By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal popular music writer

Just 15 years ago, the resume of rap superstar Aubrey Drake Graham, aka Drake, aka Drizzy Drake, would have been considered suspect.

To wit: A black/Jewish Canadian who, at 15, starred in a teen soap opera based on books aimed at girls. He then became a rapper whose magic pill is his use of melody and his ability to share actual emotions in his music.

At the dawn of the century, that brief biography would have gotten him laughed at by hip-hop’s hard knocks, but none of those 20th-century hard-core dudes, who staunchly flew the “keep it real” banner, will be headlining their own Club Paradise Tour at Blossom Music Center on Monday, as Drake will, along with J. Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz and French Montana.

Drake performs at the Galen Center in Los Angeles in March. He will play Monday at Blossom. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times/MCT)

While some rappers are still embedded in the cocaine-slinging, gun-toting, ho-slapping machismo that has dominated rap since the rise of NWA, and contemporary emcees such as Rick Ross have built careers off of lying to fans about his hard-scrabble-to-coke-dealing-glamour life surviving in the hood, Drake makes no apologies for his backstory or his ambitions.

Drake, 25, is the quintessential 21st-century rap success story. After building a fan base as Jimmy Brooks on the teen-oriented Degrassi: The Next Generation, Drake knew he wanted to break into music.

“That’s all I wanted to do, at first. I loved music,” he said to GQ magazine in April. “I just didn’t necessarily believe in music being the focus right away. But I used to watch, at the time, young kids that were poppin’— it was B2K and Bow Wow. It was that generation of the R&B group, and the sort of every song is a ‘girl’ song — it was all targeted toward screaming girls — the Scream Tour.”

Drake borrowed some money from one of his uncles (he is related to both funk legend Larry Graham and guitarist Teenie Hodges, who appeared on most of Al Green’s greatest hits) to record his debut mixtape Room for Improvement in 2006 on his Myspace page. He followed it a year later with Comeback Season, which featured the song Replacement Girl. The song’s video was featured as a “New Joint of the day” on 106th & Park, BET’s young hip-hop/R&B taste-making video show. He was not signed to a label at the time.

By the time of his third mixtape, So Far Gone, Drake had appeared on several artists’ tracks and was on his way up the hip-hop ladder. The mixtape single Best I Ever Had became his first true hit song, reaching No. 2 on the Billboard hot R&B/hip-hop songs chart.

His outside-the-industry success started a bidding war, which was eventually won by Young Money Entertainment, the New Orleans crew spearheaded by veteran rappers Lil Wayne and Birdman, giving Drake a co-sign from a respected hard-core rapper. He is part of the Young Money Crew, which includes Tyga, T-Pain and hip-hop’s lone female star Nicki Minaj.

His official debut album Thank Me Later solidified his status as hip-hop’s new star, featuring the singles Find Your Love, Miss Me and Over, all making it to at least the Top 15 on the Hot 100. On the album, Drake vacillates between traditional bragging and boasting (Up All Night with Minaj) and opening up about the pitfalls of fame and how the people around you change (The Resistance), with Drake often saving the moments of vulnerability for the choruses sung in his monotone drawl.

Just as Drake’s career trajectory has provided a new template for aspiring suburban/middle-class rap stars, his hits, such as the downright vulnerable Marvin’s Room, have helped usher in the era of the emcee who sings his own hooks — a list that includes Cleveland’s own Kid Cudi and Drake’s mentor, Lil Wayne (thanks Auto-Tune!).

“Rap now is just being young and fly and having your [stuff] together,” Drake told GQ in April. “The mood of rap has changed.”

Indeed, the mood of popular rap has changed, with the Black Eyed Peas spewing out hip-hop/dance party anthems and Minaj rapping and singing in an attempt to be all things to all of her fans. Then there’s Kanye West’s creativity and extreme self-indulgence, and nearly every rapper who can’t sing collaborating with a hot R&B singer to ensure a strong hook.

After Thank Me Later, Drake appeared to be living the dream. But his sophomore album and current reason for touring, Take Care, found him navel gazing, emotionally and professionally conflicted, enjoying his success while also seemingly wary of the fame, the wanted and unwanted attention it brings, the difficulty in establishing a real relationship and how he’s perceived in the rap and pop world.

It’s a lot to cover, even for a guy known for sharing, and it gives the album an overall air of melancholy, but Drake has said the album is just a snapshot of his life, not the entire picture, which at 25 changes and grows every day, including finding the hunger that drove him when he was a wannabe rap star.

“That’s the conflict you’re hearing,” he said to GQ. “I’m describing to you what you’re hearing in my music. It’s got nothing to do with fame or the position that I’m in. I’m happy there is just one aspect of my life that I miss, which is how big those situations used to feel. And not that it felt good. Sometimes it was big pain. Sometimes it was big hurt. Whereas now I’m very — throughout my life, not just with women — I try and remain a very controlled individual.”

It’s that self-control, Drake said to the New Music Express last month, that allows him to open up emotionally on record.

“If I didn’t have it together, I wouldn’t be able to be that open and honest with you. I think that people think my life is just a shambles and it’s really not. The reason I can make an album like [Take Care] is because I actually have a grip on my life. I recognize all my issues. … I’m not this depressed emotional guy that people try and paint me to be. I’m just observant,” he said.

Drake, who lives in Southern California, recently revealed that his third album will not be as “down” as Take Care, but will continue to show snapshots into his mind and life at that moment.

“Now I’m kind of in a very, very, very, very different place than I’ve ever been,” Drake said to MTV recently. “I think it will be conceptually one of the best projects that I’ve ever worked on because there’s so many new things going on in my life. Everybody knows when it’s new, that’s when I thrive.”

DETAILS

What: Club Paradise tour with Drake, J. Cole, Waka Flocka Flame, Meek Mill, 2 Chainz and French Montana.

When: 7 p.m. Monday.

Where: Blossom Music Center, 1145 W. Steels Corners Road, Cuyahoga Falls.

Tickets: $23.75-$83.75.

Information: www.livenation.com, www.ticketmaster.com, 800-745-3000.

Malcolm Abram can be reached at 330-996-3758 or by email at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com. He is also on Facebook and Twitter.

By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal pop music writer

This week at downtown Akron night spot Musica, four local bands will rock out for heart health at Cardiac Concerto, a benefit and awareness show for the American Heart Association.

Akron trio Taxidermy Special (from left) Will Cardina, Ben Patrick and Joe McGhee.

One band helping to spread the word will be Taxidermy Special, the Akron retro-flavored indie rock trio that has two members who have survived their own health scares. Bassist Ben Patrick was diagnosed with hypertension at age 11 and drummer Joe McGee spent several weeks in a coma after a terrible car wreck a few years ago.

Also on Saturday’s bill are the Young Ones and Kent-based guitar/vocals/drums blues-rock duo Blue Treads. Yeah, some of the Treads’ riff-heavy songs resemble a punkier/dirtier Black Keys and the band has a relatively new EP available. Rounding out the list is another Akron band, Singular, which last year released a pretty interesting album of its sonically expansive British-by-way-of-Northeast Ohio-sounding indie rock called The Sad Machine. By the time you read this, the band will have three days left and a few thousand dollars to go on its Kickstarter campaign to help fund its next project.

Harmonia to play festival

On Saturday, Presentation of Our Lord Romanian Orthodox Church in Fairlawn will host its annual Primavera International Ethnic Festival, which will feature ethnic food, raffle prize drawings for Indians’ and Aeros’ box seats as well as other prizes and music provided by Harmonia.

The Cleveland-based septet is a “trans-European ensemble” that plays a variety of Eastern European folk instruments, including the 6-foot-long shepherd flute, the cimbalom and accordion. The band consists of Ohioans and Europeans and the music it plays is embedded pretty deep in the DNA of many of the folks in this area whose families migrated to Ohio way back when.

Harmonia has a brand- new album out called Hidden Legacy that features primarily traditional music from Romania, the Carpathian Mountains, Serbia and Croatia, Slovakia, Transylvania and Hungary.

I won’t pretend to be familiar with the music, but the band of veteran and trained players is clearly playing music members love and know very well. And they can rip it Old World style, such as the virtuoso flute playing on the up-tempo Ukrainian polka or singer Beata Gegeniova, who is from Slovakia, getting all dramatic and being “your little dark-eyed Gypsy girl” on Songs From Vojvodina.

While we’re on folk music, on Monday night, Musica will welcome O’Death, a New York-based septet that is part of the recently hip Gothic, Americana/folk revival, along with folks such as the Avett Brothers, Mumford & Sons and other young city folks who favor sparse mostly acoustic arrangements, like to play banjos and sing old-sounding songs.

The band released its fourth album, Outside, last spring to mostly favorable reviews, and from what I’ve heard of the album, it’s full of songs of aching loss and death with an aura of spookiness.

Talib Kweli at Grog Shop

While rap superstar Drizzy Drake rules his fans from the stage of Blossom on Monday night, on Wednesday, the Grog Shop in Cleveland Heights will welcome an emcee who falls in the “emcee’s emcee” category. Talib Kweli has been around for nearly two decades, first appearing on underground releases in 1995 and the recording Mos Def and Talib Kweli Are Black Star in 1998, a classic album of the Tru-School era.

His solo debut, Quality, was released in 2002. It featured arguably his biggest “hit,” Get By, produced by some then-unknown dude named Kanye West. Over the years, he’s appeared on a bunch of songs by more famous rappers, including West’s debut album, been name-checked by Jay-Z in his tune Moment of Clarity (“If skills sold, truth be told/I’d probably be, lyrically, Talib Kweli”) and made two solid collaborative efforts with Cincinnati-based DJ/producer Hi-Tek.

Lyrically, Kweli dwells in the sociopolitical realm, which means his music requires some thought beyond simply memorizing the hook, so he’ll never be a rap superstar, but he retains plenty of respect from his peers and fans who like a little substance with their verses.

His most recent album, his fourth not including mix tapes, is Gutter Rainbows. It continues his conscious questioning of the way people treat each other and are treated by their government, corporations, and a few other heavy subjects, though he does lighten up a bit on a few tracks on top of good head-nodding beats.

His tour is named for his upcoming 2012 album Prisoner of Conscious, which I’m guessing is a nod to his dedication to rapping about issues instead of arses and the lack of crossover success that it’s wrought.

Old Haunts favorite haunt

I made my first trip to the 4-month-old “East side dive” known as Old Haunts Tavern on East Market Street last Thursday night to see the Royalty, and the bar and I had a good time. The sound was decent and the band was tight and got the crowd hopping around like little kids on Red Bull and the atmosphere is nice and … umm … dive-y.

The bar is just a small rectangular room with a long wall-length bar (my favorite kind) and a barely raised stage in one corner, but then you go outside to the spacious patio area and it becomes a dive bar deluxe with a fire pit in the middle, a regular bar and a tiki bar and a bunch of grills that will surely be put to good use come summer (the bar’s neighbors are going to hate this).

Perhaps most importantly for your local music-making troops, it’s a cool place to play, hang out and have a beer or four. This weekend Old Haunts is jumping again with the Most Beautiful Losers, Lords of the Highway and Said So on Friday night and Xtra Crispy, Mad Anthony and Invisible Band on Saturday night.

Malcolm Abram can be reached at 330-996-3758 or by email at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com. He is also on Facebook (malcolm abram) and on Twitter because that’s what the kids are doing these days.

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

1) 21st annual Marc’s Great American Rib Cook-Off & Music Festival, Friday-Monday, Jacobs Pavilion at Nautica, 2014 Sycamore St., Cleveland. $8, www.fox8.com/rib.

The rib cook-off returns with mounds of hot meat, barrels of beans and musical guests, including B-52s, Todd Rundgren, Michael Stanley and Staind.

2) Hollywood Nights-The Bob Seger Experience, 7 p.m. Friday, Lock 3 Live Park, 200 S. Main St., Akron. Free, www.lock3live.com.

Lock 3 Live Park begins its 10th anniversary season with a 10-piece band paying tribute to area favorite Bob Seger along with local jam/folk rock band the JiMiller Band.

3) Rockin’ on the River with 7 Bridges and Jukebox Heroes, 5 p.m. to midnight Friday, Falls River Square, Cuyahoga Falls. Free, www.rockinontheriver.com.

Rockin’ on the River opens its umpteenth season with an Eagles tribute band, with classic and contemporary rock cover band Jukebox Heroes in the opening slot.

4) Cleveland Orchestra presents Salome, 8 p.m. Saturday, Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. $52-$173. 216-231-1111, 800-686-1141.

Composer Richard Strauss gives us the salacious and famously banned (a century ago) tale of lust, desire and death, featuring the infamous “Dance of the Seven Veils” and our heroine making out with the severed head of John the Baptist. Who says opera is boring?

5) Men in Black 3 opens Friday, at a theater near you. $5 and up, www.meninblack.com/.

Will Smith, Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and enough CGI to make your computer explode. Did I mention W-I-L-L freakin’ S-M-I-T-H?

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

Caryn Rousseau
Associated Press

CHICAGO: Grammy Award-winning polka great Eddie Blazonczyk, who began playing the lively music in the 1950s and went on to earn the nickname “Polka King” after starting his own band and label, has died. He was 70.

His record label, Bel-Aire Recordings, and his son, Eddie Blazonczyk Jr., said Tuesday that Blazonczyk died of natural causes Monday at a hospital in the Chicago suburb of Palos Heights.

Blazonczyk retired in 2001 after suffering a stroke, and his son took over his band, Eddie Blazonczyk and the Versatones. The band formed in 1962, after Blazonczyk’s brief venture into pop music that landed him on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand,” and toured the U.S., Canada and parts of Europe.

“He attracted so many people to the polka audience, whereas previously they were scared away by the word polka,” Eddie Blazonczyk Jr. said. “After hearing his style of the music they weren’t afraid of polka anymore. They knew it wasn’t ‘She’s Too Fat For Me’ or ‘Roll Out the Barrel.’ They knew it was an evolution of the music.”

The Versatones, which picked up a Grammy in 1987, played their last show on Dec. 31, 2011.

The younger Blazonczyk described his father as a kind of music mogul, a founding member of the International Polka Association, a disc jockey and polka music promoter who ran a publishing company and music school.

“He was very good at what he did,” said Dave Ulczycki, president of the International Polka Association. “That’s why he was called the ‘Polka King.’ He was the top guy.”

The association said on its website that Eddie Blazonczyk and the Versatones was “unchallenged in its height as America’s No. 1 Polka Band.” Blazonczyk was a member of the association’s Polka Music Hall of Fame.

Blazonczyk was born to Polish immigrant parents on July 12, 1941, in Chicago. His parents operated music clubs in the city and he started playing in the 1950s with “Happy Eddie and his Polka Jesters,” performing at Polish festivities.

For a time, Blazonczyk performed pop music with Mercury Records as “Eddie Bell and the Bel-Aires,” when he appeared on “American Bandstand.” But he returned to polka in 1962, forming the Versatones and going on tour.

Blazonczyk played many instruments but preferred the bass, and he sang lyrics in both English and Polish. Some of his biggest hits include “Angeline Be Mine Polka” and “Poor Boy Polka.”

Blazonczyk earned many accolades throughout his career. He was named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in 1998. His son said many friends have been sending him condolence messages since learning of his father’s death.

“For them this is truly the day that the music died,” Blazonczyk said.

From the L.A. Times

Donna Summer’s throbbing 1977 hit "I Feel Love"; Prince’s 1984 "Purple Rain" album; the first known commercial sound recording, dating to 1888; the Sugar Hill Gang’s watershed rap record "Rapper’s Delight"; and 1930s and ’40s news reports and speech excerpts from journalist Edward R. Murrow’s "I Can Hear It Now" radio program are among 25 sound recordings newly enshrined in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry, library officials announced Wednesday.

Among the other new entries are Dolly Parton’s 1971 hit "Coat of Many Colors"; Parliament’s 1975 funk classic "Mothership Connection"; Stan Kenton and His Orchestra’s 1943 recording of "Artistry in Rhythm"; and Leonard Bernstein’s debut performance conducting the New York Philharmonic, also from 1943. Plus, the new registrees include field recordings with the voices of former slaves made from 1932 to 1941; Bo Diddley’s "I’m a Man" and "Bo Diddley," both from 1955, and Booker T. & the MGs’ 1962 soul instrumental "Green Onions."

"America’s sound heritage is an important part of the nation’s history and culture and this year’s selections reflect the diversity and creativity of the American experience," Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said in a statement.

Case in point: The first commercial sound recording is a version of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" from a small cylinder created in 1888 by Thomas Edison’s company for use in a talking doll that was a commercial failure. The recording, discovered in 1967, was considered unplayable until 2011, when it was scanned in three dimensions using digital mapping tools created at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in collaboration with the Library of Congress.  

The latest batch of inductees expands the registry’s total to 350 recordings that are "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" and which span the history of recorded sound. The recordings must be at least 10 years old to be eligible. A full list of this year’s songs chosen for the registry can be found on the library’s website.  Each year, 25 recordings are added to the registry. The public can nominate recordings at www.loc.gov/nrpb.

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

Denise Lavoie
AP Legal Affairs Writer

BOSTON: A former Boston University student who was ordered to pay $675,000 for illegally downloading and sharing 30 songs on the Internet says he will continue fighting the penalty, despite the Supreme Court’s refusal Monday to hear his appeal.

Joel Tenenbaum, 28, of Providence, R.I., said he’s hoping a federal judge will reduce the amount.

“I can’t believe the system would uphold a six-figure damages amount for downloading 30 songs on a file-sharing system that everybody used,” Tenenbaum said. “I can’t believe the court would uphold something that ludicrous.”

A jury in 2009 ordered Tenenbaum to pay $675,000, or $22,500 per song, after the Recording Industry Association of America sued him on behalf of four record labels, including Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Brothers Records Inc. A federal judge called the penalty unconstitutionally excessive and reduced the award to $67,500, but the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated it.

The 1st Circuit said a new judge assigned to the case could reduce the award again, but the record labels would then be entitled to a new trial.

Tenenbaum, who said he just graduated Sunday from the university with a doctorate in statistical physics, said he doesn’t have the money to pay the judgment.

“I’ve been working on a graduate student’s stipend for six years now and I have no such money,” he said.

Tenenbaum argued that the U.S. Copyright Act is unconstitutional and that Congress did not intend the law to impose liability or damages when the copyright infringements amount to “consumer copying.”

During the trial, Tenenbaum admitted he downloaded and shared hundreds of songs by Green Day, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins and others. His lawyer suggested the damages should be as little as 99 cents per song, about the same amount Tenenbaum would have to pay for a legal online song purchase.

Lawyers for the recording industry argued that illegal downloading hurt the recording industry by reducing income and profits. A lawyer for the recording labels described Tenenbaum as a “hardcore” copyright infringer. The association said it offered to settle the case for $5,000 early on, but Tenenbaum declined.

“We’re pleased with this decision,” RIAA spokeswoman Cara Duckworth said after the Supreme Court’s announcement Monday.

In the only other music-downloading case against an individual to go to trial, a judge last year reduced the penalty imposed on a Minnesota woman from $1.5 million to $54,000. An appeals court has scheduled arguments for next month in the case of Jammie Thomas-Rasset.

Gregory Katz
Associated Press

LONDON: One day after he succumbed to cancer, Bee Gee Robin Gibb was hailed in his native Britain Monday as a master musician whose interests went far beyond the recording studio.

The distinctive singer, who wrote and arranged numerous hits for other major artists, was also recognized for his work on behalf of British veterans and his interests in politics, history and the Titanic.

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, a longtime friend of Gibb, said the singer had a “wonderful open and fertile mind” and offered condolences to Gibb’s widow, Dwina, and their family.

“Robin was not only an exceptional and extraordinary musician and songwriter, he was a highly intelligent, interested and committed human being,” Blair said.

Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb as he talks with journalists at the European Parliament in Brussels in 2007. Robin Gibb's spokesman said on Saturday April 21, 2012 the Bee Gees star has woken from a coma and is showing signs of recovery. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

He did find the energy, however, to compose “The Titanic Requiem” with the help of his son, RJ. But Gibb lapsed into a coma and was too sick to attend the gala premiere with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra last month.

The classical composition about the loss of the Titanic marked a new direction for the multi-talented Gibb, who along with his brothers Barry and Maurice created an enduring performing and songwriting team.

Gibb was a history buff who had worked overtime in his last few years to help create a permanent memorial to the flyers and crew who served during World War II. He also served for four years as president of the Heritage Foundation, a group that promotes British culture, backing a number of projects.

Heritage Foundation Chairman David Graham said Monday that Gibb was the natural choice for the job.

“He was so enthusiastic about the whole thing,” Graham said. “He loved history, and he was a lovely fellow. We’re going to miss him so much. He was always interested in the good of others.”

The formal unveiling of the memorial in London’s Green Park is scheduled for next month. The Bomber Command Association said in a statement that the project would not have succeeded without Gibb’s help.

“It is a tragedy that Robin will not see the finished article,” the group said. “But Robin did his bit for all who served in Bomber Command and on the behalf of the veterans and the relatives of those who died in World War II, we would simply like to say, thank you.”

Casual listeners knew the Bee Gees best for the innovative disco sound they created with the “Saturday Night Fever” soundtrack, but music industry insiders viewed the brothers Gibb as extremely versatile music makers. Songs they wrote for other artists include “Islands in the Stream” by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers, “Heartbreaker” by Dionne Warwick and “Woman in Love” by Barbra Streisand.

Former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr, whose band competed against the Bee Gees for top chart spots in the 1960s, praised Gibb’s musical legacy.

“The Bee Gees from our era were quite important, especially the harmonies,” Starr said Monday. “He had a great voice and they wrote great songs.”

BBC broadcaster Paul Gambaccini, who has covered the music scene for decades, said the Bee Gees have left an impressive body of work.

“The Bee Gees are second only to (John) Lennon and (Paul) McCartney as the most successful songwriting unit in British popular music,” he said. “Their accomplishments have been monumental. Not only have they written their own number one hits, but they wrote huge hit records for Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Celine Dion, Destiny’s Child, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. The list goes on and on.”

Beacon Journal pop music writer

Donna Summer, the singer/songwriter known as the “Queen of Disco,” has died at 63 after a battle with cancer.

The singer, five-time Grammy winner and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominee’s family released a statement: “While we grieve her passing, we are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy.”

LaDonna Adrian Gaines was born in 1948 in Boston, one of seven children in a strict Christian household where she grew up with gospel and classical music. She became the soloist in her church choir by age 10. As a teen she started several girl groups inspired by Motown stars such as the Supremes, to little success. She performed in a European tour company of the musical Hair and spent a few years living in Germany.

Summer’s rise to fame came in late 1975 at the dawn of the disco era, when her 17-minute hit Love To Love You Baby, which she co-wrote, drew attention for her lusty erotic coos and moans over the track’s insistent dance beat, immediately making her popular in gay dance clubs (where she would eventually become an icon) and the growing disco circuit.

The song’s prurient sound was a bit controversial at the time, with some radio stations refusing to play it. It also gave little clue as to the true power and range of Summer’s voice and songwriting ability, but it reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, and the album of the same name, her second release, sold platinum.

Topping the charts

Summer closed out the decade with a string of hits and gold albums, including the influential synthesized dance hit I Feel Love, from her concept album I Remember Yesterday, and the double LP follow-up Once Upon a Time, both released in 1977. Last Dance from the disco film Thank God It’s Friday garnered an Oscar for best song and is still a popular last-call song for DJs.

Summer topped the charts with a version of MacArthur Park from her live double LP Live and More. Her most successful album followed, the double platinum Bad Girls. It ruled the radio and the charts with sassy dance tunes, including the title track and the rock-flavored Hot Stuff, and made Summer the first artist to have three consecutive double albums sit atop the Billboard chart.

In the early ’80s the backlash against disco and the rise of new wave and rock (and to a lesser extent, punk) killed the genre as a commercial force. But Summer kept having hits, crossing over from the R&B and dance charts with On the Radio and her duet with Barbara Streisand No More Tears (Enough Is Enough). During this time Summer became a born-again Christian, and did not appreciate the sexed-up image her record label, Casablanca, preferred.

Inspiration hits

In 1983, Summer would have another huge hit with the title track from her 11th studio album, She Works Hard for the Money, inspired by an incident during a Grammy party:

“I went to the ladies room and on my way in I saw this little old lady sitting at the end of the bar. And she was asleep,” Summer told Nightline in 2008.

“She was the bathroom attendant. And at that same moment, a group of ladies walked into the room and started spraying their hair and doing all these things. And my first thought was ‘God, she works hard for her money, that lady.’”

A few hours later Summer had written the song, which would became a female empowerment anthem, on a roll of toilet paper.

Star power wanes

Summer’s commercial fortunes took a downturn and she was embroiled in a controversy about alleged anti-gay comments; she denied it, but it dovetailed with the rise of AIDS and earned a brief boycott from some activists. She would have only a few more hits in the U.S. such as This Time I Know It’s for Real in 1989, but she remained popular throughout Europe.

Even as her star power waned, Summer’s music remained a staple on classic pop and R&B radio and her songs would eventually be sampled by artists such as LL Cool J, Timbaland and Beyonce, who most recently interpolated Love to Love You Baby in her hit single Naughty Girl.

Donna Summer may forever hold the title of “Queen of Disco,” but she was a talented singer and songwriter whose musical legacy is interwoven into the always growing pop music and pop culture tapestry.

Summers’ death brought out tributes from famous friends and admirers. Elton John said in a statement: “Her records sound as good today as they ever did. That she has never been inducted into the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame is a total disgrace, especially when I see the second-rate talent that has been inducted,” he said. “She is a great friend to me and to the Elton John AIDS Foundation and I will miss her greatly.”

Summer married former Brooklyn Dreams vocalist Bruce Sudano in 1980. She is survived by her husband, three daughters and four grandchildren.

Malcolm Abram can be reached at 330-996-3758 or by email at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal popular music writer

Bonnie Raitt is back.

The 62-year-old singer/songwriter/guitarist/rock hall of famer has returned to active duty as one of pop music’s most respected veteran artists.

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Bonnie Raitt will perform songs from her new album Slipstream along with old favorites at the Akron Civic Theatre on Wedensday, May 23. (Photo Credit: Marina Chavez)

Raitt returns with a new studio album, Slipstream, her 19th overall and first since 2005 Souls Alike, and a new tour, her first since living her dream and touring with buddy/mentor/blues legend Taj Mahal in 2009. The tour will make a stop in Akron on Wednesday at the Civic Theatre.

In the years between albums, Raitt experienced more than her fair share of the blues. She lost both parents, close friend and Texas musician Stephen Bruton and her older brother, Steve, who lost an 11-year battle with cancer — all of which forced her to take some much-needed time off from the job she’s loved for four decades.

“I was surprisingly tired and overwhelmed. It’s amazing how the scaffolding of your everyday life and your job hold you together,” Raitt told USA Today last month.

“Grief therapy brought up other things that needed to be addressed, childhood stuff. At first I thought, maybe I’ll buy an easel and get my watercolors out or go to some exotic place. But I realized you can’t run away from things you’re feeling. I’m lucky. A lot of people don’t have the luxury of unplugging from a job.”

While she was away, some current hot artists paid tribute to her with Adele covering I Can’t Make You Love Me and alt-folkie Bon Iver hailing Raitt as one of his favorite artists and performing a medley of I Can’t Make You Love Me/Nick of Time. Those tributes plus the folk hipness injection of bands such as Mumford & Sons have Raitt, who favors classic blues, jazz and Americana, feeling good about her work and the state of music.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled and honored,” she said of the Adele and Bon Iver covers in a label-distributed Q&A. “There’s so much great music out there now, especially in the Americana format I tend to listen to. I’m really happy with the success of the Black Keys and some others that show real artistry and innovation. It’s great to hear so many young artists influenced by the same classic soul, blues, jazz and rock that means so much to me.”

During her “unplugged” respite, Raitt got to do something she hadn’t done in a while. She attended concerts purely as a fan.

“I got to go to gigs — just be a fan, no pressure whatsoever,” Raitt told the Los Angeles Times, in April.

“I got to see a lot of jazz, African world music and the symphony, and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass [Festival in San Francisco] — I got to go two years in a row. That’ll fire you up to get back into music.”

After a particularly inspiring Jackson Browne concert, Raitt decided she was ready to get back to work, but her record deal with EMI/Capitol Records expired in 2005. Raitt, who has experienced both being dropped by a label (Warner Bros. in 1986) and then being championed (Capitol/EMI) during her late 1980s/early ’90s chart-topping heyday, concluded that despite being courted by EMI and others, rather than jump back on the major label hamster wheel, she chose to start her own label, Redwing Records.

“It wasn’t an ego thing. It was more practical,” she said to USA Today.

“Once we break even, it’s better math. With the new ways of getting music out, you don’t need a label if you’re a legacy artist.”

The label’s first offering is Slipstream, which debuted at No. 6 on the Billboard 200, her highest debut in 18 years. The album also topped the independent album chart, the Internet album chart and has sat atop the blues album charts since its mid-April release.

If the single digit chart position wasn’t encouraging enough, the album has been critically hailed as her best collection in years. And, its dozen tracks manage to satisfy her blues-loving cult following, which has listened since the 1970s, and the adult-contemporary crowd she acquired during her string of hit singles and Grammy-winning albums beginning with Nick of Time (1989), Luck of the Draw (1991) and Longing in Their Hearts (1994), all of which sold multiplatinum and contained hit singles such as Have a Heart, Something to Talk About, I Can’t Make You Love Me, Not the Only One and Love Sneakin’ Up on You.

The trio of hit albums also garnered Raitt a total of eight Grammys including album of the year for Nick of Time.

Slipstream may not match that trio’s multiplatinum status, but a few Grammy nominations are likely. Four of the album’s tracks were produced by singer/songwriter Joe Henry, who has become the “it” producer for veteran artists looking for a creative boost and a natural sound, having worked in recent years with Aaron Neville, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mose Allison, Allen Toussaint (who suggested Henry to Raitt) and others. The pair actually recorded nine songs, the rest of which will be used later after Raitt’s world tour.

“I just kept going,” Raitt told the Associated Press about the L.A. sessions with Henry and his phalanx of musicians.

“I just felt so … ‘inspired’ is the word I’d use. It was so comfortable, inspirational, especially coming out of not being in capital letters, BONNIE RAITT. It was a great re-entry. It was just like someone put the paddles on your heart and said, `Welcome back.’ ”

Those songs, recorded in just three days, provide much of the quieter side of the album with elegiac ballads such as the bluesy cover of Bob Dylan’s recent tune, Standing in the Doorway, the delicate Henry-written, album-closing piano ballad God Only Knows and another newish Dylan song Million Miles.

The rest of the album was produced by Raitt and recorded with her longtime band (guitarist George Marinelli, drummer Ricky Fataar, keyboardist Mike Finnigan and bassist James Hutchinson) with help from buddy and NRBQ guitarist Al Anderson, who contributes plenty of tasty guitar licks.

There’s the blues and a dash of funk on the toe-tapping opener Used to Rule the World, a bona fide blues rave-up on the Anderson/Bonnie Bramlett tune Split Decision and the traditional easy swinging ode to a good man (which Raitt says she’s had for the past seven years though she won’t divulge his identity) Ain’t Gonna Let You Go.

The lead single, a reggae-flavored cover of the late Gerry Rafferty’s Right Down the Line, shows a different side. Throughout the self-produced tracks, Raitt, always underrated as a slide guitarist, allows herself some space to stretch out a bit in the aforementioned Ain’t Gonna Let You Go, engages in a playful guitar duel on Split Decision and gets all Mississippi Delta dirty on Million Miles.

“I’m not going to turn into a guitar hero, but I wanted to let go and indulge myself,” she told USA Today.

For fans of the big pop tunes, Raitt offers the R&B infused Take My Love With You, the light, shuffling, cautionary tale Marriage Made in Hollywood and the sad acoustic weeper, Not Cause I Wanted To.

Rejuvenated, Raitt will spend much of the year on the road around the globe, in her second home, the back of the tour bus playing a batch of new songs chosen in part with the road in mind.

“I’m as excited about playing these songs on the road as I was in the studio,” Raitt said to the AP.

“And to have the jewels of these Dylan songs and the Joe Henry songs, and to know that I’ll have that other project come out is just a thrill for me, and reignited the passion I’ve always had for music and reinforced that connection I have with my band and how much I was born to do this. I’m as excited about this tour as I was the time I had my first album.”

DETAILS

What: Bonnie Raitt with Marc Cohn.

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Where: Akron Civic Theatre, 182 S. Main St., Akron.

Tickets: $37.50, $55.50, $75.50.

Information: 330-253-2488, 800-745-3000, www.ticketmaster.com.

Malcolm Abram can be reached at 330-996-3758 or by email at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com. He is also on Facebook and Twitter and he will soon be available as a fully functioning hologram.

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

Mesfin Fekadu
Associated Press

NEW YORK: Disco queen Donna Summer, whose pulsing anthems such as “Last Dance,” ”Love to Love You Baby” and “Bad Girl” became the soundtrack for a glittery age of sex, drugs, dance and flashy clothes, has died. She was 63.

Her family released a statement, saying Summer died Thursday morning and that they “are at peace celebrating her extraordinary life and her continued legacy.”

Donna Summer at the American Idol finale in 2008. (AP file)

Summer came to prominence just as disco was burgeoning, and came to define the era with a string of No. 1 hits and her beauty queen looks.

Disco became as much defined by her sultry, sexual vocals — her bedroom moans and sighs — as the relentless, pulsing rhythms of the music itself.

“Love to Love You Baby,” with its erotic moans, was her first hit and one of the most scandalous songs of the polyester-and-platform-heel era.

Unlike some other stars of disco who faded as the music became less popular, Summer was able to grow beyond it and later segued to a pop-rock sound. She had one of her biggest hits in the 1980s with “She Works Hard For The Money,” which became another anthem, this time for women’s rights.

Soon after, Summer became a born-again Christian and faced controversy when she was accused of making anti-gay comments in relation to the AIDS epidemic. Summer denied making the comments, but was the target of a boycott.

Still, even as disco went out of fashion she remained a fixture in dance clubs, endlessly sampled and remixed into contemporary dance hits.

Summer, real name LaDonna Adrian Gaines, was born in 1948 in Boston. She was raised on gospel music and became the soloist in her church choir by age 10.

“Love to Love You Baby” was her U.S. chart debut and the first of 19 No. 1 dance hits between 1975 and 2008 — second only to Madonna.

During the disco era she burned up the charts: She was the only artist to have three consecutive double-LPs hit No. 1, “Live and More,” ”Bad Girls” and “On the Radio.” She was also the first female artist with four No. 1 singles in a 13-month period, according to the Rock Hall of Fame, where she was a nominee this year.

She was never comfortable with the “Disco Queen” label. Musically, she began to change in 1979 with “Hot Stuff,” which had a tough, rock ‘n’ roll beat. Her diverse sound helped her earn Grammy Awards in the dance, rock, R&B and inspirational categories.

Dionne Warwick said in a statement that she was sad to lose a great performer and “dear friend.”

“My heart goes out to her husband and her children,” Warwick said. “Prayers will be said to keep them strong.”

Summer released her last album, “Crayons,” in 2008. It was her first full studio album in 17 years. She also performed on “American Idol” that year with its top female contestants.

1) Come Fly Away, 7:30 tonight-Saturday, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Palace Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, 1615 Euclid Ave., Cleveland; $10-$77.50, 216-241-6000, www.playhousesquare.org.

The final performances of the Twyla Tharp dance musical about love, featuring the music of Frank Sinatra.

2) Spark! Family Film Fest, noon to 3 p.m. Saturday, Charles and Jane Lehner Auditorium at the Akron Art Museum, 1 S. High St., Akron. Free. 330-376-9185, www.akronartmuseum.org.

An afternoon of family-friendly films, featuring the European animated film “The Secret of Kells” and the documentary “Girls Rock!,” about a group of young women attending rock ’n’ roll camp.

3) Leinenkugel Family Road Trip, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Friday, 812 Huron Road, Cleveland. Free. www.facebook.com/Leinenkugels.

Beer magnates Jake, John and Dick Leinenkugel will bring their Airstream trailer featuring a full bar to tailgate outside of the Indians game to celebrate the family brewery’s 145th anniversary. Jake will throw out the first pitch at the game!

4) Trailer Park Boys Live!, 7:30 to midnight tonight, Ohio Theatre at PlayhouseSquare, 1515 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. $32-$42.50. 216-241-6000, www.playhousesquare.org.

The misadventures continue for the trio of rednecks and denizens of the Sunnyvale trailer park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Julian (John Paul Tremblay) Ricky (Robb Wells) and Bubbles (Mike Smith) bring to Cleveland a live version of their popular underground(ish) comedy mockumentary series that ran for seven seasons and spawned two feature-length films.

5) Reggie Watts, 8:30 tonight, the Grog Shop, 2785 Euclid Heights Blvd., Cleveland Heights, $25. 216-321-5588, www.grogshop.gs.

Former lead singer of Seattle soul-rock group Maktub has transformed into an improvisational comic/musician/ “disinformationist,” as seen in big-time rock magazines and on Conan O’Brien. Mixing skewed observations, comedy and music via loop pedals with his powerful voice, the dude is simply funny.

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal popular music writer

A relatively new venue in downtown/East Akron, Old Haunts Tavern, which held its grand opening in February, will welcome a band with a very new album tonight.

The evening’s stars are The Royalty, a quintet from El Paso, Texas, which formed in 2005 but whose “debut” (they self-released an album last year that’s still available on Bandcamp.com) album, Lovers, was released just last week. Singer Nicole Boudreau, drummer Joel Quintana, keyboardist Daniel Marin, bassist Will Daugherty and groovy-named guitarist Jesus Apodaca have done some cool stuff outside of the band. Quintana used to test rockets and rocket launchers, is getting a doctorate in engineering and was apparently part of a very popular band in Mexico (though I guess not popular enough to mention by name in the PR goop); Marin was an El Paso news anchor; Apodaca (it’s just fun to say) and Daugherty were teachers; and vocalist Boudreau is classically trained.

Texas Indie pop group The Royalty (from left Daniel Marin (Keys), Joel Quintana (Drums), Jesus Apodaca (Guitar), Will Daugherty (Bass), Nicole Boudreau (Vocals)) will perform songs from their debut album "Lovers" at Old Haunts Tavern in Akron. (photo by DoubleJ)

Most importantly Lovers is a good, catchy indie pop record. The aforementioned PR goop culls quotes from MTV touting the band as “like Amy Winehouse went on holiday with Vampire Weekend.” It also mentions Adele, who is apparently the new zenith for soulful-singing Caucasian women, and then inexplicably throws in hip, distortion-loving indie duo Sleigh Bells. I think a few of those comparisons — on which most of us music- writing types rely — do the record a bit of a disservice, and not just because Sleigh Bells kind of sucks.

Much of the taut 38-minute/12-track record is steeped in an updated 1960s girl-group sound with Apodaca’s tasty melodic guitar licks drenched in reverb, a peppy rhythm section and Boudreau’s powerful alto. Boudreau delivers the tunes either with sass, such as in the girl-loves-bad-boys How I Like ’Em, a touch of vulnerability, as on the midtempo Please Lie, and heartbreak, as in the pretty ballad Witchcraft.

If I had to take the comparison shortcut (and it is in the Rock Journalist Magna Carta), I’d say Lovers reminds me more of a bigger-voiced (Swedish indie chanteuse) Lykke Li hanging out with Vampire Weekend (minus the African influence) and then jumping into the nearest studio after a couple of days of listening to old Phil Spector records. Also there’s a lightly funky tune called Saint Bowie about making the “Starman” proud, which is just inherently cool.

Also on the bill are Go Home and Daniel.

The Royalty show will be my first experience at the self-described “east side dive” bar, which has had a pretty eclectic list of bands and DJs from metal to reggae to punkabilly. I’m looking forward to it because any bar that aspires to dive-dom is OK with me.

Random acts of live music

• Tonight, Canton club the Auricle welcomes singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Joe Vitale Jr. He is the son of Eagles/Joe Walsh/Crosby, Stills & Nash drummer Joe Vitale Sr., who is hilarious, the kind of guy you want to have a beer with while listening to some of his road stories (or you could just buy his book Backstage Pass).

And just like daddy, Joe Jr., who spent a lot of time on the road as a kid, also played percussion with CSN, Joe Walsh and the Stephen Stills Blues Band. Unlike Dad, Vitale is also a sound engineer and his band favors industrial-flavored rock. He recently released an album called The Virulent Strain, and successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to fund Encryption, a “sci-fi psychological thriller” he is directing.

Also on the bill are Decade of Disaster and Scarlet & The Harlots.

• On Friday night the May edition of the Jazz and Wine Total Experience, with music from Total Package featuring Riley Richard, will happen from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. at the Holiday Inn Ballroom in Fairlawn. The monthly gathering/party for grown folks recently celebrated its first anniversary and has built up a strong following among people who enjoy smooth jazz, good wine and doing the Electric Slide after a few glasses, while DJ Ellery spins after the band’s set.

• Also on Friday night, downtown venue Musica welcomes Japanese weirdos Peelander-Z. The group is difficult to describe, so I’ll let their PR goop speak for itself: “The Japanese Action Comic Punk Band, based in NYC, was originally formed in 1998 by Peelander-Yellow, Peelander-Red, and Peelander-Blue, after meeting in New York City (although they’ll tell you they’re all from the Z area on the planet Peelander).” Peelander-Green joined in July 2008 after Blue left the band.

And yes, each member’s costume is in the applicable color. I saw them at the Lime Spider a bunch of years ago and it was ridiculous, slightly surreal and a lot of fun, with their goofy punk songs (Taco Taco Tacos is a good one, as is E-I-E-I-O, their ska-doom metal version of Old McDonald) sung in heavily accented English with a lot of energy. If you can’t smile at their onstage shenanigans and between-song banter, you could probably use a sense-of-absurdist-humor injection.

• Apropos of absolutely nothing, is anybody else ready for some frickin’ football? In (most likely) Weeden and Richardson we (pretty much have to) trust!

DETAILS

What: The Royalty with Go Home and Daniel

When: 7 tonight

Where: Old Haunts Tavern, 1527 E. Market St., Akron

Tickets: Age 21 and over free; $5 under 21

Information: 330-388-9719

What: Joe Vitale Jr. with Decade of Disaster and Scarlet & The Harlots

When: 8 tonight

Where: The Auricle, 601 Cleveland Ave. NW, Canton

Tickets: $8

Information: 330-353-8694, http://theauricle.net

What: Jazz and Wine Total Experience

When: 7 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday

Where: Holiday Inn, 4073 Medina Road, Bath Township

Tickets: $15, $20 at the door

Information: 330-554-3481, 330-730-6099, www.livemusicsets.com

What: Peelander-Z with The Justice Team, Goodnight Wednesday and The Fuss

When: 8 p.m. Friday

Where: Musica, 51 E. Market St., Akron

Tickets: $9.99

Information: www.akronmusica.com, www.ticketweb.com

Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758. Read his blog, Sound Check Online, at www.ohio.com/blogs/sound-check, or follow him on Twitter @malcolmxabram.

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

Awesome bass player, inadverdent race relations pioneer as part of Booker T & The MGs, 

R.I.P.

From the L.A. Times

Read Soundcheck, the blog by Malcolm X Abram.

By David Bauder
Associated Press

NEW YORK: The voice behind dozens of standards like It’s Too Late, You’ve Got a Friend and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman says her music-making days are likely over.

Carole King, now a best-selling author, doubts she will ever write another song and suggested that her 2010 “Trouba­dours Reunion” concert tour with James Taylor would be her last: “It was a good way to go out.”

King composed dozens of 1960s hits with then-husband Gerry Goffin before emerging as a recording artist in her own right. Her 25 million-selling Tapestry launched the singer-songwriter era in 1971 and became the first real blockbuster album. She spoke recently as two new projects offer fresh reminders of her legacy — the memoir A Natural Woman and a new disc that gathers “demo” recordings of some of her best-known songs that were made to sell the compositions to other artists.

It’s intriguing to hear King’s first take on the songs that became known through others, like Pleasant Valley Sunday (the Monkees), Crying in the Rain (Everly Brothers), Take Good Care of My Baby (Bobby Vee) and You’ve Got a Friend (James Taylor). The wiser artists didn’t fiddle much with her arrangements.

That’s only a sampling, because King’s pre-Tapestry hits also included Up on the Roof (Drifters), Loco-Motion (Little Eva), Will You Love Me Tomorrow (Shirelles), One Fine Day (Chiffons) and Chains (Cookies, later covered by the Beatles).

She hasn’t released an album of new compositions since 2001, and on her website’s exhaustive list of songs she has written, the most recent are two from 2004.

“At this point I can look back at my life and career as a songwriter and say I’ve done everything I really wanted to do,” King said.

She’s not naive. She knows popular culture has long since moved elsewhere. As a teenage music prodigy she knew what young people were thinking about and wanted to hear in music, and she’s not there anymore.

“I suppose if I had a reason to, if someone said ‘I want you to write a song for this movie,’ I could sit down and do that,” she said. “But to just write songs and to throw them out into the marketplace, I don’t think this is my time to do that.”

The decision to shut it down or keep creating is one that many members of an older musical generation face. Billy Joel announced in the early 1990s that he was through writing pop songs, and has stuck to that. But Bob Dylan has kept writing and releasing new music.

Both surviving members of the Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, keep turning out new projects. The Beach Boys have an unlikely reunion with a new album as well.

Neil Sedaka, who grew up in the same New York City song-publishing houses as King, was wistful when told his old friend was no longer writing.

“When you’ve written so many great ones like Carole King, it’s difficult to top yourself,” the veteran singer said. “You have to keep reinventing, and she’s certainly one of the great pop writers of the last 50 years. It becomes a great challenge. People really want to hear her in concert doing those wonderful songs that they know.”

Those chances may be limited, too. King did a fair amount of touring during the past decade, but it took its toll. “I’m 70,” she said. “It would be lovely to retire.”

The Legendary Demos, a title that embarrasses her, was a project of her daughter and manager, Sherry Kondor.

“I supported it. But I had very little hand in it. I didn’t pick the songs. I saw the cover and said, ‘Yeah, that’s a nice picture,’ ” King said.

But it doesn’t engage her nearly as much as the memoir. Learning it had made the New York Times best-sellers list excited King as much as learning that one of her songs was climbing the Billboard charts years ago.

With her writing frequently interrupted by concert tours and activism (including work for environmental causes and Democratic politicians), the book took King 12 years to write. She was determined to do it herself without a ghost- or co-writer.

The strongest part of the book is also the most shocking. She talks of being physically and verbally abused by her third husband in the 1970s, the man who led her to the Idaho backcountry that she adores and still lives in.

Even King found it hard to believe that despite fame, success and plenty of friends, she wouldn’t end the relationship the first time she was hit — and even several times thereafter. She finally did leave, and he died of a drug overdose shortly after that, according to her book.

“It was very difficult, too complicated to talk about in a small sound bite,” she said. “My editor said to just write about it, you don’t have to include it. But I decided to include it because I want other women in abusive relationships to know that it’s not their fault and that it can happen to anyone.”

With her first book fresh on the market, she’s already thinking about the possibility of another one.

“Now that I’m 70, I have bits of wisdom I can offer to a younger generation,” she said. “It’s not ‘This is the way it has to be,’ but ‘This is my experience, I hope this helps you.’ ”

By Sian Watson
Associated Press

Eclectic is Damon Albarn’s middle name. From Brit pop with Blur to the Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West and the Gorillaz, his music has gone in every direction.

His latest offering is different again; Albarn refers to the album as “strange pastoral folk.” Dr Dee is from an opera that premiered last year in the United Kingdom. It tells the story of John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s medical and scientific adviser, whose career ended in sexual scandal and disgrace. Albarn created the stage production of Dr Dee alongside theater director Rufus Norris.

The album opens with an instrumental track called The Golden Dawn, which employs birds singing and the chiming of a clock, with an organ ominously introduced.

Apple Carts sees the welcome introduction of Albarn’s vocals and is strangely beautiful, his dulcet tones paired with a flute and lyrics that reference nature. This melts into O Spirit, Animate Us, where Albarn’s lyricism turns almost biblical — “Oh, father, animate us,” he asks, before the song is pierced, rather uncomfortably, with operatic female vocals.

The Marvelous Dream allows Albarn’s soulful voice to show and evokes memories of Blur in tenderer moments.

But without the visuals of the stage production, it’s hard to grapple with this material. It’s an odd but interesting album, hard to truly enjoy.