Max Gazze' Cresima

Study in Brown features the 1955 version of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, a group also including tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow. One of the premiere early hard bop units, this band had unlimited potential. Highlights of this set are "Cherokee" (during which trumpeter Brown is brilliant), "Swingin'," and "Sandu." All of this group's recordings are well worth acquiring.

Other than a trio set with the legendary pianist Hasaan Ibn Ali, this set was Max Roach's only recording as a leader during 1963-67. Three of the six numbers ("Nommo," "St. Louis Blues" and "In the Red") find Roach heading a group that includes trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, altoist James Spaulding, pianist Ronnie Mathews, bassist Jymie Merritt and, on "St. Louis Blues," Roland Alexander on soprano. Their music is essentially advanced hard-bop with a generous amount of space taken up by Roach's drum solos. The other three selections ("The Drum Also Waltzes," "Drums Unlimited" and "For Big Sid") are unaccompanied features for Max Roach and because of the melodic and logically-planned nature of his improvisations, they continually hold on to one's attention.

Max Cooper's latest album project 'Unspoken Words' is available on Mesh, alongside an epic immersive film project.

When Max Richter’s Recomposed first exploded into our collective ears almost a decade ago, a 59-minutes-28-seconds sonic starburst, the effect for so many people was total. We hadn’t heard anything like that, ever. Experiencing it felt as though we were being catapulted onto another plane, reverberated through the cosmos by this epiphanic soundworld. In this “alternative rendering”, Chineke!, the groundbreaking British ensemble consisting of majority Black, Asian and ethnically diverse musicians, and the brilliant soloist, Elena Urioste, are playing on gut strings and period instruments: the sort that Vivaldi would have heard, and played, in his own time.

A previously unknown contemporary score of the St. Mark Passion falsely ascribed to Johann Heinrich Rolle recently came to light in Brussels. Due to the new identification of the copyist’s hand, a largely original version of Georg Philipp Telemann’s St. Mark’s Passion of 1759 is now available, reflected in this recording. Freshly penned “poetical reflections” were added to the Evangelist’s text. The anonymous, theologically educated author of these reflective arias and accompagnati, who in consultation with the composer also chose the selection of church songs and designed the overall structure of the libretto, coordinated the sacred message of the text with a finely calculated affective dramaturgy.

Max Richter will release a new orchestral composition to mark the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth on 17 December. The world premiere performance of Beethoven – Opus 2020 will take place on 16 December at Beethoven-Haus Bonn, the birthplace of the composer and now a museum, cultural institution and research centre, and will be live streamed on Deutsche Grammophon’s Facebook page. Max Richter’s new solo piano single Andante Loops, based on music from Beethoven – Opus 2020, premiered today in Apple Music’s Beethoven Room. Beethoven – Opus 2020 and Andante Loops will be released together as a digital EP from 18 December. Max Richter said, “I give the last word in Opus 2020 to Beethoven himself, as a reminder that in spite of the challenges we face, the future is in our hands; if we choose creative and positive actions it will be brighter.”