MUSIC / Records

NEW RELEASES

John Tavener: To a Child Dancing in the Wind. Rozario/Tavener etc (Collins Classics, CD). With Virgin, Collins and Sony issuing new Tavener releases at the same time, you don't have to ask which British composer is the current idol of the record industry. But this disc is not mainstream choral Tavener. It's mostly songs and mostly secular, although the slow, simple, aerated settings (of Yeats) have the same chant-like qualities you hear in his liturgical writing, and the soprano soloist, Patricia Rozario, is a familiar Tavener collaborator. Delicately poised and pure of sound, she has hypnotic charm, especially in the last item, which is five minutes of unaccompanied vocalising on the name Melina (a memorial tribute to Melina Mercouri); and in A Mini Song Cycle for Gina she has Tavener himself in a not-too-demanding piano accompaniment. As always, the passivity of Tavener's musical language is rescued from dullness by harmonic close shaves; and it makes a good late-night relaxant. Michael White

The Very Best of the Eagles (Elektra, CD/tape). From Abba to Big Star, it seems that every Seventies icon is fashionable now. Except the Eagles, who are condemned as too squeaky- clean, too self-indulgent, too white. This collection bears out all these accusations. But at least the Eagles, who have just reunited for a US tour-cum- pension scheme, are the best at what they do. Put them next to most of the bands on MTV and they acquit themselves with honour. They put an innocuous, Californian slant on an unexpected range of styles, from Dylanesque country-folk ('Peaceful Easy Feeling') to surfing R'n'B ('James Dean') to smooth soul ('I Can't Tell You Why'). Despite the title, The Very Best of is a wider selection than 1985's The Best of. It's just a shame that the sleeve-notes are so paltry. Nicholas Barber

Art Tatum: Piano Starts Here (Columbia Hall of Fame, CD). Like a scene from a Tom and Jerry cartoon, notes cascade from the piano and proceed to dance around the floor with delight as Tatum, playing solo in recordings from 1933 and 1949, animates the blacks and the whites in a continuous ballet of keyboard invention. As the version of 'Someone to Watch Over Me' shows, he didn't so much carry a tune as finesse it to death, but the intricate mathematics of his inimitable style still have the power to amaze. Phil Johnson

Arturo Tappin: Strictly Roots Jazz (Saxroots CD, distributed by New Note). Rudimentary but winning party-music formula of soulful sax and roots-reggae rhythms in the tradition of Dean Fraser, but funkier. Dennis Bovell is the dread at the controls. PJ

----------------------------------------------------------------- THE IoS PLAYLIST ----------------------------------------------------------------- THE FIVE BEST DISCS OF THE MOMENT ----------------------------------------------------------------- Ravel: Complete Piano Works. Philippe Entremonte (Sony, two CDs). Idiomatic recordings that make a welcome reissue on Sony's low-price Essential Classics label. MW Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas. Charles Rosen (Sony, two CDs). Another welcome Essential Classics reissue - of Sonatas 27 to 32 - from one of the most elegant minds in modern pianism. MW Boz Scaggs: Some Change (Virgin America, CD/tape). Richard Williams has already sung the praises of this, but no harm in joining the chorus. A summer breeze of a record, which also makes you think. Tim de Lisle Julian Cope: Autogeddon (Echo, CD/ tape). The eco-terrorist rants against the evils of the car. Definitely not driving music. NB Three Walls Down: Building Our House (Rust, CD). They come from REM's hometown and are produced by REM's bassist. No prizes for guessing whom they sound exactly like. NB -----------------------------------------------------------------