Margriet Sjoerdsma Bloom 2008

Audacious fighters, indomitable queens, and evil witches: On their debut CD, soprano Margriet Buchberger and the musicians of Il Giratempo put Handel’s strongest and most mesmerizing women centre stage - where they rightfully belong. The „wild“ women in Georg Friedrich Handel’s operas are truly queens of their own destiny.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer's most successful and well-realized album (after their first), and their most ambitious as a group, as well as their loudest, Brain Salad Surgery was also the most steeped in electronic sounds of any of their records. The main focus, thanks to the three-part "Karn Evil 9," is sci-fi rock, approached with a volume and vengeance that stretched the art rock audience's tolerance to its outer limit, but also managed to appeal to the metal audience in ways that little of Trilogy did…

For saxophonists not familiar with Bloom's playing, this is an excellent release to do so with. The tunes are a mixture of originals and arranged standards and offer some great ensemble playing as well as solo work. Bloom has also procured a stellar group to create the music with as well, including Kenny Wheeler on trumpet and flugelhorn, Julian Priester on trombones, Bobby Previte on drums, Rufus Reid on bass, and Fred Hersch on piano. Bloom's soprano tone should be a benchmark for musicians wishing to hear what a well-played soprano saxophone sounds like. Not only is her "sound" superb, so are her incredibly well-chosen notes in solo passages. Bloom has an great amount of facility in all registers and blends this seemlessly with the arrangements around her.