Jewel

On their first album in five years, Fairport Convention, which now boasts a steady lineup (nearly a decade together!) for the first time in its history, carries on two traditions. The shorter-term one is the tradition of Fairport itself, a band intended to blend contemporary rock with folk, often in the form of work by current singer/songwriters, here including Clive Gregson and Leonard Cohen. The longer term one is the tradition of Scots-Irish music, with its jigs and reels and story songs that date back to the Middle Ages.

Bennie Maupin has been a musicians’ musician for decades, and a highly inventive contributor, on bass clarinet and saxes, to some important records – including Miles Davis’s “Bitches Brew”, Herbie Hancock’s “Mwandishi” and Marion Brown’s “Afternoon Of A Georgia Faun” (ECM 1970), and sessions with Sonny Rollins, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner and dozens more. His recordings as a leader, however, have been infrequent. All the more reason to celebrate the return of this album to the catalogue, Maupin’s very first leader date, now making its debut appearance on CD. “A more selfless album is hard to imagine”, said Down Beat in 1975. “On ‘The Jewel In The Lotus’, the sound is supreme, and all the players strive to achieve a thorough blending”. Produced by Manfred Eicher in New York in 1974, the disc’s personnel is drawn from the circle around Herbie Hancock in the period, but the music has a character all its own, and still sounds entirely contemporary.

Crystalize! 2: Quest For The Jewel Crown! © ValuSoft
Match/Puzzle | MULTI3 | PC | English | 523MB
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, two love-struck Royals, kept apart in the kingdom of Crystelia, had lost hope of finding one another—and the Jewel Crown. Match 3 or more colored stones to clear the Crystalize grid. Each completed level brings the Prince and Princess closer together! Get lost for hours in this exciting and challenging matching quest!…

For long standing admirers of Modiano’s luminous writing as well as those readers encountering his work for the first time, Little Jewel will be an exciting discovery. Uniquely told by a young female narrator, Little Jewel is the story of a young woman adrift in Paris, imprisoned in an imperfectly remembered past. The city itself is a major character in Modiano’s work, and timeless moral ambiguities of the post-Occupation years remain hauntingly unresolved…

Crowell tries to stretch out a bit too much on Jewel of the South, but it remains a fine album, nonetheless. Featuring guest performances by the Mavericks' Raul Malo, Bela Fleck, Vince Gill, Kim Richey, and Billy Joe Walker Jr. among others, the album tries to do too many thing, but it does enough of them well enough to make it an entertaining listen.