Former Roomful of Blues saxophonist Greg Piccolo stretches his musical wings even further on this, his third solo outing since leaving the group in 1990. In addition to his brawny tenor sax wailings, Piccolo also plays lead guitar (in a crude, but effective style somewhat reminiscent of Roy Buchanan and Carlos Santana) and alto sax this time around, coaxing acid-jazz sounds out of the latter instrument. With his regular working combo Heavy Juice providing stellar support in a multiplicity of styles (Piccolo jumps from swing to bop to acid jazz to soul ballads and even a taste of rock'n'roll on this one) and 14 Karat Soul providing backup vocals on "Money" and the title track, Red Lights is Greg Piccolo's most musically ambitious album to date.
Recorded live at the Zurich Jazz Festival in 1980, this was America's first taste of the wild abandon that is the Vienna Art Orchestra and expatriate Lauren Newton's glorious vocal instrument. This is a 13-piece big band led by the beautifully weird compositional, instructional, and arranging craziness of Mathias Rüegg. They trash and revere all traditions – both historical and avant-garde at the same time – while using them both along with carnival and circus music, classical forms and fugues, and French salon music. They swing here like a Mingus big band playing "Jelly Roll, But Mingus Rolls Better," with soloists who could care less what the ensemble chart says and vice versa. Newton, mixed high above the prattle, soars with the intensity of a pianist while blowing Jon Hendricks away at his own game. The fun really begins when the ensemble changes tempos two or three times and sections play against each other as in "Concerto Piccolo," even if begun by the lilting line of the title's instrument.
The diverse concertos presented here combine the excitement and spontaneity associated with jazz, rock or ethnic music within an engaging neo-baroque idiom. Dorman (b. 1975) writes: ‘I have always loved baroque music…the clear rhythms, the strong reliance on the bass, and the extreme contrasts.’
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian musician. His published compositions consist of preludes, fugues and sonatas for the piano and organ, string quartets, etc.; but the greater proportion of his works, vocal and instrumental, exists only in manuscript. They are in the library of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Around 1765, he wrote at least seven concerti for jaw harp and strings (three survive in the Hungarian National Library in Budapest). They are pleasant, well written works in the galant style. One of his most notable works is his concerto for Alto Trombone and Orchestra in B♭ Major. As the trombone has few works dating back to the classical period, his concerto is often highlighted by the trombone community…
Johann Georg Albrechtsberger (3 February 1736 – 7 March 1809) was an Austrian musician. His published compositions consist of preludes, fugues and sonatas for the piano and organ, string quartets, etc.; but the greater proportion of his works, vocal and instrumental, exists only in manuscript. They are in the library of the Vienna Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde. Around 1765, he wrote at least seven concerti for jaw harp and strings (three survive in the Hungarian National Library in Budapest). They are pleasant, well written works in the galant style. One of his most notable works is his concerto for Alto Trombone and Orchestra in B♭ Major. As the trombone has few works dating back to the classical period, his concerto is often highlighted by the trombone community…
The importance of Georg Christoph Wagenseil (1715-1777) in the development of the classical symphony cannot be underestimated, and his concertos were also significant in the formation of the style of early Viennese classicism. As its chief representative, Wagenseil unites Italian, French and German stylistic elements in his works, as was typical of the 'mixed style' of the early 18th century. Moreover, he is considered one of the perfectors of the gallant-sentimental stylistic epoch which became so essential for the formation of classicism in 18th-century music history.
After the success of their Tartini disc (Arcana 478, Diapason d'or, 5 stars from Musica), Mario Brunello and the Accademia dell'Annunciata return for an ingenious collection of six concertos, all of which are transcriptions of other works. Not only do we hear the keyboard arrangements of Venetian concertos such as Marcello's famous oboe concerto and Vivaldi's Violin Concerto RV230, but also reconstructed concertos by Bach such as those for oboe and oboe d'amore (BWV 1056 and 1055) and those that have come down to us in their original version — from the Violin Concerto BWV 1042 up to and including the renowned Concerto nach Italienischen Gusto BWV 971.
Mozart did not know how quickly to get out of Salzburg once he developed his own ambitions, but Johann Michael Haydn (1737-1806) apparently had a great time there. Joseph Haydn's little brother learned music as a choirboy in Vienna, worked for several years in Großwarden and Bratislava before settling in Salzburg in 1762. He stayed there until his death. In the correspondence of the Mozart family, Michael Haydn does not come off well; he is portrayed as a lazy figure who regularly looks too deep into the glass. However, excessive alcohol consumption has not stopped him from writing an extensive oeuvre of church music, operas and instrumental music in all genres.