Monthly Archive: May 2017
Diana Krall – Turn Up The Quiet – Verve
Diana Krall – Turn Up The Quiet – Verve B0026217-02, 46:08 ****1/2: Veteran jazz singer hits the mark again! (Diana Krall – piano, vocals; Christian McBride – bass; Russell Malone – guitar; John Clayton Jr. – bass; Jeff Hamilton – drums; Anthony Wilson – guitar; Stefon Harris – vibraphone; Marc Ribot – guitar; Tony Garnier – bass; Karriem Higgins – drums; Stuart Duncan – fiddle and many others) Canadian singer/pianist Diana Krall has established an impeccable career in jazz. She is the only performer to have eight albums debut at #1 on Billboard Jazz Albums. She has garnered three Grammys, while releasing fourteen successful albums. Her inimitable contralto and crisp piano stylings vaulted her to the pinnacle as a jazz musician. As with many jazz artists, she has explored different musical contexts to both the delight and concern of her fans. She represents the new vanguard of jazz. Krall’s latest release, Turn Up The Quiet (Verve B0026217) can be described as a return to atmospheric jazz balladry. But it is much more than that. This is a delicately nuanced interpretation of standards with understated, though highly musical performances. Kicking off the festivities is a sly, groove-based cover of the […]
James Luther Dickinson – I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone: Lazarus Edition – Memphis International Records
James Luther Dickinson – I’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone: Lazarus Edition – Memphis International Records MIR2029 [4/4/2017] mono vinyl ****: A rock and roll pioneer gets a posthumous career boost! (James Luther Dickinson – piano, vocals; backed by North Mississippi Allstars Luther Dickinson – guitar, vocals; Cody Dickinson – drums, vocals; Chris Chew – bass; Jimmy Davis – guitar, vocals, Roland James – guitar; Stan Kessler – guitar; Cowboy Jack Clement – vocals; Billie Lee Riley – harmonica and J.M. Van Eaton – drummer) James Luther “Jim” Dickinson emerged at the end of the Sun Records reign.The singer/pianist played on the last hit for the label, “Cadillac Man”. He became a respected producer for Ardent Studios in Memphis. Eventually, Dickinson returned as a session musician with the highly regarded Dixie Flyers. The group replaced the Muscle Shoals crew for Atlantic Records, backing Aretha Franklin. Additionally they worked with Delaney and Bonnie, Jerry Jeff Walker, Brooke Benton, Ronnie Hawkins, Sam & Dave and Esther Phillips. Dickinson also fronted bands like Mudboy and The Neutrons. He was respected in the rock community playing on records with Bob Dylan and Ry Cooder. He played piano on the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses”. Later […]
DEBUSSY & Toshio HOSOKAWA: Point and Line – Momo Kodama (p.) – ECM
DEBUSSY & Toshio HOSOKAWA: Point and Line – Momo Kodama, piano – ECM 481-4738, 79:22, (3/17/17) ****½ : Debussy Etudes in dialog with challenging avant-garde etudes by Toshio Hosokawa. The deeper I delve into the music of Debussy, especially the piano and chamber music, the less I care for the term “Impressionism,” with its image of blurred edges and dentist office wall art. Nor do I care for the association of Debussy with Maurice Ravel on recordings or in textbooks. Debussy’s originality and genius are comparable to that of Chopin or Scarlatti. As for his paternity in music history, it is not at all clear. While Ravel opened at least one fruitful path to Jazz by way of his admirer, George Gershwin (there is a photograph of a young Gershwin looking over the shoulder of Ravel seated at the piano), Debussy’s influence is harder to trace. Perhaps he should be placed adjacent to the great experimenters of the mid-20th century, such as Messiaen and Ligeti, rather than stuffed in the same boat with Ravel, Faure and the like. Manfred Eicher and Japanese pianist Momo Kodama have a more provocative idea, that the cosmos of Debussy can be explored to advantage […]
Greg Skaff – Soulmation – ZohoMusic
Greg Skaff – Soulmation – ZohoMusic ZM 201702 55:19*** Unfamiliar structures but with a bustling and enthusiastic style. ( Greg Skaff – guitars; Fima Ephron – electric bass; Pat Bianchi – Hammond organ; Jonathan Barber – drums; Charlie Drayton – drums #1,2,9,10) In today’s urban environment, funky is defined as “different but cool”. As a catchall definition, it works well as a representation of Greg Skaff’s guitar on his release Soulmation. But it is much more than that, as he wails and rips up and down the fret board throughout the dozen tracks on this album. Supported by two iterations of a Hammond B-3 organ trio, Skaff grinds out the music in a gutty fashion on twelve tracks, of which nine are Skaff originals. The proceedings open with”Conjure”, a spirited New Orleans flavoured bauble with some wicked single-note styling from Skaff. The title track “Soulmation” has that Motown feel that the band rides with a rugged rhythmic thread. As for the non-Skaff compositions, they could not be more different. Firstly there is Duke Ellington’s “Fleurette Africaine” tucked away between Jan Hammer’s “Smoke In The Sun” and Anthony Lloyd Newton’s “Snake Oil”. The juxtaposition is interesting as Skaff looks at the […]
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7, BERLIOZ: Overtures Le Corsaire, Le Carnaval Romain – Moores School Symphony Orchestra/Franz Anton Krager
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 7, BERLIOZ: Overtures Le corsaire and Le carnaval romain – Moores School Symphony Orchestra – Franz Anton Krager, conductor High Definition Tape Transfers Blu-ray audio disc with 5.0 and 2.0 audio. An able student performance very well recorded This is a bit of a difficult review to write. We have a good recording, but in a rather lifeless hall and a student orchestra playing. And the HDTT label has two other Bruckner Symphony no. 7 recordings, both by top notch orchestras but not as well presented due to their age. On to this disc. It’s a Blu-ray audio 5.0 channel 24/192 recording. It also offers a 2.0 mix. It’s quite transparent sounding, but the rub is that it easily betrays extraneous noise from the musicians, and since this was a live performance, we also hear a bit of noise from the audience. It’s nothing awful, but I think many listeners will be distracted. The musicians of the University of Houston Moores School Symphony Orchestra are quite good really, but the Bruckner Symphony no. 7 is difficult to perform, and these young players just aren’t the caliber of the major symphony orchestras. They do quite well actually – […]
Misha MOLLOV-ABBADO: Cross-Platform Interchange
Misha MOLLOV-ABBADO: Cross-Platform Interchange – Edition 1091, 56:28 (5/19/17) ***½ An exciting new voice on bass leads a folk-groove oriented ensemble on a set of original charts. (Misha Mollov-Abbado; double bass/ James Davison; trumpet & flugelhorn; Matthew Herd; alto saxophone/ Sam Rapley; tenor saxophone/ Liam Dunachie; piano and fender rhodes/ Elad Neeman; percussion/ Scott Chapman; drums Nick Goodwin and Rob Luft additional guitars; Matthew Barley; cello/ Yusuf Narcin; bass trombone) The patronymic of the leader of the recording under review is immediately resonant of musical promise even before you discover that, indeed, the 22-year-old, London-based bassist is the progeny of two giants in the world of classical music, Claudio Abbado, the famous conductor and Viktoria Mullova, the illustrious violinist whose recordings of J.S. Bach rank with the best of our time. It would be unreasonable to judge this recording by, say, the standard of Ms. Mullova’s performance of the six sonatas for violin and continuo or for that matter Claudio Abbado’s Brahms symphonies. Instead, we make our reference point the catalog of Editions Records, which now ranks as one of the best and most innovative in European Jazz. (See the review here of last year’s remarkable Jasper Hoiby, Fellow Creatures […]
Audio News for May 9, 2017
New offerings for Vinyl Turntable and Home Entertainment – The 21st Century has no shortage of audio products of all types. For the analog market, Fluance is releasing a new hi-fi turntable, appealing to those music lovers who find a richer and warmer sound from vinyl, when contrasted with CDs and MP3s. There are two models from Fluance, the RT80 ($249) and the RT81 ($199). Hi-Res Earphones — Pioneer has two new entries into its product line of earphones for the Hi-Res market: The SE-CH9T reproduces up to 50 kHz frequencies, providing a comfortable immersive experience; the SE-CH5T (40 kHz drivers) with their Airflow Control Port (middle frequencies) bring clarity at a comfortable price point. Historic Recordings — There have been dramatic shifts in the musical landscape over the years, reflecting changes in society, economics, technology. Sony Music’s Legacy Recordings division will release two different offerings on this theme: AMERICAN EPIC: The Collection (a 5 CD set, 100 recordings), and AMERICAN EPIC: The Sound Track (15 songs on single CD). Each of these are companions to the upcoming documentary about the transitions the recording industry faced in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s. The documentary is entitled AMERICAN EPIC, being […]
BEECKE: Piano Concerto in F Major; Piano Concerto in D Major; Andante – Natasa Veljkovic, piano/ Bavarian Chamber Orchestra of Bad Brueckenau/ Johannes Moesus – CPO
A rare journey into a gifted, neglected talent, a contemporary of Mozart with his own power of expression. BEECKE: Piano Concertos = Piano Concerto in F Major BEEV 108; Piano Concerto in D Major, BEEV 100; Concerto in D Major, BEEV 102: Andante – Natasa Veljkovic, piano/ Bavarian Chamber Orchestra of Bad Brueckenau/ Johannes Moesus – CPO 777 827-2, 62:13 (9/23/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: The name of Ignaz von Beecke (1733-1803), largely forgotten and ignored, now finds resurrection in this 13-15 February 2013 recording of two of his surviving fifteen piano concertos, which rather shine in their galant splendor. Beecke had reknown at the time chiefly for his great skill – a nobile dilettante – in playing the harpsichord, although he composed a wide range of music as well, having studied with Christoph Willibald Gluck. In 1775, Beecke, moreover, met the 19-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Munich and the two engaged in a piano playing competition. The poet and composer Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart, who was in the audience, wrote in his Teutsche Chronik (27 April 1775) that in his opinion, von Beecke played far better than Mozart: “In Munich last winter I heard two of the greatest clavier […]
Cory Weeds & The Jeff Hamilton Trio – Dreamsville – CellarLive
Twice lucky. You bet! Cory Weeds & The Jeff Hamilton Trio – Dreamsville – CellarLive CL072216 61:49**** (Cory Weeds – tenor sax; Jeff Hamilton – drums; Christopher Luty – bass; Tamir Hendelman – piano) That indefatigable Canadian Cory Weeds is at it again. Tenor saxophonist, jazz record label owner and producer, jazz club guide (most recently Chicago/March 2017), Cory Weeds and the Jeff Hamilton Trio have again teamed up for a new release Dreamsville. This is a follow-on to their 2015 successful collaboration This Happy Madness (reviewed here November 1, 2015 ****: This Happy Madness) The symbiosis between Weeds and the Hamilton Trio is evident from the opening bars of “ Who Can I Turn To” with drummer Hamilton setting the pace with his tasty brush work, and then Weeds picking up the melody with his warm tone, before the tune settles in to a swinging mellow groove. On any record date, the choice of the material to be presented is the foundation of an enjoyable listening experience. Since Weeds and Hamilton were joint producers of this session, we can thank them for their thoughtful selections. “Lady Wants To Know” written by Michael Franks might not be an obvious choice […]
Mordecai Shehori plays BEETHOVEN, Vol. 3 = Sonata Op. 110; Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major – Mordecai Shehori (p.)/ The Hunter Symphony/ Clayton Westermann – Cembal d’amour
The youthful Mordecai Shehori makes his appearance in these live renditions of two potent Beethoven works. Mordecai Shehori plays BEETHOVEN, Vol. 3 = Sonata No. 31 in A-flat Major, Op. 110; Piano Concerto No. 4 in G Major, Op. 58 – Mordecai Shehori, piano/ The Hunter Symphony/ Clayton Westermann – Cembal d’amour CD 188, (3/18/17) 53:08 [www.cembaldamour.com] ****: Recorded 19 May 1970 at the Jerusalem, Israel Beethoven Competition, the twenty-four-year-old Mordecai Shehori delivers his First-Prize winning rendition of Beethoven’s late (1821) Sonata in A-flat Major. In many ways, Shehori’s is a young man’s performance, eager to remain faithful to the text, admirably aware of Beethoven’s directive to play the beguiling first movement Moderato cantabile molto espressivo with that con amabilita that often turns the arpeggiated filigree into an Aeolian harp. The opening measures of the first movement will later supply material for the fugue of the final movement. Shehori’s attention to touch and pedal effects reflects his poised absorption of his virtuoso-pedagogue Mindru Katz’s example. The pungency of Shehori’s articulation commands the potent scherzo, marked Allegro molto, in which Beethoven incorporates two playful Austrian songs into his antiphonal and martial mix, rife with jabbing accents and metric displacements. The trio […]
Van Beinum conducts MAHLER = Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen; Symphony No. 4 in G Major; Das Lied von der Erde – London Philharmonic Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam/ Eduard van Beinum – Pristine Audio
Eduard van Beinum’s commercial recordings of Mahler will repay the advocates of this music many times over. Van Beinum conducts MAHLER = Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (2 performances); Symphony No. 4 in G Major; Das Lied von der Erde – Eugenia Zareska, contralto/ London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Margaret Ritchie, soprano/ Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam/ Nan Merriman, contralto/ Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam/ Ernst Haefliger, tenor/ Nan Merriman, contralto/ Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam/ Eduard van Beinum – Pristine Audio PASC 498 (2 CDs) TT: 2:25:56 [www.pristineclassical.com] ****: The 1900 Symphony No. 4 of Gustav Mahler provided my first encounter with the composer, particularly by way of the Columbia recording by Bruno Walter and Desi Halban. The work, as Professor Friedheim had been wont to point out, had been “conceived in reverse,” almost an after-thought to complement the final movement of Symphony No. 3 and its allusion to the Wunderhorn song “Das himmlische Leben.” With my later audition of the 1939 recording by Willem Mengelberg with Jo Vincent (on Philips), I had an even clearer picture of the performance practice in a Mahler tradition that relied heavily on orchestral slides and luftpausen than Bruno Walter maintained. For the beauty of the vocal part, I […]
Editorial for May 2017
For our May free drawing we have the Naxos 30th Anniversary 30-CD package, featuring the wide variety of repertory and artists on this, the world’s largest independent classical label. After recording the most popular classical works, Naxos started to offer complete cycles of the works by the most important composers. Now they have over 9000 titles and release about 200 new ones each year. The complete catalog is available for streaming. All you need to do to enter the drawing is simply click on the Register To Win banner on the Home Page and fill out the few fields we request. The lucky winner of the set will be announced here next month. Detailed information about the Naxos 30th Anniversary Collection here: Naxos Anniversary Collection. The winner of the 40-CDs & 3 DVDs Rostropovich cello retrospective is Charles Board, Payette, ID. Congrats! 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 2017 is our […]
Stereotypes Audio
Cembal d’amour
Pure Pleasure / Speakers Corner
Cedille
