The Capeman

11/18/1997 3:00 AM, LAUNCH
Josef Woodard

Paul Simon has been veering away from the landscape of purely American pop songsmithing for a decade now, between the South African colorations of Graceland and the Brazilian pulse of The Rhythm Of The Saints. Now, the ambitious and restless songwriter takes on another foreign terrain: Broadway, his way. His musical The Capeman, was written in collaboration with Derek Walcott, and the accompanying album--13 tunes from the musical sung by Simon--is his first new project in seven years. In this tale of hard-copy grit (re: the 16-year-old gang member Salvador Algron, sentenced to death in 1959 for murdering two teenagers in NYC) aspires to operatic intensity, all within the context of pop. The combination of Puerto Rican traditions and '50s doo-wop brings West Side Story instantly to mind, but Simon's elegant blend of words to music gives the tale its own unique power. Ambitious songwriters tend to think big, eventually: Randy Newman had his wickedly funny Faust, and now Simon has his own magnum opus, lined with socio-cultural passion and rhythmic spunk.