Old Glory From November 2015

During their brief time together, the Beatles, in addition to all the records they made, managed to shoot dozens of promotional films and music videos. At first they were a way for the band to connect to fans who couldn’t see them live. But by the middle of the ’60s, when they gave up touring for good to focus on the more experimental side of their music, the videos became another creative outlet, a way for one of pop culture’s most restless and daring groups to break past the boundaries of typical performance clips…

With just a couple of cursory listens to the few tracks that popped up all over the Internet through 2007, comparisons were made between Adele, the much-hyped brassy British songstress, and Amy Winehouse, the…much-hyped brassy British songstress. However, after a solid listen to 19, the first full sampling by the up-and-coming Adele, listeners are forced to throw all comparisons to the wind; Adele is simply too magical to compare her to anyone. Bluesy like it's no one's business yet voluptuously funky in a contemporary way, Adele rocks out 19 with a unique voice and gritty sound that dazzle endlessly. Synthesizing blues, jazz, folk, soul, and even electric pop, Adele mystifies through her mature songwriting skills and jaw-dropping arrangements.

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin’s fiercely creative quartet chosen by David Bowie to play on Blackstar, the album that would be his swansong, after he heard them in the 55 Bar one fateful New York night in 2014. Two years and an immoderate amount of mainstream press attention later, here is the 50-year-old saxophonist’s heartfelt tribute to his erstwhile boss. McCaslin and his colleagues – keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Mark Guiliana – were already the sort of voracious, open-minded musicians who were drawing inspiration from the creative end of rock’n’roll. But the time spent with Bowie has clearly marked them. Concise, hard-edged, dark and mysterious, Beyond Now sounds like the future of music. There could be no more fitting tribute to the man who sought them out.

Recordings of Bruckner’s last and greatest Mass are not exactly scarce but this most recent live performance from the celebrated Ebrach festival has claim to being regarded as special, not just for its own considerable merits, but also as it is presented by Profil in a double CD package in tandem with the barely known Psalm 146 and the further bonus of conductor-musicologist and performer Gerd Schaller playing six works on the Eisenbarth organ in the Abteikirche.