Rick Stotijn Basso Bailando 2014

For the past ten years Rick Stotijn has been making Stockholm his second home, finding musical inspiration as well as new friends there. The present disc is a reflection of this, with existing and new repertoire involving the double bass by composers who have all at some point lived and worked in the city. The oldest work, as well as the best known, is the Concerto for Double Bass by Eduard Tubin, composed in 1948. Stotijn performs it here with the support of his own orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan.

The concerto, with its soloist thrilling and moving an audience with the support of an orchestra, has been one of the most popular musical forms for over 300 years. Now imagine a concerto for two instruments: twice the virtuosity and twice the expression!

It's difficult to imagine that a musical instrument as heavy and unwieldy as a double bass could sound so light and malleable as it does in this wonderful recording by double bassist Rick Stotijn. Of course it doesn't hurt that the music performed is by the double bass composer extraordinaire Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889). What Paganini did for the violin, or what Rossini did for Italian opera, Bottesini did for the humble double bass. A master double bassist himself, most of his compositional output was devoted to this instrument. His music is very much in the style of a Rossini opera, with a flowing cantabile style in which the instrument plays the lead role of tenor as in an opera.

For the past ten years Rick Stotijn has been making Stockholm his second home, finding musical inspiration as well as new friends there. The present disc is a reflection of this, with existing and new repertoire involving the double bass by composers who have all at some point lived and worked in the city. The oldest work, as well as the best known, is the Concerto for Double Bass by Eduard Tubin, composed in 1948.

This budget-priced collection from the hunky Aussie soap opera actor turned rock star collects ten of his biggest radio hits, including "Jessie's Girl," "I've Done Everything for You," "Don't Talk to Strangers," and "Love Is Alright Tonite."

Rick James, was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, James began his musical career in his teen years. He was in various bands before entering the U.S. Navy to avoid being drafted in the early 1960s. In 1964, James deserted to Toronto, Canada, where he formed the rock band the Mynah Birds, who eventually signed a recording deal with Motown Records in 1966. James' career with the group halted after military authorities discovered his whereabouts and eventually convicted James on a one-year prison term related to the draft charges.

After an eight-year stay at Motown, Rick James moved to Reprise/Warner Bros. with 1988's Wonderful. By that time, the funkster wasn't nearly as popular as he had been in the late '70s and early '80s, and he hoped to make a major comeback with this album. Reprise was delighted when the single "Loosey's Rap" (which features rapper Roxanne Shanté) went to number one on Billboard's R&B singles chart, but Wonderful didn't contain any other major hits – and it isn't hard to understand why.

The concerto, with its soloist thrilling and moving an audience with the support of an orchestra, has been one of the most popular musical forms for over 300 years. Now imagine a concerto for two instruments: twice the virtuosity and twice the expression!While Antonio Vivaldi was one of the first composers to investigate the possibilities of this format in his more than 500 concertos, he didn’t compose a single one for double bass. This recording rectifies Vivaldi’s omission and offers arrangements of two of his double concertos as well as one of his best-loved arias, "Vedrò con mio diletto" from the opera Il Giustino. A little more than a century later, Giovanni Bottesini, the Paganini of the double bass, captivated first Europe and then the rest of the world, displaying a dazzling virtuosity in his numerous compositions that highlight the unique qualities of the instrument.

Une fois n’est pas coutume, l’équipe du Palazetto Bru Zane de Venise (Centre de Musique Romantique française) s’encanaille avec l’enregistrement de cette délicieuse et désuète opérette signée Sacha Guitry pour le texte et Reynaldo Hahn pour la musique. Créée aux Bouffes-Parisiens le 5 octobre 1933, cette « comédie musicale en trois actes » est prudemment assaisonnée par une pincée de jazz et de swing avec un zeste de musique viennoise.