French Piano From Different Generations

French piano music on a budget cd from Saint-Saens ( Piano Concerto No 2 and Piano Concerto No 4 ) and Poulenc ( Trois Mouvements Perpetuels, Suite Napoli and Suite Pour Piano ), Pascal Roge is the soloist in the concertos with the backing of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra on No 2 and the Philharmonia Orchestra on No 4 conducted by Charles Dutoit on both occasions. The Poulenc works are solo piano pieces played by Roge. I can imagine that the Saint-Saens concertos are great fun to play if you have the technical facility to do so. No great emotional depth to find but lots of flowing exciting note spinning and joie de vivre. Concerto No 2 is the most widely performed of his cycle and the presto is particularly memorable and show stopping. The Poulenc pieces inhabit a different world, some jazz inflience, something of Satie in there too maybe. Cool and languid in the main with an understated sophistication. Roge gives fine accounts of all the works here and as a cheap reissue it's a good sampler.

Voices of Estonia

A fine recital of contemporary choral music from the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir led by Paul Hillier, titled Baltic Voices 1. The first of a series of three volumes highlighting the mainstream tradition of the last hundred years in the Baltic Sea countries with special attention to Estonia itself, I don't yet have the other two volumes but this one is incentive to invest eventually. The most well known composers featured here are Rautavaara, Part and Vasks but there are also works by Cyrillus Kreek, Sven-David Sandstrom and Veljo Tormis. All the works are acapella with the exception of the Peteris Vasks Dona Nobis Pacem which features the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra and is maybe the most impressive piece. Most of the items are settings of sacred texts but the Rautavaara piece concerns the poet Lorca and Tormis sets Latvian folk songs. The Vasks and Tormis works are world premieres as was the Arvo Part trifle...which was the son of...although this has now had subsequent recordings. It is slightly cliched to talk of the distinctive sound of choirs from this part of the world but all voice types perform well, not just the famous basses. Hillier is coming to the end of his spell as director of the choir but it has been a fruitful partnership for both sides.

Is It Fate ?

A double compilation cd called The Essential Borodin does what it says on the tin. Borodin shares with Rimsky-Korsakov the distinction of leading a full career outside of music composition, in his case as a chemist. He must also challenge Tchaikovsky and the later Prokofiev as supreme melodist, there are more tunes here than you can shake a stick at. If you think that you don't know Borodin, you will find that you almost certainly do when listening to the music here. Disk one consists of three sections. There is a selection from Prince Igor played by the London Symphony Orchestra and chorus under Sir George Solti, with bass soloist Nicolai Ghiaurov. Prince Igor was incomplete at the time of Borodin's relatively early death aged 54 and was completed and orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. It includes the famous Polovtsian Dances and is followed by the song For The Shores Of Your Far Off Native Land sung by Nicolai Ghiaurov accompanied by Zlatina Ghiaurov on piano. Disk one ends with Symphony No 1 played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy and disk to begins with the most familiar Symphony No 2 performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jean Martinon. That is followed by the String Quartet No 2 played suitably enough by the Borodin Quartet and it is this work, together with the Polovtsian Dances, that was pillaged for the musical Kismet and where many of the familiar melodies are to be found. The disk ends with two orchestral pieces played by L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Ernest Ansermet, a short tone poem In The Steppes Of Central Asia and the unfinished Symphony No 3 which again had the attention of Glazunov to produce a performing version.

The Musical Conscience Of Moscow

It's weird how this exercise is throwing up coincidences as I proceed. Only a couple of days ago I wrote about the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Jarvi playing orchestral music by Rimsky-Korsakov and now they crop up again on disk performing Miaskovsky's 6th Symphony. Miaskovsky wrote a prodigious twenty-seven symphonies but No 6 is the longest and most performed. He was one of those composer's with the misfortune of living through the period of the revolution in Russia and subsequent Stalinist times. He hasn't been mythologised in the way that others, notably Shostakovich, have but he did have run ins with the authorities for "bourgeois pessimistic individualism". He managed to maintain a teaching post at the Moscow Conservatory however and maintained his artistic dignity, being nicknamed the "Musical Conscience Of Moscow". As for the music, the symphony was his main area of interest ( as it should be having written 27 of them ) and his aim was to continue and develop the style of Tchaikovsky, Glazunov etc, rather than be cutting edge and revolutionary. The sixth is a very satisfying symphonic journey, depicting finally the soul's journey beyond death as intoned by the Gothenburg Symphony Chorus in an optional chant "Of the Seperation of the Soul From the Body".

Blonde On The Rocky Shore

Joni Mitchell's album For The Roses is something of a transition album from the folksy "girl with a guitar" style of Blue or Ladies Of The Canyon to the more adult jazz based style of Hejira and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. The contributions from Tom Scott on woodwinds and reeds is partially responsible for this but mainly the impetus is coming from Mitchell's writing. Still semi autobiographic lyrically, the music is taking a more sophisticated turn in terms of melody and harmony. It features some of her most enduring songs outside of the obvious hits, such as Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire, Barangrill, You Turn Me On I'm A Radio and Ludwig's Song. A good sample Joni Mitchell album to have if you don't want to invest in the entire output or the orchestral double cd that I posted about way back when. Striking inside cover pic too.

Timelessly Hip

Finally rolled around to the first of several Miles Davis cd's on the shelf which will be considered in due course. Working chronologically, the first one up for consideration is Birth Of The Cool. I was a bit surprised to be reminded quite how old a recording this now is, not that far shy of sixty years ago. This is put into context though by a quote in the booklet notes "In jazz as in other musics, some things are of their time, some ahead of it, while others simply know no time at all". The implication being that the music performed by the nonet here is timeless. I wouldn't entirely disagree but I think that elements of it are also a reaction against bebop towards a more formal and arranged kind of chamber jazz. As player and composer, Gerry Mulligan is at least as important as Miles on these sessions. Would it be fanciful to speculate that the mixed race make up of the band moved the music away from a strict blues based riffing style ? Interestingly, I expressed slight disappointment in the Monk disk I posted about recently because of the shortness of tracks and lack of extended blowing. Birth Of The Cool is from roughly the same period and also doesn't have any tracks longer than three and a half minutes but the same feeling of something missing isn't there.

Out Of The Shadows

Widely thought of as the best dobro player in the world, Jerry Douglas is a collaborative musician who is happy to take a back seat as an accompanist but is beginning to get more of a share of the limelight. This solo album entitled The Best Kept Secret is part of that process of stepping out, as is his leading of the tv series Transatlantic Sessions on BBC tv. That series also features Scottish violinist Aly Bain and a track on this album is dedicated to him. The album also has guest vocals on one track from Douglas's sometime employer Alison Krauss and the other vocal contribution is provided by John Fogerty. Both songs are fine additions to the album. Apart from those two tracks, the disk is instrumental but covers a variety of styles from bluegrass, Bela Fleck guesting, to ballad to a jazzy item featuring Bill Frisell and some fairly hard rocking. Notable work on violin is courtesy of Gabe Witcher, especially on the rockier numbers. The only lapse in taste is the track featuring cheesy voice box effects on the dobro.

Tangled Up In Blues

This isn't a unique idea; Moby used it on that multi million seller album of his ( though with more of an overt pop sensibility ) and the R L Burnside disk I posted about near the start of this blog incorporates similar techniques on some tracks. But I still love this album, Tangle Eye Alan Lomax's Southern Journey Remixed, and think it the most successful I have heard in this vein. To make the idea explicit, the archive recordings made by Alan Lomax on his field trip through the rural south are treated with various electronic "beats" but the essential human element is provided by the playing that is also added of current musicians who are steeped in the feel of the south from New Orleans to the rural backwaters of the Mississippi. The reworkings are apposite and varied too, from boogie to reggae, gospel to country and funk. Most of it is pretty damn danceable too. But through it all, the thing that hits home are the mysterious voices of the old timers calling through the ether and fixing the past as a foreign country. The album is lively and fun but the essential respect to the core material is there.

Sweet Melancholy

In many ways, Vincent Dumestre's ensemble Le Poeme Harmonique could be seen as comparable to their label mates L'Arpeggiata. Both straddle that early music / world music gap, sounding comfortably contemporary without in any way debasing the roots of their thems. This disk is titled Love Is Strange and centres on the Elizabethan idea of melancholy, most familiarly associated with Dowland but also noted in Shakespeare and other composers of that period. There are pieces composed by Dowland and John Johnson among others as well as anonymous themes. The instrumentation used here consists of virginal, lutes and citarrone and there is an improvisatory feel to much of the music. The Alpha record label really does produce interesting beautifully recorded music, packaged in a most attractive way. They are similar to ECM in having such a defined house style, albeit a totally different one. This disk can be listened to a gentle relaxing music but as with others I've recently written about, it repays closer study. The playing is immaculate.

Old Testament Angst

A period instrument performance of Handel's oratorio Saul covering three cd's that buzzes along with great vibrancy with fine singing too. Paul McCreesh directs the Gabrieli Consort and Players with a fine line up of soloists including Andreas Scholl, Neal Davies, Mark Padmore, Susan Gritton, Nancy Argenta, Paul Agnew and Jonathan Lemalu. Based on the Old Testament story of Saul, David and Jonathan etc. Handel moved onto writing oratorios in English when the financial climate became unfavourable for Italian opera and he mined a rich vein of these Old Testament morality tales, as well as Messiah of course. There is a very interesting booklet essay about how the contemporary London audience heard political parallels with the story of Saul and David and associated themselves with the biblical chosen people. modern audiences just see the drama and enjoy the ever involving music. The familiarity of Handel's music makes it hard to find much new to write about it but that doesn't detract from the merit of it. Wasn't it Beethoven who read Handel's scores for comfort during his final illness ?

Russian Orchestration

A double cd set of The Complete Symphonies by Rimsky-Korsakov played by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi, which also includes the Russian Easter Festival Overture and Capriccio Espagnol. As the booklet note says, Rimsky-Korsakov's music could be divided into the over-played and the unknown. The over-played really just consist of the two fillers here ( the Festival Overture and Capriccio Espagnol ) plus Sheherazade which I have on a seperate disk. There are of course chamber music and operatic works which are slowly beginning to get hearings, plus these symphonies. I don't think anyone would put them in the top rank of symphonic works but they are worth hearing and interesting in an historical context of being among the first Russian symphonies. Rimsky is also interesting as one of a group of Russian composers spanning the 19th and 20th centuries who had careers outside of music. A naval officer who travelled more extensively than many at that time, it explains the exotic non Russian influences that are often found in his work, notably the Capriccio. Over-played or not, it has to be said that after the interesting but worthy symphonies, the Overture and Capriccio burst in with still refreshing exuberance and the orchestra here respond spiritedly.

Byzantine Easter

Another Easter piece but it doesn't feel too incongruous to be spinning it out of season. It is a composition by Sir John Tavener called Lamentations and Praises - a Liturgical Drama and is performed by the American male voice choir Chanticleer and the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston who both also commissioned the work. The piece is scored for male voices, flute, bass trombone, string quintet, tape and percussion consisting of timpani, Byzantine monastery bell, Tibetan temple bowl, tam-tam, tubular bells and simantron ( a wooden sounding board struck with a hammer ). The work is based on a series of icons from Holy Week and the Resurrection and on the service of matins on easter Saturday, called praises in the Greek Orthodox church and lamentations in the Russian. The music is processional, called by Tavener a corridor of music linking the various icons. It is slow but with a building momentum which the conductor John Jennings of Chanticleer keeps a firm control of. The music manages to retain a deep Byzantine feel despite the varied voices of the US choir which aren't characteristically deep basses. Tavener has to be admired for continuing to plough his own solitary furrow and this is one of the most successful of the holy minimalist genre.

Hurdy Gurdy Man

I would hazard a guess that this is a unique recording, Les Travailleurs De La Mer - Ancient Songs From a Small Island by the Harp Consort of Andrew Lawrence-King. The small island in question is Guernsey in the Channel Islands, of which Lawrence-King is a native. The Harp Consort's projects are always very individual and unusual but this one is obscure even by their standards. The title, the toilers of the sea, is from a work written by Victor Hugo who spent time in exile on Guernsey. His presence and the oral tradition of troubadours on the island inspired local poets to write in the medieval Norman-French language of Guernesiais and it is these dance tunes, singing games and ballads that are performed here. Some additional material has been taken from nearby Normandy and Brittany on the mainland. Instrumentally, he Harp Consort for this disk consists more or less of just Lawrence-King himself on harps, psaltery and chifournie which is a kind of hurdy gurdy. There is also baroque guitar played by Clara Sanabras who is the soprano vocalist on the disk. Both she and baritone Paul Hillier eschew full on operatic singing style for a gentler folky approach. It's especially fun to hear Hillier letting his hair down and enjoying being a participant rather than leader of a project. This is another of those early music disks that would have broad appeal to world music afficiandos.

Quintessentially English ?

Marketed as one of EMI's Great Recordings of the Century, this disk highlights a couple of strange anomalies as well as providing benchmark performances. Simply titled Delius Orchestral Works and played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir Thomas Beecham, the anomalies centre on the supposed quintessential "Englishness" of Delius and the central place that Beecham holds in Delius interpretation. In his life, Delius had as much connection with France, Germany and the US as he did with England but there is undoubtedly that sense of the English pastoral and landscape that many of the composers of the first half of the 20th century are supposed to share. Beecham certainly championed the music of Delius and cemented the performing style but the anomaly here is that he didn't get any insight from the composer himself, who remained vague on detail though supportive of Beecham's efforts. This disk has the well known Brigg Fair and On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring and other titles tend to enhance the pastoral theme. However inapt it might be, the sense of a particular time and place is very strong and when in the mood to be nostalgic about those, this disk can not be bettered.

Second Viennese School

A BBC Music mag cover disk from early 2002 that is particularly noteworthy for the quality of performance. All of these BBC disks are competantly played but just very occasionally one leaps out as being outstanding. The performance of Berg's Violin Concerto by Leonidas Kavakos and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Davis could qualify as a benchmark recording. The story behing Berg's concerto, dedicated to the memory of the young daughter of a Alma Mahler and Walter Gropius and presaging his own death, is well known and may have helped give this twelve tone compostion the shelf life that it has enjoyed. Although listened too with an open mind there is nothing "difficult" about the music which is wonderfully well played by Kavakos. The entire disk is dedicated to the Second Viennese School with the coupling being Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht again played by the BBC SO, this time conducted by Donald Runnicles. Based on Richard Dehmel's poem set in a nocturnal forest, this is early Schoenberg and is almost a tone poem. A string showpiece that is again given a fine performance and the two pieces make obvious complimentary partners on an atmospheric disk.

Sounds Of The Caucasus

Typically ECM New Series, this is a gorgeous disk called Chants, Hymns and Dances by cellist Anja Lechner and pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos.The music consists of one piece composed by Tsabropoulos himself and two pieces from G I Gurdjieff as transcribed for piano by Thomas de Hartmann. The Gurdjieff pieces form the chants and dances while Tsabropoulos has written his piece around Byzantine hymn tunes. The extensive booklet notes tell the fascinating story of the Armenian Gurdjieff, philosopher, reconciler of science and esoteric lore, seeker after truths that link a multiplicity of spiritual traditions having studied over 200 religions. There's no spce for me to regurgitate the booklet notes here, suffice to say he will repay further study and the music as represented on the disk reaches back to old folk and religious traditions, leaning much more towards an eastern than occidental sound. The performances by Lechner and Tsabropoulos are excellent and the recorded sound world is sparklingly clear, giving the hypnotic quality of the music the clarity that it needs. The disk could be used as late night chill out music but there is much more depth and soul to the improvisatory, occasionally even jazzy, playing.

Romania's Finest

String Quartet No 1 and String Quartet No 2 by Enescu are seperated by over thirty years, the first being started during the Frist World War and completed in 1920 and the second being premiered in 1951. This is slightly misleading since the second had been a work in progress for much of the intervening years but the differences are nonetheless apparent. The first is more of a purely abstract intellectual construction showing sophisticated chromaticism, while in the second the influences of Romanian folk music can be more easily heard, in a similar way to Bartok in Hungary. Both works are played on this disk by Ad Libitum Quartet which formed appropriately at the George Enescu Academy of arts in Romania. I guess it's a bit of a cliche to say that they therefore have a deep affinity with the music but it is certainly a committed performance. Perhaps more famous during his lifetime as a virtuoso violinist and teacher, Enescu's music now has a chance to gradually take centre stage in future.

Twentieth Century Secret

A winner of a Gramophone award for best contemporary album on its' initial release in 1989, this recording of Robert Simpson's 9th Symphony by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Vernon Handley shows what a supreme symphonist Simpson was and how ridiculously neglected his work now is, at least in terms of live perrformances. Without getting into any dogmatic ranking sytem, he can be compared with such twentieth century staples of the concert hall as Sibelius and Shostakovich and not be found wanting. It seems all the more strange given the glowing reviews for this disk, I guess fashion and patronage must play a part along with an English reticence to recognise our own. The interest of this particular disk is enhanced by an additional track which has the composer talking about the symphony with sound illustrations of his points. It is rather like having an edition of the Radio 3 series Discovering Music on the disk with the advantage of having the composer speak for himself without the need of an interpreter to intercede. The symphony is written in one uninterrupted broad sweep with use of palindrome structures played forwards and backwards. It can be listened too with pleasure without this detailed knowledge however.

Fine Score For A Great Movie

The film Alexander Nevsky directed by Sergey Eisenstein is a classic of world cinema, helped to a great degree by the brilliant score of Prokofiev. This disk has as its' centrepiece the cantata that Prokofiev produced from the score. It is a work that would repay being programmed much more frequently in concert halls, although it needs quite large resources which might be a disincentive. Here it is performed by The Russian State Symphony Orchestra and Stanislavsky Chorus conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky. Mezzo Irina Gelahova sings the keystone solo The Field of Death which follows on from the climactic Battle on the Ice. The music is full of distinctive Prokofiev touches and it also places him in a very Russian context. There are fillers on the disk of other music written to accompany projected theatrical and cinematic ventures, not all of which came to fruition. Some of these are less impressive more journeyman attempts, such as the music for various Pushkin plays edited by the conductor Rozhdestvensky as Pushkiniana and a dance piece from a poorly received Eisenstein movie Ivan The Terrible. Well worth hearing though is the Ghost of Hamlet's Father from a staging of Shakespeare's play, which like Alexander Nevsky portrays the mood and action evocatively.

What Anniversary Is The 75th ?

The cover mount cd from the current edition of BBC Music magazine celebrates the 75th anniversary of the founding of the London Philharmonic Orchestra with recordings stretching from 1933 to 2007. I don't have too much to say about what is a nice enough tribute but doesn't particularly hold together as a programmed cd. It's interesting to hear the vintage tracks even if they are relatively brief pieces ( Sir Thomas Beecham, the orchestra's founder, conducting Chabrier's Espana, Elgar conducting his own Elegy For String Orchestra and Sir Adrian Boult conducting Elgar's arrangement of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in C minor ) The works that take up the bulk of the disk are Mahler's Songs of a Wayfarer from the 1990s with Klaus Tennstedt conducting soloist Thomas Hampson and Tchaikovsky's Serenade For Strings under the current conductor Vladimir Jurowski. These are both live concert performances whereas the vintage tracks are from BBC radio recordings. The various incarnations of the LPO play well throughout and it is interesting to hear Hampson singing the early songs, many of which later found themselves incorporated into Mahler symphonies in different forms.

Birthday Party

Birthday and anniversary recordings in the classical music world normally mark considerable longevity but violinist Gidon Kremer decided to mark what was just the fifth birthday of his ensemble Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra of young musicians from the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The disk, simply titled Happy Birthday, is pretty much a party record of immaculately played musical jokes. Musical jokes are notorious for wearing thin very quickly, so this is a disk to be sampled only occasionally but given that qualification it can be a lot of fun. The material that is used for variations in the style of composers and genres could hardly be more familiar e. g. Happy Birthday itself, Auld Lang Syne and God Save The King plus the bizarre McMozart's Eine Kleine Bricht Moonlicht Nicht Musik which combines Mozart's familar theme with even more familiar Scottish melodies. The results vary from the wryly amusing to the laugh out loud funny ( "Shostakovich's" take on Auld Lang Syne for instance ) There are four other items that are played straight on the disk, two by Schnittke and Kupkovic in the same playful mood and two by Kakhidze and Tchaikovsky that are more or less "normal". Kremerata Baltica are an ensemble that plays much serious contemporary music as well as classics but this was just a fun departure to mark an anniversary.

English Minimalism ?

This is a fine retrospective on a double cd issue entitled Gavin Bryars: A Portrait. It concentrates on music he wrote in the 1990s. There are brief edited extracts from his two most well known pieces The Sinking Of The Titanic and Jesus' Blood but I have the full length versions of these remarkable works which I'll consider when that disk has its' turn. Anyway, Tom Waits egocentric intrusions wreck the snippets of Jesus' Blood on this disk. This is well worth hearing though for the three lengthy works on each disk. Disk one has the Cello Concerto ( Farewell to Philosphy )played by Julian Lloyd Webber with the English Chamber Orchestra under James Judd, a lyrical rather than outwardly virtuosic piece. That is followed by One Last Bar, Then Joe Can Sing for the percussion group Nexus using tuned percussion, marimbas etc. Finally on disk one is Les Fiancialles by the Gavin Bryars Ensemble a pulsing string piece that maybe shows hints of an English minimalism. Disk two commences with The Green Ray, a showpiece for saxophonist John Harle with the Bournemouth Sinfonietta with long yearning soprano sax lines based on a seascape. That's followed by Adnan Songbook which sets love poems by the Lebanese writer Etel Adnan for soprano Valerie Anderson and the Gavin Bryars Ensemble ( as ever, a small chamber group )and conductor Dave Smith. The last piece is The North Shore with a solo viola part taken by Bill Hawkes of the Gavin Bryars Ensemble which here also has a conductor, Roger Heaton. another atmospheric work inspired by the North sea coastline around Whitby close to where Bryars lives.

Dutch Dave

A very solid album of mainstream modern jazz by the Dave Holland Big Band, called What Goes Around. It's difficult economically and fashion wise to keep together a big band these days and it isn't an idiom that is necessarily associated with modern jazz. I can think of Charles Mingus and the more left field Sun Ra but jazz now is predominantly a small group genre. But although not a permanent band ( this recording and the occasional festival gig ) this ensemble produces glorious hard swinging music built around the compositions and arrangements of Holland coincidentally a bassist like Mingus. The drive comes from the joy the musicians feel in the collective spirit of the music as it incorporates their own individual talents and personalities. The band assembled here is thirteen strong and brass heavy with no woodwinds and vibes instead of piano. But the sounds produced are cerainly variable enough to sustain interest.

Skeletal Dance

A budget release of music by Saint-Saens titled Danse Macabre after one of the five symphonic poems featured along with two violin and orchestra showcases. The tone poems are played by the Philharmonia Orchestra, while the other pieces ( Havanaise and Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso ) are played by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and soloist Kyung Wha Chung. The conductor in all cases is Charles Dutoit. Saint-Saens lived a long life through many musical as well as social changes and as is often the case in such circumstances he metamorphosed from a young radical to a crusty conservative. He also had that childhood prodigy thing, of having to ry to live up to early expectations. Maybe he under achieved but he also produced much worthwhile music. The symphonic poems here are programmatic, portraying various themes from literature and mythology. The two violin pieces are rhythmic display pieces and the much programmed Havanaise is an early example of the French appropriation of presumed Spanish influences. Fine performances from orchestras and soloist.

Chill Out ? I Don't Think So

Symphony No 3 ( Symphony of Sorrowful Songs ) by Gorecki seems to have got the undeserved reputation of being some kind of superior chill out music, thanks to its' popularity on Classic FM and a certain similarity to Barber's Adagio for Strings which has suffered from the same slur. I hardly think the subject matter of the texts set is at all escapist, although of course the idle listener can easliy ignore the content since it is sung in Polish. There is a 15th century Polish lamentation portraying the Virgin Mary grieving over the fallen Christ, a prayer to mary scrawled by a teenage girl on the walls of a Gestapo prison in the Polish town of Zakopane and a Polish folk song where a mother mourns her son killed in some far off war. All three movements are slow but with subtle shadings and variations. There is a certain hypnotic quality ( hence the chill out thing )and a sparseness similar to Arvo Part. The work is scored almost exclusively for strings and the performers here are the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra of Katowice conducted by Antoni Wit with the soprano soloist Zofia Kilanowicz. Also on the disk are Three Olden Style Pieces, further short instrumental sketches for strings that augment the mood of the symphony.

Brassy And Then Some

Here we have Claudio Abbado conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in three 20th century orchestral showpieces; Janacek's Sinfonietta, Symphonic Metamorphoses on Themes of Weber by Hindemith and the suite from the ballet Chout by Prokofiev. The Janacek is every orchestral brass sections favourite I should imagine and it gets a rousing and detailed performance here in excellent sound. I don't have any other works by Hindemith, keep meaning to find a good recording of Mathis der Maler and may have to yield to duplicating the Metamorphoses in order to get one. Abbado brings out the underlying themes of Weber in this piece as well as rising to the challenge of the virtuoso orchestral expansions of Hindemith. It's probably not an original observation but I was struck by the similarity of the Turandot section to Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony's famous march. Chout is maybe a lesser known Prokofiev work, the ballet seems a grotesque tale of murderous buffoons and shape changing wives. The suite is an entertaining work though and while I'm in comparison mode, I was reminded here of Stravinsky circa Petrushka.

The Royal Dance

Ostensibly a film soundtrack album for the French film Le Roi Danse directed by Gerard Corbiau, this serves equally well as a showcase for the music of Jean-Baptiste Lully. The performers throughout are Musica Antiqua Koln led by Reinhard Goebel, with soprano Celine Scheen and choir Ex Tempore directed by Florian Heyerick also featuring on some tracks. I haven't seen the movie but the stills from the booklet look interesting. It is based in the court of Louis XIV and his relationship with court master musician Lully and dramatist Moliere. Louis was often the featured lead dancer in the dramas that were put together for the court. As for the music on the disk, it revolves around the pageants that Lully put on for state occasions as well as the more intimate court entertainments. It is fine French baroque music expertly played by Musica Antiqua Koln and with a great feeling of space and presence in the production, it must sound excellent in a cinema surround sound. Lully was a fairly notorious character in the ruthless way he maintained his hold over music in the French court to the detriment of others like Rameau and Charpentier but he would not have got away with that without being an accomplished composer in his own right.

One Angle

Another compilation album, this one somewhat clunkily entitled Bert Jansch Legend The Classic Recordings. It does what it inelegantly says though. with twenty representative tracks from back in the sixties. Since Jansch's music is mainly acoustic with little accompaniment from others it doesn't sound at all dated, either in terms of style or production. Labelled a folk singer mainly because of the venues he first played, his work is varied. There are interpretations of traditional songs but also self penned numbers, songs by other contemporaries, blues and jazz. Jansch has the blues and jazzy idiom pretty much down, he has been as influential as he was himself influenced by Davy Graham. But the guitar playing is perhaps most interesting when it goes into that peculiarly folky area resonant of church bells and ancient aires. His voice is one of those non voices that somehow seems to work in popular music and manages to sound soulful and affecting while always seeming to be on the edge of falling apart. Most of the songs are performed solo, there is one number from Pentangle and a couple of others where various Pentangle members assist, plus nice flute contributions from Ray Warleigh.

The Loneliest Monk

I have to admit to being slightly disappointed with this disk. not because of any lack of quality but because it wasn't quite what I was expecting. The Best Of Thelonius Monk - The Blue Note Years, should be a sure fire cert, so why the disappointment ? Well, I saw the track listing and recognised all sorts of goodies like Well You Needn't, Round Midnight, Epistrophy, Straight No Chaser, Ruby My Dear. What I didn't realise was that the sides on this disk were all recorded in the 1940s ( in my ignorance I didn't even know Blue Note was going in the forties ) and are all only around three minutes in length. Now I know that sometimes more is less but I feel this music benefits from being able to stretch out and breath. Here, most tracks are just a simple statement of Monk's wonderfully individual and spiky themes with a couple of truncated solos. So it gives an overview of the man's genius but is more of a snack than a banquet. I think I will need to keep an eye out for the edition of Jazz Library on BBC Radio 3 when Monk is featured and see where the more substantial workouts can be found. There's Monk and Coltrane somewhere isn't there ?

Out Of The Club Into The Concert hall

This compilation album is called Popular Songs The Best Of Wynton Marsalis. The popular songs reference might lead you to expect an album of standards but the only such here is a very tasteful version of Where or When. The disk is, in fact, an overview of Marsalis's work from 1985 to 2001. He's a performer who comes with a lot of baggage because of his strongly held and unyielding views on muisc, politics and morality. He certainly is far from the embodiment of the romantic but flawed and ultimately doomed jazz musician. No Lush Life for him. Having said that, I must admit to not having studied his pronouncements and am only coming to them second hand. So I listen to this disk putting any preconceptions aside and find a hugely enjoyable and well crafted mainstream album that has the spirit of that New Orleans second line somewhere on most tracks, even if it is a little buried in some. This is disciplined arranged jazz rather than free blowing but again that fits the Marsalis persona and you wouldn't expect much else. It would be nice to occasionally hear him in a different context however. I don't mean his classical career which he seems to have abandoned but playing something approaching a jam with players who aren't strictly in his employ.

Move Over Rover And Let Jimi Take Over

As the memory fades ever more into the distance and the tired old clips of setting fire to his guitar and changing the song to Sunshine Of Your Love on the Lulu show are trotted out yet again, it is easy to forget that Jimi Hendrix wasn't just a flamboyant if unpredictable live performer and ultimate rock guitar virtuoso but he also made four hugely imaginative studio albums. This disk is the debut, Are You Experienced ? Released in 1967, soundtrack to the Summer Of Love and a very varied set ranging from pure blues to hard driving rock to left field trippiness to the modal highlight that is the title track. Half a rain forest worth of print has been written about Hendrix the legend, so not much point in adding to cyber clutter by saying much more on this blog. But just a few more random thoughts. The production on Are You Experienced ? is way ahead of most at the time with obvious George Martin exceptions and this is even more noticeable on this disk, where the original album is padded out with the first three singles plus their b sides. These singles, the freak out of Purple Haze and beauty of Wind Cries Mary notwithstanding, sound monochrome alongside the album proper. And the final point I'd like to make is that the Experience were a band and Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell's contributions shouldn't be overlooked. "Not necessarily stoned but beautiful".

Landi But Not A Rover

Another gem from Christina Pluhar's wonderful ensemble L'Arpeggiata, once again augmented by the peerless voice of Marco Beasley. I've probably written enough in praise of both of these when considering earlier disks of theirs' in this blog. Suffice it to say this one is just as life affirming and joyful. The hook to hang the disk on this time is music associated with Stefano Landi, a late sixteenth / early seventeenth century player and composer at the papal court in Rome. The full title of the disk is Homo Fugit Velut Umbra, the hidden universe in the shadows, which hints at the age old dichotomy between sacred and sensual music. Beautifully recorded, there is a lovely baroque feel but L'Arpeggiata always manage to make the music sound timeless yet contemporary without ever resorting to crassness or bad taste. Marco Beasley only sings on some of the tracks this time, the other singers soprano Johannette Zomer, tenor Stephan Van Dyck and bass Alain Buet also do stirling work. Once again, highly recommended.

Ethnic Influences

Today we have an eclectic recital by violinist Daniel Hope entitled East Meets West. Not maybe the most original title to give to the concept but accurate enough. The disk is topped and tailed by two pieces which Ravi Shankar composed in memorium of Yehudi Menuhin with whom he had aha many collaborations. Hope is joined on these ragas by Gaurav Mazumdar on sitar, Asok Chakraborty on tabla and Gilda Sebastian on tanpura. Purists may jibe at the notion but Hope seems to play in the idiom very successfully, even if the length of the pieces is short by calssical Indian standards. the rest of the disk is made up of works played by Hope and Sebastian Knauer on piano and lutheal. The lutheal is a rare piano hybrid originating in 18th century Vienna to add pedal operated percussion and give a supposed Turkish sound which was fashionable at that time. Ravel's Tzigane was originally scorred to include lutheal and is featured here, giving an interesting take on the over familiar gypsy theme. There are also pieces by de Falla, Bartok and Schnittke, the former two having Spanish and Romanian folk influences while the Schnittke is a world premiere recording of a sonata for piano and violin without any obvious ethnic influences. A varied and rewarding listen.

Careful With That Ax

The main work on this disk of music from John Adams is Century Rolls, which is a piano concerto in all but name. It was written for the soloist here, Emanuel Ax, and the Cleveland Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi. Adams states that the inspiration was from early 20th century piano rolls, hence the title he has given it. Nancarrow is an obvious further inspiration but there is a very strong jazz feel also and Ax is fully at home in the idiom. The whole makes for a most entertaining piece with a ravishing slow movement. The entire disk sums up the audience friendly face of contemporary music that Adams embodies. There are two further items, orchestral showpieces played here by the Halle Orchestra under Kent Nagano. Lollapalooza was written for Simon Rattle and is a brassy piece which again contains references to jazz and to the tradition of Bernstein. The final piece is Slonimsky's Earbox, dedicated to Nicholas Slonimsky a Russian author of several witty books on music. One of his notable books covered scales and modes and these are explored by Adams in this piece.

Hope Out Of Despair

On the face of it, this could be rather a bleak disk but somehow it has an austere beauty and manages to affirm the resilience of the human spirit. The main work is Shostakovich's Symphony No 14 and this is supplemented by a preformance of his settings of Six Poems by Marina Tsvetaeva. There's a solid starry cast of the symphony too; The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ( or at least as much of it as this chamber symphony requires ) conducted by Bernard Haitink with soloists soprano Julia Varady and bass Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. The Tsvetaeva settings are sung by contralto Ortrun Wenkel. It could be debated that the symphony is more of an orchestrated song cycle with eleven texts mainly on the subject of death. Written towards the end of Shostakovich's turbulent life, it represents a railing against the fading light but there is still a core celebrating humanity. The poignant theme is also carried over into the Tsvetaeva piece, especially considering the dismal fate of both Tsvetaeva and the subject of the final poem, Anna Akhmatova. Millions died and suffered through the carnage unleashed by Stalin, not to mention the seperate slaughter of WW2 but the individual cases help highlight the deep sadness of the situation. Shostakovich survived but his life was lived under the constant fear of it being ended at any moment on a whim and this edginess unsurprisingly feeds into his music.

Very Distinctive Voice Type

A lovely recital of arias, madrigals and cantatas by Sara Mingardo, accompanied by Concerto Italiano directed by Rinaldo Alessandrini. The marquee names among he featured composers on the cover are Monteverdi, Handel and Vivaldi but there are also pieces by Merula, Salvatore, Carissimi, cavalli and Legrenzi. For this recording it is a fairly basic stripped down version of Concerto Italiano featuring just two violins, cello, theorbo and harpsichord. The distinctive contralto voice of Sara Mingardo is joined by mezzo Monica Bacelli on one Monteverdi duet. The recital is a showcase for Mingardo and the androgynous sound of her voice that is very warm and mellow. Many of the lyrics are languidly erotic and there is a sensual feel to the whole disk. The standout to me though is the very first track, a lullaby by Merula that depicts the Virgin Mary singing to the Christ child and foretelling the sacrifices to come. A timeless piece that transcends terms like early music and even classical music and is just something guaranteed to move the soul.

Bad Hair Day

A recital of Chopin by the Russian pianist Evgeny Kissin, centred on the four ballades but also berceuse op 57, barcarolle op 60 and scherzo no 4 op 54. The ballades are full blown emotional romantic pieces written in response to revolutionary mayhem in Chopin's native Poland. The berceuse is a gentle lullaby, the barcarolle presaging the direction taken later by such as Debussy and the scherzo a fun piece of interweaving motives and harmonies. These counter the seriousness of the ballades. Kissin has been a controversial performer who can be quite mannered and idiosyncratic. A product of the child prodigy school and limiting himself to the central core repertoire, his development as a musician as opposed to a virtuoso could be said to have suffered. He is the kind of performer who attracts a devoted cult following however and I certainly have no arguments with his playing on this disk of material that he is most obviously at home with. I do wish he would get a stylist to sort out that hair though.

Creative

Back to that part of the shelf that houses the BBC Music mag covermount cd's and on this occasion back in 2001 they split the work over two issues, the work in question being Haydn's The Creation. The performers on the disk are the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and BBC Singers conducted by Harry Christophers, with soloists Nancy Argenta, William Kendall and Michael George. Haydn's oratorio sets the story of Genesis from God beavering around over six days to the appearance of Adam and Eve. It is a joyful celebratory work throughout, positive and in bright colours. It doesn't follow the story as far as the apple and the snake. The beginning orchestral stirrings are the ultimate sunrise music, this representing the first sunrise of course. There is the celebrated explosion of major chords for the arrival of light. When I first began exploring classical music, the element I had most trouble coming to terms with was the classically trained voice which sounded alien to my rock sensibilities. This early BBC disk was one that helped me over that phobia and stands up as a very good concert performance of this piece. Haydn may not have the gift for melody of Mozart but this is a very warm and civilised composition.

The Perils Of Not Being First

This album is an excellent example of the genre that has become known as desert blues. Although I dislike the sloppy shorthand used by world music reviewers in suffixing musics from all over the world with the word blues, it probably makes the most sense in west and north Africa where the links are clear both historicaly and musically. The album is called Introducing Etran Finatawa, and the band combine the nomadic cultures of the Tuareg and Wodaabe peoples of Niger. Traditional percussion is used alongside electric guitars and the typical loping "camel gait" rhythms. There is a very obvious comparison to be made with another Tuareg desert blues band, Tinariwen, who I also have an album by. If forced to choose, I would say that Etran Finatawa are the better band, stronger vocally and more fluent players. However, as far as western consciousness and the music biz marketing machine are concerned, they will inevitably suffer from being second to arrive on the scene. Outside of specialist enthusiasts, more casual followers of world music / rock will only have room for one desert blues band and that's more likely to be Tinariwen. If you would like to check a bit deeper though, then here's a recommendation for Etran Finatawa.

Air and Wind

There can be a tendency when considering the music of Toru Takemitsu, which I am not altogether going to avoid, to speak in terms of his nationality and how typical the music is of the miniaturist and delicate art of Japan. This disk of chamber music is performed by the Toronto New Music Ensemble and the dominant sound on most items is the flute of Robert Aitken. Aitken invited Takemitsu to festivals in Toronto and a friendship developed which led to many of these works being specially composed for him. They were then originally played in the presence of the composer who could give additional insights. Apart from a track for three percussion players including marimba and xylophone, the flute leads the way. Three tracks are just solo flute and others add variously viola, harp, guitar, piano and clarinet but the contributions of these other instruments is pared down and understated. That could apply to the music as a whole which has a gentle, insubstantial feel of air and wind. There is more going on here than just chill out music for relaxing, however.

A Distinctive Voice

A disk of fairly recent music from Arvo Part, still austere in structure and harmony and not so strictly in his tintinnabulation style but still instantly recognisable as this composer. The disk is entitled Triodion after the longest piece featured and the performers are the choir Polyphony directed by Stephen Layton. The works are mainly acapella with just a few judiciously placed organ contributions from Christopher Bowers-Broadbent on three tracks. Triodion is the sparsest work using ancient mystical Orthodox verses and there are also settings of the formal latin texts Nunc Dimittis and Salve Regina. But more unusually there are pieces setting English words, somewhat bizarrely in the case of the long biblical recitation of names ...which was the son of...and movingly in the case of I Am The True Vine. Also unusually for Part, there is one song that sets the words of Robert Burns rather than a sacred text, My Heart's In The Highlands. This song is also notable for being a solo from countertenor David James. Part was present for this recording and although Polyphony may lack that certain bass heaviness of a Russian choir, they give very professional performances.

A Russian Connection

Shostakovich wrote two violin concertos, seperated by twenty years and totally different political conditions. The first, written in 1947 carries all the baggage of the threats and restrictions that Shostakovich was living under during the Stalin regime. It is a symphonic work with the violin part fully integrated into the orchestral writing without particular virtuosic showcase sections. It contains a familiar Shostakovichian mix of the doleful and the manic and is much more frequently recorded and programmed than the relatively conventional second, which was written in calmer times and like the first dedicated to David Oistrakh. In the centenary year of 2006 it seemed that everyone and his dog was recording the first violin concerto but the disk under consideration here is from ten years earlier and has the authentic connection of Rostropovich conducting the London Symphony orchestra accompanying the soloist Maxim Vengerov. A very fine performance getting to the heart of the music with an especially emotional reading of the passacaglia in the first concerto and also making a case for concerto no 2 being underated.

Fiesta !

The Kronos Quartet have long since ceased to record general reperatory disks, instead going in for "projects". They have collaborated with for instance Indian and African musicians. This album, Nuevo, is their Mexican project. Although the strong presence and influence is also apparent of Osvaldo Golijov and his long time collaborator Gustavo Santaolalla. Their style is particularly evident in the "found sounds", sampling and phasing on the disk. The music ranges across the Mexican spectrum from Amer-Indian rhythms and instrumentation, through mariachi street bands, to cheesy latino pop standards and onto the art music of such as Revueltas and Golijov himself. It hangs together very well as a concept album, the only track that is maybe too close to being trendy for the sake of being trendy is the closing "dance mix" by something called Plankton Man that will eventually sound horribly dated. Other use of electronics from additional musicians and to alter the sound and texture of the quartet themselves are much more successful.

Going Solo

For some reason, surveys of the best performances of the six solo cello suites of J S Bach don't tend to mention this two cd box set from Mstislav Rostropovich. It does the job perfectly well for me, however. Maybe Bach isn't looked upon as being Rostropovich's main area of repertoire. He himself said that early attempts to play the work didn't satisfy him but this relatively late effort recorded in 1995 distills a lifetime's consideration of the structure. I've listened to the two disks seperatelyb over a couple of days, there's a bit much to take all six suites in at one sitting and however majestic the music and performance a solo instrument can get a bit wearing after two and a half hours. In the sleeve notes though, Rostropovich is keen to emphasise the differences between the individual suites. He states that the concept as a whole can be deemed to be "infinite joy from this genius of music" and he categorises the suites seperately from one to six as being lightness, sorrow and intensity, brilliance, majesty and opacity, darkness and sunlight. Having played the cello suites and the Goldbergs in close proximity, the centrality of Bach to western culture becomes very clear.

Meteorology

Live And Unreleased, a double cd retrospective from Weather Report that is exactly what the title implies. Weather Report was to all extents and purposes always the band of Joe Zawinul, with Wayne Shorter being he other main protagonist. Others will site the importance of the various rhythm sections especially controversial bassist Jaco Pastorius ( controversial since he seems to have been considered either a genius or a sham, depending on viewpoints ) Listening to the album today I was struck by how dated a lot of it felt. Which got me thinking about why is it that such seventies / eighties funk fusion music is thought of as "dated", whereas swing, bebop, cool jazz etc would merely be thought of as "of their time" ? Possibly the culprit is the synth / electronica sound of Zawinul himself that veers dangerously close to sounding like a stylophone at times. I found the first of the two cd's on the set to be much more satisfying than the second. Weather Report specialised in arranged sounds with integrated soloing gradually emerging from the group sound rather than being signposted and taken in strict rotation. The irst cd illustrated this degree of sophistication perfectly whereas a lot of the numbers on disk two degenerated into some kind of clumpy rock thrash. All in all though, a good overview of the band.

Variable

The Goldberg Variations were written supposedly as a practice piece on harpsichord for a pupil of J S Bach's called Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, hence the name. The scholarly exercise comprising an exquisite opening tune, thirty variations and a reprise of the theme demands a formidable technique so Herr Goldberg must have had his work cut out. Any reading needs dexterity, speed, lightness of touch, independant fingerwork and innate musicianship. As the modern performing age approached, it became an admired but largely avoided work until the famous recording by Glenn Gould. Many have since followed in his footsteps so the question is, which recording to select. The uniquely idiosyncratic one by Gould ? A harpsichord performance since that is what the piece was written to be played on ? Ultimately all down to personal preference of course and I have gone for a solid mainstream performance on a modern concert grand and in state of the art recorded sound by Murray Perahia. It's a cliche perhaps but listening to the Goldbergs is one of those times when it feels that the essence of western civilisation is being laid out before us.

Anglo-Irish Pastoralism

Today it is a disk of music by the 20th century Anglo-Irish composer E J Moeran. There are two works on the disk; Symphony in G Minor and Sinfonietta, composed in 1937 and 1940 respectively. The performers are the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Lloyd-Jones. Moeran belongs to that generation of British composers blown away by the disaster and cultural ramifications of WW2, dying in 1950 at the relatively young age of 56, a situation not helped by a WW1 war wound and alcohol abuse. The music in the symphony is a very fine evocation of the British and Irish countryside, an atmospheric account using elements of Irish and Norfolk song. The Sinfonietta is more episodic but was also inspired by the country landscape, this time around Shropshire. Often castigated for what they were not, composers such as Moeran and Bax are now widely appreciated for what they were and their music is very enjoyable on those terms.

Magic Wand

This is quite a special recording; Bruckner's Symphony No 8 played by the Berliner Philharmoniker conducted by Gunter Wand. The eighth was Bruckner's last completed symphony and the valedictory feel of the recording is enhanced by the conducting of the 89 year old Wand in the final year of his own life. The eighth is a massive symphony anyway, this recording stretching onto two disks and clocking in at just under ninety minutes. Bruckner was always the composer closest to Wand's heart and on his final years he became the foremost interpreter, maintaining a youthful fire and vigour, intelligence and integrity. The Berlin Phil obviously relished the opportunity to play this repertoire with such an expert and justify their standing in the top two of the world's orchestras in this account. This is a live recording in a concert setting, although the applause has been cut. For once, I would not have objected to it remaining on the disk. All the Bruckner cliches about cathedrals in sound, massive architecture etc apply to this symphony but it is much more than a dry academic reading and is a real emotional journey.

Transfigured Light

A performance of La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ by Messiaen, played by the Orchestre Philharmonique et Choeur de Radio France Directed by Myung-Whun Chung. Chung is a very reliable Messiaen specialist having enjoyed a close relationship with the composer prior to Messiaen's death. This piece spreads out over two disks. It sets the latin text of the story of the transfiguration and has many of Messiaen's preoccupations involved such as the blaze of light and numerology. No bird song evident this time though. Slow moving with loud orchestral interludes occasionally disrupting the awed sound of the choir and various solo instrumental contributions. I've acquired quite a few recordings of Messiaen's work and am currently trying to resolve my feelings about them. The two most accessible are the Turangalila and Quartet For The End Of Time, both of which I love. Currently however, I'm not sure I have the patience to fully appreciate some of the other works such as this one. It's good to have them on file as it were though, so that I can revisit and reassess at a more opportune time.

I Hope That He's In Heaven Sittin' Down

A superb delta blues compilation, The Best Of Mississippi Fred McDowell. One of the last of the original delta bluesmen to be "discovered", he was still at the height of his powers which sadly wasn't always the case with his contemporaries and predecessors. He also seemed a genuinely contented man without that edge of bitterness which again ( perfectly understandably ) was the case with others. This disk is a fine document to his powerful expressive voice and excellent slide guitar playing ( he was mainly responsible for teaching the style to Bonnie Raitt ) The material ranges from what are undoubtedly his own compositions ( he received a substantial royalty cheque near the end of his life after the Stones recorded You Gotta Move ) to covers of Little Walter's My Babe, adaptations of traditional songs from the deep past and even the spiritual I Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down, a side of his music he shared with his wife Annie Mae. It's gratifying that we have these glimpses back into a time past that recedes ever more swiftly as the years pass. The music still connects.

But At Heart It's Just The Blues

A series of disks was issued to coincide with the mammoth tv documentary on the history of jazz by director Ken Burns. The only one that I have in my collection is The Definitive Ornette Coleman. And it is a wonderful album, full of life affirming music that is not in the least difficult to listen to, regardless of the reputation that it has in some quarters. It is now easy to see that however radical some of it might appear to be, it is always rooted in blues. Purist improv fans see that as a weakness, I'm afraid the way my ears are adjusted make it a great strength. Even First Take from the Free Jazz album, while lacking any immediately recognisable theme, has a driving pulse that is easy to hang onto as the soloists take flight. Ornette's alto is a joy throughout. Most of the takes are in a quartet format with various accomplices but all fully attuned to the sound world. There are telling contributions on trumpet, primarily from Don Cherry, and the rhythm section is rock solid and both bass and drums also provide richly rewarding solos. Much of it so damn danceable too, check out Ramblin' and try to keep the smile off your face.

Americana Before The Term Was Coined

Next off the shelf is a late seventies album by Rodney Crowell called Ain't Living Long Like This. At the time categorised as country rock it might now be called Americana since there are influences beyond pure country to bluegrass, New Orleans r'n'b and even calypso. There is also an impressive roster of guest musicians adding tasteful understated cameos; Emmylou Harris, Ry Cooder, Dr John, Amos Garrett, Willie Nelson, Albert Lee, Ricky Skaggs and Richard Greene amongst others. Crowell has a warm mellow voice and is a consistently interesting songwriter. Most of the tracks are original songs apart from a countrified version of he old Elvis hit A Fool Such As I. So, perhaps not an essential album but certainly a minor classic that repays investigation.

The Best Band Named After a Sex Toy

This is a very substantial retrospective entitled Showbiz Kids, The Steely Dan Story 1972 - 1980. A two cd pack, well over two and a half hours of music comprising 33 tracks and covering the seven albums that were the sum of the band's output until after a hiatus of almost twenty years. The selections are wisely made, maybe a few favourites are omitted but the span and development of the band's early career is well represented. The first three albums appear to be those of an integrated rock band before it became clear that "Steely Dan" was in fact a project and the protagonists were Becker and Fagan. In fact in the early days a lot of the attention fell on guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, now somewhat unexpectedly a congessional missile defence expert. Even in those early days however, it was clear that there was a certain musical and lyrical sophistication about the band and even when seeming to rock out on a track like Bodhisattva or on a blues based riff like Pretzel Logic, there was always a jazzy arranged feel. If the first three albums seemed to be the work of a superior rock band, Becker and Fagan moved the project on by working exclusively with session musicians from Katy Lied onwards. That album and The Royal Scam had more of a reined in pop feel before the epic jazz based work on Aja and Gaucho. Rock purists ( for such there be ) may categorise Steely Dan as being too clever by half but there is much to appreciate in the way that they honour certain American musical traditions that the rock world mainly overlooks, such as jazz and show tunes. Not to mention the New York "smarts" of the lyrics.