Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 7-13

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MARIO TRICOCI PRESENTS the family and be a Francisco Chronicle Thanksgiving week schedule: Wed Thu Sat 4pm Sun 7pm Classical Monteverdi: Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi (Book 8) Concerto Italiano, Rinaldo Alessandrini, director three CDs). Claudio eighth book of madrigals of War and published in Venice in 1638, represent a huge leap forward in compositional technique and approach, following a long gap after previous madrigal collections by the great Venetian composer. These works are very different in style from earlier pieces: more complex and shaded, with all sorts of musical innovations exemplifying new musical theories he both embraced and expanded. Who better to record these innovative gems of the vocal and instrumental art than Concerto Italiano, the Grammy-winning, Italian-based, impeccably stylish ensemble? Director Rinaldo Alessandrini helps his musicians bring out a full measure of musical nuance and dramatic vitality in the madrigals. They range from the stylized madrigal plays di Tancredi and Ballo delle to a variety of shorter, stylistically freer, vocal works.

The range of utterance is vast, from poignant evocations of heart-wounded lovers to friskier depictions of amatory delights. Who could resist the charming little dance drama al mio bel suon le piante with its luxuriant echoing effects and virtuoso vocal runs? Or il cor with its exuberantly boastful vocal dueling for two tenors? These works represent a high-water mark in early Italian vocal music generally, output particularly. Concerto Italiano makes the strongest possible case for every one of these vocal gems as living, breathing art: their emotional directness and immediacy grab the listener by the heart, from across the centuries. von Rhein Country Various artists She Was Country When Country Cool: A Tribute to Barbara Mandrell It would take an academic treatise on the fraught topic of in country music to intelligently parse the career of Barbara Mandrell, the steel guitar prodigy who rose to the top as the queen of country music. But this surprisingly smart tribute reveals that beneath often schmaltzy delivery and arrangements were a number of terrific singles.

Her greatest acolyte, Reba, takes on Was Country When Country a mind-boggling pop manifesto that nonetheless cuts to the core of the many age-old contradictions. Gretchen Wilson nails the mix of lust and self-loathing in the adultery epic Midnight Other great tracks abound: Terri sassy Single In a Double Dierks careening Lanes and Country Willie Nelson and Shelby three- hanky weeper Time I Al- most Made And while country radio now shamefully ignores Lorrie Morgan, her mournful take on the betrayal ballad What Friends Are is a reminder of why Morgan remains one of most emotionally attuned modern singers. Dickinson Taylor Swift Taylor Swift (Big Machine) The latest entry in the young country sweepstakes, 16-year- old Taylor Swift is like an American Idol who only lacks the actual trophy, what with her vid- eo-genic good looks, chirpy pipes and state-of-the-art Music Row production. a slick package, pleasant enough but devoid of anything resembling gritty traction. Swift wrote or co-wrote all the songs, a passel of mostly brisk pop-country tunes, including the hit tale of teenage remembrance, This debut goes down like Kool-Aid.

Anyone looking for a stiffer drink will want to take a pass. RECORDINGS By Howard Reich Tribune arts critic Some musicians make an impression not by subverting jazz traditions but by reinvigorating them. The pianist Eric Reed wholly epitomizes this approach, since he works to reaffirm core principles that have defined the art form almost since its inception. Hard-swinging rhythms and a deep blues sensibility course through virtually everything he plays, as he reminded listeners Tuesday night at the Jazz Showcase. Joined by two of most adept rhythm players bassist Dennis Carroll and drummer George Fludas Reed what fragile physical condition, both Reed and Rubalcaba toned down their pianism, so as not to overshadow McPartland.

This time, though, Reed was free to summon the full measure of his technical and improvisational prowess and did. In the opening tune, Benny Reed and the trio swung aggressively, and never let the rhythmic intensity flag. With Carroll and Fludas pressing ever forward, Reed produced right-hand lines that proved as original as they were complex. Some of the best work of the evening unfolded in Thelonious which summed up the essence of style but also expressed some of distinct touches, as well. The stop-start rhythms and piquant dissonances that are central to Monk, in other words, were plain to hear, but so was the elegant phrasing and gleaming tone that are Reed hallmarks.

The sensitivity of ballad playing was more apparent on this occasion than usual. In I he nearly suspended any sense of forward motion. Instead, he conveyed a sense of hushed reverie, the delicate octaves of his right hand floating over sustained chords in his left. Reed cuts loose but within bounds of tradition Eric Reed Trio When: Through Sunday Where: Jazz Showcase, 59 W. Grand Ave.

Price: 312-670-2473 REVIEW played one of the more engaging sets this listener has heard from him. For starters, Reed sounded practically liberated, compared to the last time he played in Chicago, where he shared the stage with hyper-virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba and 88-year-old pianist Marian McPartland. Presumably because of advanced age and some-.