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Arts & Entertainment Preview - February 1999 B Y   B O B   B L U M E N T H A L   &   C H A R L E S   M.   Y O U N G An Eye on Spy     Joshua Ralph of Spy The problem with all the techno-weirdness that was supposed to take over the world a couple of years ago was that it could catch the ear but not hold it outside a dance club where the spinal column could undulate properly. To hold the ear in other environments, you need a song with structure and hooks. On Music to Mauzner By (Lava/At- lantic), Spy sounds state-of-the-techno-weirdness-art, with its dizzying, computerized manipulations of sound, but it's also got highly distinctive, often hilarious songs. And it drops a large dollop of humanity on techno-weirdness with its use of vintage instruments played by live human beings on many tracks. Spy consists mostly of Joshua Ralph, a twenty-three-year-old graduate of New York University's film school, whose good-natured bellowing in a variety of styles from around the world takes your mind off computer chips in a sterile recording studio. Biggest surprise: first single, "Baby." It rollicks, is irresistibly danceable, has an insanely catchy hook, and will garner some early nominations for "Song of the Year." Imagine Nine Inch Nails in a happy mood. There isn't much to analyze: "Baby baby, every time I get next to you/Baby baby, all I want is what's next to you." But then who wants to analyze when you're chanting along? Second biggest surprise: the final cut, "Untitled 17." It's a classical composition recorded with a fifty-six-piece orchestra. The melody is so gorgeous that you assume you must have heard it when Lee surrendered to Grant in Ken Burns's Civil War documentary. In between, the only fault you'll find is the occasional chorus stretched too far, which isn't much of a fault. "Baby" and "Untitled 17" alone would be worth the price of the album. Truly an important debut. And what does it mean to "mauzner"? Ralph has a wild and adventurous friend by that name. With a little luck and proper marketing, he'll enter the language. --C.M.Y. Earth Tones Abbey Lincoln   Abbey Lincoln has always dealt in broader issues than moon-June romance. In the early sixties she became jazz's unflinching voice of the civil-rights movement. After an extensive period when her focus shifted to acting, Lincoln has re-emerged as a sage who meditates on simple joys and transcendent possibilities of the universe. Lincoln has carried off this precarious artistic pose in a series of albums without sappiness or true-believer zeal. Wholly Earth (Verve), her latest collection of paeans and parables, is another lesson in how to mesmerize and instruct. To a gritty voice that recalls Billy Holiday in texture and emotional commitment, Lincoln adds personal magnetism and a knack for fashioning programs as surely paced as they are eccentric. She borrows from films, building the sky-seeking "Another World" out of the main theme from Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and finding unexpected depth in "If I Only Had a Brain." But she also creates her own stark original melodies, which are featured on the majority of the tracks. Record companies love to deploy artists on their rosters as special guests, and Verve has provided two name sidemen for Lincoln. The young trumpeter Nicholas Payton banks his usual fire in four reflective supporting appearances, while Bobby Hutcherson, who is simultaneously releasing his own invigorating album, Skyline, adds an international flavor with his vibes and marimba that make Lincoln's musings quietly bristle. --B.B. The Elements of Jazz     David Liebman David Liebman may be the most prolific recording artist in jazz. In addition to discs by his working quintet, the soprano and tenor saxophonist has produced numerous special projects, including tributes to his idol John Coltrane and his former employer Miles Davis. Liebman reveals his most personal ideas on album-length suites with nature themes. The Elements: Water (Arkadia Jazz) is the first of a four-CD cycle, and it takes a lyrical opening theme through calms and storms. The bassist Cecil McBee and the drummer Billy Hart, who partnered with Liebman on his poetic The Seasons (Soul Note), bring the same eloquence to this more nuanced cycle, while Pat Metheny adds a critical fourth voice, on guitar, that alternately soothes and cries. Moving among two acoustic models and a forty-eight-string Picasso guitar that has the enveloping quality of a harp, Metheny reinforces the work's thematic distinctions. Relentless power, a Liebman trademark, is stressed in such movements as "White Caps" and the climactic "Ebb and Flow"; yet he also takes his primary horn, the soprano sax, into gentler areas on "Heaven's Gift" and "The Baptismal Font." Notwithstanding the affinity demonstrated by this particular quartet, Liebman promises a different ensemble for each succeeding element. --B.B. Bob Blumenthal is a jazz critic for The Boston Globe. Charles M. Young reviews popular music for Playboy, Musician, and other publications. Go to ... Copyright © 1999 by The Atlantic Monthly Company. All rights reserved.