The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 72

Sunday, December 27, 1992 THE CINCINNATI ENQUIRER MusicG-3 Haden Quartet takes melodic walk down memory lane Time a'wastine. Thf raWiHar Cliff Radel Box set of the week I N- $tt iff f-jt; iff On the LiOii record Jackie Wilson, Mr. Rhino. (3 CDs $47.983 cassettes $39.98) One of the missing links in the pop-soul story, Jackie Wilson is best known today as Michael Jackson's role model. Before suffering a career-ending heart attack in 1975, from which he never recovered and ultimately died in 1 984, Wilson spent the '50s and '60s recording a string of heat-seeking hits.

"Lonely Teardrops," "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher," etc. earned him the title of Mr. Excitement! That point is made so quickly on this three-CD set, Mr. Excitement! becomes redundant after one disc. CLIFF RADEL dar is stuck somewhere between 1942 and 1952.

Watts' haunted tone and the quartet's ghostly rhythm section go well with long walks down foggy sidewalks with neon signs blinking on and off overhead and your luck going from bad to worse in six seconds. Highbrows like to call such stuff programmatic playing. Me? I just call it great. David Newman, Hoffa, Fox. Play David Newman's lullaby-lush soundtrack disc backward and it says: "Jimmy's planted in the end zone." Dan Baird, Love Songs For The Hearing Impaired, Def American.

Free of the Georgia Satellites' orbit, lead singer Dan Baird has landed on solid ground singing Love Songs For The Hearing Impaired. A collection of carefree, three-chord rock 'n' roll symphonies the spelling lesson of love, "I Love You Period," the Creed-ence Clearwater Revival-inspired "Baby Talk" and the politically incorrect ode to a wet T-shirt Furry creatures go country with hairy superstars. Alvin! Quit yanking on Billy Ray's ponytail! The Chieftains, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Another Country, RCA. Furry Irishmen go country with Willie and Emmy and the boys. Illustrates to the nth degree the musical connections between the hills of Ireland and the hills of Tennessee.

Raymond Scott, Reckless Nights and Turkish Twilights, Columbia. Profoundly curious compositions sounding like their titles "The Toy Trumpet," "Dinner Music For A Pack of Cannibals," etc. written and recorded in the late 1930s and early 1940s, yet sounding as fresh as the day after tomorrow's news. Guy Clark, Boars To Build, Asylum. Erudite Nashville tunesmith contest, "Dixie Beauxderaunt" the album plucks the roots-rock feathers from the Black Crowes.

G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band, Get A Little, Liberty. Live from New York it's master guitarist G.E. Smith and the Saturday Night Live Band. Get A Little gives a lot.

Stocked with originals, the disc is a tasty gumbo of rock, blues, jazz and Smith's vocals. Yes, the band's quiet guitarman can speak and sing. Get A Little testifies that these hot-shot New York session musicians whose Saturday Night Live experience is usually restricted to playing into and out of commercial breaks puts most of the show's musical guests to shame. Alvin the Chipmunks, Billy Ray Cyrus, Waylon Jennings, Chipmunks In Low Places, Epic Chipmunk. "Desperados Waiting For A Train," etc.

writes and sings (with Emmylou Harris on "I Don't Love You Much Do with Rodney Crowell on "Jack of All an album's worth of quiet reflections on life from one-sided phone calls You Get This to the painting on the wall, "Picasso's Mandolin." EMF, Stigma, EMI. Guitar-powered grunge rock with a British accent and a sampler on its knee. Patti LaBelle, MCA. Somewhere over the rainbow, there's an album that captures the lightning bolt that is Patti LaBelle in concert. Live! whose unbalanced mix puts a wall between LaBelle and her show isn't it.

Rob Pilatus Fab Morvan, "We Can Get It On," Taj. When Milli Vanilli's Rob Pilatus and Fab Morvan sing their single, "We Can Get It On," their lock-jawed vocals say, "No, You Can't." These chumps sounded better when their lips were synced. Cliff Radel is pop music critic for The Enquirer. Good "Good Fair 'Poor. on the wall says 1992 is nearly history and there still are nine million CDs to review.

And, they star Charlie Haden Quartet West, Haunted Heart, Verve. Hello, Gorgeous. Try this one on for size. Charlie Haden, his string bass and his Quartet West gents named Ernie Watts, Alan Broad-bent and Larance Marable on, respectively, tenor sax, piano and drums have turned back the clock. Haunted Heart is set in the time when hard-boiled detectives like Philip Marlowe roamed Hollywood and the streets were paved with celluloid.

The thing opens with the theme from Bogie's Sam Spade The Maltese Falcon. It's taken right from the film. After that, the quartet kicks in. The rest of the album includes tunes with such mystery-drenched titles as "The Long Goodbye" and "Lady In 'The Lake" and features the quartet blending today's notes into the singing of Billie Holiday doing "Deep Song" from 1947 and Teri Southern cooing "Ev'ry Time We' Say Goodbye" from 1954. Call it a modified version of Nat King Cole meeting his daughter, Natalie, on the streets of "Unforgettable." Get this, doll face, the playing is in the same mood.

Everybody stays in character. To them, the calen- Xrtists seek guitars with custom designs CHICAGO TRIBUNE 'Elvis Costello wanted a guitar with a scrolled headstock. Hoyt Axton wanted a guitar with a host of mother-of-pearl angels inlaid on the neck. more angels over there! More pearl! I want plenty of pearl!" he is reported to have said.) Chris Difford of Squeeze requested a guitar with a body that looked like a violin. Each got the instrument he wanted, thanks to Los Angeles-area guitar-maker Danny Ferrington, who has designed and built instruments, acoustic and electric, for an array of players that includes Em-mylou Harris, Pete Townshend, J.J.

Cale, Nick Lowe, Linda Ron-stadt, Nirvana's Kurt Cobain, Los Lobos' David Hidalgo and the Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde. guitars and more are pictured in Ferrington Guitars (HarperCollinsCallaway; $50), a 120-page book of photos depicting Ferrington's work. Pictures are accompanied by Ferrington's recollections of working on its design. Tucked into the front cover is a CD containing 20 instrumental tracks by artists playing their Ring in the New Year with Ray Combs Friends! IB Ray Combs Star of Family Fued Also Steve Greg Irv Burton Master Impressionist Enjoy dancing, hors d' ouvres, cocktails champagne toast. couple! wk Spend New Year's Eve with us pasuttieas $30 per Ask about other special packages CALL 241-8088 FOR RESERVATIONS MI Tins New Ye ar's Eve, Treat Yourself Like Royalty.

MM 1 v' 1 i 11 1 1 If- Ji vLJLVli TnnAV'S SCHEDULE I Brunch 1:00 pm pm -l Dinner Live Dance Music 7:00 pm pm Celebrate New Year's Eve and cruise into '93! Tit! Reservations 723-0100 Ut Un your innmrsiry, birthday or family gatheringi. fwiCAuiiu! STAR of CINCINNATI Sintxrt)i Hilmi md climatt-CTntrollwl dimn( i it QD FIFTH THIRD BANK ERGtCMSerics nrrwirr This is the tenth and final year for a popular holiday tradition. Winterfest. Gather your family and friends for one last grand celebration Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Cincinnati Symphony Association Trie Concert Ball Thursday, December 31, 1992, 8:00 p.m. You may purchase tickets for the concert and the hall, or the concert only.

Concert ticket prices start at $14 Ball tickets are $80. of Winter. For caroling and carriages. Hot gingerbread and twinkling lights. Lively shows and skating on Royal Fountain.

Come share the warmth of Winterfest with us for the very last time. New Year's Eve AtWevterfest Come celebrate the New Year with us as we fill the night sky with a magnificent fireworks display over International Street. Show begins at 9p m. as the park closes. Never hefore has Cincinnati hosted such an enchanted evening.

Join Jesus Lbpez-Cohos and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as they recapture the romance of old Vienna with a concert of Strauss waltzes and polkas. Guest artists include The Village Waytes and The Silver Lining Vintage Dance Troupe. After the concert, meet friends hoth old and new over an elegant sit-down dinner in the glittering hallroom. At midnight, ring in the New Year with a champagne toast and swing to your favorite Big Band tunes until 2:30 a.m. For more information or to make reservations, call 381-3300.

a And give yourself the royal treatment. -I DATES AND TIMES. Open daily through Dec. 31 (closed Dec. 24 25).

2-10pm, Sal. 2-1 1 pm, Dec. 31 2-9 pm. All dales, times and appearances subject to change. ADMISSION: $6.95.

Children 3 and under FREE. Season Pass holders FREE. Nominal charge for some Winterfest activities. FREE parking. For more Information call (513)398-5600.

Seats Avalable Deloitte Touche, I Iixson-Architecture Engineering Interiors, and Waite, Schneider, Bayless and ChesleyStanley M. Chesley Media sponsor: Majic 92.5 WIMJ i I.