ARTS
The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, April 18, 2006 - 13
LL sounds
aged on
'Todd'
By Amanda Andrade
and Kimberly Chou
Daily Arts Writers
MUSIC REVIEW
"My 12th album launch / Now everything is carte
blanche!" bellows LL Cool J on the opening track of Todd
Smith, featuring Juelz "Back Like Cooked Crack" San-
tana. Carte blanche for suck-cess?
Not quite, but one would expect LL Cool J
more from the self-proclaimed
"Greatest Of All Time." Todd Smith
Even an uninitiated hip-hop Def Jam
listener should be able to discern
the now-tired beats and contrived
rhymes on LL's (n6 James Todd Smith) latest effort. His
12th, as he constantly reminds us, features no less than
12 guest stars.
LL displays an extraordinary reliance on his presumed
inferiors here, calling on artists from Ne-Yo to Mary J.
Blige to sing his hooks. Giving him the benefit of the
doubt, though, we might suppose that LL was simply
calling in reinforcements to make time for his side gig as
a C-list action star and the occasional moonlighting stint
as Queen Latifah's supporting man.
Still, it's impressive that LL has made it to a dozen
albums, with the shelf life of an average rap career being
relatively short and listeners notoriously fickle.
Already a radio hit, "Control Myself" is the strongest
single track on the release. Boasting deft Jermaine Dupri
production and coquettish vocals from Jennifer Lopez,
Jam bands: the greatest huge gangs of musicians since Three 6 Mafia.
Ascend to Heaven
in 24 hours or less
Courtesy of Def Jam
"Quiet ... I'm really old and useless."
the track allows LL to do what he does best at this age:
coast. He spits simple flows over a bullet-proof sample
with the comforting back-up of J.D. and the too-long-
M.I.A. J-Lo; it might be his album, but LL knows when to
drop the mic and let the song become bigger than him.
LL needed a track with a guaranteed audience to get
him back on the charts, and "Control Myself' suitably
serves its purpose.
Also notable is the love-it-or-loathe-it "What You
Want," mixed in between the CD's R&B slow jams and
schizophrenic guest verses. The rap cleverly cops the
melody from Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" and runs
it over blaxploitation bass and strings. With his guttural
vocals, LL tries to duplicate the toughness reestablished
with his original comeback, Mama Said Knock You Out.
But it's 2006, and he's a established family man and elder
statesman of rap. Punchlines from that demographic gen-
erally don't work as well.
"Preserve the Sexy" features Roc-a-Fella nym-
phet Teirra Mari strutting in and out of the call-and-
response vocals. "Sexy" rides a dependable horn-based
beat, but it's difficult to tell: Is LL instructing Teirra to
"preserve the sexy," or is she just advocating a general
preservation of an ill-conceived Diddy catchphase?
Confusing, to say the least.
Make no mistake, the album contains several decent
songs - particularly among the middle tracks. They just
don't tie together well. LL bounces from a sentimental
R&B exposition of matrimony, rapping, "You walking
down the aisle / My heart skips a beat / Emotions run
wild," and back to dishing out old jabs at young rappers
he believes are jacking his style. Not that he'd call out
anyone specifically; he's far too big a man for that.
On Todd Smith, LL is doin' it, doin' it and doin' it
pretty well for the most part. For a once-groundbreaking
artist, you would wish he'd be doin' it a little better
By Andrew Klein
Daily Fine Arts Editor
FINE RTSPR EVI EW
If you believe yourself to have even a
vague interest in improvisational nusic
and can admit that the University music
scene is for all intents and purposes an
absent presence in your life, then my
friend, lean in close.
Perhaps you've heard of the University's
Creative Arts Orchestra, one straw in the
All male a capella group celebrates Earth
haystack of student
bands that float
in the periphery
of our vision. We
easily digest these
groups into immu-
table categories.
There's the time-
tested monotony
of a cappella, the
slip-shod metal,
hard rock; there's
master recitals at
International
Society of
Improvised
Music's 24
Hour Jam
Session
Thursday at 6 p.m.
Free
At Canterbury House
is a solid amount of improvisation-based
music in this town-fronting-as-a-city.
. This Thursday at Canterbury House,
the student chapter of the International
Society of Improvised Music will kick off
a performance 6 p.m. It will end the next
day at 6 p.m.
Say it with me: 24 hours of music.
"It's absolutely free, and you can come
for as long as you want;' School of Music
junior Matt Endhal, one of the event's
organizers, said. Maybe it should be
restated that you should come for as long
as you are able.
"We're trying to put on this show to
increase awareness of the student chap-
ter of ISIM around the University,"
Endahl said.
ISIM chapters can be found in San
Diego, New York City and quite a few
places in between. India, Poland and Eng-
land have their own chapters as well.
At the heart of this is Ed Sarath. Sarath
is a professor in the Department of Jazz
and Improvisation Studies and the direc-
tor of the Program in Creativity and Con-
sciousness Studies. He is the founder of
both the ISIM itself and the University's
Creative Arts Orchestra, a student-based
free improvisation group.
Speaking on the 24-hour mind fuck,
Endahl said: "If you are going to stop by,
stop by with an open mind"
There will be a tuba soloist, a jazz quar-
tet and an electronica band. "We don't
have a narrow focus," Endahl said.
There's something for you here. In
the middle of papers, exams and getting
stoned, find some time to stop by 721 E.
Huron St. Don't blow this opportunity to
check out a ridiculous string of student
musicians for one, two or 24 hours.
By Abigail B. Colodner
Daily Arts Writer
The 12 male voices of the internationally
esteemed a capella group
Chanticleer last graced the
University in January 2004
to celebrate the renovation
of the inspiring space that
is Hill Auditorium. This
Thursday, they will return
to celebrate not the work of
human hands, but another
Chanticleer
Thursday at 8 p.m.
$30
At St Francis
Catholic Church
in-demand choral groups in the world. Following
their European tour earlier this year, Ann Arbor is
one stop on its 16-state U.S. tour.
"EarthSongs" reflects the breadth of Chanticleer's
repertoire, one of the group's most notable character-
istics and undoubtedly a reason for its wide appeal.
Mixed in with Renaissance madrigals, 19th-century
traditional Irish songs and a piece by post-romantic
composer Gustav Mahler are works by Chanticleer's
former artist-in-residence Chen Yi and Sarah Hopkins,
whose piece "Past Life Melodies" incorporates the Aus-
tralian Aboriginal singing method of overtone singing,
where higher notes play over a low, sustained drone.
President and General Director Christine Bullin
explained how Chanticleer usually organizes its
program around a theme. and this year chose the
Earth. She said that "EarthSongs" hopes to "dem-
onstrate our universal relationship to and depen-
dence on her. Of course, there could be no more
pertinent theme today."
Several of the pieces are derived from poetic medita-
tions on nature, such as works by Walt Whitman and
German poet/playwright Bertolt Brecht. Yi's piece
"Wild Grass" is meant to evoke the atmosphere of the
composer's native southeast China. This evocation is
facilitated by "word painting," in which sound is delib-
erately suggestive of an image.
"EarthSongs" seems to be in the same vein as
Chanticleer's 29th and most recent CD, Sound in
Spirit. The recording focuses on sacred music from
traditions as variant as Tibetan and Byzantine chant
and incorporates outdoor sounds, much as "Earth-
Songs" addresses centuries of human attitudes toward
the, for some, sacred force of nature.
The variety of the program to be presented on
the 20th is designed to showcase Chanticleer's
wide range. Bullin said it will "have something for
everybody, but hopefully will also show how the
joy of singing and the relevance of music crosses
all centuries and styles."
Hill Auditorium, experimental this-or-
thats at the Half-Ass; and, of course, the
list goes on.
These scenes aside, jazz has been -
alongside folk - Ann Arbor's gem:;Red
Hot Lovers on East University Avenue
houses several Ann Arbor Jazz Festival
posters whose band lists will still your
heart: Ray Charles, Charles Mingus, B.B.
King, Sun Ra and his Arkestra, Pharoah
Sanders, the Ornette Coleman Quartet,
Sun Ra & His Intergalactic Discipline
Arkestra, Miles Davis - good God, why
wasn't I around then? Why weren't you?
Most of these cats aren't around any-
more. That's OK - sort of. But there still
source of inspiration - the natural world - in
the concert "EarthSongs" at 8 p.m. at St. Francis
Catholic Church on East Stadium Boulevard.
The San Francisco-based group was founded in
1978, and since then has become one of the most
Courtesy of Disney
'Away Michael Jackson, away!'
Nania rocks on DVD
By Bernie Nguyen
Associate Arts Editor
There's a rightful king. An evil tyrant.
A battle between good and evil on a wide
plain with stirring strings and powerful
drums to heighten the emotional impact.
It's even filmed in New Zealand.
But it's not "Lord of the Rings." Rather,
it's "The Lion, the Witch, and the Ward-
robe," a children's
s version of the Hol-
lywood epic, and
what's sure to be the
first installment of a
feature-film series
based on C.S. Lew-
is's beloved tales.
The four Pevensie
children (William
Moseley, Anna Pop-
plewell, Skander
Keynes and Georgie
Henley) accidently
stumble into Narnia
The
Chronicles
of Narnia:
The Lion,
the Witch
and the
Wardrobe
Disney
of the book's power and moral fortitude
(yes, it has fortitude). These eye-catching
moments come at the price of character
development. Many viewers who aren't
blessed with prolonged exposure to
Lewis's books will come away from the
movie with a narrow, critical perception
of his two-dimensional characters.
But these complaints are small com-
pared to the abundant charms "Narnia"
grants its viewers. Admirably rendered
talking animals, superb mountain vistas
and the quaint British accents of its debut
actors are only a few of the film's aspects
that director Andrew Adamson handles so
well. The film's beauty overcomes its nar-
rative limitations - the settings alone are
enough to inspire.
The DVD set contains a wealth of
extras, including an entire disc featuring
background on the director and actors,
as well as behind-the-scenes looks at the
costumes, sets and special effects that help
make the movie so effective; here, atten-
tion to detail is what keeps Narnia looking
like an actual world of its own.
In addition to these basics, there are two
other versions of the film, one with com-
mentary by the director and producers and
the other with optional pop-up features
describing in greater detail the history
of various creatures, Narnian landmarks
and anecdotes about Lewis. There's also
a video history of Lewis that expands on
the role his life niaved in the creation of
through a seem-
ingly normal wardrobe. Narnia, a land
held under the enchantment of the evil
White Witch, also the erstwhile queen,
has apparently been waiting for them to
rescue it from the wintry clutches of the
witch's magic. Through their adventure,
they encounter some lovable beavers, a
nlak of hlood-hunrv wolves and Aslan.
I