style Marsalis ballad that pays homage to his New Orleans roots, drawing its title from the autobiography of Sidney Bechet, who created the vocabulary for the soprano sax in jazz.

This album shows that Marsalis’ quartet hasn’t skipped a beat with the change in the drummer’s chair, effortlessly playing often complex original tunes that are thoroughly modern while referencing past jazz masters.

—Charles J. Gans, Associated Press

ANTIBALAS

Album: “Antibalas” (Daptone)

Grade: A

When a band becomes a movement, you can forgive the occasional five-year recording lapse. So it is with Brooklyn- based Antibalas, the 11-member Afrobeat orchestra that almost single-handedly rekindled popular interest in Afrobeat and its progenitor, the late Fela Kuti. In the half-decade since 2007’s “Security,” several members of Antibalas were deeply involved in “Fela!,” the Tony Award-winning musical on the life of their forebear, “the James Brown of Nigeria.” Getting inside Fela’s head has put him deeper inside theirs, as Antibalas’ eponymous fifth is the most purely Afrobeat of the bunch: deeply political (lead single “Dirty Money” is a 99 percent rally cry), hugely rhythmic (“Ari Degbe” has enough percussive gusto to spark a revolution), and massively soulful (“Him Belly No Go Sweet” nods to another late titan, Bob Marley). Given results this kinetic, it was worth the wait.

—Brian Howard, Philadelphia Inquirer

SHOES

Album: “Ignition” (Black Vinyl)

Grade: B

Shoes were descendants of Badfinger and the Raspberries, peers of new-wave bands such as the Romantics and the Plimsouls, and progenitors of Matthew Sweet and Bigger Lovers. “Ignition” is the Zion, Ill., band’s first new album in 18 years and comes 35 years after “Black Vinyl Shoes,” their self-released, self-recorded debut. They had a stint on a major label (which produced 1979’s classic “Present Tense”), but for much of their career, they have been happily independent, and “Ignition” continues that tradition. It proves that power pop ages well.

The album works that effortlessly melodic sweet spot of archetypal power pop: crunchy electric guitars buoyed by jangling acoustics behind genial harmonies, sometimes contrasted with vintage electric keyboards. Shoes are less convincing when they toughen up on the silly “Hot Mess,” but a clutch of “Ignition’s” tracks could slip unobtrusively among Shoes’ best.

—Steve Klinge, Philadelphia Inquirer