David Baskeyfield so impressed a presitigous jury of nine promimnent organists at the Canadian International Organ Competition in 2014 that he was awarded first prize overall, as well as the prize for best performance of a Canadian work. As the winner of the competition, Baskeyfield was invited to record a solo album with ATMA Classique.
As the Paul Desmond/Jim Hall quartet's recording activities gradually came to a halt by 1965, RCA Victor assembled the remains of a number of their later sessions into one last album, adding two outtakes, "All Through the Night" and "Rude Old Man," when the album was transferred to CD in 1990. These are, however, anything but leftovers; indeed, they constitute the best Desmond/Hall album since Take Ten, more varied in texture and mood and by and large more inspired in solo content than Bossa Antigua and Glad to Be Unhappy. As a near-ideal example of this collaboration at its intuitive peak, "Polka Dots and Moonbeams" opens with Hall paraphrasing the tune, and Desmond comes in on the bridge with a perfectly timed rejoinder that sounds as if he's asking a question.
By the fall of 1992, Keith Jarrett had already spent 30 years as a notable jazz performer. What better way to celebrate than to return to this record’s eponymous venue in his birthplace of Allentown, Pennsylvania for a once-in-a-lifetime gig? Switching out his usual go-to, Jack DeJohnette, for Paul Motian (no stranger to Jarrett, with whom he’d worked in the 70s), the trio works wonders with the new colors the latter provides. Peacock and Jarrett are both verbose players who manage never to step on each other’s toes. With Motian backing them, they take longer pauses for reflection, listening to the wind as it blows through their leaves. His presence and panache are as palpable as the prevalence of alliterations in this sentence, bringing an irresistible brushed beat to the squint-eyed groove of Jaki Byard’s “Chandra.”
PAUL HARDCASTLE created the soundtrack to the mid 80’s. His iconic track 19 was an international mega hit (getting to number one in 13 countries) and with its hard-hitting lyrics and narrative about the Vietnam War, it captured the mood of a generation and created a sound for the era.