Absolute Jav

The Noisemakers, Bruce Hornsby's regular backing band since 2002, aren't credited on 2019's Absolute Zero, which should be an indication that the album is a bit of a departure from the other records he's made during the 21st century. While the Noisemakers haven't avoided adventure, Absolute Zero feels as if it was made without any regard to boundaries, either in terms of style or approach. Such fearlessness is evident from the outset, when the record kicks off with a dexterous rhythm suitable for a vintage post-bop session, but it's too reductive to call Absolute Zero an odyssey into straight jazz.

Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony offer the world-premiere recording of John Adams’ Absolute Jest, commissioned by the orchestra, alongside the composer’s Grand Pianola Music, another SFS commission from 30 years earlier, conducted here by the composer. Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony join forces with America’s most-performed living composer, John Adams, in a colossal album featuring Adams’s Absolute Jest and Grand Pianola Music. Hear Adams’s inspired and witty take on Beethoven’s spirited scherzos in this first-ever recording of his SFS- commissioned Absolute Jest. Also featured is Grand Pianola Music, with its tongue-in-cheek allusions to Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto, written for and premiered by the SFS. Both works speak to the deeply personal and vital relationship of some of the top musicians of our time: John Adams, MTT, and the SFS.