American Tunes

23 of Paul Simon’s most famous songs performed by artists from a diversity of genres.

Austin’s Grupo Fantasma enters their 19th year as a band with an exciting new record and a fresh take on their unique sound. With six previous albums in their back catalog, plus collaborations and backing gigs with the likes of Prince, Spoon and Los Lobos, not to mention a GRAMMY award and a loyal fan base, they are ready to turn people’s heads again with American Music: Vol. VII (Blue Corn Music).

This is an enchanting CD, every item a sheer delight. Margaret Leng Tan worked with Cage in the last decade of his life and her earlier recordings (1/92; 7/95) show a special sympathy for the magical world of Cage's keyboard music. The second of her New Albion CDs included the piano solo version of The Seasons, and Cage was honest enough to admit to her that he had help from Virgil Thomson and Lou Harrison in making the orchestral version recorded here. The result is recognisably Cage at his most poetic, evoking each of the four seasons in lovely changing colours. There are two realisations of one of the last of what are called Cage's 'Number Pieces', Seventy-Four, written specially for the American Composers Orchestra a few months before his death in 1992. Several hearings have confirmed for me that this seamless garment of sustained sound in two overlapping parts is an immensely moving document from a unique human being at the very end of his life.

Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes? is American composer John Adams’ latest creation for piano, and continues his provocative exploration of that instrument heard in Grand Pianola Music (1983) and Hallelujah Junction (2001). Deutsche Grammophon/Universal Music Canada, the country's leading music company's recording of Adams’ first piano concerto in several decades is set for release on vinyl and as an eVideo on 21 August 2020 and will be available to stream as an eAlbum on 17 April.