Starting Kotaro Oshio

Kotaro Fukuma began piano lessons at the age of five and received numerous awards at prestigious international competitions. At the age of twenty he won the First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition. His debut production on ARS PRODUKTION is dedicated to this composer.

For many years now, I have been playing piano transcriptions in my recitals, and the programme on this disc was originally devised for my concert at the Valletta Baroque Music Festival in Malta in January 2020. I have special affinity with many of the pieces, but here I will share just a couple. One is my own transcription of the aria “Erbarme Dich, mein Gott”, which I first performed at a Preface concert entitled “Homage to Toru Takemitsu”. As I explained on that occasion, Takemitsu loved this aria; he would play it every time he set to work on a new composition, and also by chance he heard this piece on the radio the day before he died. The other piece that is close to my heart is the Passacaglia and Fugue in Eugen d’Albert’s transcription, which I played when I collaborated with Mathieu Ganio, danseur étoile at the Paris Opera Ballet. Until then, Mathieu was mostly cast as a prince, but in this project, he took on a new challenge to perform a one-man play. I still remember vividly how he appeared on stage with this music, naked down to the waist, like the image of Christ on the way towards his crucifixion.

This is a Kotaro Fukuma’s new album “Souvenirs de Chopin”, to be released on September 13, 2024. This is a special product celebrating the 20th anniversary of Kotaro Fukuma’s debut in Japan, and not only that, this is also his 20th album. Since winning the First Prize and the Chopin Prize at the 15th Cleveland International Piano Competition in 2003, he has continued to work as an international pianist, performing in a total of 37 countries, based in Japan and Europe. This album is the culmination of Fukuma’s 20-year career and includes many tracks that are “Souvenirs” of his own life.

Alexander Scriabin, whose 150th anniversary we celebrated in 2022, and Sergei Rachmaninoff, one year his junior, were rivals at the Moscow Conservatory as students in both piano and composition. At the piano final exam in 1891, Rachmaninoff was awarded first prize and Scriabin second – it’s fascinating just to imagine what this rivalry between music history’s most famous classmates had been like. Subsequently, they went their separate ways; in particular, Scriabin became drawn to Nietzsche’s Übermensch theory and Blavatsky’s theosophy and his musical style changed drastically, leading to his so-called music of mysticism with the heavy use of progressive harmonies.

Kazumi Watanabe has for the past 20 years been one of the top guitarists in fusion, a rock-oriented player whose furious power does not mask a creative imagination. Watanabe studied guitar at Tokyo's Yamaha Music School and he was a recording artist while still a teenager. In 1979, he formed the group Kylyn and, in 1983, he put together the Mobo band. Several of his recordings have been made available by Gramavision and they show that he ranks up with Al DiMeola (when he is electrified) and Scott Henderson among the pacesetters in the idiom.

Jimmy McGriff - The Starting Five (1986) {Milestone MCD-9148-2 rel 1990}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 283 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 122 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 8 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1986, 1990 Milestone / Fantasy | MCD-9148-2
Jazz / Soul Jazz / Jazz Blues / Organ

Due to the strong lineup and the basic but perfectly suitable material, this Jimmy McGriff CD is well worth picking up. The groovin' organist teams up with David "Fathead" Newman (heard on alto, tenor and flute), Rusty Bryant (doubling on tenor and alto), either Mel Brown or Wayne Boyd on guitar, and drummer Bernard "Pretty" Purdie. Basic originals alternate with such standbys as "I'm Getting Sentimental over You" and "Georgia on My Mind," with everyone playing up to their potential. A fun and swinging session.

Chris Stapleton releases his brand new studio album entitled - Starting Over. The album has 14 new tracks and will be Chris’s first new studio album of new material since his last release in 2017.