le Ritenour 192

"A Twist of Rit" is Lee Ritenour’s 2015 Concord Records release. A star-studded band performs a number of new compositions combining with fresh, “twisted” versions of some of his earliest funky, fusion material from the 70s and early 80s. Combining some of the hottest rhythm players out there, including Ron Bruner Jr., Chris Coleman, Dave Weckl, Melvin Davis, Paulinho Da Costa, Michael Thompson, John Beasley, Patrice Rushen, and Dave Grusin with a five piece Horn Section and Ernie Watts on tenor sax, A Twist of Rit will make for one of his most special releases to date.

Lee Ritenour is one of music’s greatest players; his historic career spans five decades and boasts over forty albums. For his latest release, Rhythm Sessions, the legendary guitarist enlists a star-studded cast of veterans and promising newcomers including Chick Corea, Dave Grusin, George Duke, Stanley Clarke, Marcus Miller and winners from his Annual Six String Theory International Competition. This diverse project features a variety of sounds and grooves, all rooted in jazz, but with hints of funk, R&B, Latin and world music. Focusing on the rhythm sections, Ritenour penned various tracks and selected works by greats including Herbie Hancock and Nick Drake. This multi-layered and multi-textural work is engaging from the first note.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, London experienced an artistic golden age, with the arrival of many foreign musicians and the proliferation of theatres and concert halls where audiences came to listen to the stars of the moment. One of these musicians was the Italian Nicola Matteis, who arrived around 1660 and became the sensation of the London music scene. Purcell was only a child at the time and there is no record of their meeting, but it is very likely that he was familiar with Matteis’s works, including his Ayres , recorded here for the first time in a version for four-part consort.

Alan Civil (horn), London Wind Quintet and Ensemble (wind ensemble), Walter Berry (bass), Lucia Popp (soprano), Ruth-Margret Pütz (soprano), Geraint Evans (baritone), Henry Smith (harpsichord), Elisabeth Söderström (soprano), Teresa Berganza (mezzo-soprano), Dame Margaret Price (soprano), Daniel Barenboim (piano), Hans Sotin (bass), Yvonne Minton (mezzo-soprano), Mirella Freni (soprano), Nicolai Ghiaurov (bass).

Born in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège, Antoine Gosswin was recruited at a very young age by the Bavarian court chapel, where he was in frequent contact with Orlando di Lasso and accompanied the Emperor Maximilian II on his travels. Esteemed as a singer and composer, he was also part of the violin band employed by Duke Albert V at the legendary wedding of Prince William in 1568. Gosswin would go on to conduct the chapel of Prince Ernest, Bishop of Freising and later of Liège, to whom he dedicated his Newe teutsche Lieder. Extremely prolific, Gosswin produced several masses and motets as well as madrigals and German songs in which he continued the musical developments initiated by his master Lasso.

Todd Rundgren 70's Collection offers 117 tracks digitally remastered in 192 kHz, 24bit.

LeGrand Mellon is an American actress who guested as ‘Miranda’ in the mid-60s TV show, the spy/western hybrid The Wild Wild West starring Robert Conrad and Ross Martin. Marketed as a young but accomplished siren to rival contemporaries like Nancy Sinatra and Ann-Margret, LeGrand Mellon was seemingly plucked from the stage lot and dropped into the recording studio for a trio of singles for Columbia Records. “Baby Please Don’t Go” / “Summertime” was the final release after “Everybody But Me” / “Growin’ My Own” and “Move It On Over” / “The Sound Of The Blues”.

In the seventeenth century, the Ospedale della Pietà in Venice took in young orphan girls who received advanced musical instruction. The concerts given there attracted visitors from all over the world, curious to hear these divine voices which remained invisible, since the girls performed hidden behind the grilles of the chapel gallery. Vivaldi became Maestro de’ Concerti of the Pietà in 1714, and it was his pupils who performed his famous Nisi Dominus.

As to the music, these orchestral arrangements by Arthur Harris are all boisterously spirited, almost driving into coarseness on some occasions, but each are quite different from one another, providing a well-rounded program.

In a world where unrest and war make constant headlines, human migration is an issue that touches peoples everywhere. On its latest release, The Silk Road, the Oslo-based wind chamber ensemble Oslo Kammerakademi presents a beautiful programme inspired by the subject of cultural migration - what happens when cultures meet, for example because of the movement of populations, trade, politics or conflict.