Dr. Z

Consisting of some beautiful standards such as Smoke Gets into Your Eyes, Star Dust, Sunflower, plus some terrific new pieces created by Yamamoto, the music and sonic excellence has definitely surpassed his last album. Recorded in Tokyo in July of 2008. In DXD digital format, the details of the music are just awesome, the dynamics are scary and the musicality is so rich. This explains why extreme high definition is so important - once you've heard it, you cannot go back!

Opening with the ominous, fiery protest of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," War immediately announces itself as U2's most focused and hardest-rocking album to date. Blowing away the fuzzy, sonic indulgences of October with propulsive, martial rhythms and shards of guitar, War bristles with anger, despair, and above all, passion…

In many ways, U2 took their fondness for sonic bombast as far as it could go on War, so it isn't a complete surprise that they chose to explore the intricacies of the Edge's layered, effects-laden guitar on the follow-up, The Unforgettable Fire. Working with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, U2 created a dark, near-hallucinatory series of interlocking soundscapes that are occasionally punctuated by recognizable songs and melodies…

In 1988, the Marshall Tucker Band released their first album following the break-up of the original band. Doug Gray and Jerry Eubanks had decided to continue touring and recording, and recruited some of Nashville's best session players to travel as well as record under the MTB name…

With Still Smokin', the Marshall Tucker Band continues the same pattern they initiated with the 1991 release Southern Spirit. Solid, catchy pop/rock and country-tinged tracks like "Frontline," and "Southern Spirit," help to round out a fine selection of tunes that find the band once again cracking into the country Top 40 with "Driving You Out of My Mind."…

"Speak to Me" is the CD premiere of a duo that has actually been in existence for some time. The recordings with pianist Marc Copland and guitarist John Abercrombie are classic examples of the quiet, calm art of communication practiced at the highest level. The musical meeting of these two contemporary jazz maestros has a wonderfully organic feel. It is comparable to the finest chamber music. The pieces shimmer with multifarious shades and meanings. They are small sound sculptures of artful transience. This is music from two of the most insightful players of jazz.

Discovered by Dizzy Gillespie (whose 40's rhythm section left to form the initial line-up of the esteemed Modern Jazz Quartet) , Milt "Bags" Jackson was a preeminent vibes virtuoso and enjoyed over forty years as one-fourth of the MJQ (Milt Jackson Quartet). Jackson also enjoyed decades of solo work for great jazz labels such as Savoy, Riverside and Atlantic and one of his crowning achievements occurred over a three day session booked for Riverside in 1962. Answering his 'invitation' were fellow all-starts Kenny Dorham, Jimmy Heath, Ron Carter and Tommy Flanagan. The trumpet/tenor tandem uniquely augment Jackson' vibraphone, creating a driving, free-wheeling, classic blowing session.

On Beyond Standard, her fifth album and the second one under the group name Hiromi's Sonicbloom, the always adventuresome pianist doesn't so much pay tribute to standards such as Duke Ellington's "Caravan" and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "My Favorite Things" as break them apart, put them back together in a way that best pleases her and generally deconstruct the whole idea of paying homage to old songs.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) - Keyboard Concertos
Freiburger Barockorchester / Andreas Staier / Gottfried von der Goltz
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 263 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Harmonia Mundi # HMC 901854 | Country/Year: Europe 2004, ReIssue 2011
Genre: Classical | Style: Classical, Concerto

…The justifiably well known Rondo all’Ungarese is played with superb virtuosity by the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra with string playing of extraordinary unanimity, with again that wonderful bass. Andreas Staier makes much of the gypsy element and conjures a huge range of colours out of his Walter copy pianoforte. A terrific CD.