SOUND CHECK.ROD STEWART: ``Stardust star·dust n. 1. A dreamlike, romantic, or uncritical sense of well-being. 2. A cluster of stars too distant to be seen individually, resembling a dimly luminous cloud of dust. Not in scientific use. 3. ... The Great American Songbook: Vol. III'' (J/BMG) - Two stars It would be easy for anyone who thrilled to Stewart in the late '60s and early '70s during his stints with the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces and on three brilliant solo albums to dismiss this money-minting series in which our hero applies his fading delivery to standards. So we will. But what's the point? Granted, Stewart's ``Songbooks'' are overhyped, overproduced, overly predictable and overwhelmingly popular, but they must serve a purpose. Perhaps as background music during a canoodle ca·noo·dle v. ca·noo·dled, ca·noo·dling, ca·noo·dles Informal v.intr. To engage in caressing, petting, or lovemaking. v.tr. on the couch On the Couch is an Australian television program formally broadcast on the Fox Footy Channel and it focuses on the current issues in the AFL. This is now broadcast on Fox Sports after the closure of Fox Footy Channel. The show airs on Monday night and is hosted by Gerard Healy. , as dinner music or, ideally, as a gateway drug to the far-superior readings by the masters - Mathis, Cole, Bennett, Fitzgerald and Sinatra. Here, Stewart massages and occasionally massacres sentimental favorites ``What a Wonderful World,'' ``Stardust'' ``Baby, It's Cold Outside'' and ``Blue Moon,'' designed for mass consumption with walk-ons from Eric Clapton, Bette Midler Bette Midler (born December 1 1945) is an American singer, actress and comedienne, also known to her fans as The Divine Miss M. She is named after the actress Bette Davis although Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one. , Dolly Parton par·ton n. Any of the point particles believed to be a constituent of hadrons, now known as quarks. No longer in technical use. [part(icle) + -on1.] and Stevie Wonder. One thing's for sure: Stewart's making his alimony alimony, in law, allowance for support that an individual pays to his or her former spouse, usually as part of a divorce settlement. It is based on the common law right of a wife to be supported by her husband, but in the United States, the Supreme Court in 1979 payments - the disc just entered the pop charts at No. 1. We're giving it the second star for the gams on the cover. - Fred Shuster GIACOMO GATES Giacomo Gates is an American jazz vocalist. He works to interpret old jazz standards, practices vocalese singing, and is active in jazz education. He has scat sung some famous instrumental solos in his performances and tries to copy the sounds of instruments-flutes, trombones, or : ``Centerpiece'' (Origin) - Three and one half stars Let's face it: Scat singing Noun 1. scat singing - singing jazz; the singer substitutes nonsense syllables for the words of the song and tries to sound like a musical instrument scat singing, vocalizing - the act of singing vocal music is an art best left to Ella Fitzgerald and very few others. But if a guy who spent 12 years in Alaska working as a bouncer and manning bulldozers wants to try, who are we to argue? Actually, Gates is one of the most extraordinary singers working in jazz today, the owner of a joyful baritone who has synthesized a host of influences - Eddie Jefferson, Jon Hendricks and Sinatra among them - and turned them into something uniquely his own. Here, on his third album, he playfully romps through the Great American Songbook, hop-scotching between styles and somehow turning old warhorses (``Summertime,'' ``All of Me'') into creative vehicles. Better still are bop staples like ``Ornithology'' and ``Milestones,'' the latter a blazing version of the Miles Davis classic with forceful, urgent lyrics by Gates himself. One of the year's undiscovered gems. - Glenn Whipp LEONARD COHEN cohen or kohen (Hebrew: “priest”) Jewish priest descended from Zadok (a descendant of Aaron), priest at the First Temple of Jerusalem. The biblical priesthood was hereditary and male. : ``Dear Heather'' (Columbia) - Three and one half stars Like most of Cohen's work, ``Dear Heather'' reveals its secrets on repeated listenings. At 70, the poet-songwriter casts a cool eye on his life as he did more than 30 years ago when he wrote songs like ``Bird on a Wire'' and ``Famous Blue Raincoat.'' The album begins slyly with Lord Byron's ``Go No More A-Roving'' set to an almost cheerful arrangement, belying the poem's slight bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. quality. Next Cohen croons, ``Because of a few songs wherein I spoke of their mystery, women have been exceptionally kind to my old age,'' in hushed tones on ``Because Of'' as female singers coo in the background. For the most part, the music is stripped down - a framework for Cohen's poetry. His baritone voice, which never had much range, has softened, but he retains a compelling authority when he speaks/sings. So when he poses the question, ``Did you go crazy or did you report?'' in the song ``On That Day,'' a meditation on the impact of 9/11, it gives you pause. ``Dear Heather'' is a reflection upon lovers, teachers and friends done in surprising fashion. And Cohen ends with one more surprise - a perfectly rendered live performance from 1985 of one of country music's saddest songs, ``The Tennessee Waltz,'' with its sparkly spark·ly adj. spark·li·er, spark·li·est 1. a. Giving off tiny flashes of light; glittery: a dress with sparkly sequins. b. melody. - Rob Lowman WILLIE NELSON: ``It Always Will Be'' (Lost Highway) - Three and one half stars WILLIE NELSON & FRIENDS: ``Outlaws and Angels'' (Lost Highway) - Two and one half stars Nelson's new studio album, ``Always,'' finds him at his interpretive best, plaintively plain·tive adj. Expressing sorrow; mournful or melancholy. [Middle English plaintif, from Old French, aggrieved, lamenting, from plaint, complaint; see plaint. covering half-a-dozen mature love songs (including a fine duet with Lucinda Williams on the songwriter's ``Overtime'') and kicking it hard on such scorchers as Sonny Throckmorton's ``Big Booty'' and the Allman Brothers' ``Midnight Rider.'' Nelson's own compositions, including the title track, make for nice but comparatively negligible recordings. And speaking of negligible, ``O&A,'' the latest live album taken from Nelson's USA Network special, sounds even more like a three-ring circus than his many earlier show discs. The guest list wobbles schizophrenically from Kid Rock to Al Green to Toots Hibbert and Rickie Lee Jones  This article or section is written like an .Please help [ rewrite this article] from a neutral point of view. Mark blatant advertising for , using . , with live versions of some of the studio cuts on ``Always'' in there to boot. Merle merle a pattern of coat color pigmentation with dark, irregular blotches on a lighter background. Seen in some Collies and Welsh corgis. In shorthaired dogs, e.g. Great Danes and Dachshunds, the similar pattern is called dapple. Haggard forgets key lyric changes on the final refrain to ``Pancho & Lefty,'' but comes back with a lovely, if truncated, Toby Keith duet on his classic ``Mama Tried.'' Still, this one's for completists. - Bob Strauss THE DONNAS: ``Gold Medal'' (Atlantic) - Three and one half stars The Donnas' previous disc, ``Spend the Night,'' got them into this race. Now that they're in it, the all-girl rock combo is going for the gold. And it's all on the strength of stalker anthems like ``I Don't Want to Know (If You Don't Want Me)'' and back-talkers like ``It Takes One to Know One.'' The songs focus less on AC/DC-power chords and more on ``stuff we've never tried before,'' says bassist Maya Ford. Think melodic, laid-back rockers with a retro vibe and lyrics about nothing but boys, boys, boys: ``Don't Break Me Down,'' ``It's So Hard,'' ``Have You No Pride.'' In stores Tuesday. - Sandra Barrera CAPTION(S): 7 photos Photo: (1) ROD STEWART (2 -- 7) no caption (CD Covers) |
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