.icllow tone around these scores, and she is supported by the wonderfully poetic playing of Levin.

Brahms called these sonatas for viola and piano, giving the instruments equal billing, and this splendid collaboration displays the grand music of both parts. ECM's recorded sound is very lifelike. P.B.

Comedy
Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks
The 2000 Year Old Man in the Year 2000 (RHINO) IWie latest in a recent series of I new recordings by long-dorI mant comedy performers (Stan Freberg, The Firesign Theater, Tom Lehrer, The Rutles) is the return of the funniest stand-up personas of the past two millennia. After a 24year hiatus, Mel Brooks triumphantly reprises his 2000 Year Old Man role. With interviewer Carl Reiner, Brooks began his 2000 Year Old routine while writing for Sid Caesar in the early 19503, and performed it at showbiz parties for years. In 1960 they recorded their first LP, which immediately established Brooks' character as a martyr who's seen and done it

all ("I have over 42,000 children," he laments, "and not one comes to visit"). Three more albums followed, in which Brooks told us history's first national anthem ("Let 'em all go to hell/ Except Cave 76") and offered such revisionist tidbits as Paul Revere's anti-Semitism ("The Yiddish are coming!"). At the end of yet another century, Brooks' character is still alert "smart as a ship," he would say and offers insight into computer sex, medicine and some of the forgotten commandments ("Thou shalt not squint"). This fifth Brooks/Reiner album isn't quite up to the duo's earlier standards; there are too many Hollywood in-jokes outsiders might not get, and on occasion the 2000 Year Old Man lets

loose with profanity, which may make the CD unsuitable for children. But on the whole, it's still a delight. I defy anyone to play this album and not crack a smile when Reiner asks if Brooks' father was a disciplinarian. Brooks quickly replies, "There was no Aryan in that man!"
Andrew Milner

Various Artists

Golden Throats 4: Celebrities Butcher Songs of the Beatles (RHINO)

^Phe Beatles' dominance in I po popular music during the I 19603 not only led to thousands of rock group imitators, but inspired pop vocalists of the day to do "meaningful" covers of Beatle hits. Middle-aged music fans during the flower-power era could listen to Tennessee Ernie Celebrities Ford's "Let It Be" or Bing Crosby's "Hey Jude" and convince themselves they were with it. Of course, one man's travesty is another man's marketing opportunity, and Golden Throats 4 slickly anthologizes the worst of this genre. Some of the worst offenders include Joel Grey's over-enunciat-

ed "She's Leaving Home," Mae West's shaky "Day Tripper" and George Burns' "With a Little Help From My Friends." Joe Pesci, known in the '6os as Little Joe, attempts "Got to Get You Into My Life." To paraphrase Goodfdlas, yeah, Joe, we do think you're funny. No bad record anthology is complete without William Shatner, and he's here with his "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds." Shatner brings the same subtlety and understatement to LennonMcCartney as he did to Star Trek. The common error in these covers is the attempt to impose another musical style on the Beatles. Alan Copeland actually underscores "Norwegian Wood" with the theme from "Mission: Impossible." (Surprisingly, this cut won a Grammy in 1968.) "Norwegian Wood" appears a second time, as Jan and Dean unwisely add surf harmonies to the song. The Beatles are the most covered group in music history, so it's forgivable that not every lame Beatles cover is on this CD. Surprisingly, though, nothing from the soundtrack to the 1978 Sgt. Pepper movie is here. There should have at least been room for Steve Martin's execrable "Maxwell's Silver Hammer."
A.M.

wise salutes the Kaycee masters, no doubt resisting the temptation of complete stylistic imitation. The Kansas City soundtrack presents an approach to jazz that is accurately historical y^ithout ; becoming stale or documentary unlike many of the "Young Lion" releases, this project takes jazz off the pedestal, dusts it off, and breathes present-day life into it. The best tracks on this album are those recorded with a club audience, as exemplified by the rapturous crowd interjections that bring each chorus higfier and higher during vocalist Kevin Mahogany's blues, " I Left My Baby." Kansas Cityls much more than a glib tribute to old times. It is a reminder that swing was the territory not of Glenn Miller, but of the Kaycee jams; a reminder that jazz is about spontaneity and emotion. Nate C h / n e n
COMEDY

Various Artists
Buy This Box or We'll Shoot This Dog: The Best of the National Lampoon Radio Hour (Rhino)

Get past this three-CD box set's smarmy title (based on the most notorious cover in National Lampoon history) .and its self-consciously hip liner notes and you'll discover a hilarious compilation of stuff from the National Lampoon Radio Hour, which aired from 1973 to 1975. The Radio Hour skewered everything frorn establishment targets like religion, big business and politics to the counter-culture beliefs of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and did so boch with savage wit (see "The Ryen O'Neal Story").and genuine whn o, ("Evil Santa"). It's appar^i '. j.<. despite the infamous irnsma power struggles within i'rLampoon at the time, the people there truly respected each ot p -;er . and enjoyed collaboration. A bevy of future stars can be found here, including Richarc Belzer, Billy Crystal, Joe Flaherty and Harold Rarrmi. The Rado Hour was the precursor to the early Saturday Night Lve and this recording establishes the incontrovertible fact that, yes, Chevy Chase was once actually very funny. It's also wonderful to hear the late John Belushi, Michael O'Donoghue anc Gilaa Radnor again (in one inspired bit, Beiushi does Brando's L?sf. Tango In Paris character singing "I Rernemoer It Well" from Gigi). The real star to emerge from this set is Christopher Guest. From manic rock promoter Ron Fieius to spaceman Flask Babzo to his dead-on musical parodies i<. eck out "Closet Queen" and "Overdose Heaven"), Gua^: establishes him:;elf as ;ne UP nis generation's sharpest comics. Of local interest is George Agoglia's savago impression of ' Frank Rizzo, which effectively assassinates Ri;:zo's character. Petty crime, if you ask me. Andrew Mllner

COMEDY
Richard Beizer
Another Lone Nut (Uproar)
t's fitting that Richard Beizer reprised his Homicide role of Detective John Munch on The XFiles this season; Belzer's a trueblue conspiracy nut in real life, as evidenced on his on-target comedy album Another Lone Nut. Belzer's in command as a stand-up, eviscerating the JFK assassination, the Nixon and Reagan presidencies (catch the authentic sound bite of Reagan asking what would happen if the United States and Soviets faced an intergalactic threat) and the Heaven's Gate cult. Showing up regularly on Howard Stern's show as the resident p.c. foil (and after five hours of Howard every morning, you long for a progressive voice), Belzer's smart enough to make fun of himself, too. He describes in detail the time Hulk Hogan body-slammed him on TV's "Hot Properties," and introduces Belzonics, a new language mimicking his hip, detached persona: "Yeah, yeah, sure, that's great..." He also reveals an unknown musical side, doing Elvis's bar mitzvah and "Like a Rolling Stone" as interpreted by a French cabaret singer, plus a jazz-inflected hymn: "Hey Jesus, what a groovy guy! What a cat you are! Too bad you've been misquoted over the rimes!" Even Paul Shaffer shows up to serenade Beizer ("K's raining Belz!") in a cameo. You'll probably enjoy this album more if you're a conspiracy theorist, but it's accessible on its own. Where Beizer is concerned, the laughter is out there. Andrew Milner

Comedy/ Spoken Word

Various Artists Dementia 2000: Dr. Demcnta's 30th Anniversary Collection
(RHINO)

After lavish two-disc sets commemorating Dr. Demento's 20th and 25th anniversaries, it's welcome news that there's still enough wackiness left over lor a 30th birthday tribute. Dr. Dement*)(a.k.a. Barry Hanson) him always been egalitarian with his on-air and vinyl choices, This sot includes cuts by estahHshed performers (Phil Harris* "The Thing," George Carlm's "Ice Box Man," Monty F*ython*s "Lumberjack Hong") and unknown artists (Tlie Vestibules'infectious "Bulbous Bouffant," Henry Phillips' salute to eccentricity "On the Shoulders of Freaks"). It also features figures like "Weird Al""Yankovic (represented hereby three songs), onceunknowns whom the good Doctor made stars. Unlike the many slapdash compilations of novelty songs (usually by K-Tel) during the 1970s, Demento albums are known for their excellent research and production values. Dr. Dementos smart, enough, for example, to include Mt'l Blanc's "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody" with "Kill the WabbrT by one "Ozzy Fudd." He's also sharp enough to mention in the liner notes that "My Dinga-Ling" was Chuck Berry's only numberone single, The song 1 couldn't stop singing the summer I was 5 years old, Loudon Wainwright Ill's "Dead Skunk,1' in here, along with the even more macabre "I Want My Baby Back" by Jimmy Cross. Whatever your threshold of taste or if your taste level hasn't changed at all since you were 5 Dementia 2000 is a great trip down memory lane. Andrew Mflner

and two albums aur mhled posthuliturgical traditions; Modem Chant ' mously) against Bruce, and Hicks is the perfect canvas for the pianist's doesn't come off too shabbily. This broad musical palette, and a catalyst was not a comic preoccupied with for brilliant trio work. Bley adopts why you drive on a parkway but Gregorian harmonic conventions in park in a driveway or other trivia. his reliance on unison and domiHe complains about the Gulf War, nant fifths, but only as a skeletal the LAPD, comics who shill ("You framework. In "Digitant," Bley uses do commercial, you're off the a pedal point with modulating fifth artistic roll call farntr... There's a chords before releasing a solo stateprice on your head, everything you ment in octaves. At times, his right say is suspect") and the overall and left hands engage in a sort of "eighth-grade emotional level we're contrapuntal conversation on the at in this country." keyboard. Bley's sidemen provide These CDs are not for the taint of much more than support; drummer heart. Hicks U sometimes amazingly Bruce Ditmas plays with relaxed hilarious, sometimes grotesquely control throughout the album, and offensive, and often both at once David Eyges' electric cello provides such as his Rant In E-Minor routine a welcome departure from the stanwith Rush Limbaugh as a passive dard upright bass. Eyges serves dual S&M partner, and his fantasy of Jay roles, playing walking bass lines Leno killing himself on The Tonfeht ("Loose Change") as well as plainShow. He's not even above the tive bowed melodies ("Please cheapest form of wit, the pun, Don't"). Although their devotion to which youll find in a Kennedy assassination bit on Arizona Bay. the liturgical realm U purely musical, Bley, Eyges and Ditmas form Not everything works. In an . i . another sort of collaborative trinity. attempt to do a concept album, "Decompose" and "Wisecracks" are Arizona Bay has a distracting guitar great examples of the trio's alchemy track underneath. All too often, the musicians' Interplay 1s wide Hicks lectures the audience, much open but also tightly focused, sponas Bruce did: "To me, 'pornography' is spending all your money and not taneous and highly intuitive. In short, Modern Chant is a seamless educating the people of America trio performance, marked by Bley's and instead spending it on weapons." But there are also gencharacteristically intelligent and uine Insights, as when Hicks spirited playing. NoteCUnen explains why Cops is broadcast: "So you'll know that state power will win. 'We'll bust your house down as we'll fucking bust you anytime we want.' That's the message... to keep Arizona Bay, Dangerous, Kant in you afraid and impotent." E-Minor & Relentless (reissues on Overall, these CDs are the funniRykodiscl est and most intelligent comedy Since Bill Hicks died three years albums in years. "We live in a world where John Lennon was murdered, ago at 32 of pancreatic cancer, he's yet Barry Manilow continue i.i pu been lionized by show-biz bigshots out fucking albums," Hicks rants. as The Next Lenny Bruce. It's a little hypocritical, considering many Sadly, we also live in a world where he died relatively anonymously, of these fat can didn't so much as spit on Hicks while he was alive. while Pauly Shore has a fucking sitHowever, stack up the, Hicks on com. Andrew Milner these four new CDs (two reissues

em Hick*

3OMEDY

3heech and Chong Vhere There's Smoke,.. There's Cheech And Chong RHINO)

When I was in high school during the 1980s there was never a band or play rehearsal without somebody's boom box blaring the constant refrain: "Open up, it's Dave! I got the stuffl""Dave?... Dave's not here." Before the arrival of Beavis and Butthead, Bill and Ted, Wayne and Garth or Bob and Doug McKenzie, you had to listen to Cheech and Chong for the most intelligent brand of dumb-guy humor. Three decades after the, uh, high point of their careers, with the shattering of their partnership the stuff of a recent El True Hollywood Story, Cheech and Cheng's best-known bits t have been collected on this two-CD set. Most of their essential marijuana-fueled routines are here, from "Let's Make a Dope Deal" and "Earache My Eye" to such Dr. Demento song staples as "Basketball Jones" (with accompaniment from George Harrison and Carole King, among others) and Chong's "Born in East L.A." Listening to Cheech and Chong years later, it's interesting to see how many of their targets still seem fresh for satire (nuns, Geraldo Rivera), though some are outdated (record producers, DJs). As might be expected, some of their material hasn't held up in comparison to the multilayered, drug-laced comedy albums by such contemporaries as The Firesign Theater and The National Lampoon, Cheech and Chong's single-entendre skits (i.e. "Blind Melon Chitlin'") seem pretty tame. Where There's Smoke... is nonetheless a good guilty pleasure, even if it doesn't inspire a craving for Doritos and Certs after you listen to it. Andrew Milner

COMEDY

Various Artists
The Classic National Lampoon Box Set

(UPROAR ENTERTAINMENT)

This four-disc collection ofNational Lampoon albums from the 1970s and early 1980s (induding77ia& Not Funny, ThafsSick; The National Lampoon White Album and Sex, Drugs, Rock'n'Rdl and the End of the World) is one ^.ore attempt to resurrect the Lampoon franchise for the 21st century. The unfunny trucker-song parody album Rules of the Road was released two years ago, and there's a Lampoon send-up of TV poker programs in the worksas you might have guessed, this version features strip poker. Despite the good intentions, Lampoon's moment has passed.Most of the once-outrageous skits here wouldn't shock contemporary audiences accustomed to Howard

Stern and The Aristocrats. (If, on the other hand, you've been longing to hear Richard Belzer quip about prison rape, this set is a godsend.) They've saved the best for last, though, as the Greatest Hits disc preserves the funniest bits from the vintage Lampoon era. "Pizza Man" perfectly nails the early'60s "Leader of the Pack" genre of teen death pop songs, and "Deteriorata" demolishes hippie philosophy ("You are a fluke of the universe, you have no right to be here, and whether you can hear it or not, the universe is laughing behind your back"). Recognizable; voices include Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase and Christopher Guest (as Bob Dylan on "Those Fabulous Sixties," and as a middle-class folkie singing "Well-intentioned Blues," about 30 years before-A Mighty Wind). While the 1996 box set of the Lampoon's Radio Hour programs (Buy This Box or We'll Shoot This Dog) was professionally presented, this set is decidedly less slick. There aren't any old or new liner notes, nor a list of which performers did

which sketches. More laziness: three of the Greatest Hits bits already appear on the other albums in the set. The Lampoon folks would have been better offsimply re-releasing the first Lampoon albums (Radio Dinner, Lemmings and Gold Turkey) instead of the later, lamer material The Classic National Lampoon recreates the original magazine all too preciselyinordertogettothefiinny stuff, you have to wade through an awful lot ofdreck. Andrew Milner