Elegy (2008)

Trumpeter Tore Johansen found himself lifted to higher grounds both as a composer and as a soloist, after the important 2004 phone call he made to Swedish piano great Lars Jansson and the Finnish alto player Jukka Perko, asking them to join his Tore Johansen Unity project in Norway. The first results came on the album Like That (Gemini Records) from 2005 together with Karin Krog. Four years has passed, tenor sax-wizard Knut Riisnaes has taken Krog`s place in the band, and out on the street`s now is the result; A highly energetic new album called GIVING. In addition to the abovementioned, rounding up the sextet is also the talents of the bass player Bjorn Kjellemyr and the drumming of Tore`s big brother and co-producer Roger Johansen.

While pianist-arranger-composer Toshiko Akiyoshi headed a fine big band in New York after moving cross-country in 1982, the orchestra that she led in Los Angeles in the 1970s was arguably her greatest accomplishment. The three-CD Mosaic Select set Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band collects all of the music originally released on the RCA albums Kogun, Long Yellow Road, Tales of a Courtesan, Insights, and March of the Tadpoles. With such major players as Akiyoshi’s husband Lew Tabackin on tenor and flute, trumpeters Bobby Shew and Don Rader, trombonist Britt Woodman and altoist Gary Foster among the many soloists in the all-star band, the orchestra could swing as hard as any of its competitors. In addition to the more boppish pieces, Akiyoshi often wrote works that displayed her Japanese heritage, utilizing Eastern harmonies and instruments along with her husband’s flute. Many of the highpoints of her career are on this perfectly conceived Mosaic release.

In one of my earlier reviews of recordings of Nørgård’s music, I remarked that his musical and stylistic progress is far from a straight line. This composer is used to surprising even his staunchest admirers with unexpected twists and turns. This is certainly valid when considering his string quartets - ten at the time of writing. It may be worth reminding ourselves that his first essays in the genre are available on Kontrapunkt 32015 played by the Kontra Quartet. It’s a disc still worth looking out for.

Pehr Henrik Nordgren (1944-2008) is considered by many composer-colleagues, musicians and music experts as one of the leading and most interesting composers of his generation. Works on this recording (Horn Concerto, Violin Concerto Nr 4 and Rock Score) are all recorded before, but now updated to super audio CD with new soloists on ALBA records. The whole league of performers including the orchestra itself are Ostrobothnians, where the composer settled to work too.

American pop/jazz-rock group. One of the biggest-selling bands in U.S. history, hailing from the Windy City (Chicago, Illinois). Formed in 1967 as "The Big Thing", they were one of the first groups to successfully fuse rock with a horn section…