Reveal From 22 April 2014

Helen Shapiro is remembered today by younger pop culture buffs as the slightly awkward actress/singer in Richard Lester's 1962 debut feature film, It's Trad, Dad. From 1961 until 1963, however, Shapiro was England's teenage pop music queen, at one point selling 40,000 copies daily of her biggest single, "Walking Back to Happiness," during a 19-week chart run. A deceptively young 14 when she was discovered, Shapiro had a rich, expressive voice properly sounding like the property of someone twice as old, and she matured into a seasoned professional very quickly.

These sterling performances have been high among the prime available Beethoven Quartet sets since their initial appearance in the early 1970s as sought-after Telefunken LPs. Naïve’s booklet and transfers are the same as those of the 1987 Auvidis Valois set. So what’s this release got that the previous one didn’t? A bargain price, with the eight CDs marked down to the price of four. These are happy days for Beethoven Quartet lovers: my three favorite complete sets (the others are the Quartetto Italiano on Philips and the Talich on Calliope) are all now available at midprice.

Ben Williams - Coming Of Age (2015) {Concord Jazz CJA-35769-02 rec 2014} (Complete Artwork)
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 396 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 160 Mb
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© 2015 Concord Jazz | CJA-35769-02
Jazz / Post Bop / Jazz Funk / Straight-Ahead Jazz / Bass

Ben Williams' sophomore full-length album, 2015's Coming of Age, finds the adept bassist/composer delivering another sophisticated mix of post-bop, fusion, and contemporary R&B-infused jazz. The album follows up Williams' equally striking 2011 debut, State of Art, and showcases the winner of the 2009 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition's further development as a bandleader, composer, and improviser. Once again joining Williams is his longtime backing ensemble Sound Effect, featuring tenor and soprano saxophonist Marcus Strickland, guitarist Matthew Stevens, pianist and Fender Rhodes keyboardist Christian Sands, synth and Fender Rhodes keyboardist Masayuki "Big Yuki" Hirano, and drummer John Davis.

Bill Evans Trio - Explorations (1961) {OJC Remasters Complete Series rel 2011, item 17of33}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 328 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 144 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 481 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1961, 2011 Riverside / Concord | 0888072328426
Jazz / Post Bop / Modal Music / Piano

An extension of the popular Original Jazz Classics series (est. 1982), the new OJC Remasters releases reveal the sonic benefits of 24-bit remastering-a technology that didn't exist when these titles were originally issued on compact disc. The addition of newly-written liner notes further enhances the illuminating quality of the OJC Remasters reissues. "Each of the recordings in this series is an all-time jazz classic," says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord Music Group and producer of the series.

Chandos’ Dutch music series continues with this second disc of Hol symphonies. As with Symphonies 1 and 3, Nos. 2 and 4 display Hol’s mastery of symphonic form, orchestration, and counterpoint. They also reveal the prevailing influence of Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, and Brahms (with occasional suggestions of Dvorák). Mendelssohn figures most in Symphony No. 2, with an opening movement that rides along like many of the German composer’s tempestuous allegros, followed by a fleet-footed and colorful scherzo. Symphony No. 4 begins with a slow introduction before launching into the driving allegro proper. There’s energy aplenty in the following scherzo and much tender emotion in the adagio. The finale, like that of the Second Symphony, creates a festive atmosphere based on folk-dance rhythms.

Ned Rothenberg - Power Lines (1995) {New World Records - 80476-2}
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© 1995 New World Records | 80476-2
Jazz / Modern Creative / Avant-Garde Jazz / Post Bop / Saxophone / Clarinet

The term "New York downtown jazz" is sometimes frowned upon by its practitioners, who tend to feel stylistically pigeonholed by the description and also linked to a certain club south of Canal Street, about which many feel ambivalent at best. There might be a number of reasons for these members of the New York creative music community to roll their eyes at yet another reference to "downtowners" (not the least of which being that many of them live in Brooklyn), but they must at least acknowledge that the downtown scene is usually described in positive terms – edgy, progressive, boundary-stretching, adventurous, non-idiomatic – in contrast to the Midtown scene surrounding Wynton Marsalis and Lincoln Center, which, while credited with keeping the flame of classic modern jazz alive in America, has also been accused of a certain stodgy, retro, parochial, and limited sensibility in today's current, all-encompassing world of jazz and creative improvisation.

Evgeny Kissin has made brave choices in selecting this program. Schumann's Sonata No. 1 is a huge, sprawling piece, difficult to play and to hold together and therefore not very popular. Carnaval is one of Schumann's acknowledged masterpieces and has been recorded by a wide variety of pianists, providing plenty of competition. In the Sonata, Kissin's performance is a complete success. He has the largeness of spirit, powers of organization, and huge technique to make the music convincing and hold the listener's interest for more than half an hour.

Wes Montgomery - Boss Guitar (1963) {OJC Remasters Complete Series rel 2010, item 16of33}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 342 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 140 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 375 Mb | 5% repair rar | 24-bit remaster
© 1963, 2010 Riverside / Concord | 0888072323308
Jazz / Hard Bop / Guitar

An extension of the popular Original Jazz Classics series (est. 1982), the new OJC Remasters releases reveal the sonic benefits of 24-bit remastering-a technology that didn't exist when these titles were originally issued on compact disc. The addition of newly-written liner notes further enhances the illuminating quality of the OJC Remasters reissues. "Each of the recordings in this series is an all-time jazz classic," says Nick Phillips, Vice President of Jazz and Catalog A&R at Concord Music Group and producer of the series.