Some Music Links

Some good music has come out recently. 

David Crosby, formerly of the The Byrds and Crosby Stills Nash and Young has a new album, For Free. The title comes from the well-known Joni Mitchell song, which he covers on the album. Crosby is still in fine voice and the album sounds wonderful. None of the songs are likely to become big hits but it's a pleasant listen, and I'm glad to see he's still with us and vital.

Alice Cooper is another older performer who still has some life left in him. In his latest album, Detroit Stories, he returns to the early days of the Detroit hard rock music scene. I went to university in Windsor and saw many of thr Detroit bands that were popular. The Stooges, the Bob Seger System, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, SRC, The Frost, and Savage Grace are the ones that were big at the time, though I never did see The MC5 to my everlasting regret. The new album starts out with a crunchy version of Lou Reed's Rock and Roll. (Reed played with several Detroit musicians in the 70s). From Rolling Stone: "Cooper recorded the album with an array of fellow Detroit musicians, including MC5’s Wayne Kramer, the Detroit Wheels’ Johnny “Bee” Badanjek, celebrated jazz and R&B bassist Paul Randolph, and the Motor City Horns (long associated with Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band). Cooper’s long-time collaborator Bob Ezrin produced the record." Fittingly, the album concludes with Bob Seger's "East Side Story". If you like loud basic hard rock this one is for you.

Finally and for something completely different, the Metropolitan Opera's recent revival of Philip Glass's Akhnaten has been officially released. It's available to stream or purchase on the major streaming sites and you can get a DVD directly from the Met. I've seen the Met's production a couple of times now and I highly recommend it. Although on a purely musical level, I prefer his opera, Satyagrapha, given the number of performances of Akhnaten over the last couple of decades, I think it's entered the operatic canon as Glass's masterpiece. The audio recording is excellent but the opera really needs the visuals to be appreciated so maybe think about getting the DVD.