Nova 11.1

The phrase "very best of" in an album title usually indicates a highly selective collection of an artist's career highlights.

Having been a major part of Stan Getz's very popular Jazz Samba album, it was only fitting that guitarist Charlie Byrd would start recording his own bossa nova records. This CD reissue brings back the 12 songs originally on the Riverside LP Bossa Nova Pelos Passaros plus six of the 11 tunes from Once More! Bossa Nova. Byrd and his trio (which included bassist Keter Betts and drummer Bill Reichenbach) are augmented on some selections by strings, extra percussion, plus horns.

This album ranges widely over Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan’s substantial output of sacred music and gathers together a few pieces that haven’t made it into the studio, such as the lovely St Anne’s Mass. Many of the pieces have personal significance, including works written for the weddings of family members and a Requiem Mass for his father. The largest here, The Culham Motets—written for the consecration of a chapel—is ambitious music, full of colour, and MacMillan strikes the perfect note. The smaller works are beautifully done and Cappella Nova’s singing, captured gloriously by producer/engineer Philip Hobbs, is breathtaking.

After the success of the Yellow Cube and the Black Box, the 3rd box will once again travel the musical planet Nova in all directions and at all times since the 50s.