Circuits Fawwaz Ulaby Michel Maharbiz

Jean-Michel Pilc’s artistry comes from an expansive imagination and a fearless sensibility of musical exploration. He is self-taught as a piano player and composer. There is liberty that comes with that, an unobstructed view of the palette of music and harmony. On his latest solo release, Symphony, Pilc realizes that fearlessness and freedom completely.

Beautiful work from French pianist Michel Sardaby - a wonderfully lyrical talent with a sweeping and soulful flair! The set's got a stripped-down approach that has Sardaby working with bassist Gilbert Rovere and drummer Philippe Combelle - sometimes hitting the keys in a harder style that has touches of Les McCann, but mostly gliding magically in that warm and soulful mode that's made more than a few of his albums jazz dance classics! Includes the great groover "Come From No Where", plus other wonderful originals like "Lament For Billy", "Wendy", "Empty Room", and "Always Room For One More". Plus, the CD also features a full bonus album by Sardaby - the Con Alma set recorded in Paris in 1964! That album's in a similar trio mode, and features backing by bassist Michel Finet and Philippe Combelle - on tracks that include the wonderfully-titled "Volcanic", plus "Brother Bill", "Con Alma", "Little Sister", and "Blues For Mae".

Reynold da Silva's Silva Screen Records has been constructing a series of "essential" collections of major film composers' scores usually by making new recordings of portions of those scores or compiling recordings previously made for other projects, most often employing the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. For this Michel Legrand album, the label has actually enlisted Legrand as conductor of the Flemish Radio Orchestra (whose contributions are not noted until you examine the CD booklet), with a few additional jazz musicians, plus Legrand himself on piano and (during the extended suite from The Go-Between) harpsichord. Still, these are new recordings, made in December 2004, and should not be confused with actual soundtrack recordings. Legrand oversees excerpts from some of his most popular scores, leaning heavily on the major themes, such as "I Will Wait for You" from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, "Theme from Summer of '42," and "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair.