What’s New for the 26th of April: the nature of Stories; some new and newish SF, plus new world, jazz, folk and Americana music

But that is the nature of grammar—it is always tense, like an instrument, aching for release, longing to transform present into past into future, is into was into will. — Amal El-Mohtar’s The River Has Roots

Everything has a story to it. Obviously a written work of fiction is a story such as the very extensive James S. A. Corey’s Expanse series, the first of which, Leviathan Wakes, Gary reviewed for us this week.

So is music, be it with words or not because all music tells a story doesn’t it? Just listen to it and you’ll experience that as in the work of Albanian singer Elina Duni also reviewed by Gary; and I’ve been listening to Congolese music lately, which I have no idea what the lyrics are but it’s still great stuff!

Even food tells a story. Take Lars’ review of Judith M. Bennett’s Ale, Beer, and Brewsters in England, as that liquid refreshment has a long and fascinating history, and the review by Lars is also worth reading as it, like all reviews, tells a story of own.

So let’s  consider what happens to a text when it is used as a basis for an audiobook that goes beyond just being a straight reading. The River has Roots has reviewer Paul says was ‘transportative and immersive audio experience’ to him as it was more than a text having music to enhance it and and actual songs as well. Is that the same story, or a different one? You decide.

And film allows us to see and hear a story. So it is with both versions  of The Lion in Winter as Aurora tells us, ‘The title, for those of you rusty with your English history, refers to King Henry II (the lion was his crest) being in the “winter” of his life. At this point in history Henry’s kingdom stretched into France and he was in need of choosing an heir. Eleanor of Aquitaine, Henry’s wife, was imprisoned in a castle (thanks to Henry who was the key keeper). Goldman’s story is a fictional account of the Christmas court held to determine the future king. A complicated story this is, and the wit in the script combined with the actors’ stellar timing make it worth watching again and again.’

Finally there’s Art Spiegelman’s Maus, A Survivor’s Tale, Vol. I, My Father Bleeds History also reviewed by Gary in which the tale of, as Gary tells us, ‘Maus is the story in comic form of Spiegelman’s father’s experience of the Holocaust. The Jews in Poland are represented as mice, the Nazis as thuggish cats, the Poles as big slow pigs. It’s also the story of Spiegelman’s efforts to retrieve that story from his father. In essence, it chronicles the way in which Art Spiegelman comes to understand Vladek Spiegelman.’

So different ways of telling a story, but still stories all.

Gary greatly enjoyed Alison Bechdel’s latest comic novel Spent, in which a fictionalized Bechdel lives on a goat rescue farm financed by the proceeds of a streaming TV show based on her debut graphic memoir. ‘Lots of little plot strands keep you turning the pages. But mostly it’s Bechdel’s wry but humane observations about humans and human nature that keep you with her. This version of Alison Bechdel really does live in a Fun House.’

Gary finally got around to reading James S. A. Corey’s first book in The Expanse series. ‘I greatly enjoyed Leviathan Wakes, racing through its 500-some pages in near record time, and plan to proceed through all nine of the series novels published so far. (Taking time out, of course, for the upcoming installments in their new The Captives’ War series.)’

He also enjoyed the action and humor in a new book just out this month. ‘Award winning author Suzanne Palmer adds to her growing stack of novel-length SF with Ode to the Half-Broken, an engaging tale of friendship and treachery, adventure and revenge among post-apocalypse AI “mechs” and a few surviving humans in what used to be the United States.

Gary here with new music. I’m always pleased to see another album featuring Albanian singer Elina Duni come over the transom, and Reaching For The Moon, the new one by Duni and guitarist Rob Luft, definitely lived up to expectations. ‘The album’s title sets the mood, and this duo’s cover of the Irving Berlin standard “Reaching For The Moon” that opens the album is deliciously tender and melancholy.’

If you’re hungry for some Latin jazz, you won’t find any better than the tango inflected big band sound of Handmade from the Grammy winning Emilio Solla & La Inestable de Brooklyn,’ as I say in this review.  ‘Solla is a pianist and composer born in Argentina and now based in New York, and Handmade is his 15th album.’

Nashville fixture Jim Lauderdale and red-hot bluegrass band The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys just put out their second album, and The Birds Know is a winner. ‘As you might expect from such luminous company, the music they make together is quite good. Lauderdale wrote these 11 songs just for this session, and, well, it’s for the birds! Including the album title and the song of that name, this musical aviary is packed with feathered friends, starting with the opening track “Two Crows.” ‘

‘This is primarily party music, designed to get you up and dancing,’ I say in my review of the Catalan folk rock band Fenya Rai!’s live disc 10 anys de fenya! ‘This is their fourth record since 2019, but they’ve been together a bit longer, and this big double album with 19 tracks compiles a couple of concerts they at the Festa Major de Sant Joan in their hometown of Valls in June 2025.’

Finally, a bit of new jazz from Scandinavia. ‘Take a bit of Art Ensemble of Chicago, a pinch of Frank Zappa’s 1988 big touring band, and a dab of the Stanford Marching Band, give them some pop-adjacent tunes and turn them loose in the studio, and you’ll have an idea of what to expect from Tales of No Consequence, the fifth album from Bergen, Norway’s avant garde jazz ensemble Whatever Happens Don’t Be Yourself.

Chicago’s ‘Saturday in the Park’ is a song I’ve heard playing off and on over the past forty years . It’s certainly an upbeat, feel good summer song much like ‘Love Shack’ by the B-52s. It was recorded on 6th of August 1982 at the Park West in Chicago.

It was released on Chicago V in 1972 and peaked on the Billboard carts at number three which is quite impressive. It was lovely enough that I never get tired of it, Hutu I’ve prattled on enough about it, so here’s that song for you to have the pleasure of hearing performed live.