The Stendhal Syndrome (1996) [re Up]

A concept album, Jon Anderson's (Yes) "Toltec" is made up of 13 cuts divided into three parts. It tells the tale of the Toltec, a Native American concept of a group of people who have been all over the Earth, existing within different cultures throughout the centuries. They are described in the liner as "Creators of the circles of power, color, perfume, and music healing domes." Musically, this one is arguably Anderson's most ambitious solo effort. It is set in a style that is definitely progressive rock, but focuses less on the rock and more on other elements. Among those elements are new age (no surprise as the CD was released on the Windham Hill label), world music, electronic, and even jazz. Anderson not only provided the expected vocals, but also wrote, arranged, and produced the disc…

Ziggy Elman played trumpet beautifully and made lasting, significant contributions to the ripening of jazz and swing during the months immediately preceding the Second World War. As if to illustrate the point, this first segment of Elman's chronology contains his Bluebird recordings dating from December 28, 1938, through December 26, 1939. During this period, the trumpeter's band invariably consisted of two alto and two tenor saxophones with piano, guitar, bass, and drums. Over the course of 12 months a series of fine players passed through Elman's band. Among them were saxophonists Arthur Rollini, Babe Russin, Hymie Schertzer, Toots Mondello, and Jerry Jerome, and pianists Jess Stacy, Milt Raskin, and Johnny Guarnieri…

Performing accompaniment for the great tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in 1930 may seem historic enough for most music enthusiasts, but Putney Dandridge had already been in the music business for more than a decade when he got this gig. He was part of a revue known as the Drake and Walker Show beginning in 1918 and subsequently became known as one of the most active players on the Buffalo music stampede. After several years with Robinson, the pianist and vocalist skimmed his way around the Great Lakes in order to establish a new residency in Cleveland, complete with his own band. This activity lasted through 1934…

Dizzy Gillespie albums are sometimes criticized for being silly, never for lacking stamina. Pleyel Jazz Concert 1953 is no exception to this rule, though it would certainly be understandable if it were. The live recording, issued and repackaged at least three times since the late '90s, dates from a period when Gillespie was in Paris and as busy as God, as musicians like to say in reference to the deity, not the European noise music band. If datebooks kept by people nicknamed Dizzy are to be trusted, the bebop kingpin had during a previous 48-hour period cut albums for two different competing firms, one involving a string orchestra. About ten collections have been published involving this material. Meanwhile, his rhythm section cut an album on the same day of the Pleyel Concert Hall event, also reissued at least three times and representing the sole effort by pianist Wade Legge as a leader…

Another archival album, this time from two of Anthony Phillips' long standing friends, David Thomas and Ronnie Gunn. Many Genesis fans may be familiar with David, he was, after all, the guy whose flat Tony Banks and Peter Gabriel shared for almost five years, as well as assisting on their first album, "From Genesis To Revelation". The album draws on material which the two main protagonists wrote in the period between 1969 and 1978, and as such is very much a product of its time as well as being an intriguing snapshot into an ear of music that has been undeservedly maligned by the smart set who sadly dominate our music industry these days.
Don't let the Genesis tag fool you, however. This album is not a "Collection of Antiques & Curios" to paraphrase another well known album of the period…

It's a Doobie delight as members of the veteran group's different eras convene for Rockin' Down the Highway, a 20-song concert recorded in '96 mainly in New York…

While most classical composers attempt to spread around their artistry among various mediums, Stephen Scott has put all of his eggs into the proverbial one basket, specializing in bowed piano music as founder/leader of the Bowed Piano Ensemble, est. 1977. This is not as limited a resource as it sounds; in 1930, Henry Cowell stated he had discovered 165 ways to play the inside of a piano, though if he made a list of all those methods no one has been able to find it. Moreover, Stephen Scott doesn't seem to mind being regarded as "the Bowed Piano Guy." New Albion's The Deep Spaces is his sixth bowed piano CD and demonstrates some measure of stepping out of the box on Scott's part; The Deep Spaces is a song cycle, set to poems by Shelley, Wordsworth, Lord Byron, Pliny, and Pablo Medina and sung by soprano Victoria Hansen.

Patrick Gowers' score for the Grenada Television series about A. Conan Doyle's consulting detective has become almost as closely linked to Sherlock Holmes in the minds of fans as star Jeremy Brett (1933-1995). But those with no interest in Holmes can also enjoy this recording. Gowers' musical eloquence is richly displayed in these widely diverse, yet cohesive, tracks. Gowers begins the recording with "221B Baker Street," the vivacious theme (performed on Holmes' instrument, the violin, by Kenneth Sillito) that brings to mind Holmes' classic alarm call, "Come, Watson, come! The game is afoot. Not a word!" The cohesiveness of the album comes from Gowers' variations on this theme found throughout the rest of the recording. But the diversity within this cohesiveness is what is remarkable.