A Revolution in Blues

F2 SUNDAY,JULY26, 2015 LATIMES.COM/CALENDAR ARTS & BOOKS GETTING A CHANGING SEAT AT THE GUIDING THE WORLD, DINNER TABLE POPULAR ONE YOUTH MUSICIAN BOOK REVIEW, TASTES F8 AT A TIME POP, F4 CLASSICAL, F11 ON VIEW POP & HISS Richards’ third solo album has heart By Randy Lewis What do you do when your bandmate and song- writing partner happens to be one of the most celebrated lead singers in all of rock ’n’ roll? If you’re Keith Richards, you largely keep your mouth shut and be content to be one of the most celebrated lead guitarists in all of rock ’n’ roll. Still, from time to time you might have something to say, and so Richards has stepped to the mike, notably with “Happy” back when the Rolling Stones recorded “Exile on Main Street” in 1972, and on two solo al- bums, “Talk Is Cheap” in 1988 and “Main Offender” four years later. Given the Stones’ pace in the studio of late, which at best might be described as “deliberate” (their most recent album, “A Bigger The Norton Simon Art Foundation Bang,” is now 10 years old), “HAPPY LOVERS” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard is included in the exhibition “A Revolution of the Palette” at Norton Simon Museum. Richards is now set to release “Crosseyed Heart,” just the third solo studio album of his half-century- plus recording career. The Times will have a formal review closer to the album’s release date in A revolution in blues September, but on Tuesday night in Hollywood, about 50 people got an early listen to an album that features a core band of drummer and The creation of three shades of singer Steve Jordan, guitar- blue hues — Prussian, cobalt and ist Waddy Wachtel and multi-instrumentalist Larry ultramarine — in 18th and 19th cen- Campbell. tury European art, spanning from the Among the guests: the late Bobby Keys, the Texas Rococo period to Impressionism, is saxophonist whom Rich- the subject of a colorful exhibition at ards called his musical soul the Norton Simon Museum, “A Revo- mate after they met in the ’60s. Also onboard is singer lution of the Palette: The First Syn- Norah Jones, and Muscle thetic Blues and Their Impact on Shoals organist Spooner French Artists.” Oldham, New Orleans singer Aaron Neville and son “Previously, there were a limited Ivan Neville. number of options for oil painting,” As always, Richards’ ragged voice is an instru- noted conservator and curator John ment that’s more service- Griswold. “Common indigo blue pig- able than distinguished — ment did not stand up in oil, often it’s the equivalent of a crude raft that can take the user turning to mushy gray.” from one bank of a river to The first breakthrough, dark blue the other, not traverse long distances with tremendous Prussian, was the result of a labora- style or panache. tory accident around1704. It was im- Yet Richards gets emo- mediately popular with French art- tions across in the album’s 15 songs. The album opens ists because of its tinting strength with the title track, just and whole new range of green. “Its Richards playing guitar and discovery also coincided with Isaac croaking a vocal that con- nects him with the Delta Newton’s color theory, which shifted blues. Several songs offer up discussion of color and light scien- big Stones-like rockers with The Norton Simon Art Foundation beefy grooves and tasty tifically,” said Griswold. “THE SEINE at Charenton (formerly Daybreak)” by Jean-Baptiste Armand Guillaumin. guitar work. But it also Inspired by the blue glazes used on contains tracks that are 18th century Sèvres porcelain, ini- sweetly reflective, occasion- ally regretful and often tially reserved for the aristocracy, vulnerable, qualities you chemist Louis Jacques Thénard de- might not expect from one veloped a synthetic, vivid cobalt blue of rock’s most notorious antiheroes who, at 71, is not pigment making it affordable for the only a husband and father masses. but a grandfather and, most recently, a first-time chil- Considered the Holy Grail of pig- dren’s book author. ments, ultramarine, derived from the rare semiprecious gemstone lapis Follow @RandyLewis2 on Twitter. lazuli, was once more expensive than gold. In 1824, the French government held a contest to find a cheap, acces- sible synthetic ultramarine. Artists finally had an affordable palate of cool and warm colors to fully replicate nature’s canvas. “The innovation of paint tubes around the same time made it possible to bring paint out- doors,” added Griswold. Twenty-five objects from the mu- seums collection, plus a vase and four rare editions on Newton, Voltaire and Goethe’s color theories borrowed Daniel Mears Detroit News from the Huntington Library, are on KEITH RICHARDS, display through January. shown this month in The Norton Simon Art Foundation from the estate of Jennifer Jones Simon Detroit, is set to release —Liesl Bradner GUSTAVE CAILLEBOTTE painted “Canoe on the Ye rres River” in 1878. “Crosseyed Heart.”.

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