Sarah Murphy|11:17 UK time, Thursday, 28 January 2010
Latin Music has long had an influence on popular music of the day, from the Afro-Cuban jazz of Mario Bauza in the 1940s right through to Santana bringing a Latin sound to the rock mainstream at Woodstock in 1969.
This Friday (January 29) BBC Four delves into the story of Latin Music, with the first in its four-part series Latin Music USA. It charts why the United States fell in love with the Latin sound and its impact on American culture and society.
A co-production with WGBH, Latin Music USA first screened on PBS in the US and enlightened viewers with its story of how Latin music has evolved. Exploring jazz, country, mambo, salsa, Chicano rock, Tejano, right up to contemporary Latin pop, the series also looks at how Latin music has had a seminal influence on rock n roll. The New York Times points out how in this first episode, "snippets of hits by the Beatles... including..."Day Tripper," are juxtaposed with identical cha-cha or mambo riffs recorded years earlier and all but forgotten."
Part one of the programme, East Side Story, takes us back to when the Afro-Cuban sound began to have an impact on music in the 1940's and 1950's. Mario Bauza and Cuban bandleader Machito had an enormous impact on the New York jazz scene and in turn, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie. Meanwhile in Cuba, the Rumba and Mambo captivated tourists in the Mafia-owned nightclubs. The Mambo Kings, among them Tito Puente and Tito Rodriguez, became the royalty of dancehalls frequented by movie stars, dancers and a mix of New Yorkers for whom "it was the beginning of integration".
Episode 1 Trailer
With the arrival of Castro in Cuba, in 1959, the flow of rhythms to the USA dried up and big bands gave way to "four boys and a drum kit". Carlos Santana describes how his own Latin-style rock music is part of a tradition dating back to Machito, Puente and Bauza. With his stunning performance at Woodstock in 1969, Santana helped place Latin music in the mainstream, mirroring the integration of Latinos within the USA.
Santana at Woodstock in 1969
Latin Music USA begins on Friday January 29 at 9pm on BBC Four. You can watch more videos and find out more about the series on the BBC's Latin Music USA website.
This Friday (22nd January) sees the first showing of Arena's film on arguably one of the most important figures in music over the last 40 years or so, Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno. Covering Eno's interests in everything from cybernetics to evolutionary theory to the Harmonisation of the European Rail Operating System, the film avoids linear biography in favour of an impressionistic, almost fly on the wall approach.
Director Nicola Roberts managed a quick chat with Mr Eno about the film...
What persuaded you to make the film with us when you hadn't agreed to
being profiled before?
Arena first of all - simple enough - and then when I met you and Anthony I felt this could be something different from the normal showbiz bollocks. I've always liked Arena and felt a particular fondness for it because it uses my music as its theme. In the past I've shied away from TV because I don't enjoy the medium very much, but I've always admired Arena for being more like radio! By that I mean, for going into greater depth.
What kind of programme did you not want made about you?
I don't like celebrity programmes - but I do like programmes about how ideas are formed and evolve. I didn't want to lean too heavily on my pop credentials, such as they are, but instead draw attention to this little bubble of ideas I've been involved with for a long time, and to the connections between them and what else is going on in the world. I suppose I am reluctant about being any sort of 'star' and I didn't particularly want to be portrayed as one. Some people are very good at being 'stars' and it suits them. I'm grudging about it and I find it annoying.
Do you have a favourite bit?! (If you haven't seen it, perhaps someone
could answer this one for you!)
I'm in the dark there love! I asked not to be told anything about it, and indeed I haven't been...
And if you missed it, you can read our interview with Nicola Roberts about the film here.
Mark Hagen|14:54 UK time, Thursday, 14 January 2010
Just over a year ago I was talking to Bruce Springsteen about death, as you do. Bruce was wearing a t-shirt with the skull and crossbones on it, and he gestured to it as we talked. "Death's in most great rock music" he said. "The presentness of so much rock music, the life force in it, it's a ranting against the other thing. The mythology is always mixed - the skulls, the crossbones, the death's head. It's ever present, it cuts through all popular music." I thought about that yesterday, stamping my feet to keep warm in a cold, snowbound Essex cemetery, there to say goodbye to Mick Green.
Mick Green performing at the Half Moon, Putney, 2007 (Photo: Alan Mothersole)
Mick was the guitarist in The Pirates - whose logo is, yes, the skull and crossbones - but he was a great deal more than that. A few years back, he was appearing with Van Morrison on Jools Holland's Hootenanny when he played a solo on The Philosopher's Stone that was so gorgeous, so fluid and so spine-tingling that I've never been able to watch it again for fear of spoiling the memory. When I asked him about it afterwards, Mick was typically self-deprecating. "Oh yeah" he said. "I wasn't expecting that; Van just pointed at me and said "play"".
Mick would never tell you that he was one of the greatest guitar players the UK ever produced, but he was. Never follow The Pirates they used to say, and it was a very brave - or a very stupid - band who chose to go on after Mick's incendiary style had been unleashed for an hour or so. It was, literally, jaw-dropping. You could see countless people in Pirate audiences stare opened mouth as they realised what he was doing, and then stare even harder as they tried to work out how. It was a bewildering mixture of lead and rhythm played simultaeneously and often at what seemed like impossible speed. But crucially, it was done always with taste and always in the service of the song. It wasn't technique for its own sake, but technique deployed to an end.
You sensed that was what Van loved in him. You can certainly hear it in his playing with Paul McCartney on Later and on Parkinson, pummelling rock'n'roll standards with an immensely powerful but restrained performance, a clarion call across the generations.
The Pirates - Johnny B Goode's Good (Reading Festival, 1978)
And the stories he used to tell. Interrupting Elvis and Engelbert comparing collars in Las Vegas to get the King's autograph for his sister. Trying to borrow the money to become the Beatles' first promoter in London, only to be told - by Johnny Kidd no less - that they'd "never be bigger than Joe Brown". Turning up to a Dutch TV show with the Pirates to find they were expected to play on a full scale model of a galleon. And further back - an adolescence seduced by Teddy Boy style but hampered by setting fire to your quiff trying to dry it over a gas ring. In Gibson Martin Fender, the only man ever to use Battersea as the setting for a rock'n'roll song, and how your heart lifts when he hits the fluttering, choppy riff at that song's core.
Mick was 65 when he died, and his website is full of tributes from people like Pete Townshend, and anecdote upon anecdote from a rock'n'roll life well lived. But back home in Essex, Mick taught guitar to primary school children, children like Elliot, and they wrote as well: "Mick was teaching me acoustic guitar at school. Mick was a very good man he always tried to make a lesson fun and i would always look forward to my lessons on a Thursday. I will miss him a lot".
The perenially wonderful Arena are currently putting the finishing touches to two programmes dedicated to the life and work of Brian Eno (whose music is heard on the famous opening sequence).
I spoke to director Nicola Roberts about filming the Life of Brian...
How did the film come about?
Brian Eno's team and Anthony Wall (Arena editor) had been talking about doing a film. Obviously Brian had been approached by other people to do similar things, but (without blowing our own trumpet too much) I think it's worth saying that people will come and make films with Arena rather than anyone else.
Was the fact that Brian supplied the theme music a factor in his willingness to make the film?
I think that's one aspect of it but there's also the fact that people have a lot of confidence and trust in the fact that Arena will do them justice. It's a great programme and I'm very proud to work for it.
Arena has a reputation for making 'film essays' rather than 'straight' documentaries. Can you talk a bit about your approach to this one?
The Wikipedia type timeline music documentary seems quite prevalent at the moment, which is fine. But you feel a little bit apprehensive these days when you're doing something a bit different, something more like an 'essay'. There's a sort of feeling that if you don't start your Eno film with Roxy Music then you've done it 'wrong'. It's quite a challenge to take another approach, and there's not a lot of that kind of programming around on television at the moment. But on the other hand there's so much information out there already on the internet, that it kind of liberates you as a filmmaker in a way. You don't have to tell that linear story if you don't want to.
Were you an Eno fan?
Definitely. I loved and still play Here Come The Warm Jets a lot, and Before and After Science (which is an album Eno doesn't like but I love side two). My son's first ever favourite song was Eno's Baby's on Fire. Oh and Roxy Music of course. But I didn't know much about Eno rather than he had this slight reputation as a sort of Magus. I just loved those early songs.
So how did you start the whole process?
I did a bit of reading and came up with an initial treatment. Some of those ideas are still quite strong in the film; little visual things and metaphors. I loved that he came from a long line of postmen, and there was a lot of stuff about tape loops and looping. I had an idea that Brian would have a conversation with a long distance pilot; the idea of 'repetition being a form of change'. So we met with Brian and his people (who co-produced the film) and they liked it. Brian was very keen on the importance of conversations; he subtly steered the film the way he wanted to go by choosing the people he wanted to speak to.
So how did the shooting work?
We were a very low key presence, which he really liked. We would be invited into the studio on certain days when he would be talking to someone (Richard Dawkins, Paul Morley or whoever). There was nothing very contrived about it. The first day we were there he was jamming with Karl Hyde, which I'd love to have used more of. I'm sure it didn't get to the point that he forgot we were there or anything, but it was very relaxed and Brian gave us a lot of creative freedom. He was very charming.
There's one scene where Eno seems to be struggling a little with technology...
That was the tip of the iceberg really. Perhaps it was only when I was there, but it did seem that every time he switched on his computer, it didn't work. I had taken a line with the film - that if you'd been brought up a strict Catholic like Brian and then had rejected all that, what do you believe in instead? And it's science. I always liked the fact that Before and After Science is an anagram of Arcane Benefits of Creed. But that was too pretentious to put in the film!
How was the interview you did?
I asked him quite a lot of slightly bolshie questions about his corporate work. I think the word 'breadhead' came up. But of course he's perfectly comfortable with (and honest about) working for Microsoft or Nokia or whoever. Eventually Anthony (Wall) said to me "Not everyone finds making money out of corporate work as contentious as you do" so I thought 'Is this really that interesting? No'. Because again, that information's all out there on the internet if you look for it.
How did you go about sifting and editing your material?
Luckily at Arena we get a reasonably good amount of time to cut films. So you get a chance to read transcripts and look at your shots and start honing your material to give you the best results. Transcripts are really invaluable when you have a subject like Brian who's very keen on talking. They were huge on this shoot...very chunky. But his trains of thought - that you don't need complex systems to produce complex results, Darwinism, the Game of Life, cybernetics and so on, plus his music, all add up to something very coherent.
Arena: Brian Eno will be broadcast for the first time on Friday 22 January at 9pm on BBC Four.
Mike Diver|11:33 UK time, Wednesday, 13 January 2010
December, traditionally something of a barren month for quality new album releases, was true to form last year. ("Last year"... feels strange saying that still, doesn't it.) Here are six long-players (okay, four and a pair of EPs) worth spending any leftover vouchers on, though. All come recommended by the BBC Music reviews team.
Yes, we know it's the middle of the month and this entry should perhaps have run several days ago. To you, we say: read this best-of-the-year list. It took up quite a bit of our time.
- - -
Étienne Jaumet - Night Music
(Versatile Records, released 7 December)
"Night Music is a sonic triumph, each drum machine thump and vintage sequencer sounding like they don't have a hair out of place. It is one of the finest examples of the revival of the 'kosmische' micro-genre of recent times, up there with Lindstrøm's acclaimed 2008 album Where You Go I Go Too." Read the full review
Étienne Jaumet - Entropy (audio only)
- - -
Mr Chop - For Pete's Sake
(Five Day Weekend, released 7 December)
"Powered by breakbeats and bent out of shape by jowly basslines, wobbling between left and right speakers like the 70s funk and rare groove that Chop sounds like he was schooled on, this irresistible instrumental platter is sure to make you swagger some." Read the full review
Mr Chop - T.R.O.Y. (audio only)
- - -
Warpaint - Exquisite Corpse
(Manimal Vinyl, released 7 December)
"The band's sound will appeal effortlessly to anyone swept up in the understated splendour of The xx's silence-celebrating compositions - just like the young Londoners, Warpaint respect the balance between stirring (yet soothing) sounds and their surrounding stillness." Read the full review
Warpaint - Billie Holiday (audio only)
- - -
Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
(Domino, released 14 December)
"While obviously the work of the same men who shaped Merriweather into such a brilliantly boisterous, bamboozling and beautiful collection of future-pop anthems, this is a standalone affair that requires recognition based on its own merits." Read the full review
Animal Collective - What Would I Want? Sky (BBC Session Version)
- - -
Paul McCartney - Good Evening New York City
(Hear Music, released 14 December)
"Always incredibly hard-working, McCartney never relents here - his patter isn't cool, but it absolutely doesn't matter, as he could turn up and play on a washboard and it'd still be worth 20 quid. Good Evening... is a wonderful souvenir for those who were there or who've seen his tour over the last few months." Read the full review
Paul McCartney - Band on the Run (live at Citi Field, New York)
- - -
Alicia Keys - The Element of Freedom
(J Records, released 14 December)
"Keys has explained that this, her fourth album, is "a dichotomy of strength and vulnerability". It certainly showcases her willingness to experiment while ruminating on longing and falling for a wrong 'un." Read the full review
Mike Diver|09:33 UK time, Wednesday, 6 January 2010
If you've aimed your eyes at any music magazine or website over the last couple of months, you'll have seen a best-of-2009 list or two. Not adverse to a little putting-stuff-we-like-in-an-arbitrary-order fun ourselves, here are BBC Music's own top albums of the year that's barely slipped from the rear view mirror.
These lists come courtesy of BBC Music's many contributors - over 50 writers submitted their favourite albums of 2009 - and were gently teased into shape over the course of several weeks. Hopefully we've highlighted a few of your own highlights of last year. If not, feel free to let us know what great albums we've missed here. You can leave your comment/s at the bottom of the article.
All quotes are taken from BBC Music reviews, with the exception of a handful of country releases that (inexplicably!) were never covered here. Apologies, country fans.
NB. Rock & Indie is a top 20, rather than a top 10, because more votes were received for albums in this category than any other, and frankly everything in the list deserves a double-thumbs-up for its awesomeness. Well done, Rock & Indie.
1: Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
"The combination of Beach Boys harmonies, post-minimal dynamics and psychedelic free fall which has won them such a cult reputation breaks free here and takes full flight." Read the full review
Animal Collective - My Girls
2: The xx - xx
"Every song here is an enigmatic and moody blend of smoky crooning, nimble keyboard trickery and slippery treble-heavy riffs." Read the full review
3: The Horrors - Primary Colours
"There's barely a bad moment here. You are left in awe that a) this is The Horrors and b) that it stands tall above so many other things. Genuinely, really, very, very good indeed." Read the full review
4: Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
"There's no doubt Veckatimest is a truly world class record, a collection of dazzlingly complex, rich textures, dense and baroque." Read the full review
5: Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
"A very modern rock album with an ambitious appeal, yet unafraid to be a bit arty. Ladies and gentlemen, if you haven't twigged already, Wild Beasts are your new favourite band." Read the full review
6: The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
"Another wonderful album from the most consistently inventive and thrilling American band, R.E.M. included, of the last 25 years." Read the full review
7: Passion Pit - Manners
"They could be Arcade Fire reworked for ravers, or rabid evangelical Christians looking for a deluge of converts - so huge, inspiring and bright is their sound." Read the full review
8: Converge - Axe to Fall
"The foursome's most accomplished record, Axe to Fall is an album of almost strangulating intensity. Not for the faint-hearted, but you sense Converge won't ever have it any other way." Read the full review
9: Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
"Yale graduate David Longstreth, Dirty Projectors' lynchpin, brings all his dauntingly cerebral compositional versatility to bear on Bitte Orca. It's accessible, but boundary challenging stuff." Read the full review
10: Manic Street Preachers - Journal for Plague Lovers
"Enigmatic, engulfed, enraged, both intensely perceptive and painfully confused, musically and lyrically fervent, and a lasting touchstone for all those who will experience the same." Read the full review
11: P***** Jeans - King of Jeans
"Filthy, perverse, quite probably perfect: King of Jeans is surely 2009's most remarkably arresting rock album." Read the full review
12: The Antlers - Hospice
"Ultimately an exploration of sorrow and of guilt, but also a testament to the human spirit; its lasting impression is one of cathartic, hard-won transcendence." Read the full review
13: Mastodon - Crack the Skye
"A great leap forward for the Atlanta foursome which should be heard far beyond the Kerrang! readership. On this evidence, unlike their namesake, Mastodon won't be extinct soon." Read the full review
14: Sonic Youth - The Eternal
"Dissonance, rock action, hot sex and politics: all you need for great entertainment." Read the full review
15: Future of the Left - Travels With Myself and Another
"A work of near genius... It's difficult to pick highlights, as the album is flooded with them." Read the full review
16: Antony and the Johnsons - The Crying Light
"This is thoughtful, sumptuously crafted music that serves as evidence that Antony Hegarty's Mercury Prize victory was no fluke." Read the full review
17: Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz!
"At its heart, It's Blitz! is great power pop, and a triumphant return for New York's finest." Read the full review
18: Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
"Each track complements the next, yet can be appreciated as a standalone work of utmost excellence and elegance." Read the full review
19: Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery
"Fractured, unhinged music that blends several sources to end up sounding not much like anyone else currently out there." Read the full review
20: Dananananaykroyd - Hey Everyone!
"Full of energy and good humour, with a real sense of teenage lust and excitement pumping through every song." Read the full review
1: Pet Shop Boys - Yes
"This is their most vivacious, consistent and adorable album since 1993's Very, with the Boys on their old sure-footed, imperial form." Read the full review
Pet Shop Boys - Love Etc
2: Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You
"Bigger, brighter and more danceable than predecessor Alright, Still, this autobiographical album is a piece of exquisitely produced, loveable pop." Read the full review
3: Annie - Don't Stop
"A more 'of its time' record would be hard to find, but no matter: Don't Stop is 12 slices of sublime pop genius." Read the full review
4: Rihanna - Rated R
"Rihanna has achieved so much already, and this album suggests she will continue to do so in widescreen, and on her own terms." Read the full review
5: Dizzee Rascal - Tongue N' Cheek
"A monstrously successful fourth album, Tongue N' Cheek is the release to officially crown Dizzee as UK dance/hip hop royalty." Read the full review
6: La Roux - La Roux
"Establishing themselves as one of our most exciting new pop acts, La Roux have mastered their debut. Never has something so tinny sounded so good." Read the full review
7: Empire of the Sun - Walking on a Dream
"Zany Aussies Steele and Littlemore may be mad as cheese, but it's eccentricity rather than mania. Their talent is undoubtable, and this album sounds like an instant classic." Read the full review
8: Lady Gaga - The Fame
"In these days where we're crying out for our pop stars to have a personality, Gaga's flamboyance is sure to cement her place in the list of pop idols." Read the full review
9: Jay-Z - The Blueprint 3
"Until an heir apparent steps up, The Blueprint 3 confirms Carter is clinging to his crown as king of New York hip hop." Read the full review
10: N-Dubz - Against All Odds
"This is an honest, authentic audio document of contemporary teenage Britain, and it's almost exclusively positive of message - if you can dream it, you could well achieve it." Read the full review
1: Mos Def - The Ecstatic
"The Ecstatic catches the MC back on top of his game, with a new confidence, scope and narrative thrust. 'Don't call it a comeback,' he chimes. But that's what it is." Read the full review
Mos Def - Casa Bey
2: Raekwon - Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II
"This more than lives up to the hype. Nobody else, not even his Wu-Tang companions, relates street stories with Raekwon's eloquence." Read the full review
3: Toddla T - Skanky Skanky
"The Sheffield youngster delivers an invigorating debut, auspicious and appetite-whetting." Read the full review
4: Q-Tip - Kamaal the Abstract
"Q-Tip's songwriting chops impress: the handclap-driven Barely in Love evokes the Isley Brothers in their 70s prime, while Caring sounds like it slipped off an old Minnie Riperton LP." Read the full review
5: Themselves - CrownsDown
"An enticing comeback album that propels the Oakland duo's Jackson Pollock approach to hip hop toward new levels of invention." Read the full review
6: Antipop Consortium - Fluorescent Black
"The reunited act resumes the metallic, righteous blaze they've been trailing since 1997, with old-school rapping concentrating its braggadocio on musical skills rather than gangsta fantasy." Read the full review
8: Major Lazer - Guns Don't Kill People... Lazers Do
"At its best Guns... is arrestingly addictive listening, and a sequel would be more than welcomed if its protagonists can find the time in their hectic schedules." Read the full review
7: Brother Ali - Us
"There are tales of being unlucky in love, religion and living in poverty. He could be accused of ticking hip hop's cliché checklist, if he weren't an eyewitness." Read the full review
9: Snoop Dogg - Malice N Wonderland
"His eyes have never been off the prize, and tenth album Malice... is a fine X to mark this spot in Snoops always interesting career." Read the full review
10: Rakim - The Seventh Seal
"Rakim's mighty flow is as strong as ever. If, to the uninitiated, his style appears recognizable, that's simply because so many followers have hijacked his effortless linguistics." Read the full review
1: F*** Buttons - Tarot Sport
"A noise band with tunes might sound like a contradiction in terms, but F*** Buttons have carved out a sound that owes more to personal inspiration that tradition, and it works like a dream." Read the full review Watch the video to Surf Solar
2: Fever Ray - Fever Ray
"A rewarding venture into territory that challenges and provokes, but one that might not make sense to play if you're prone to nightmares, as it's not for the squeamish." Read the full review
Fever Ray - When I Grow Up
3: Clark - Totems Flare
"An abrasive, often disorientating hot plate of moody and sophisticated electronica." Read the full review
4: Vitalic - Flashmob
"A genuinely colossal album that makes Vitalic beyond future-proof and ready to lead the way again." Read the full review
5: The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die
"Invaders Must Die then is the musical equivalent of a day spent on a bouncy castle: old-fashioned and loud, but damned good fun." Read the full review
6: Moderat - Moderat
"Moderat is promise realized, always catchy but never quite conventional." Read the full review
7: King Midas Sound - Waiting for You
"Heavy with urban dread but awake to the promise of a better life, Waiting for You feels like a hard-won victory - the kind that tastes all the sweeter." Read the full review
8: 2562 - Unbalance
"Unbalance sketches views of a cybernetic near-future that touches a number of bases, from dubstep and broken beat to the Detroit-tinged breakbeat sci-fi of Jacob's Optical Stairway." Read the full review
9: Hudson Mohawke - Butter
"An impressive showcase for a sound that remains impressively slippery, and is worth staying tuned to." Read the full review
10: Martyn - Great Lengths
"The brisk precision, razor-sharp syncopation and detailed soundscaping of Great Lengths may have you grinning inanely." Read the full review
1: Nirvana - Live at Reading
"Live at Reading delivers instead an opportunity to revisit a key moment in rock history, unedited and unadorned." Read the full review
Nirvana - School (live at Reading Festival, 1992)
2: Leonard Cohen - Live in London
"It's enough to make you impatient to reach your 70s. Let's hope a few of us can remain this warm, good-humoured and still in love with life when we do." Read the full review
3: Madness - The Liberty of Norton Folgate
"Think psychedelic-era Beatles meet The Mighty Boosh and The Liberty Of Norton Folgate starts to come into focus." Read the full review
4: Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream
"Bruce still stands tall as both conscience and as a teller of tales." Read the full review
5: Prefab Sprout - Let's Change the World with Music
"The songs and themes of this album unfurl with repeated hearing. A more romantic last bow is hard to imagine." Read the full review
6: Tom Waits - Glitter & Doom Live
"That Tom Waits is a copper-bottomed, titanium-plated genius is undeniable." Read the full review
7: Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
"Together Through Life is a distinctly light-hearted affair, but Dylan still injects enough of himself to keep above genericism." Read the full review
8: David Sylvian - Manafon
"Manafon is a brave, disconcerting and terrible document. If only all so-called artists could display such courage." Read the full review
9: R.E.M. - Live at the Olympia
"Think of it as an apposite companion to both their Eponymous and In Time best-of collections." Read the full review
10: Rickie Lee Jones - Balm in Gilead
"Written over a period of 22 years, the 11 tracks on Balm in Gilead tie up loose ends, its title heavily implying healing at work." Read the full review
1: The Unthanks - Here's the Tender Coming
"As good as their 2007 Mercury Prize-nominated album, The Bairns, undoubtedly was, Here's the Tender Coming raises the standard higher still." Read the full review
The Unthanks - Here's the Tender Coming (live on Later...)
2: Jon Boden - Songs from the Floodplain
"A beautifully profound and dramatic record that has all the makings of a future classic." Read the full review
3: Alasdair Roberts - Spoils
"Something altogether curious, like a series of medieval musical fables with one foot in the industrialised 19th century and another in the ''makeshift'' present." Read the full review
4: Show of Hands - Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed
"The hardy English West Country duo of songwriting craftsman Steve Knightley and virtuoso multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer come out punching hard on this extraordinarily earthy effort." Read the full review
5: Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
"A mostly winning, if nigglingly naïve, debut that deserves an audience to match its impressive convictions." Read the full review
6: Rachel McShane - No Man's Fool
"Within seconds of the yearning start to The Gardner, you know you're in the presence of something very special... And what a voice." Read the full review
7: Martin Simpson - True Stories
"A musician clearly at the top of his form and capable of weaving wonderfully evocative musical tapestries from apparently base materials." Read the full review
8: Espers - Espers III
"Recalls the acid folk medievalism of the Incredible String Band - all jaunty, circular melodies, plainsong-like harmonies and bucolic lyrics." Read the full review
9: Nancy Wallace - Old Stories
"Time will tell if she becomes one of the great British voices, but with the level of emotion she conveys, she certainly has every right to be talked about." Read the full review
10: Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - Beware
"Beware is an intimate album, full of strong emotion and underlying hope." Read the full review
1: Dame Shirley Bassey - The Performance
"Bassey wraps herself around these songs with gusto, meaning that perhaps, for once, mum's Christmas present will find a place on the family stereo." Read the full review
Dame Shirley Bassey - The Girl From Tiger Bay (live at BBC Electric Proms, 2009)
2: Karen O & the Kids - Where the Wild Things Are OST
"Sparkle like no other movie music released this year. The overall effect: the sweetest, deepest escape." Read the full review
3: Barbra Streisand - Love is the Answer
"By embracing a winning diversity and presenting its material in two different, but perfectly paired ways, this double album celebrates Streisand's enduring star quality." Read the full review
4: Michael Bublé - Crazy Love
"This wonderful album would surely have been voted 'ring-a-ding-ding' by Frank and Dean!" Read the full review
5: Various Artists - New Moon: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
"A fine cast, featuring critically acclaimed heavyweights from across the indie/rock spectrum. Kids, get exploring." Read the full review
6: Nick Cave and Warren Ellis - White Lunar
"White Lunar is less demanding than any other work by these two seasoned players, but in places quite startling in its delicacy." Read the full review
7: Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
"Stevens has recorded a classical/techno/indie epic about a bit of tarmac. And he's done it beautifully." Read the full review
8: Johnny Mercer - The Dream's On Me
"The producers have taken great care to offer a well-balanced and contrasted selection of Mercer lyrics. But just one CD could never be representative of all his work." Read the full review
9: Badly Drawn Boy - Is There Nothing We Could Do?
"If the music is this touching without pictures, the film is sure to triumph." Read the full review
10: Norah Jones - The Fall
"Jones' most interesting album, and her inherent languor has wrought marvels." Read the full review
1: Alfred Brendel - The Farewell Concerts
"Clearly Brendel retired while still at the top of his game. He will be greatly missed by concert-goers; this release is a welcome coda to his towering recorded legacy." Read the full review
Alfred Brendel - Man & Mask (documentary, part one)
2: Dame Elizabeth Maconchy - The Sofa/The Departure
"Both operas work particularly well as recordings; their short length helps, but the credit really goes to Independent Opera's vibrant productions." Read the full review
3: Jean Sibelius - Symphonies Nos. 1-7 / Kullervo
"The LSO's consistent confidence and warmth can exhaust, but wrapped up in it is an unshakeable stamp of authority." Read the full review
4: Benjamin Britten - Before Life & After
"It's an elegantly, beautifully and stirringly sung recital, satisfying on every level." Read the full review
5: Henry Purcell - Ten Sonatas in Four Parts
"With a sound this satisfying and addictive, they've set the bar very high for future recordings. Bravo." Read the full review
6: Ludwig Van Beethoven - Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5
"These studio readings exult in the vital spontaneity and alert reciprocity more typical of a live performance." Read the full review
7: Joseph Haydn - Die Schöpfung
"The peerless RIAS Chamber Choir displays immaculate diction and clean, full-bodied tone, the recording sharply focused." Read the full review
8: Verdi - Messa da Requiem
"The choral singing is full-blooded, well blended, and brilliantly articulated. What more can one say? Without a doubt, this will prove to be a seminal recording." Read the full review
9: Johannes Brahms - Symphony 3 / Choral Works
"Riveting, enlightening and enjoyable in equal measure." Read the full review
10: Kate Royal - Midsummer Night
"Her performance here is perfect. A disc to be revisited again and again. Even in the daytime." Read the full review
1: A. R. Rahman - Slumdog Millionaire
"The alchemist has done it again. This is a mega-soundtrack to keep fans happy and draw in a new audience." Read the full review
A. R. Rahman feat. M.I.A. - O... Saya (audio only)
2: Jaz Dhami - JD: Jaz Dhami
"An album that manages to capture the energy of the 80s while remaining relevant to a modern audience." Read the full review
3: Swami - 53431
"Celebrates all of Swami's musical achievements to date, and provides the promise that they still have originality to offer." Read the full review
4: Imran Khan - Unforgettable
"Khan has dared to be different by stepping out of the bhangra box, successfully creating a distinctive sound." Read the full review
5: Outlandish - Sound of a Rebel
"They've injected addictive beats with affecting lyrics, which never stray far from their socially conscious and spiritual beliefs." Read the full review
6: Punjabi by Nature - Homegrown
"It's a surefire bet that a large amount of its tracks are going to be blasting a dancefloor near you very soon." Read the full review
7: Pritam - Love Aaj Kal
"There is enough to enjoy on Love Aaj Kal to rescue Pritam from recent controversy and maintain his award-winning reputation." Read the full review
8: Moneyspinner - Poetry
"Poetry may only have eight tracks but they're guaranteed to get the most reluctant feet moving." Read the full review
9: Pritam - Dil Bole Hadippa!
"Peppered with familiar folk melodies, it will undoubtedly embed itself into the psyche of any Indian music lover." Read the full review
10: Jassi Sidhu - Jassi What Happened?
"If this encourages more Bhangra acts to play with proper bands (as opposed to PAs), it can only be a good thing." Read the full review
1: Keith Jarrett - Testament
"The music is truly exploratory, deeply felt and often very moving." Read the full review
Keith Jarrett - Paris Part VII (audio only)
2: Allen Toussaint - The Bright Mississippi
"Toussaint's first solo album in over a decade sees this legendary writer paying tribute to the work of others. The result is both confident and relaxed." Read the full review
3: Portico Quartet - Isla
"Their Balkan-infused melancholy, thrumming textures and skronking outbursts create a deeper, scarier world on their second album." Read the full review
4: Freddie Hubbard - Without a Song
"This generous set is a valuable exhumation of live material, drawn from concerts in London and Bristol and recorded in 1969." Read the full review
5: Jon Hassell - Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street
"Offers up an impeccable soundworld which gradually reveals a sense of deeply meditative interaction from a group of individuals listening intently to one another." Read the full review
6: Partisans - By Proxy
"Four albums into a career that has been ongoing since the mid-90s and Partisans have arguably never sounded better." Read the full review
7: EST - Retrospective
"They made such an impact on the European jazz scene that they've left an unfilled gap that heightens the nostalgia for what they achieved over 17 years." Read the full review
8: Led Bib - Sensible Shoes
"When they let rip with their combination of twin alto saxophones, keyboards, bass and drums, Led Bib pack a formidable punch." Read the full review
9: trioVD - Fill it Up With Ghosts
"The flow of brilliant and busy ideas is as unstoppable as its makers are breathtaking." Read the full review
10: Tyondai Braxton - Central Market
"A classically indebted by resolutely modern collection of ambitious arrangements." Read the full review
1: Tarrus Riley - Contagious
"Contagious is a work that resists categorisation, paying respects to reggae greats like Bob Marley and Black Uhuru while worshipping at the altar of the smoothest soul." Read the full review
Tarrus Riley - Love's Contagious
2: Alicia Keys - The Element of Freedom
"Showcasing her willingness to experiment while ruminating on longing and falling for a wrong 'un, Alicia Keys' latest is the US diva album for those who can't abide US divas." Read the full review
3: Mayer Hawthorne - A Strange Arrangement
"For those who are fed up with the new wave of soul and want the real thing, Hawthorne has stepped up with a cracker of a debut album." Read the full review
4: Sizzla - Ghetto Youth-ology
"A more conventional-than-his-usual reggae album where Sizzla puts aside self-regard and sex for words with a community focus." Read the full review
5: Beverly Knight - 100%
"In an age where soul music is often seen as being a weepy girl singing on a TV talent show, it's good that Beverly Knight is not only back but also brilliant." Read the full review
6: Maxwell - BLACKsummer'snight
"This is not an album that sets out to please anyone but the artist himself; however, it's also one of the best things you'll hear all year." Read the full review
7: Shafiq Husayn - Shafiq En'a-Freeka
"Risking a pretentious folly, Husayn instead delivers a potent, adventurous set that proves that drawing upon a rich history can inspire some of the wildest and most wonderful future-music." Read the full review
8: M. Nahadr - EclecticIsM
"The soul album of the year for its challenge to the genre itself." Read the full review
9: Lloyd Brown - For Your Consideration
"For Your Consideration is everything reggae lovers could hope for. Considered, and recommended without reservation." Read the full review
10: Chezidek - I Grade
"This superlative dedicated project, recorded with the legendary Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, is one of the best releases in a fiercely competitive year." Read the full review
1: The Felice Brothers - Yonder is the Clock
"Happily unlike anything to come out of the States in recent years, the five-piece outfit boast a distinctively muscular, rough-hewn, dirt-under-the-fingernails sound." Read the full review
The Felice Brothers - Penn Station (audio only)
2: Patty Loveless - Mountain Soul II
"Ricky Skaggs had his moment in the country mainstream then reverted to his first love of bluegrass. He never looked back, and neither should Loveless if she keeps turning out stuff like this." Read the full review
3: Alison Brown - The Company You Keep
Review from Popmatters: "Think of her as the bluegrass equivalent of jazz guitarists. She has a lyrical style and the deftness to decorate the music while always being true to the basic structure."
4: Rosanne Cash - The List
"On The List, Rosanne Cash ventures wilfully and cheerfully into the formidable shadow cast by her late father." Read the full review
5: Taylor Swift - Fearless
"A phenomenon in America, Swift's latest is now triple platinum across the Atlantic. The playing and arrangements, certainly, cannot be faulted." Read the full review
6: Todd Snider - The Excitement Plan
Review from The Onion AV Club: "Beneath the disheveled exterior is an ace storyteller with a Raymond Carver-esque gift for mapping out the troubled contours of a character's life."
7: Levon Helm - Electric Dirt
Review from Rolling Stone: "He digs deepest on his first proper rock & roll record in a dog's age with his voice, which veers between soulful stoicism and boozy yowl."
8: Keith Urban - Defying Gravity
Review from Entertainment Weekly: "You don't begrudge the guy his euphoria. You may need to go strangle a bunny to get your edge back, but you don't begrudge him."
9: Lyle Lovett - Natural Forces
"Always more than a straight-ahead country artist, Lyle Lovett has dabbled with various genres, and Natural Forces is a treat from start to finish." Read the full review
10: Miranda Lambert - Revolution
Review from Rolling Stone: "With her third record, Miranda Lambert remains country's most refreshing act."
1: Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort
"This is a remarkable debut that will no doubt earn Staff Benda Bilili much deserved attention and respect." Read the full review
Staff Benda Bilili - Je t'aime (live on Store Studio)
2: Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - I Speak Fula
"Intricate in play but endlessly listenable, I Speak Fula deserves to find its way out of the world music ghetto and onto the world stage." Read the full review
3: Tinariwen - Imidiwan: Companions
"This 13-strong collection finds the Saharan seven-piece continuing to fire on musical cylinders souped up over the best part of three decades together." Read the full review
4: Céu - Vagarosa
"It oozes class and is Brazilian to the core yet, surreptitiously and almost imperceptibly, guides it to a whole new place." Read the full review
5: Various Artists - Ghana Special
"This is sweetly infectious dance music of the most democratic kind: there's always more than one rhythm to groove to, just take your pick." Read the full review
6: Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu - Gurrumul
"The strength of his gently soaring vocals and the power of songs like Wiyathul, Marrandil and Gurrumul History (I Was Born Blind) make this a remarkable album." Read the full review
7: Vieux Farka Touré - Fondo
"Ali Farka Touré's tutelage can be clearly heard and it's a beautifully touching aspect of what is one of the finest albums to come out of Africa this year." Read the full review
8: Oumou Sangare - Seya
"It's the best thing since her marvellous 1991 debut Moussoulou, which is one of the all time great treasures of Malian music." Read the full review
9: Jimi Tenor and Tony Allen - Inspiration Information 4
"An unlikely pairing, but volume 4 is one of the most engaging and fully realised albums in the Inspiration Information series so far." Read the full review
10: Gypsy Groovz Orchestra - Night Train for Lovers and Thieves
"This is the genuine article, an understated but exhilarating tour-de-force of soulful, rootsy, Balkan brass, and perhaps the year's best album of Gypsy music." Read the full review
At one point in the early 70s, if you passed an enormous Cadillac stuck in Memphis traffic it was likely to belong to either Elvis Presley or Isaac Hayes, those two great gaudy signifiers of the city's music, The King and Black Moses. Wayne Jackson of the Memphis Horns told me that, and at the time we were standing in the Stax museum looking at Isaac's very own Cadillac, the one covered in bling and boasting its own ankle deep white shagpile carpet.
A couple of days beforehand I'd been sitting in the Presley's old two bedroom council flat, listening as Suzi Quatro talked to a childhood friend of Elvis. According to that old friend, one of his primary motivations in life back then had been to make enough money to buy his mother a car and take her back to the little town where they came from, to show those people how far they'd come. And not just any car - it had to be a Cadillac.
Elvis' story - like that of the Beatles - is one of the great myths of popular music, a story you can tell over and over again, one that people never get tired of. It doesn't really matter whether this bit is literally true or whether that bit actually happened, because we all love to hear it anyway. And - because it was the first - the Elvis story is especially potent, as we're all finding out again through the BBC's celebration of what would have been his 75th birthday this coming Friday, January 8th.
Suzi Quatro outside Elvis Presley's boyhood home in Tupelo, Mississippi
Looked at from today's post Generation Gap society where we all live in an eternal musical present and love Dizzee Rascal and Jerry Lee Lewis just the same, we tend to forget quite what a disturbing, disrupting force Elvis really was. You get a very different perspective from watching the eyes of Home Counties pensioners light up and hearing their voices go thick at the memory of what Elvis did for them, of how he took them away from the grey world of post-war Britain, of how he set them free.
And you get yet another story from travelling in Elvis' footsteps.
Back in 1974, Suzi Quatro was in Memphis on tour when she got a phone call in her hotel room inviting her to meet Elvis at his Graceland home; she didn't go and she's regretted it ever since. Radio 2's Elvis season seemed like an ideal opportunity to do something about this - by taking Suzi back to Memphis we could also retrace Elvis' own journey and hopefully learn something about both of them along the way.
Elvis Presley's former home at Audubon Drive in Memphis
Neither Suzi or I had any interest in just telling Elvis's story by rote - she wanted to try and get an idea of what he was like as a person, what motivated him, what drove him on - and it occurred to me that a new way of doing that would be to visit the places where Elvis lived, in the order in which he lived in them and to talk to the people who still lived there who had been his friends.
And so that's what we did.
Elvis only really lived in four houses for any length of time: the two room wooden shack in Tupelo, Mississippi where he was born in abject poverty; the project housing at Lauderdale Courts in Memphis where he spent most of his teenage years; the upmarket house on Audubon Drive, the first he bought with his own money; and finally Graceland, his home for 20 years, the place where he died and where he is buried, alongside his mother, father and grandmother.
Suzi Quatro at Elvis' grave at Graceland
We had a map; one of the great tragedies of Elvis' life was that he didn't. Nobody had done that journey before him; as Suzi remarks in the programme, nothing in his background could have prepared him for it. After our emotional visit to Graceland itself, we were discussing how small the house really is, and in many ways how it's so not the house you would expect the King of Rock'n'Roll to own. Then I remembered that it was originally built for a doctor; that in Elvis' rural childhood, the two pillars of society would have been the local minister and the local doctor, and that in the end he never really moved all that far from Tupelo, Cadillac or no Cadillac.
