D&s Vol. 50

Garolou was a pan-Eastern Canadian group with members from Ontario thru to the Maritimes. Its origins could be traced to Franco Ontarian brothers Marc and Michel Lalonde who were living in Prince Edward Island in 1974 and part of a theatre troupe. Their musical career began humbly as a folk duo, but their interests and their popularity resulted in expansion to a full rock ensemble including keyboards, bass and drums, performing revved up and re-interpreted folk songs with plenty of progressive flourishes, Canada's answer to Steeleye Span if you will…

Stanley Turrentine was just beginning to turn heads in jazz circles in the early '60s when he made an appearance at Minton's with guitarist Grant Green, pianist Horace Parlan, bassist George Tucker, and drummer Al Harewood. The group mixes hard bop with funk and soul jazz; Turrentine's tone, sound, and pacing are good, although he wasn't yet the master at ballads he would be later in his career. Standards and a couple of blues make up the repertoire, giving listeners a definitive look at the soulful Mr. T. near the beginning of his productive musical life.

French artist MICHEL ZACHA was a colourful addition to the roster of French artists that was active in the 1970's, his output incorporating elements from a vast number of different stylistic expressions from both sides of the dividing line between mainstream rock and art rock. His creative highlight was the years 1972 - 1977, when he released the concept album trilogy Promesses d'Atlantides, consisting of La Nuit des Cigales (1972), Le Vol D'Icare (1974) and Inutile (1977). Little else is known about this composer and musician today.

Musica Alta Ripa was founded in 1984. The recorder player Danya Segal, two violinists Anne Röhrig and Ursula Bundies, cellist Juris Teichmanis, and harpsichordist Bernward Lohr, all outstanding, sought-after musicians in their fields, joined forces to form an ensemble that owes its special aura to the commingling of their individual personalities.

Masaaki Suzuki was an organist before he was a conductor, and his recordings of Bach's organ works have made a delightful coda to his magisterial survey of Bach cantatas with his Bach Collegium Japan. This selection, the second in a series appearing on the BIS label, gives a good idea of the gems available. You get a good mix of pieces, including a pair of Bach's Vivaldi transcriptions. Fans of Suzuki's cantata series will be pleased to note the similarities in his style between his conducting and his organ playing: there's a certain precise yet deliberate and lush quality common to both. And he has a real co-star here: the organ of the Kobe Shoin Women's University Chapel, built in 1983 by French maker Marc Garnier. The realizations of Bach's transcriptions of Vivaldi concertos fare especially well here, with a panoply of subtle colors in the organ. Sample the first movement of the Concerto in D minor, BWV 596, with its mellow yet transcendently mysterious tones in the string ripieni. BIS backs Suzuki up with marvelously clear engineering in the small Japanese chapel, and all in all, this is a Bach organ recording that stands out from the crowd. Highly recommended.

Vol. 2 in BIS' complete Sibelius Edition is given over the Finnish master's chamber music for strings and for strings and piano. Fifty years earlier, this release would've included only the "Voces intimae" string quartet. But BIS' 2007 release includes all four quartets and all four piano trios, plus 35 other works or substantial fragments lasting between 13 seconds to 32 minutes. One thing is instantly clear: Sibelius scholarship has made enormous strides since the mid-twentieth century.

The Collector's Edition - Celebrating a groundbreaking label - The true legacy of a legendary label. Long hailed as an audiophile's label, Mercury represents an important milestone in the history of classical recordings. A s The New York Times described, 'One feels oneself in the living presence of the orchestra'. 60 years after the landmark first recording, Mercury Living Presence: The Collector's Edition celebrates this special anniversary.