Applemagazine From 22 January 2016

Don Cherry & Irene Schweizer - Musical Monsters (1980) {Intakt CD 269 rel 2016}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 405 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 142 Mb
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© 1980, 2016 Intakt Records | Intakt CD 269
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Trumpet / Piano

"The music of this concert is adventurous, taking the liberty of breaking all the rules of style through playing without getting totally out of hand", writes Christian Rentsch in the liner notes. In short: This CD is a stroke of luck. For decades, the live recording of the Musical Monsters from 30 August 1980 lay carefully packed away in the archives of the Jazzfestival Willisau. When Irène Schweizer got to hear the recordings it was immediately clear to her: This recording has to be put out.

On the new album: A fantastic new album from one of the best German Bands. Fire From The Soul combines all elements you can expect from a new Epitaph album in 2016: singing twin-guitars and sparkling rock songs with choral singing for several voices. This album is surprising all along the line through the steady quality from first to last song…

BBC - The Sky at Night: Planet 9 from Outer Space (2016)
HDTV | 1920x1080 | .MKV/AVC @ 3647 Kbps | 29mn 1s | 784 MiB
Audio: English AAC 126 kbps, 2 channels | Subs: English
Genre: Documentary

On 20th January 2016, two American astronomers made an extraordinary claim - they had found evidence for a ninth planet in our solar system, a planet 20 times further out than Neptune which would take up to 20,000 years to orbit the sun. It is a discovery that could completely rewrite our understanding of our solar system and how it formed. As the world's biggest telescopes start scanning the skies searching for Planet 9, the Sky at Night team investigates. If Planet 9 exists, where is it and where did it come from?

As a unit, this must be one of the best piano trios ever, and certainly as instantly recognisable as any of its great predecessors. Charlap’s touch on the keyboard is light, almost stealthy, even when playing full chords, but always firm, clear and beautifully articulated. With the spirited support of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington (famously unrelated), the total effect is just perfect. As always, Charlap’s playing provides convincing proof that it is still possible to create fresh but pertinent treatments of well-known standard songs. The son of a songwriter and a singer, he has an instinctive feel for the idiom. His versions here of I’ll Remember April and A Sleepin’ Bee are masterly.

After the quintet Toxic Parasites, and the eponymous CD released in 2013, saxophonist-clarinetist exchange instrumentation maintaining the same drummer. On the trio originally associated sax, organ and drums, arises by adding a guitar a formula strongly influenced by jazz history (Jimmy Smith, Brother Jack McDuff, Jimmy McGriff, but obviously as Larry Young). It is indeed in a context of effervescence, groove and cursiveness resulting feet and neurons in a desire for perpetual motion. Beaches on fast tempo, which cultivate the taste of vertigo in motion alternate with claimed melancholy moments, whether clarinets (Smooth Skin, Cape Cod) or alto sax, with an obviously tropism which causes the side of Ornette Coleman (Dreaming with Ornette, Silent March).

With Crystal Rain, Céline Bonacina recalls that she is probably one of the most powerful saxophonists of France. Even in hushed sequences, the musician born in Belfort channels his game with talent. There is already the choice of weapons, not to everyone: the baritone saxophone. Bonacina the fiddles like no other. Here, with Gwilym Simcock on piano, Chris Jennings on bass and Asaf Sirkis on drums, it makes a real inspiration locomotive while keeping in mind the unity of the quartet.

Luzzasco Luzzaschi (1545-1607) - Madrigals, Motets & Instrumental Music - Profeti della Quinta (2016) {Pan Classics}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 340 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 164 Mb
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© 2016 Pan Classics / Note 1 Music | PC 10350
Classical / Renaissance / Early Music

In his publications, Luzzasco Luzzaschi (c. 1545-1607) presents himself, rather modestly as the Organist of the Serene Highness Duke of Ferrara. Accordingly, Luzzaschis reputation today is similarly modest; he is known, if at all, thanks only to the music he composed for the Concerto delle Dame an ensemble of virtuoso female singers at the dEste court in Ferrara. And yet, when his entire oeuvre is explored, one discovers that his music and influence are greater than could have been imagined. In fact, Luzzaschi was both musically and historically one of the central musical figures of the late Renaissance. This recording presents a broad picture of Luzzaschis oeuvre, selecting works in various genres, performed in historically informed settings with appropriate performance practices. While pieces for the Concerto delle Dame are included, one of the intentions of Profeti della Quinta is to highlight the fact that the rest of Luzzaschis output stands equally alongside these compositions.

Bob Dylan - Fallen Angels (2016) {Columbia-Sony Music 88985308022}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 178 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 89 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 23 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Columbia / Sony Music | 88985308022
Rock / Folk Rock / Folk / Americana / Roots Rock / Songwriter

Fallen Angels may have been recorded at the same session as 2015's moody Shadows in the Night, but its tone is very different. Call Fallen Angels the Nice 'n' Easy to the No One Cares of Shadows in the Night: they're both tributes to Frank Sinatra, but the 2016 album is light at heart. It's filled with songs of love, not heartbreak, and Dylan's band plays the numbers as sweet shuffles that function as a counterpart to the gloomy saloon tunes that filled Shadows in the Night.

Onwards To Mars! is the twentieth anniversary release from the big Balkan brass band that is Fanfare Ciocărlia. One of the finest live acts on Earth, the band's energy, musicality and sheer unfettered sense of fun readily translate to record, making this album one of the most uplifting and cheerful collections one could wish to hear.