Brett Eviston

Stanley Grill’s REMEMBER is presented by Navona Records. Featuring viola and piano, these inventive works aptly demonstrate Grill’s unique style; rooted in his passion for medieval and Renaissance music, his compositions are as pioneering and contemporary as they are fundamentally traditional. Grill’s work focuses particularly on melody, modal harmonies, and contrapuntal, interweaving lines. The result is a musical experience greater than the sum of the instruments involved. Two themes that permeate much of his work can be found throughout this album as well: a desire to translate elements of the physical world into sound, and a dedication to cultivating and promoting peace through music. REMEMBER offers listeners a fresh and memorable collection of works for viola and piano.

High Caliber Explosive Rock Blues, Drenched in Originality, Strong Songs, Diversity and Unmistakable Style! This Talented group of superstar caliber musicians is lead guitarist/singer/songwriter extraordinaire Brett Ellis. For over 20 years Brett has been and continues to be a mainstay in the San Diego music scene. The Brett Ellis Band Brett Ellis (guitars & vocals) Rick Nash (Bass) Calvin Lakin (Drums) Is his most recent endeavor. They have mastered the art of hard rock and blues and continue to push the envelope. Brett has worked with and opened for the who's who in the music industry. Such as Eric Johnson, Edgar Winter, Foghat, Sammy Hagar, Glen Hughes (Deep Purple) Uli Jon Roth, Carl Palmer, King's X, Bad Company and Pat Travers.

Brett Dean is not shy about revealing what his music is ‘about’. Whether inspired by certain individuals (as in Epitaphs), or by an ecological or human disaster (as in his String Quartet No. 1, on the now all too topical plight of refugees), Dean’s works are usually – perhaps invariably – driven by extra-musical narratives. Rather than tease out any innate structural puzzles or tensions, his music typically falls into short little dramatic narratives – no movement on this disc lasts as long as eight minutes, many of them rather less than five. The most obviously successful work here is Quartet No. 2, ‘And once I played Ophelia’, effectively a dramatic scena. Its soprano soloist is no mere extra voice (as in Schoenberg’s Second Quartet) but the leading protagonist. Allison Bell’s genuinely affecting performance is backed by the Doric Quartet’s expressionist scampering and sustained harmonies, the strings occasionally coming to the fore in the manner of a Schumann-style song postlude.

Killer first official Live disc by this amazing, bad-ass axeripper from San Diego. Includes 13 tracks (73 minutes) of mega-awesome, brain-damaging, retro-sonic, over-the-top, blues-based, heavy guitar power trio riffage/mojo that will kick your ass and rock your world into the next guitar rockin' musical dimension. Captured live & loud without a net, we are transformed from the norm and experience "Total Guitar Rock Fury" of the highest order from this phenomenal, supreme guitarist. Brett Ellis is a true modern day guitar hero who speaks the same musical language as the guitar greats. The man is a veritable + powerful six string hurricane on the instrument, an awesome beyond belief heavy guitar rock force to be reckoned with.

Nicky Higginbottom departed Paul Brett's Sage after the release of the band's eponymous debut album, and with her went the haunting flute that gave much of the album such a rich, pastoral sound. But the band was already moving in a new direction, exploring rock's roots and the genre's many permutations. Jubilation Foundry welds Sage's varied influences onto their sleeves, from "Cottage Made for Two," an homage to the Everly Brothers, to the gospel fired "Help Me Jesus" and the Stax inspired "Hold My Hand Mother." There are tributes to Southern blues and Southern rock, nods to singer/songwriters Cat Stevens and Harry Nilsson, and even a tip of the hat to the Beatles. With the group here sporting rich harmonies, the emphasis is on great songs in a variety of musical veins and moods, with singalong choruses, memorable melodies, and flashy musicianship evident throughout the album.

Sony has packaged this album like a 1980s disc of music to snog by, but the saxophonist Amy Dickson’s new release is an intriguing and entirely serious collection of recent works by Australian composers, works she did much to create. The title work, premiered by Dickson in 2012, is a late score by Peter Sculthorpe. The first movement is sun drenched and full of yearning, the saxophone soaring over a teeming orchestra; the second is a more unsettled expression of homesickness. Ross Edwards’s concerto entitled the Full Moon Dances – recorded, unlike the rest, live in concert – is elegantly scored and evocative, especially in the opening Mantra, in which the saxophone interweaves with the orchestral soloists, and in the pulsing, almost Stravinsky-esque First Ritual Dance. But it is Brett Dean’s 2007 flute concerto The Siduri Dances, here arranged for saxophone, which offers the most wide-ranging demonstration of Dickson’s mastery with its note-bending, buzzing effects and hectic rhythms.