Sartre: Romantic Rationalist (1953)

The four coronations of the twentieth century were enormous and extravagant. Replete with festive pageantry, these ceremonies were joyful celebrations of British music, employing tremendous forces. Choirs from across London and beyond were marshalled to provide a chorus of over 400 voices; a full-size symphony orchestra was squeezed into Westminster Abbey, whilst bands of fanfare trumpeters led the pomp and celebration.

Mirare presents another fine recording by the talented ensemble Les Ombres, led jointly by group members Margaux Blanchard and Sylvain Sartre. Baroque music combines violence and gentleness, unity and plurality. This disc dedicated to the myth of Semele and Icarus combines music by Marin Marais, André Cardinal Destouches and George Frederic Handel.

Les Presses Universitaires de France et Frémeaux & Associés proposent un cours particulier sur l'histoire de la philosophie qui est donné ici par Pierre Guénancia, professeur à l'Université de Bourgogne et spécialiste de l'histoire de la philosophie moderne.
Après un premier cours De Descartes à Hume, nous poursuivons dans une nouvelle voie que prend la philosophie contemporaine à la fin du 19è siècle, la "voie de la conscience"…

The Gerry Mulligan Quartet with Chet Baker despite its prolific recorded output and its impact on jazz and the American public lasted for less than one year. Ensconced as the house band at The Haig in Los Angeles and able to record at is own discretion for Pacific Jazz (as well as single sessions for two other labels), this revolutionary, pianoless quartet crafted its own repertoire and arrangements and built a solid, prolific legacy.
By January of 1953, when he recorded the tentette, Mulligan felt confident that his quartet was ready to record live at their Los Angeles home The Haig. Dick Bock started bringing down his portable tape recorder to capture the band for possible record releases. One night, Lee Konitz, who was then a member of the confining, pompous, ponderous Stan Kenton Orchestra, came to the club to sit in…

This album brings back into print-one of the most stimulating sessions of contemporary New Orleans music on record. Originally released on a 10" Jazzman LP (LP 331), Ice Cream, Down by the Riverside, Burgundy Street, When the Saints Go Marching In, Doctor Jazz and A Closer Walk with Thee were recorded in 1953.
Lewis and his men generate and communicate a remarkably unselfconscious-almost ingenuous-abandon in their playing. They are, to be sure, technically limited to begin with, but there is no faulting the wholeness, intensity and honesty of their emotions. The result is that the solos, though rough-edged, are a complete extension of the man into the horn; and the collective ensembles, while raggedy from a music critic's viewpoint, are totally of a piece in so far as these musicians' feelings about playing together are concerned…