Listen Up

LISTEN UP

Carlos Odria’s most recent album is “Montuno Negro.” SUBMITTED

Carlos Odria’s latest instrumental album

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

Carlos Odria’s music is both meticulously elegant and overflowing with emotion. It’s a marriage of technique and feeling which is daunting for a humble music critic to approach. It’s easy to feel like one doesn’t have the diction to properly capture the beauty of his Spanish/classical guitar. But endeavor we must, because Odria’s latest effort, “Montuno Negro,” is jaw-droppingly beautiful, so much so that it can move a listener to tears.

Writes Odria, on the CD cover, “’Montuno Negro (And Other Stories of Yesterday)’ is a collection of songs that I started to write some 10 years ago. The songs narrate the life and deeds of Montuno Negro, a fictional, all-too-real character who never stopped searching for a warm land where he could settle down. He was, by definition, a pariah, an untamed force, a montuno who knew only how to dance. This album is an attempt to bring him to life.”

Simply put, Odria succeeds at the task, and then some. The album is purely instrumental – just Odria and his guitar, at that – but there is a sense of movement throughout the album

SONG TO GET YOU THROUGH THE WEEK

Anaria singer Jessica Mercy shines on ‘Listen’

Victor D. Infante

Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

Sometimes, I'm reminded that the whole concept of musical genres is a bunch of nonsense. I was reminded of this again when I was alerted to “Listen,” the most recent music video from New England vocalist Jessica Mercy. Among her many roles, Mercy is the lead singer of the symphonic metal band Anaria, and she'll also be performing as a solo artist at 10 a.m. May 7 (yes, you read that time right) on the Waltham Common. The performance is part of the opening ceremonies for the Watch City Steampunk Festival, on the Gazebo Stage.

Now, symphonic metal is the genre which tends to soak up most of the classically trained vocalists in any given region. It's not surprising to find opera singers who have it as their side gig, or vice versa. Mercy definitely fits this pattern, but “Listen” was a complete surprise: Stark and emotionally evocative, the song seems – structure and tone wise – more a contemporary country ballad than it does either metal or classical. And you know what? That's just fine, because the song is absolutely gorgeous.

“Heart in my throat, words in my head,” sings Mercy, “A sentence undone on a page left unread./Pain in my chest, a numbness inside/Holding every feeling in 'til there's nowhere to hide.” It's spare and lovely, with just a touch of warble in the vocals that lets the song's emotional content shine. When the tone changes on the chorus and she belts out, “If you'd only listen to me,/I think you would find that there's more to see,” the effect is palpable.

In case you're wondering, while Anaria definitely takes on a familiar more rock feel, Mercy's vocals on songs such as “Golden Crowd” are just as beautiful and evocative as they are on “Listen.” Indeed, Mercy seems to be one of those rare vocalists who can sing just about anything, and getting tied up in genre just means you're missing something amazing.

BOX OFFICE

“The Bad Guys,” released by Universal Pictures, debuted with $24 million in U.S. and Canada ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

DREAMWORKS ANIMATION

‘Bad Guys’ bests ‘ The Northman,’ Cage at box office

Jake Coyle ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK – On an unusually crowded weekend at movie theaters that featured a pricey Viking epic and Nicolas Cage playing himself, DreamWorks Animation’s “The Bad Guys” bested the field, signaling a continued resurgence for family moviegoing after a downturn during the pandemic.

“The Bad Guys,” released by Universal Pictures, debuted with $24 million in U.S. and Canada ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. That came despite steep competition for families from Paramount Pictures’ “Sonic The Hedgehog 2,” which stayed in second place with $15.2 million its third week of release. It has grossed $145.8 million domestically thus far.

The apparent health of family moviegoing is especially good news for Hollywood as it heads into its lucrative summer season when films like Universal’s own “Minions: Rise of Gru” and Walt Disney Co.’s “Lightyear” – the first Pixar film opening in theaters in two years –hope to approach pre-pandemic levels.

“There’s reason for being more than cautiously optimistic,” said Jim Orr, head of distribution for Universal. “I think audiences this summer are going to be flooding into theaters.”

While studios have been hesitant to program many films against each other during the pandemic, the weekend saw a rarity: three new wide releases, all of them well-received, none of them sequels or remakes.

“The Bad Guys,” based on Aaron Blabey’s children’s graphic novel series about a gang of crooked animals with a Quentin Tarantino-for-kids tone, fared well with critics (85% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and audiences (an “A” CinemaScore). With little family competition until the release of “Lightyear” in mid-June, “The Bad Guys” should play well for weeks. Having first debuted overseas, the animated film has already grossed $63.1 million internationally.

The weekend’s other new releases –Robert Eggers’ “The Northman” and the Cage-starring “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent” – didn’t do as well but still fared reasonably solidly in their first weekend.

“Every weekend is a building block in the recovery, but I don’t even want to call it a recovery. I think movie theaters are recovered. We’re pretty much there,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for ComScore. “Three newcomers were all well-received, and all of them found an audience.”

The risks were greatest for Focus Features’ “The Northman,” which saw its budget balloon beyond $70 million, a major increase in scale for Eggers, the director of previous indie historical hor-

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Bad Guys,” $24 million. 2. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” $15.2 million.

3. “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of

Dumbledore,” $14 million. 4. “The Northman,” $12 million.

5. “The Unbearable Weight of Massive

Talent,” $7.2 million.

6. “Everything Everywhere All at

Once,” $5.4 million. 7. “The Lost City,” $4.4 million. 8. “Father Stu,” $3.4 million. 9. “Morbius,” $2.3 million. 10. “Ambulance,” $1.8 million.

Odria

Continued from Page 20

that gives shape to an emotional narrative that is often exhilarating and sometimes bracing. The album begins with the gentle and idyllic “Fisherman,” a placidly beautiful song which has an odd tinge of joy burbling around its edges, as though something is beckoning the listener to follow. That sense of restlessness carries into the next song, “Avenida Grau.” “Avenida Grau” is a much more tentative piece – still lovely, yes, but Odria has a way of pulling back at the end of each bar which lends the song a sense of hesitancy, maybe even fear, even as the sheer beauty of the instrumentation continues to lure the listener forward. If Montuno Negro is a persona, then he’s wrestling with both fear and wanderlust, a conflict resolves with “Susurros en la Glorieta,” a haunting song with syncopated guitar runs which create a sensation which is both a bit like rain on the window, and yet also like discovery.

You can, throughout this album, feel the persona’s heartbeat in the music, the way he steps deeper into the unknown with each song. One does not need to be an expert in the “son montuno” subgenre of Cuban music to grasp the sense of unfolding wildness and discovery, the syncopated musical patterns which feel like your heart racing beneath your chest. The album’s title track, “Montuno Negro,” has a cinematic quality to it, a sense of emerging wholly into that aforementioned unknown … the tentative opening notes giving way to a sense of freedom and discovery by song’s end. “Montuno” might mean, in English, “of the mountains,” but by this point in the album, the persona has left the place he knows behind, and found himself in “Veranos en el Malecon,” which roughly translates to “Summers on the waterfront.” Think a boardwalk or a promenade, rather than a rocky coastline. There’s something slow and indelibly sad about this song. It’s halting, almost regretful, and the moment of silence between it and the next song, “Solar Body, Pt. 1,” feels a lot like something ending.

“Solar Body, Pt. 1” is a much more jaunty and joyful number, one filled with bright chords and a vibrant cadence. Conversely, the subsequent song, “Solar Body, Pt. 3” – there is no “Solar Body, Pt. 2” – has a heavier feel, playing more in the lower ranges, and yet there’s still something bright in the song which cuts through the gloom.

Odria has a way of moving subtly from tone to tone between songs, with the next song, “Picazón” (which translates to “Twinkling” or “Tingling”), feeling like a bridge from the preceding heaviness. The song sheds weight as it goes, and by the time it transitions into “Songs for Alma” (or “Soul”), there’s something transcendent with each note.

Indeed, if this album appeared, on its surface, to be a journey outward into the wild, it’s also a spiritual journey inward, and the touch of turbulence at the end of “Songs for Alma” reflects a sense of change. No part of this journey is easy for its persona, and even the subsequent song, the jubilant “Mr. Glasses,” has a touch of darkness at the end, one which sets the stage for the sheer meditative beauty of “Walking on Clouds.”

The album begins to wind down with “”Senderos de Churin,” a song which starts with halting and delicate chords, with moments of silence between guitar lines which have a way of catching the listener’s breath, before giving way to a sound that’s more festive. The song centers on an unexpected discovery of joy, and it’s positively arresting. Then the album moves on to the penultimate song, “The Monk,” which acts as a sort of caesura before the album’s conclusion, a moment of meditation before the joyous, “La Nana,” a song which ebbs and flows in tone, but ultimately concludes the album on a sense of lightness and contentment. It’s a beautiful ending to a beautiful album, and the journey that it takes you on is nothing short of breathtaking.

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5 THINGS TO DO

DINOSAURS, JAZZ, BENEFIT FOR UKRAINE AND MORE ...

Alex Minasian

Alex Minasian Quartet launches Brown Bag season

The Alex Minasian Quartet will be featured in a Brown Bag Concert May 4 in Mechanics Hall. Minasian has quickly established himself as a versatile pianist, educator and impresario in many different musical genres. He has performed in most of the country’s most famous jazz rooms, such as Birdland, the Blue Note, Cafe Carlyle, Yoshi’s, Bohemian Caverns, Herb Alpert’s Vibrato, Iridium, Jazz @ Lincoln Center, and the Apollo Theater. The Brown Bag concerts are presented by Mechanics Hall and radio station WICN-FM (90.5). What: Brown Bag Concert — The Alex Minasian Quartet When: Noon, May 4 Where: Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St., Worcester How much: Free

Richard Duckett Worcester Magazine | USA TODAY NETWORK

‘The Guide’ screening to benefit Ukraine

The 2014 Ukrainian film “The Guide” will be screened May 6 in The Park View Room by cinema-worcester, with all proceeds going to the Ukrainian Relief Fund. Directed by Oles Sanin, “The Guide” was the Ukrainian entry in the foreign-language category at the Academy Awards in 2015. The story revolves around the friendship between an American boy and a blind minstrel in 1930s Ukraine, when millions in the region were being starved to death by Stalin’s Soviet Union. Sanin, now under lockdown somewhere in Kyiv, has added an introduction to the film. The film was not released theatrically in the U.S. or Western European countries until now, and Sanin and the producers have agreed that “The Guide” may be screened without payment to them as long as ticket proceeds or other donations go to Ukraine relief. Proceeds will go directly to the Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America, Inc. Ukraine Relief Fund (www.hcr.org). What: “The Guide,” presented by cinema-worcester When: 7 p.m. May 6 Where: The Park View Room, 230 Park Ave., Worcester How much: $15 (all seats). www.cinema-worcester.com

A scene from the Ukrainian film “The Guide.”

An Albertosauras is among the dinosaurs featured in “Jurassic

Quest.” PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS

Dinosaurs invade DCU

“Jurassic Quest” will be at the DCU Convention Center April 29 - May 1 for some old-fashioned pre-historic fun. The educational entertainment experience for the whole family includes life-like dinosaurs, some of the largest rideable dinosaurs in North America, live shows, interactive science and art activities including a fossil dig and real fossils like T-Rex teeth, a triceratops horn and life-size dino skull, a “Triceratots” soft play area for the littlest explorers, bounce houses and inflatable attractions, photo opportunities, and more. Self-guided; timed entry. What: “Jurassic Quest” When: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 29 and 30; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. May 1 Where: DCU Convention Center, 50 Foster St., Worcester How much: $24; seniors $21; kids unlimited ride $38. Ticketmaster.com