In My Changer, 3/15/03

Chuck Brown

Your Game: Live at the 9:30 Club

Raw Venture

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I actually bought this CD before I even knew I was going to this concert, but I'm glad I did, because I learned like two or three of the proper responses to go-go call-and-response stimuli, and would have impressed the remainder of my concert-going party with my insider knowledge had I not freely admitted that everything I knew, I knew from the CD. The concert was better than the CD, of course, but nevertheless this CD captures the atmosphere of a live show astonishingly well. Or maybe that's just me, surrendering to the go-go beat. Whatever it is, I always find my ass involuntarily shaking when I put this CD on, which is one of the reasons I live alone. "Tell me whatcha feel like doin', y'all," he says, and even if you don't know the response you'll find yourself mouthing the words "Feel like moving my body!"

The audience for this live show seems to be specially selected people who know every rite of the go-go show and who appreciate the cameos from Jas, Funk, Benny, Andre "Whiteboy" Johnson (some irony there), and other special guest artists from old school go-go luminaries such as Trouble Funk. I hope one day to be well-enough versed in go-go to savor such moments.

Coming to this CD from classical and hip-hop, though, there are priceless moments enough. A horn riff with (electronic piano doubling as) harpsichord under it in the opening "Wind Me Up, Chuck" sounds freaking exactly like the opening ritornello in Bach's second Brandenburg Concerto, but about five million times funkier. Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon" gets a conga-driven workout and some ultrasmooth Chuckster lyrics. "2001 (That'll Work)" again takes a classical work, in this case "Dawn" from Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra, and funkafies it mercilessly into the go-go strut, producing extra-special glee for anyone who likes historical irony and remembers Strauss's vile late-life racism. "No Diggity," the one hit in the wonder that was Blackstreet, and the Kool Moe Dee classic "Do You Know What Time It Is?" both get slamming covers towards the close of the album, showing that Chuck and his band can cover all the R&B bases they choose to.

But mostly this record is about bold, jazzy brass playing, guitar riffs powerful enough to shake mountains, Chuck's magisterial presence, and the go-go beat powering it all. It's really a wonderful thing, and the only reason I don't play this record more than I do is that I'm worried about becoming inured to its glories.

The fact that the first of like five shout-outs to Silver Spring occurs at 4:26 into the record is purely incidental to my enjoyment of it, by the way.

Jean Sibelius

Symphonies no. 3 and 5

London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Sir Colin Davis

RCA

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You have to love a man who wrote seven symphonies, none of which sound all that much like each other, and all of which are masterpieces. That man, you have probably guessed, is Jean Sibelius, and here is 28% of his symphonic output led by the one non-Finnish conductor most renowned for his interpretation of these works. Sir Colin's secret is that he never attacks the music, actively searching for meaning, but instead prepares a richly detailed performance with exceptional musicians and, gradually, lets the interpretation come to him. I think this makes his Beethoven pretty boring—you have to rise to the Beethovenian challenge, not simply tend his music with care, as will be discussed below—but for Sibelius, a composer whose most passionate music almost always retains an ambiguous chill, letting him have his say is the only way to have a truly interesting performance of his music. We see this here in both symphonies. The Third at first seems more chipper and less ambitious than the large canvases and impassioned swells of Jean's First and Second, but it might just be sneakier that those two, as close listening opens up both wider vistas and a certain bracing chill, especially in Sir Colin's performance. The Fifth is more introspective, but far from the astonishingly depressing Fourth, and Sir Colin is equally successful at teasing out its subtleties. I can barely stop listening to this record just as much as I can barely stop listening to the Chuckmaster. Having both Jean Sibelius and Chuck Brown available at the touch of a button is one of the great glories of modern technology.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphonies no. 1 and 2

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner

Deutsche Grammophon Archiv

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I have here a memo from the House of Representatives indicating that the name of the orchestra above has been changed to the Revolutionary and Romantic Orchestra for the duration. The duration of what, exactly, is not specified. C'est la vie.

Anyway, I've been rocking my 75 Beethoven CDs pretty hard lately as well. (Yes, I do really have 75 Beethoven CDs, including at least two recordings of all the symphonies and string quartets, and no, I have not been rocking them all at the same time.) John Eliot Gardiner, who on balance is my favorite living conductor, gives us a fresh, taut First, but the real interest of this disc is his Second, since he feels very strongly that the Third ("Eroica") Symphony, thought by most to be Beethoven's decisive break with the Classical tradition, should actually bring up the rear in this regard to the Second. In some ways, this is obviously BS, as there isn't any quarter-hour first movement or insanely glorious double-variation finale in the Second, and it ain't fifty minutes long either. The Eroica truly swept aside all that came before it.

But Gardiner shows convincingly that pretending the Second is just another Classical essay isn't doing it any favors, either. People like Sir Colin above do their best to play this symphony like Ludwig's teacher and the inventor of the Classical symphony Franz Joseph Haydn, and miss the fact that Beethoven was his own man by his first opus. In contrast, there is a lot of tension in Gardiner's performance, with whiplash crescendi, crackling tempi, and the generally sharper sound that period orchestras have all contributing to the propulsive atmosphere. Sometimes, in fact, Gardiner drives the music hard enough that you're actually missing some charm. Elsewhere in this symphony cycle, without a thesis to prove, Gardiner relaxes enough to let Beethoven's wit come through, as in the fake trio repeat in the Scherzo of the Seventh. Here, we're going too fast and too bumpily to really smile, even when there are moments in the Scherzo and finale that cry out for a lighter touch. Gardiner would have proved his thesis better if he'd concentrated less on it. A common problem, and one that doesn't stop this from being a good recording, but regrettable nonetheless. I have just been informed that the phrase I used at the end of the first paragraph has been changed to "Them's the breaks, sucker" for the duration, which seems like a good way to end this review as well.

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