Library News: Music and Audio

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

R. Crumb's Heroes of Blues, Jazz & Country is a combination book-and-compact disk set featuring various musicians from early in the era of recorded music, some well known, some less so. It had its genesis in a limited edition of "trading cards" illustrated by R. Crumb in the 1980s. These trading cards feature Crumb's unique cartooning style, depicting these musicians based on existing photographs.

Studying the images, in conjunction with the music from the CD, is a pleasurable experience. The capsule biographies of each musician lend backstory to songs that crackle and pop audibly. Listening to them, one gets something of the experience of the record collector listening to obscure glories, but without the concerns of heat warping, lamination crack, and so on. The images can be seen in various places, the songs heard in many formats, but getting the two of them at the same time is a trip back to the early 20th century.

Cabell Library ML394 .C35 2006
Cabell Media and Reserves Compact Discs ML394 .C35 2006

Reviewed by Jason Morris, Reference and Instruction Specialist

Thump, thump, thump, went his foot on the floor.
He played a few chords then he sang some more--

"I got the Weary Blues
And I can't be satisfied.
Got the Weary Blues
And can't be satisfied--
I ain't happy no mo'
And I wish that I had died."

And far into the night he crooned that tune.
The stars went out and so did the moon.
The singer stopped playing and went to bed
While the Weary Blues echoed through his head.
He slept like a rock or a man that's dead.

- from 'Weary Blues' by Langston Hughes

Langston Hughes was the Poet Laureate of the Harlem Renaissance. While his words are beautiful on the written page, they are enhanced by hearing him read his work. Hughes first performed his poems with a live jazz accompaniment in the 1920s.

When the 'Beat' poets of the 50s revived this art, Hughes returned to reading at jazz clubs. This lead to the recording of the 'Weary Blues' LP in 1958 (reissued on CD in 1990).

It's interesting to hear his delivery, which ranges from relaxed to tongue-in-cheek. It makes a listener wonder what he thought of the poems on this album, since most of them were written 30 years before the recording. Hughes is backed by world-class jazz musicians, including legendary bass player/composer Charles Mingus.

Cabell Media and Reserves Compact Discs PS3515.U274 A6 1990b

Reviewed by John Glover, Reference Librarian for the Humanities

The story of Sweeney Todd goes back at least to the 1840s, when the serial story The String of Pearls was first published. The "Demon Barber of Fleet Street" has run through pages and on stages, as well as appearing on screens big and small over the years. In 2007 he slashed his way across London and into our hearts in Tim Burton's theatrical adaptation.

Johnny Depp brings a manic gleam to the well-worn role of the bloody butcher, with Helena Bonham Carter as his pie-baking partner in crime, Mrs. Lovett. They sing and glide through scenes with mournful, homicidal grace, planning the barber's revenge against Judge Turpin, played by the talented Alan Rickman. As musicals go, Sweeney Todd is an odd one, but the music is well-integrated into the movie. If you hate music, this might not be the movie for you, but if you stayed away because you like the story or actors but couldn't bring yourself to see a musical, check it out. Above all, this is (and feels like) a Tim Burton film.

Cabell Media and Reserves DVDs PN1997.2 .S94 2008