Sixteen years after
Richard Goode
released the complete
Beethoven piano
sonatas, he’s back
with Beethoven: The Complete Piano
Concertos. Goode performs these
five formidable works with serenity,
passion—and the Budapest Festival
Orchestra (led by Iván Fischer).
Tragic Magic
A world of trouble
haunts even the happi-
er songs on Madeleine
Peyroux’s hurts-so-
good new album, Bare
Bones. The publicity-shy jazz singer
echoes Billie Holiday’s pain-filled
brilliance in “River of Tears” and
other melancholy tracks.
Rolling On at 70
J. J. Cale, the writer
of Eric Clapton hits
such as “Cocaine” and
“After Midnight,” cel-
ebrates his 70th birth-
day with Roll On. Cale plays nearly
everything himself, as usual, on an
album ranging from the jazzy shuffle
of “Who Knew” to the cautionary
closer, “Bring Down the Curtain.”
Italian Delight
Shades of Miles
Davis’s warm
masterpiece Kind
of Blue can be heard
throughout Enrico
Rava’s luminous New York Days.
Joining Rava—Italy’s preeminent
jazz trumpeter—is Coltrane-esque
saxophonist Mark Turner.
Jon Bon Jovi
Heavenly Sounds
Oh Happy Day: All Star
Gospel Celebration rejoices in
unlikely collaborations. Jon Bon Jovi
outwails the Washington D.C. Youth
Choir, while Michael McDonald sings
with the West Angeles Church of God
in Christ Mass Choir. It’s an exultant
album that also features Mavis Staples
and Queen Latifah. —Richard Gehr
