Customer Reviews

Largo

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The feeling we got upon hearing this unheralded CD when it was first released a couple of years ago, was similar to the one we got when we first came across "Music From the Big Pink" many years before. It felt as if we had stumbled upon a genuine artifact of Americana. Like "Big Pink", the sound of Largo is fresh, exhilarating, and moving, while, at the same time, hauntingly familiar. It resonates deep within the bones and brings to mind the music of a previous era. The artists involved in the making of this piece (which uses as its touchstone Dvorak's classical piece of the same name), are, similarly, a familiar lot. Members of the underrated Hooters are largely responsible for the musical concept and content. The instruments they use are fun just to say not to mention hear. Mandolin, Nyckelharp, Bowed Dulcimer, Uillean Pipes, Hurdy-Gurdy, Jew's Harp, Cordovox, Udu, and Peckhorn, to name a few. And Taj Mahal with his exuberant singing and barking, Levon Helm with his soulful twang, Cyndi Lauper with her intense yodelling, David Forman (and his alter ego Little Isidor sans Inquisitors), Joan Osborne, Carole King, and the Chieftans contribute in making this a very satisfying
musical experience.

I found out last summer that this recording, one that I had always meant to pick up on, was out of print and unavailable. I had just gone to see a staged version of this song-cycle at Vassar College, which featured Cyndi Lauper, Garth Hudson and local legend ("local" being NY's Mid-Hudson Valley, for me) David Forman. Martha Wainwright of the celebrated, musical Wainwright/McGarrigle clan was also in the production, which was little more than a staged reading, actually, but when the music played, it soared. It was only afterwards that I found out that this '98 release is already out of print.

I had been so impressed by the production that I was eager to get a hold of the CD. Finally I managed to. I will say that the live version sort of strained to come up with a unified concept. The album has no such problem. Ever since "Sgt. Pepper," concept albums have been loose-knit affairs--thematically or musically held together by a few common but loose strands. There's a lot of talk about America on the recording, and the name "Ramona" crops up in a few songs, but the music itself--rootsy, often haunting Americana--that gives the album its overarching sense of unity.

Lauper and Forman are joined on the recorded version by a number of other remarkable vocal talents. Taj Mahal, Willie Nile, Carole King and Joan Osborne are all here, and they all shine. Lauper and Osborne had worked with producer Rick Chertoff and ex-Hooters Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian, who composed much of this song cycle, on their own hit releases. They return the favor on "Largo," and enhance their reputations as serious (as opposed to Top-40) musicians in the process.

I hope that someone sees fit to get this fine album back into print. In the meantime, snap up those "limitedly available" copies from Amazon--or wherever else you can score one--ASAP!

The most imaginative album I have ever heard. Like an anthropolgical text with far too many tangents, Largo gathers the best and brightest musicians and singers for an exploration in stories of the musical themes of Dvorak's New World Symphony, written in 1892. This means that the songs are as diverse and strange as the immigrant points-of-view they represent. Standouts include Cyndi Lauper's sultry turn on "White Man's Melody," singing about a European girl inspired by the singers The Great Caruso and Liberace. Also, "Before the Mountains," co-written by Rob Hyman of The Hooters which contains a re-sing from the Isley Brothers' tune, "Shout." Other artists shining on this collection include Joan Osbourne, Carol King, Taj Mahal, Eric Bazillian, Leon Helm, and The Chieftans! Beautiful!

I can't stop singing the praises of this unusual concept album. Simply put it's full of beautiful well crafted music/lyrics that grab you and send your emotions bubbling to the surface. Freedom Ride, White Man's Melody, Largo's Dream, Gimme a Stone...the list goes on and on. Levon Helm singing of his slaying of Goliath sent me scurrying for my Folkways CDs, and who knew Cindy Lauper and Joan Osborne had this in them. Could we be so lucky that Rick and Rob might get this group together again? Here's hoping!

I love this albumn, having stumbled on it on the trail of David Forman,(who I thought had disappeared after giving us a brilliant debut in 1976), who appears here under his latter-day pseudonymn, Little Isidore. His contributions are sprinkled throughout, but he is just another amongst the all-star cast. Levon Helm is in terrific voice, as are Willie Nile, Cyndi Lauper, Taj Mahal, Garth Hudson and the Hooter's team (who presumably dreamed up the concept: the migrant experience, an immeasurably varied subject that works due to the musicianship). Hudson's tinkling is a delight, the songs are tight and the singing passionate. If this for and by middle-of-the-road sensibilities (according to one reviwier)then count me amongst that company.

Like the best of the Band, this music is so much better than the sum of its parts - and the parts are all pretty damn good! Organic and original, lyrical and deeply American, there is real magic here. One of those happy conjunctions of voice, song, instrument and joy. Don't miss this gem!

Largo is a delight -- wonderful energy, haunting tunes, a great listen that touches something almost mythic you feel inside yourself as you hear it. This is an album with longevity, and a fitting modern take on Dvorak's original. Terrific for driving.

Since their big break with The Hooters in the early 80s, Rob Hyman and Eric Bazilian have been among the most talented guys making a living in popular music.

This gorgeous record deserved a lot more attention than it received when released in 1998, but such is par for the course for Mssrs. Hyman and Bazilian, who have had much fine work virtually ignored. (Songs such as One Too Many Nights, One Way Home, Washington's Day, Karla with a K, Deliver Me, 500 Miles).

Largo, a song-cycle based on the Largo movement of Czech composer Antonin Dvorak's Ninth Symphony, is a eloquent love poem to America. Great contributions from Taj Mahal, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Cyndi Lauper and a wild guy named David Forman make the ride that much more memorable. Highly recommended.

This is one of those great albums that sadly went nowhere when it was released. But it wasn't for lack of quality songs or performances. There are simply stunning tunes on here, courtesy of Taj Mahal, Joan Osborne, the Chieftains, those Hooters guys, Levon Helm, and even Willie Nile. This is true Americana, if there ever was such a thing. An album well worth seeking out.

This CD strikes me as a giant step in the search for a fabulous American beauty routine. I did not acquire it until recently, when I needed to find out all that I could learn about the song Gimme A Stone. While I am sometimes a fan of music produced by most of the people who contributed to making this album, I have been far more concerned with paying attention to theopathic states which can tell me far more about where we are going than where we have been. History is a bunk bed because the dreams of those who accept nightmares never get beyond the weird stuff.

As I drift into Martin Luther Stonehood as a result of 40 years of recapitulation of my Viet Nam experience, LARGO deserved a certain appreciation for having so much to do with the direction of my thoughts. Going home has been an idea that I have been growing used to since I was a child. When I had to write a paper on a book for a Sociology survey course that I took in my final term at the University of Michigan in 1968, I wrote that the book, by writing about drifters who were lacking any connection to a home life, emphasized the importance of the concept: home. The night before the paper was due, instead of adding enough insight to my paper to get myself a grade better than a C for the course, I played softball with a group that I had never done anything with before, except that the group included a girl I dated once and should have been seeing constantly as we had previously been living in the same coed dorm and worked some of the same meals in the dorm dining hall, but I let her slip away because I had a terrible time thinking of anything that I would ever want to do enough to plan it and then get it done.

Track 7 of the LARGO CD is called Disorient Express. It has a certain driving rhythm, suggesting the motion of a train that can only go where the track leads:

Searchin' for the guru in the land of milk and honey
He was charming, funny, but the guru took my money
So I get on the train -- head down the track
Goin' for a ride -- never comin' back
Snakes in the boots -- I couldn't care less
Goin' for a ride on disorient express
Gimme little click -- gimme little clack
Hammer down the spike -- coolie on the track
Coal black hair -- braided in a knot
Get out the way -- baby I can't stop

Then there is a Little China girl verse with a fire breathin' dargon -- little China dress.

The song Gimme A Stone was on the Little Feat Chinese Work Songs CD in 2000. Gimme little click, gimme little clack, might seem similar to the chorus of Gimme A Stone because the four composers of both songs, Hyman, Chertoff, Forman, Bazilian were the same. I like their style. Something that works so well for me that my whole life now, after all these years, heads for Martin Luther Stonehood could be incredible for all the people who never considered such a possibility. It is real, people, they mean it.