Nocturne 明日の叙景 Asunojokei

Vangelis’ music is synonymous with space—the symphony Mythodea was composed for NASA’s 2001 Mars mission, and his 2016 album, Rosetta, was borne from the Rosetta mission to explore a comet. Here, he performs 11 original works on piano and accompanying synthesizer, inspired by nighttime and his passion for space, including the beautifully lilting “Through the Night Mist” and delightful “Nocturnal Promenade.” The film composer also visits some of his most renowned soundtracks, with contemplative reworkings of "Main Theme (From ‘Chariots of Fire’),” “Love Theme (From ‘Blade Runner’),” and “Conquest of Paradise (From ‘1492: Conquest of Paradise’).” But it’s his pared-down arrangement of Movement 9 from Mythodea that’s the star of the show.

Charlie Haden has a long-standing interest in Cuban music, first touched on with his Liberation Music Orchestra over 30 years ago. Nocturne expands on that affinity and on the bassist's relationship with Cuban piano virtuoso Gonzalo Rubalcaba, who introduced Haden to the tradition of the Cuban ballad, or bolero. The result is this very unusual mix of slow- to medium-tempo pieces, limpid, sometimes almost somber songs that are filled with yearning romanticism, wistful lyricism, and an inner light. NOCTURNE won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album.

One of the greatest of all tenor players, Don Byas' decision to move permanently to Europe in 1946 resulted in him being vastly underrated in jazz history books. His knowledge of chords rivalled Coleman Hawkins, and, due to their similarity in tones, Byas can be considered an extension of the elder tenor. He played with many top swing bands, including those of Lionel Hampton (1935), Buck Clayton (1936), Don Redman, Lucky Millinder, Andy Kirk (1939-1940), and most importantly Count Basie (1941-1943). An advanced swing stylist, Byas' playing looked toward bop. He jammed at Minton's Playhouse in the early '40s, appeared on 52nd Street with Dizzy Gillespie, and performed a pair of stunning duets with bassist Slam Stewart at a 1944 Town Hall concert…

When Pogorelich did not make the finals of the 1980 Warsaw Competition (where they play exclusively Chopin), his response was to sign with Deutsche Grammophon for his first recording and he made it an all-Chopin affair. From his stunning opening take on Chopin's Sonata #2, to a Funeral March restored to its grandeur, to the breaktaking final moments of the Scherzo #3, Pogorelich announced to the music world that he'd arrived.

The story goes that flautist/bandleader Christophe dal Sasso, in his tireless quest for new sonorities for his arranging tasks, absorbed the lessons of saxophonist Dave Liebman's treatise A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody. Onstage some time later with a big band at Paris's Sunset nightclub, he applied those lessons to an arrangement of Woody Shaw's "Little Red Fantasy ; and who should be in the audience but Liebman himself, who hears something oddly familiar in the group's sound. Liebman would sit in with the band, thus beginning a collaboration whose fullest fruition is this disc.

Antoine Hervé (20 January 1959 in Paris) is a French composer and pianist. Hervé studied composition at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique. Between 1987 and 1989 he was director of the French National Jazz Orchestra. He has played with Dee Dee Bridgewater, Chet Baker, Randy Brecker, Cab Calloway, Louis Sclavis, Martial Solal, Michel Portal, Carla Bley, Didier Lockwood and Daniel Humair.