Monthly Archive: May 2016
Frank Kimbrough – Meantime – Newvelle (vinyl)
Tasty prix fixe jazz… Frank Kimbrough – Meantime – Newvelle NV001LP – vinyl ***1/2: (Frank Kimbrough – piano; Andrew Zimmerman – tenor sax; Riley Mulherkar – trumpet; Chris Van Vorst Van Beest – bass; RJ Miller – drums) There are those that love the best life has to offer. (Within reasonable limits) they pursue fine food, fine wine, and aural treats as well. For audiophiles, 180 gm vinyl has always fit the bill, even in times when digital releases smothered the market. There is a warmth and presence that a well-recorded and pressed analog LP has always claimed. A new marketing strategy by Newvelle Records will appeal to this market. They are offering a subscription series (beginning at $350) for six audiophile 180 gm LPs to be issued bi-monthly over the next year. Newvelle’s goal is to keep the signal chain short and clean utilizing vintage and tube microphones. Promising the best acoustics, recorded at East Side Sound in NYC, and pressed at MPO in France, the subscription features six intriguing titles. Besides the initial Frank Kimbrough issue, they include a solo piano recording by Jack DeJohnette, a Don Friedman Trio tribute to Booker Little, and Ben Allison Trio’s homage […]
Remember, Blu-ray (2015)
A provacative thriller with a different twist on the revenge story. Remember, Blu-ray (2015) Cast: Christopher Plummer, Martin Landau, Bruno Ganz Director: Atom Egoyan Studio: Lionsgate (5/3/16) Video: 1.78:1 for 16:9 screens, 1080p HD color Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Subtitles: Spanish, English SDH Extras: “Performances to Remember,” “A Tapestry of Evil,” Audio track by director, producer & writer Length: 94 min. Rating: ****1/2 A survivor of Auschwitz moves into a foster home and is directed by another survivor to find and kill a German guard who murdered his family some 70 years ago and is living in America under an assumed name. A complication on the gripping journey is that Zev has serious onset of Alzheimers that tests both his fading memory and his will. His friend arranges everything in advance, keeping this in mind. His longtime wife has recently died as well. There are four supposed former Nazis with the same name and at first Zev finds people that do not qualify. The script is wonderfully unpredictable. On the way to his final meeting, Zev accidentally kills the son of a former Nazi when the trooper’s German shepherd attacks him. He is onscreen during almost the entire film. […]
David Fiuczynski – Flam! Blam! Pan Asian Microjam! – RareNoise
Welcome to David Fiuczynski’s microtonal jazz terrain: unfamiliar musical landscapes abound. David Fiuczynski – Flam! Blam! Pan Asian Microjam! [TrackList follows] RareNoise RNR058, 47:02 [3/18/16] ****: (David Fiuczynski – fretted and fretless guitar, piano (track 6), percussion (tracks 4, 7, 9); Helen Sherrah-Davies – violin (tracks 1-7); Yazhi Guo – suona (oboe) and Chinese percussion (tracks 1-7, 9); Utar Artun – microtonal keyboards (tracks 1-3, 5-7, 10), Rhodes electric piano (tracks 1, 10), synthesizer (track 10), piano (track 8); Justin Schornstein – fretless bass and effects; Alex ‘BisQuiT’ Bailey – drums, bells, percussion (all except track 9); Rudresh Mahanthappa – alto saxophone (track 8-10)) There’s outsider jazz. Then there’s the music of guitarist David ‘Fuze’ Fiuczynski. Most musicians play the notes normally considered part of jazz or other Western types of music. Fiuczynski uses microtones, and plays notes between the set intervals of Western music theory and its 12-tone chromatic scale. His microtonal universe can seem strange to unsuspecting listeners. It’s certainly unique and rare among jazz artists. He’s not alone in his approach; guitarist Eric Zidovec and saxophonists Joe Maneri and Sergio Merce are other examples, but the list of microtonal jazz manipulators is short. Consequently, Fiuczynski’s material is […]
VASKS: Presence – Sol Gabetta, cello – Amsterdam Sinfonietta – Sony Classical
VASKS: Presence – Sol Gabetta, cello – Amsterdam Sinfonietta – Sony Classical 88725423122, 61:00 ***: Vasks divides the difference between risk and reward and comes out ahead. The Latvian composer Peteris Vasks likes to take risks. His symphonies are wide sprawling affairs, romantic at core with long reflective passages that can suddenly erupt into frantic desperation. These outbursts often occur with little warning. His Concerto No. 2 for Cello and String Orchestra works like this. It begins as an extended cadenza, reflective, with Samuel Barber-ish sentimentality. The statuesque Sol Gabetta plays it with some mastery. (Also for Sony, she performed a competent − but not extraordinary − rendition of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2.) You will probably enjoy the lively Allegro. It has dramatic sforzandos and steep scalar ascents, along with subtle tempo shifts. The final movement is sedate, but with strange effects like a full-scale descending glissando, as if the air has been let out of the piece. Suddenly, ninety seconds from the finale, a keening soprano voice sings out a sweet one-minute vocalese. It’s Gabetta! Her pipes aren’t bad: Vasks’ writing for her is both ethereal and unadventurous. And we hear almost the same sequence again in the […]
MAX REGER: Music for Clarinet and Piano = Albumblatt; Sonata; Sonata in F-sharp minor; Sonata in B-flat major; Tarantella – Alan R. Kay, clar./Jon Klibonoff, p. – Bridge
MAX REGER: Music for Clarinet and Piano = Albumblatt; Sonata in A-flat major, Op. 49, No. 2; Sonata in F-sharp minor, Op. 49. No. 1; Sonata in B-flat major, Op. 107; Tarantella – Alan R. Kay, clarinet/Jon Klibonoff, p. – Bridge 9461, 71:58 (4/04/16) ****: Very rewarding performances of some lesser known works. There has been something of a resurgence in the music of Max Reger lately, with several new recordings that have caught my attention; everything from his organ preludes to some choral works and more recordings of his clarinet works. Interestingly, it is his clarinet music – especially the two sonatas of the Opus 49 – that may be his best known works. I have played and admired these two sonatas for some time. One can certainly hear the strains of Brahms, who Reger greatly admired, throughout all of this music. The two famous sonatas, not to mention the others played here, never became as well-known as those by Brahms probably due to their very adventuresome harmonic discourse and the very challenging piano parts. It is also said that Reger, himself, was a rather reclusive and hard to-get-along-with-person; that may have stunted his renown. Oh well. These works are […]
Russell Malone, guitar – All About Melody – HighNote
Russell Malone – All About Melody – HighNote HCD7287, 50:20 ****: Russell Malone is a guitarist of subtlety and conviction. (Russell Malone – guitar; Rick Germanson – piano; Luke Sellick – bass; Willie Jones III – drums) BRussell Malone is a swinging fleet-fingered guitarist with a sentimental streak. The latest studio session from him entitled All About Melody displays his lyricism, and affinity with keeping the melody in the forefront of this no-frills session. Working with his usual cohorts, pianist Rick Germanson, bassist Luke Sellick, and drummer Willie Jones III, the band gives meaning to the whole enterprise that features an eclectic mixture of lesser-known numbers from the jazz and popular music archives. Freddie Hubbard’s “On The Real Side” establishes the band’s bona fides with a solid swinger. Drummer Jones III lays down a beat that gives both Malone and Germanson the freedom to roam at will with tight solos. The late great guitarist Jim Hall was both a friend and paragon of Malone’s. In this vein, he wrote “Message To Jim Hall” and offered a touching voice mail message from him “Message From Jim Hall”. As for the composition, it has a melancholy undercurrent, done in a calm style,with […]
DAVID STOCK: Concertos = Concierto Cubano; Oborama; Percussion Concerto – Soloists/ Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose – BMOP
Diverse and accessible concertos from a champion of modern music. DAVID STOCK: Concertos = Concierto Cubano; Oborama; Percussion Concerto – Andrew Cardenes, violin/ Alex Klein, oboes/Lisa Pegher, percussion/ Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose – BMOP Sound 1047, multichannel SACD, 60:10 ****: David Stock (1939-2015) is one of those unknown champions of modern music. In 1976 he founded the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and for 40 years they premiered music of nearly 300 contemporary composers. He was Professor of Music at Duquesne University for 19 years. While he performed a wide variety of modern music of his time, his compositions eschewed the more esoteric cerebral strain so common in academia. “It took a while to realize that the ‘normal’ climb-the-ladder academic path wasn’t my path,” he commented. His music is dramatic, melodic and thematically interesting, making an immediate impact on his audiences. As composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh and Seattle Symphonies, Stock had many opportunities to compose and perform his own music. His vibrant Concierto Cubano (2000) for violin and string orchestra, opens with Cuban soloist Andrew Cardenas (Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony for 20 years) taking upper-register virtuosic turns against low-register string accompaniment. A singing, calm but enigmatically unsettled middle movement […]
Randy Weston – African Cookbook – Atlantic/ PurePleasure
A tasty musical stew from Randy Weston… Randy Weston – African Cookbook – Atlantic/ PurePleasure PPAN SD1609 – stereo vinyl (1964) ****: (Randy Weston – piano, celeste; Ray Copeland – trumpet, Flugelhorn, arranger; Booker Ervin – tenor sax; Vishnu Wood – bass; Lenny McBrowne – drums; Big Black – congas, vocal on “Congolese Children”; Sir Harold Murray – percussion) It is quite surprising that Randy Weston could not find a label to release his 1964 recording, African Cookbook. It features the superb tenor saxist, Booker Ervin, as well as trumpeter, Ray Copeland, who ably handled the arrangements. The music was very approachable and combined straight ahead jazz in a bluesy vein along with African rhythms provided by Big Black and Sir Harold Murray. Weston had to issue the album himself on his small label, Bakton. Eight years later, Atlantic Records made the smart decision to give a wider reception to the album and it met wide acceptance. PurePleasure Records, out of England, who recognize historical quality in their reissue series, recently decided to provide an audiophile upgrade to 180 gm vinyl using their ace mastering engineer Ray Staff. The acoustics are superb and the percussion and horns benefit, as well […]
Paul Robeson At Carnegie Hall – Vanguard/ PurePleasure – vinyl
Paul Robeson in only his second stereo recording receives a sonic upgrade… Paul Robeson At Carnegie Hall – Vanguard/ PurePleasure PPAN VSD 2035 – stereo vinyl (1958) ***1/2: (Paul Robeson – vocals; Alan Booth – piano accompaniment) Paul Robeson was an iconic figure well ahead of his time, who provided a “threat” to the conservative powers of the McCarthy period of the 1950s. Robeson was an African-American whose talents were prodigious. He was a brilliant student who excelled at athletics. He played in the NFL, while obtaining his law degree at Columbia. Robeson found a calling in the theater performing Shakespeare in England. He is most known today for his magnificent bass/baritone voice that both moved and inspired listeners. At the time of his concert at Carnegie Hall in 1958, he had been ostracized for his social activism, and his defense of the Soviet Union. Blacklisted by the McCarthy hearings, he had not been active on stage for over eleven years at the time of this recording. Only Vanguard Records, the home label of the Weavers, would record Robeson. The May 9th concert went so well that another Carnegie show was set the same month. These two concerts provide the […]
Editorial for May 2016
The imported, limited edition 64-CD Leonard Bernstein Collection Vol. 2 is our May free drawing. The repertoire is supplemented by five American Decca CDs, analyses/performances of Beethoven’s Erocia, Schmann’s Second, Dvoraks’ New World, Brahms’ Fourth and Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique. It is rounded off with original cast selections from Fancy Free and On The Town. It is an original jackets collections and comes in an LP-size box with deluxe book filled with striking photos. Complete repertoire here. The winner of the April drawing will be listed below soon. EDITORIAL AUDIOPHILE AUDITION began as a local program in San Francisco and then in 1985 as a weekly national radio series hosted by John Sunier, and aired for 13½ years on up to 200 public radio and commercial stations. In September 1998 its web site for program listings was expanded to this free Internet publication. May 2016 is our 206th issue! All disc reviews are added thru the month as written and received, often daily, amounting to nearly 100 a month. The Home Page lists the latest published reviews. Vinyls, Pure Audio Blu-rays and other hi-res formats are included in the SACD/Hi-Res Section, as well as xrcds. We are staying with physical discs rather […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
