Jacqueline Ollivier Martin Beaudoin

This unassuming and delightful little album visits a time when jazz and blues were still directly entwined, drawing on the ghosts of guitarists like Charlie Christian, Eddie Durham, Bill Jennings, Tiny Grimes, Barney Kessel, and Kenny Burrell, guitarists who used the blues to enrich the jazz pieces they played on, a kind of ensemble contribution that is all too frequently missing on the contemporary blues scene. Duke Robillard, Jay Geils, and Gerry Beaudoin are all gifted guitar players, each with his own career, but as a trio working three-part harmony lines around each other, they bring a stately ensemble grace to the tracks on New Guitar Summit (the trio also appears under that name when they do live shows).

This collection, composed of the great works for the cello, is a must have in any serious classical music fan's library. It is an even better collection for the "newbie" to the genre. Jacqueline du Pre was undoubtedly one of the greatest artist of the century and her passion is well documented in this collection.

Widely regarded as the definitive interpretation of the Elgar Cello Concerto, Jacqueline Du Pré's landmark 1965 recording of it is included in this unique compilation. Extending the musical range of the cello repertoire, from fine, exquisite cello suites by Bach to grand orchestral visions of Dvorák and Saint-Saëns, this CD set is not to be missed by fans of Du Pré's warm, brilliant interpretations. This collection, composed of the great works for the cello, is a must have in any serious classical music fan's library. It is an even better collection for the "newbie" to the genre. Jacqueline du Pre was undoubtedly one of the greatest artist of the century and her passion is well documented in this collection.

This disc, recorded live toward the end of Jacqueline du Pré's grievously short career, displays both her irresistible magic–the sumptuous, warm tone, the spontaneous immediacy of expression, the technical and emotional risk-taking born of total faith in her talent and musical instincts–and her unbridled excesses: the liberties, the extreme tempi and tempo changes, the passionate abandon, the incessant slow, sentimental slides.

Let me invite you to listen to this potpourri of favorite musical stories spotlighting some of the rich contributions from American immigrants and other countries. Laden with cultural pride, they celebrate people like my Scottish friend Stuart, who capped a fulfilling international career with retirement to Cape Cod but never forgot his roots–and would sing the old song I Belong to Glasgow, at the drop of a hat. I Lift My Lamp pays musical homage to his Glaswegian pride—and the pride of so many other immigrants for their homelands. In a conversation between old and new, it honors living, community traditions not set in stone. Influenced by my work with storyteller Ken Burns, I feature vintage immigrant songs and dances from my Pittsburgh childhood, later life in Boston and travels–my own arrangements of American standards, lesser-known gems, and imported and homegrown creations, from countryside to Tin Pan Alley…

Her story is one of the most legendary of all twentieth century musicians' stories, and also, one of the most tragic. Cellist Jacqueline Du Pré, born on January 26, 1945, in Oxford, England, to Derek and Iris Du Pré. (Despite the family name, Derek Du Pré was not French, but rather of British Channel Island ancestry; he could trace his lineage back to the Norman Conquest).

With the appearance of the excellent "les intouvables" collection of du Pre's EMI recordings, a codification which includes a sampling of most everything, why on earth would one opt to glance at the individual selections? The reasons are twofold: First, with the collection one may hear the works together, never fully appreciating their accomplishments individually and that in order to experience the mastery and history of the recordings one might choose to hear them separately. Second, the works as separately released also carry in addition to a complete chronolgic and historic arrangement (see e.g., the last Haydn concerto), the individual recordings coprise additional works meant to be included within their respective final format.