On August 5, Nonesuch will release Harps and Angels, Randy Newman's first album of new songs since 1999 and the follow up to his Nonesuch debut, The Randy Newman Songbook: Vol. 1, from 2003.
Music from Randy's songbook could be heard over a number of stages at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival over the past week, with various performers offering their own takes on his poignant piece "Louisiana 1927." Randy performed the song at the close of his own set at the Festival on Thursday, which, the New York Times' Jon Pareles says, included "easy-rolling, ragtimey piano parts carrying lyrics that often drifted toward patter: sometimes political, sometimes personal."
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The Associated Press writer Stacey Plaisance reports that celebrated pianist Allen Toussaint, whose "Yes We Can Can" was the opening track on the Our New Orleans record on which Randy's "Louisiana 1927" was the closer, "was in the screaming, whistling crowd when Randy Newman took the stage," and smiling all the while.
"He's wonderful," Toussaint told Plaisance. "I wasn't going to miss this."
You'll find the AP's coverage of the Festival at nola.com.
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Tommy Stevenson, an associate editor at the Tuscaloosa News in Alabama, offers his own insight on the week's events, calling Randy's set perhaps the highlight of the entire Festival till then. Stevenson reports that Randy called New Orleans his "favorite city in the world," imploring from the stage "for the rest of the country to realize how important this city is ... because the people down here realize what is really important in life."
You can read the writer's JazzFest report on stevensonblog.tuscaloosanews.com.
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Following JazzFest, Randy headed up to St. Louis, Missouri, for a benefit concert at the Sheldon Concert Hall on behalf of the Hall's education initiatives. He spoke with writer Daniel Durcholz for an article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in which the two discuss Randy's songwriting technique, his recent acting gig in George Clooney's Leatherheads, and his first foray into the world of YouTube---his video recording of "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country." Randy has also recorded the song for the forthcoming album. You can read the Post-Dispatch interview at stltoday.com and watch the video below:
