Laurent Colson

Spinnin’ is my fifth album as a leader, the first within the jazz piano trio idiom. For this recording, I called a drummer with whom I played quite a bit during my past years in NY – currently with tenor Joe Lovano – the young Otis Brown III, and the bass player everybody digs (Dianne Reeves, Joshua Redman, Charles Lloyd…), Reuben Rogers. ~ Laurent Coq.

Two musicians frequently recognized for their passion for hard-edged modern and contemporary music take on the music of modern pioneer Maurice Ravel. The Ravel piano concertos come off as brilliant and sparkling in the hands of Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Pierre Boulez, along with the Cleveland Orchestra. Boulez and the orchestra make Ravel's orchestral writing sparkle in the Concerto for Left Hand, and in the Concerto in G they highlight not only the sassy jazz references, but also the references to Stravinsky, and do it without drawing attention away from the rest of the music.

Willi Apel, one of the great twentieth-century experts on harpsichord music, declared: ‘With d’Anglebert, French keyboard music reaches its highest point of Baroque magnificence and fulness. His skill in continuing a melody, contrapuntally interweaving voices, concatenating harmonies by way of suspensions, and always using meaningful figures as ornaments brings to a final culmination and maturity what his teacher, Chambonnières, began . . .’

Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joins forces with the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen for a recording of Bartók’s complete piano concertos. A pianist himself, Bartók imbued his three concertos with multiple aspects of his compositional persona, ranging from complex and innovative (the First) to exuberant (the Second) and serene (the Third). The result is a fascinating slice of his musical life. This all-Bartók release marks the first Pentatone collaboration between Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony, an ensemble he has reshaped through creative performance concepts and expansive new media projects.

Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard joins forces with the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen for a recording of Bartók’s complete piano concertos. A pianist himself, Bartók imbued his three concertos with multiple aspects of his compositional persona, ranging from complex and innovative (the First) to exuberant (the Second) and serene (the Third). The result is a fascinating slice of his musical life. This all-Bartók release marks the first Pentatone collaboration between Esa-Pekka Salonen and the San Francisco Symphony, an ensemble he has reshaped through creative performance concepts and expansive new media projects.

Produced by Laurent Cugny and Daniel Richard for Orchestre National De Jazz. Laurent Cugny - Bandleader. Ranks alongside George Gruntz as prime European contemporary composer, leader. His large orchestra is remniscent of Gil Evans big band in final stages; his pieces have quirky, unpredictable quality, as do his recordings.
The album was recorded in studio and live in 1994 and 1995.

Devienne was a professor of flute at the Conservatory of Music of Paris and bassoonist in the orchestra of the grand opera theatre of Paris in 1796. In these pieces Devienne demonstrates his mastery of gallant conversation with an admirably light touch. In these works it is the bassoon and the violin that shape the musical events. Laurent Lefèvre won the Premier Grand Prix at the Concours International d'Exécution musicale of Geneva. He is the first bassoon soloist in the orchestra of the Opéra national de Paris. He has made solo appearances in many orchestras and festivals in Germany, Swizterland, Argentina and Belgium.

It isn’t uncommon for musicians to use literature as inspiration for their compositions. The methods by which musicians approach this task differ not only from the artist’s individual style but also that of the writer whose work they will aurally illustrate. On their new Sunnyside release, saxophonist Miguel Zenón and pianist Laurent Coq challenge themselves to capture the breadth of character, form and perspective of Argentinean writer Julio Cortázar’s masterwork, Rayuela.