Madeleine Peyroux in concert. (I thought I'd add a picture (as I didn't use up my full word allowance) just to liven up the text...feel free to delete if you don't like innovation! )

Madeleine Peyroux - Careless Love - Universal 9823583

The second album from this French-Canadian former street performer is a treat. The pitch of her voice and her phrasing has more than an echo of Billie Holliday - which is more than fine by me. She gives a jazz-blues twist to things like Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go", Cohen's "Dance Me To The End of Love" and Hank Williams' "Weary Blues" - the three best tracks to my ear. Unlike the rash of women singers re-interpreting the standards (Diana Krall, Stacey Kent, Clare Teal, Jane Monheit etc) she has original material and re-interprets some contemporary material in an intriguing way. Mellow, but with an edge.

Wyclef Jean - Welcome to Haiti Creole 101 - Koch KOC-CD-5783

George Benson said that he had the power to make either jazz albums that sold 50,000 or soul albums that sold a million; that while he’d prefer to make jazz albums, he couldn’t do it to Warner Bros. Well, Wyclef has got the result that Benson probably would have got from WB – BMG refused to issue this album, so he’s released it on Koch’s San Pasé label. As Public Enemy said, “if you don’t own the master, the Master owns you”.

BMG rejected it because it’s a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Haiti’s independence and only a couple of tracks are in English – mostly it’s in French or Creole. Although Wyclef sounds very comfortable in this context, it only managed to get to number 66 on the R&B album chart, which shows how important the promotion power of the major companies is - and how resistant the American public is to anything truculently un-American. There are no plans to release this in Britain; Cardiff shops don’t even have it on their computers as imports, but you can get it from CDX Radyr, Amazon or 101CD - AM

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus - Anti B0002SROSQ

I’ve had to battle with Nick Cave’s work in the past, notable Murder Ballads; I loved the music but felt depressed and shocked by the lyrics, so much so that I abandoned the album after two hearings. Recently, I’ve come to enjoy The Boatman’s Call and No More Shall We Part. They’re by no means a barrel of laughs, of course, but he’s moderated his bleak vision and the music is as strong as ever.

These two albums, issued together, are even better. The Dark One lets himself go a bit, gets carried along by melodies, and sounds as though he’s having fun. Nature Boy is almost poppy. However, it’s not all fun. Fable of The Brown Ape is as grim as you might expect and there’s a reference elsewhere to the Butcher Bird of his native Australia which suggests he hasn’t entirely forgotten about the blood and guts of life. Overall, though, an uplifting listen.

Hank Crawford - A Funky Thing To Do – Collectables 6597

Joel Dorn, who produced this album, doesn’t like it. It’s not as good as the three best of Hank’s sixties albums, but well up to the other seven, and a lot better than Hank’s later seventies albums. And very interesting.

It’s Pee Wee Ellis’ first recording after leaving the James Brown band; the former straw boss of the James Brown band together with the former straw boss of the Ray Charles band. The title track, composed by Pee Wee, is a fabulous groove; the basis of Salt & Pepa’s sarcastic Step (not many raps in 6/8). The most interesting track is Hank’s version of Bird’s Parker’s Mood. The original was the B side of Parker’s only R&B chart entry and the only recording in which Parker used the stone blues style that was the greatest influence on the young Hank Crawford, backing Memphis bluesmen with Ike Turner’s band. So this is precisely where Hank is coming from - AM

Hot in Dakar 4

Viviane is, I think THE rave in Senegal at present. Her songs were on radios throughout the African quarter all the time. She is Viviane N'dour, Youssou's sister-in-law, having married Ndiaga N'dour, Youssou's sound engineer. She was previously Viviane Chudid and, under that name, spent some time in Youssou's backing vocal group. Marriage appears to have meant promotion. She looks fabulous and can really deliver a song. Her band can play almost any type of music. Much of Viviane's work is Hip Hop and neo-soul. But there are also traditional numbers, including, on her latest,Tere Nelaw, a beautiful song in praise of Leopold Senghor, Senegal's first President, who had died a short time before. There is also the extremely enthusiastic Yii Gainde", another football song, and much the most exciting; you really want to yell along with the crowd. All of Viviane's K7s are probably available on CD - AM

Allan recommends cdmail as a source.

Earl Okin - Musical Genius and Sex Symbol -- Sony5152852

Something different: unless you have frequented the Kings Head Comedy Club in London you may not have encountered Earl Okin. He's in the British tradition of comedy musicians, but out of the top drawer for originality and musicality. This album is worth it simply for his "interpretations" of "I'm just a teenage dirtbag" as a lush bossa nova, a swing version of Blur and an easy listening rendition of Coldplay's Yellow. I'm not sure if they are revivals or covers, but they are very funny...

Bjork - Medulla - One Little Indian TPLP358CD

This is wonderful. It has choirs, voices as musical instruments, double basses like growling, hungry bears, and, above all, Bjork’s own ice-clear voice. There’s nothing here that would make a pop or rock song in the normal sense, just sound-scapes and rhythms mostly constructed without any musical instruments at all. One or two tracks have something approaching a melody, which is welcome, but they are all dramatic and arresting.

What’s it all about? Hard to say. Certainly some of the tracks are about relationships but many are sung in what I take to be Icelandic so I can't tell. The lyrics are printed on the sleeve notes but they’re illegible so perhaps they don’t matter. And the tracks are only identified by numbers so there‘s no help there. Being in almost complete ignorance about what Bjork’s banging on about has in no way spoilt my enjoyment.