Colombier

For several years, decades in fact, a lost gem issued originally not just in the US but in the UK as well (and our vinyl pressings were always much better than their US counterparts), on Chrysalis records who, for a while, had some very good material in this genre, for example the two Auracle albums (and wouldn't lots of us like to get those on CD). But finally it's now reappeared on CD and how very nice it is to be reacquainted with it in that format. Anyway, this album ~ his second, as far as I know ~ features a host of jazz luminaries of the day (Hancock, Erskine, Pastorius, Carlton, Ritenour, Gadd, etc.) and its only failing is its mildly raw upper registers, though thankfully there are no vocals to pollute the proceedings and Jaco Pastorius' electric bass work is of truly sterling calibre. On this album, if anywhere, you can hear why he was held in such very high esteem by his contemporaries.

With the Tijuana Brass mostly on hold at the time, Herb Alpert commissioned what was immediately touted as a landmark project from French musical polymath Michel Colombier - a pop symphony with the positively Mahlerian ambition to encompass the entire world in about 37 minutes. Alpert produced it, the gnomelike Paul Williams contributed lyrics, and Colombier composed the music and recorded it mostly in Paris, with additional big-band tracks and voices added at A&M Studios in Los Angeles. In a nutshell, Wings is a journey from darkness to light, with the hellfire of opening song "Freedom and Fear" - powered by the anguished voice of Bill Medley (of the Righteous Brothers) - eventually giving way to the redemption of love (Colombier might disagree that there's any storyline, but the evolution seems quite clear)…

Jeanne est mariée depuis dix ans à un homme qui ne la connaît qu'à moitié, Violette est une biologiste brillante qui s'efforce d'élever sa fille sans reproduire les erreurs de ses parents et Natacha, incapable d'avoir des enfants, veut se prouver qu'il est possible d'être femme sans être mère. Trois portraits de femmes contemporaines, chacune à la recherche d'elle-même. …

Thankfully, there is finally a definitive Jaco Pastorius anthology that offers an accurate portrait of the breadth and depth of his innovative artistry beyond what his contributions to Weather Report and his own Word of Mouth and Trio of Doom (which many would argue are sufficient in and of themselves) would suggest. This two-CD, 28-track collection ranges across the fretless bass inventor's earliest recordings, documented by a live appearance with Wayne Cochran's C.C. Riders and home playing the Cochran standard "Amelia," to his work with underground R&B act Little Beaver and such artists as Pat Metheny, Mike Stern, Joni Mitchell in and out of the studio, Paul Bley, Airto and Flora Purim, Michel Columbier, Brian Melvin, and his diverse projects.

This 2CD set contains more than two dozen tracks, totaling over 2 1/2 hours of music, on two diverse, brilliant, career-spanning discs.

Antonio Vivaldi - Lute (Guitar) Concertos; Mandolin Concertos (Repost)
Narciso Yepes / Monique Frasca-Colombier / Takashi Ochi / Sylvia Ochi / Paul Kuentz Chamber Orchestra
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 380 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Deutsche Grammophon # 429 528-2 | Country/Year: Germany 1990, 1972
Genre: Classical | Style: Baroque

Narciso Yepes was one of the finest virtuoso classical guitarists of the twentieth century, generally ranked second after Andrés Segovia.

The track that showcases the classic Jaco chops of old is the 1986 recording of Mike Stern's "Mood Swings". Recorded just two months prior to Jaco checking himself into the Bellevue psychiatric ward, this is the most masterfull bass playing that I have ever heard Jaco record since Word Of Mouth. Jaco just absolutely tears this cut up. Obviously Jaco was on top of his game the day this recording was made. Jaco is all over the instument playing double-stops and litterally playing rhythm guitar licks over Mike Stern's opening statement.