Spike Chalky Wong

Inspired by the foggy San Francisco Bay, Long String Instrument master Ellen Fullman and cellist Theresa Wong unfurl elliptical tonal changes and anxiously resonant dissonance that feels like being stranded at the end of the earth.

Pianist/composer and 2021 Guggenheim Fellow Helen Sung celebrates the work of influential women composers on her latest album Quartet+, crafting new arrangements of tunes by Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Mary Lou Williams, Marian McPartland and Toshiko Akiyoshi while carrying the tradition forward with her own stunning new works. Co-produced by violin master Regina Carter, the album pairs Sung’s quartet with the strings of the GRAMMY® Award-winning Harlem Quartet in an inventive meld of jazz and classical influences.

Recorded by Sean Murray at the HR Recordings “Music Room” , Madrid. September 20th and 21st, 2024. Soundfield microphones. C. Bechstein Piano, (1899) Piano preparation by Mario Izquierdo Manzano. (Pianos Izquierdo S.L.) Violoncello by Martin Schleske, 2017. München. Germany. Special thanks to Sandy Gibbons.

Popularity seems to rest as much on chance as on merit, for it is difficult to understand why the Turandot Suite has never become a popular repertory piece. It has all the qualities of melodic appeal (its fifth movement quotes Greensleeves), resourceful invention and brilliant orchestral colour that should ensure its popularity. The two Studies, the Sarabande and Cortège, written in preparation for his opera, Doktor Faust, remain the composer’s masterpiece, highly searching and imaginative music that can claim to be profound, as, indeed, can the Berceuse élégiaque. Both performances and recording are very good, and this disc serves as an admirable and inexpensive introduction to a fascinating and underrated master.

Named after the Japanese word for chameleon, Susan Wong’s twelfth album Kamereon highlights the Hong Kong-born singer’s unerring ability to bring a fresh, new complexion to a wide range of songs taken from different musical genres. Aided by her producer, the Osaka-born saxophonist Hisatsugu Suzuki, and his band, Wong has created a stylish jazz album brimming with her trademark soulful vocals drizzled over syncopated grooves.

This is Susan Wong's third album. It was released in 2010 and, according to her label Evosound, was recorded in Geneva, Switzerland with producer Adrien Zerbini and features Spanish guitar maestro and arranger Ignacio Lamas. It was mixed by Yvan Bing (co-producer of Phil Collins new hit album) and mastered by Bernie Grundman in Hollywood, USA.