Sarah Jane Summers & Juhani Silvola The Smoky Smirr O Rain

Sarah Jane Morris - August (2001)
Flac (tracks+cue+log) | 51 min 42 sec | Scans | 280Mb
Genre: Vocal Jazz, Pop | Label:Irma

Born in England, is a popular jazz, rock and R&B singer and songwriter. She found fame initially with the Communards , who are best known for their hit “Don’t Leave Me This Way”. She has also recorded as a solo artist, releasing seven albums. These have enjoyed most popularity in Italy and Greece .

British diva Sarah Jane Morris was born and raised in Southampton, England, attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama while concurrently mounting a music career singing jazz and soul classics in local clubs. Following stints with the Annie Whitehead Band and Latin combo the Republic, Morris was launched to fame after appearing with Jimmy Somerville on the Communards' chart-topping 1986 cover of the disco classic "Don't Leave Me This Way." Her debut solo album followed in 1989, featuring a controversial cover of Billy Paul's "Me and Mrs. Jones"; after touring in support of Simply Red, she returned to acting, appearing in 1991's The Beggars Opera. Morris's second album, the Martyn Ware-produced Heaven, appeared a year later, and in 1995 she released the live Blue Valentine. After spending the remainder of the decade away from the limelight, she issued Fallen Angel in 2000.

For more than twenty years I have been thinking about projects to celebrate women and our contribution to the history of song - This, at last, is it: these are my ten singers, my essential lodestars. If your favourite is missing, I apologise, but with these stories I tell my own, acknowledge my musical tutelage and identify the women who mean so much to me. This album is dedicated to all my musical sisters, to those who went before and to those still making music. Thank you for blazing the trail, for fighting for us all with your irresistible talent and your passionate resolve.

The viola works on this recording fuse lyricism with virtuosity, and sometimes invoke folkloric moments as well as more rhapsodic flights. Martinů’s 1955 Sonata plays on elements of folk music and rhapsody, as well as a toccata-like intensity and a pervasive feeling of nostalgia. Kodály’s Adagio is an early work, highly expressive and richly romantic, whilst his compatriot Dohnányi wrote a Sonata of mature distinction, employing variations and transformed themes to magical effect. Joachim, upholder of the German violin school, also composed, and in his Hebrew Melodies crafts great pathos, whilst Enescu’s Concertstück fuses the lyrical with the dashing, as befits a competition test piece.