Dreaming Wide Awake
LIZZ WRIGHT
Verve Forecast
It's not often that a young singer will follow up a semi-successful debut by going in a drastically different direction. Credit Lizz Wright, a preacher's daughter from rural Georgia, for making the leap, and for making it work. Her 2003 debut Salt stuck close to the Adult Contemporary/Jazz realm, and felt somewhat manufactured.
Dreaming Wide Awake pairs the chanteuse with producer Craig Street, who helped Cassandra Wilson establish a more blues-oriented milieu. Per Street's M.O., acoustic guitars replace keyboards and horns as the focal point of the arrangements, which lends the disc a more singer-songwriterly flavor. These sparser arrangements better highlight Wright's dusky contralto; she sticks close to her middle range, never lunging for a note, which makes the music more intimate and authentic overall.
The disc features a beguiling mix of covers, older standards (although not obvious ones) and originals, none of which push past medium tempo. Probably the riskiest move regarding material was dusting off a couple of iconic late '60s/early '70s tunes: Neil Young's "Old Man" and The Youngbloods' "Get Together." The former works better because its swampy guitars lend it a more ominous air than the original; "Get Together" gets by because Wright plays it closer to the vest and holds back from the big crescendo.
The disc's best remake is "A Taste of Honey," best known as a frothy mid-'60s ditty by Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass. Wright and Street recast the song as a brooding, acoustic-blues ballad, giving it an air of subdued desperation.
The two most jazz-leaning tunes are real charmers. The chestnut "I'm Confessin'" gets a hushed treatment, the musical equivalent of a late-night embrace. The Wright-penned title track is a lovely torch song made lovelier by the gauzy guitar accompaniment of Bill Frisell. His brief, subdued introduction is about the only solo on Dreaming Wide Awake, which leads me to my one niggling complaint about this disc: With an ace band and a handful of stellar guests (another being Greg Leisz), the songs could've benefited from a few more improvisations. Most of the songs fall within the three-minute range, and although there's no fat here, the disc could've been a tad more expansive, offering a little more of a good thing. 
-ERIC SNIDER
Blame the Vain
DWIGHT YOAKAM
New West
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Yoakam has never skirted the line between pop and country; he always aligned himself with the latter, whether you liked it or not. Blame the Vain is more proof positive. Rock-infused burners like "Intentional Heartache" and the title cut are tempered by slower numbers, and throughout the album's 12 tracks Yoakam's wide range of emotions are pretty evenly dispersed. At a time when most middle-aged artists are busy rehashing their old material (this is, notably, Yoakam's 18th album), it's refreshing to hear one twangy crooner with plenty of shit-kicking left in him. 1/2
-MARK SANDERS
TheFutureEmbrace
BILLY CORGAN
Reprise
By the time Adore rolled around, it was obvious: Smashing Pumpkins principal Corgan was an Old Wave Night-loving Goth trapped in the gangly body of a Marshall stack-wielding alt-rock icon. His misnamed official solo debut fully, er, embraces this side of his personality, with drum machines and waist-deep eddies of reverb-saturated fuzz guitar. Tunes like "Mina Loy (M.O.H.)," "A100" and especially "Dia" are engaging in a dreaming-on-the-dance-floor kind of way, but this ultimately comes off as a mediocre attempt to relive the blacklighted club-nights of youth. 1/2
-SCOTT HARRELL
Monkey Business
BLACK EYED PEAS
Interscope
Specializing in the party jam, the four members of the Black Eyed Peas exude pomp and bombast, delivering each song on Monkey Business with their characteristic relentless energy. But through all their balls-to-the-wallness, they consistently display formidable talent. Each Pea is as lyrically head-reeling and smooth in songs like "Pump It" and "Like That" as they ever were in their pre-Fergie days.
-MATTHEW PLEASANT
Live at the River East Arts Center
KAHIL EL'ZABAR'S RITUAL TRIO
Delmark
When it comes to these kinds of loose, loft-style jazz concerts, it's always better to actually be there. That said, this nearly 70-minute CD captures the spontaneity of the moment better than most. The quartet does not engage in a lot of free-rhythm wanking – there are tunes here (some of them hypnotically gorgeous) and deep, deep grooves, driven by El'Zabar's African-inspired pulses (on hand percussion and kalimba, as well as trap drums). Ari Brown's tenor sax work shines in all its rugged glory. Guest violinist Billy Bang's tone is a bit scratchy to these ears, but he brings a rambunctious sense of fun to the proceedings. (www.delmark.com)
-ERIC SNIDER
The Blues and the Abstract Truth
OLIVER NELSON
Impulse!
With a haunting, soulful sax tone and a flair for arranging, Nelson put together this epochal septet session featuring a roll-call of brilliant players, many of whom would become legends (Eric Dolphy, Bill Evans, Roy Haynes and Freddie Hubbard). The luscious "Stolen Moments" is the standout here, but the other blues-drenched workouts are nearly as enchanting. Nelson and company even do an impressionistic take on country/bluegrass with "Hoe-Down."
-ERIC SNIDER
This article appears in Jul 6-12, 2005.