Jea René Roy

Saul is one of Handel's largest oratorios; its rich orchestration includes trumpets, trombones, timpani, harp, and carillon. René Jacobs certainly wrests every drop of color from this luxurious array of instruments, particularly in the choruses, which are gloriously grand but also extremely exciting. In Nos. 20-24, where the populace (with maddening relentlessness) praises David above Saul to the incessant jangling of the carillon, it's easy to understand why the king objects to the unseemly revelry. Handel's music wonderfully suggests both the joyous celebration and seeds of jealousy being planted in Saul's mind. Similarly, Jacobs' careful choice of colors for the continuo part makes the famous "Dead March" far more solemn than it often sounds, an appropriate introduction to Handel's "Elegy on the death of Saul and Jonathan".

Roy Eldridge - Little Jazz Trumpet Giant (2004) {4CD Set, Proper Records PROPERBOX69 rec 1935-1953}
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© 1935-53, 2004 Proper Records | PROPERBOX 69
Jazz / Mainstream Jazz / Swing / Trumpet

Roy Eldridge might have been short, but he was a giant among trumpeters, one of the best of all time, forming a link between Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie. This 4 CD collection is full of hot trumpet blowing from 1935 to 1953 in both big band and small jazz ensemble settings with many famous musicians as Nikica Gillic already mentioned in his review. His trumpet playing is as good as Armstrong's in my book, but without Armstrong's bufoonery.

First seen at La Monnaie in Brussels on 13 May 1998, this production of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo seen through the eyes of Trisha Brown and René Jacobs has become an operatic classic in a few short years. This is doubtless because it offers a total symbiosis of music, text and movement – described by the critic of the Daily Telegraph of London as being ‘as close to the perfect dance opera as I have ever seen’. Or to quote Gilles Macassar in Télérama: ‘In the pit and onstage, the Brussels production has only one watchword: mobility, nimbleness, dexterity. The singers run, fly, whirl like dancers defying gravity. From the flies down to the footlights, the whole theatre is under a fantastic spell.’ For Christophe Vetter, on ConcertoNet: ‘This Orfeo can be seen again and again with immense pleasure. . . . René Jacobs’s conducting continues to arouse admiration for its precision, its stylistic rigour, its inexhaustible inventiveness and its feeling for the contrasts so vital to this repertoire.’

Rene & Angela's obvious enthusiasm and for-real emotions make listening to Street Called Desire a pleasure. The uptempo numbers aren't jokes – the throbbing beat on "I'll Be Good" is mind locking, but the two ballads, "You Don't Have to Cry" and "Your Smile," are outstanding. What makes them work is their unpredictability. No particular or predetermined pattern is set. No attempt is made to divide the lines and choruses equally; each singer unselfishly contributes what's necessary. "Smile" is mostly Angela until Rene repeatedly chants "No other love can light my life, no one can make things right, 'til my baby smiles." Rene has more juice on "You Don't Have to Cry," matching alternating verses with Angela, who gives an incredible performance on the heart-stopping ballad. Rene's brother Bobby Watson (formerly of Rufus) co-produced the sides with Bruce Swedien.