"joined up Thinking"

Inspired by the legendary violinists whose dazzling showpieces and heart-melting melodies Garrett fell in love with as a child, Iconic includes more than twenty tracks and is set for release in all formats on 4 November 2022. Music by Bach, Dvořák, Gluck, Kreisler, Mendelssohn and Schumann, among many others, is presented in new arrangements for violin, guitar and orchestra (by Franck van der Heijden and David Garrett). David Garrett is accompanied by his guitarist Franck van der Heijden – who also conducts the players of Orchestra The Prezent – as well as being joined in duet arrangements by his former teacher Itzhak Perlman, star tenor Andrea Bocelli, flautist Cocomi and trumpeter Till Brönner.

Launch of a new duo with a most uncommon instrumentation, acoustic guitar and trumpet - but it's a highly attractive combination. Ralph Towner, guitarist extraordinaire, an ECM artist since 1972, is joined by Italian trumpet star Paolo Fresu, making his label debut for ECM.
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Chiaroscuro is Ralph Towner's 22nd album as a leader for ECM, in a discography with well over 30 titles. Alongside the landmark recordings like Diary, Solstice and Batik, this one has all the hallmarks of a classic.

Roger Waters' The Wall, Live In Berlin marks the second in a series of Pink Floyd related reviews I will be writing to commemorate the long awaited release of the band's Pulse DVD, which I reviewed last month. During the end of the 80's, after Roger Waters had left Pink Floyd, he began making plans to perform The Wall as a huge event, originally considering such grand places as the Sahara Desert, Monument Valley, The Grand Canyon, and Wall Street. Around this time, plans were also underway for the reunification of Germany, and the Berlin wall eventually fell in November of 1989.

There can’t be many ensembles around as stylistically fleet-footed as Hamburg’s Ensemble Resonanz. I’m still thinking fondly back to their Haas, Bartók and Berg programme on the Elbphilharmonie’s opening weekend; and now here they are playing historically informed CPE Bach with equal musical sensitivity and intellectual panache, joined by their artist-in-residence Riccardo Minasi (himself a period-performance chameleon) and their other regular collaborator, Jean-Guihen Queyras.

Everyone has thought it on occasion, when a drunk spoils the party for everyone else, and now Big Al Carson has written a song that expresses what everyone was thinking. "Take Your Drunken Ass Home" was written by Carson extemporaneously one night, as the blues musician and his band were repeatedly interrupted during their set by an inebriated patron at a New Orleans bar. Since then, the song has become a favorite during the Carnival season, culminating in its biggest day, Mardi Gras, with plenty of people needing this kind of advice. Music veteran Carson has chosen the humorous tune as the title cut of his 2002 CD release.

Live (1974). Though it seems odd that a live album could serve as a band's breakthrough release, Live shows the band clearly building upon the strengths of their previous studio albums while avoiding their excesses. Without a string section to back them up - or to smother them, depending on your thinking - the band draws more heavily on its rhythm section and on the tonal colorings of Wolstenholme's Mellotron, the latter most clearly on "The Great 1974 Mining Disaster." The rich harmonies, political content, and poignant twang of John Lees songs like "For No One" come across here with the same kind of ragged majesty as Neil Young's live work. And an epic-length "Medicine Man," unburdened of its heavy orchestral arrangement and beefed up with a newly emphasized guitar and drum parts, reveals the brawn lurking beneath the lassitude of the studio version…