Robert Baird

It’s been a Guitar Fest here in NYC lately. I’ve seen Bill Frisell (always superb), Kenny Burrell (a very rare pleasure because he hates to fly) and Mike Marino (with new Blue Note pianist Aaron Parks). Tonight is a tribute to Fender's Jazzmaster guitar headlined by Nels Cline, J. Mascis, Thurston Moore and Tom Verlaine. Must be frets in the water or something.

<B>RANDY NEWMAN <I>Harps and Angels</I></B><BR>
Nonesuch 075597998931 (CD). 2008. Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker, prods.; David Boucher, eng. ADD. TT: 34:54<BR>
Performance <B>*****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>

<B>RANDY NEWMAN <I>Harps and Angels</I></B><BR>
Nonesuch 075597998931 (CD). 2008. Mitchell Froom, Lenny Waronker, prods.; David Boucher, eng. ADD. TT: 34:54<BR>
Performance <B>*****</B><BR>
Sonics <B>****</B>

Calling anything “IMPORTANT,” particularly a record, often sucks the life out of it and dooms it to a kind of overly academic hell to be debated by talking heads and those that “were there.”

<I>The Bob Dylan Encyclopedia</I>? Now in its second revised and updated printing? Does any one person, even a momentous artist who now seems determined to die on the stage (to steal a quote from the great <I>Midnight Cowboy</I>) really need or deserve their own encyclopedia?

<B>JENNY SCHEINMAN: <I>Jenny Scheinman</I></B><BR>
Koch KOC-AD-4483 (CD). 2008. Jenny Scheinman, Tony Scherr, prods.; Scherr, eng. AAD? TT: 53:26<BR>
Performance ****<BR>
Sonics ****

Stephen Mejias, our excellent assistant editor, is fully in the grip of vinyl fever. He and I are now having daily conversations about the once and future allure of the long player.