Marty Friman

The worlds of the crossover album and of the ECM music label don't overlap much, but this is a crossover album unlike any other released up to this time. For one thing, it deals with the Renaissance lute song, not a form in which new pieces have been written often. And for another, the vocal middle ground between Renaissance vocal styles and the rock background of the contemporary composers is unique. What is here are Renaissance lute songs from England and Spain, plus songs by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Tony Banks of Genesis, and, at the end, Sting, expanding on his Dowland album of a decade ago.

For purists, Gavin Bryars has raised issues of appropriation in his contemporary adaptations of fourteenth century Cortonese laude, but it is sometimes difficult to know how much of the material on Oi Me Lasso he has quoted and how much he has elaborated. In their original form, these sacred songs were written for unaccompanied soprano voice; one can be sure that the drones, passing dissonances, and instrumental parts are Bryars' inventions, and that he has reshaped the pure vocal lines to his own expressive needs.

Marty Paich - The Marty Paich Quartet featuring Art Pepper (1956) {V.S.O.P. Records TAMPA28 rel 1989}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 150 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 62 Mb
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© 1956, 1989 Tampa Records / V.S.O.P. Records | V.S.O.P. #10CD / TAMPA 28
Jazz / West Coast Jazz / Cool / Piano / Saxophone

This CD from V.S.O.P. reissues a fairly obscure Tampa LP featuring pianist Marty Paich (better-known as an arranger), altoist Art Pepper, bassist Buddy Clark and drummer Frank Capp; the music on Marty Paich Quartet, Vol. 9 has also been issued under Pepper's name. Pepper and Paich would have several notable collaborations during the next few years, but this was their first. Pepper is generally the main star (particularly on such numbers as "You and the Night and the Music," "Over the Rainbow" and "All the Things You Are") while Paich (who has several fine piano solos) contributes three of the eight songs to this cool-toned, but hard-swinging set.