Fountain

Pete Fountain plays a dozen songs associated with seven different clarinetists ranging from Benny Goodman and Woody Herman to Irving Fazola and even Ted Lewis. Backed by a big band directed by Bud Dant on some of the selections, Fountain is in excellent form playing in his own swing/Dixieland style.

In a garden glade before a grand fountain, surrounded by a musical party, an elegant woman in a lustrous white gown dances as part of a foursome, raising her eyes to the viewer as if extending an invitation to The Dance. This is the enticing scene in the Getty Museum’s painting Dance Before a Fountain by Nicolas Lancret (1690–1743), an excellent example of the fête galante, a genre that was created and reached the peak of its popularity in France during the first half of the eighteenth century. …

The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows, the new studio album from Damon Albarn, will be released by new label homeTransgressive Records. The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows was originally intended as an orchestral piece inspired by the landscapes of Iceland. This last year has seen Albarn return to the music in lockdown and develop the work to 11 tracks which further explore themes of fragility, loss, emergence and rebirth. The result is a panoramic collection of songs with Albarn as storyteller. The album title is taken from a John Clare poem Love and Memory. Albarn says “I have been on my own dark journey while making this record and it led me to believe that a pure source might still exist.”