| If you assume soul music is obliged to drown in Memphis horn chartsand gospel chords, 24-year-old English-Jamaican Alistair Tennant,who under the cognomen Ali has just releasedCrucial(Island BlackMusic), may not meet your genre specifications. But if you admitLuther Vandross into the fold, if you think Boyz II Men are in thetradition, sing hallelujah. Influenced most directly by Al Green,with goodly dollops of Vandross and Ronnie Isley and much respectfor his love-man contemporaries, Ali distinguishes himself from newjack crooners like Maxwell and D'Angelo not so much with his voiceas with his songwriting--he works to come up with solid tunes andlyrics that delineate a situation or express an emotion.CrazyDon't (the solace of insanity) andWish You Better (than him) aretwo of his harder hitting concoctions. But rarely these days doesa black pop album--any kind of pop album--so successfully avoidfiller.
Are you a guy who yawns whenWe Will Rock You blasts out over thestadium PA but still feels his fannish bloodlust stirred by theRamones?ESPN Presents Slam Jams Vol. 1 (Tommy Boy)is designed tomake you cheer: 16 surefire "new wave" anthems whose punky beats nolonger seem weird to anyone--not even Mike Ditka.
The long-plannedCapeman rides the wave of the ltest world-musictrend, which is no longer Celtic but "Latin"--especially Cuban.Which is why incorrigible musical tourist Ry Cooder visited Havanarecently. He intended to come back with two albums, but couldn'tresist a third:Introducing . . . Ruben Gonzales (World Circuit),which features a revitalized 77-year-old master pianist and no Ryat all. It's certainly the prize of the three. Thank you, Ry.Playboy, Dec. 1997
 | Nov. 1997 | Jan. 1998 |  |
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