Late Lady

On her most personal LP to date, Gaga aims for authenticity. Named after the superstar’s late aunt, Joanne pivots away from the conceptual disco of 2013’s ARTPOP for a set of lived-in folk (the gorgeous title cut), wild-eyed rock (“Diamond Heart”), and windswept country (“Grigio Girls”). A vibrant list of collaborators includes Florence Welch, Mark Ronson, Beck, Josh Homme, and Father John Misty mastermind Josh Tillman.

Johnny Mathis was billed on his very first album as “A New Sound in Popular Song.” In the decades since that 1956 debut, the vocalist has always explored new avenues in pop from Latin music to Philly soul. But the most adventurous of Mathis’ 60-plus albums may be the one that got away…until now. In late 1980, Johnny teamed up with the white-hot CHIC production team of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, fresh off triumphant collaborations with artists including Sister Sledge and Diana Ross, for I Love My Lady. Mathis took his voice into new, uncharted territory on eight anthemic, club-ready tracks that pushed the envelope of rhythm and blues as they incorporated funk, jazz, disco, and dance rhythms.

Over his 11 CDs plus a greatest-hits package for the Justin Time label, Bryan Lee has been one of the most consistently satisfying blues artists heard anywhere. Sporting a sly but sweet voice and more than competent, pleasing guitar style, Lee has made inroads into keeping the real urban blues tradition alive, where many others have either watered it down, rocked it out far too much, or funkified it past the point of recognition…..

All admirers of lush, late-romantic tone poems should find plenty to enjoy in this release. Vítezslav Novák (1870-1949) is underrepresented in the catalogs, and this disc marks an important step in his evaluation. The sound-world is lush and saturated, an atmosphere captured well by Chandos's spacious recording. Straussian opulence with a soft Slav accent would be an apt description of these pieces. Throughout, Pesek exhibits an indigenous understanding of the Bohemian musical language, and the BBC Philharmonic responds passionately. The tenderness of Lady Godiva (written in 1907 and apparently composed in two days) is touchingly portrayed, while the imaginative orchestration of Toman and the Wood Nymph (1906-07), more daring than that of Godiva, is relished to the full. The later De Profundis (1941) proceeds in grand gestures on a journey from its initial subterranean rumblings to its organ-drenched, upliftingly triumphant conclusion. Warmly recommended.

Colin Clarke