Marian Toews

In March 1575, a party led by the Venetian diplomat Giacomo Soranzo set out on a mission to Constantinople. They sailed down the Istrian coast, along the length of present-day Croatia, and on to the Bay of Kotor. Much of the land they passed was the territory of the Serenissima – inhabited by both Italians and Slavs, and of strategic importance since it was exposed to constant Turkish threats from the Balkan hinterland.

This is the latest addtion to the highly regarded CD series, MARIAN MCPARTLAND'S PIANO JAZZ, which is take from Ms. McParland's highly successful and long-running NPR program. This album features stripped-down, live-in-the-studio performances of Steely Dan Classic "Josie," "Black Friday," and "Chain Lightning."

For their debut recording, the six-strong Marian Consort explores music from late 16th- and early 17th-century Spain. This fascinating programme celebrates the rich compositional fruits of the Siglo de Oro’s intensely competitive musical culture. These luminary works, all dedicated to the Virgin Mary, demand performances of great intelligence and vocal commitment. The youthful Marians respond absolutely, bringing hushed intimacy and bristling excitement to some of the most gorgeously searing lines in the history of European polyphony.

Contrasts is a two-fer collection of work by pianist Marian McPartland featuring the albums Plays the Music of Alec Wilder and Marian and Jimmy McPartland: A Sentimental Journey. Showcasing the exquisite playing of the NPR jazz host, both albums are worth checking out. Disc one should appeal to longtime McPartland fans with the pianist working through the compositions of Alec Wilder in a straight-ahead trio style. Disc two, though, is the real revelation, with McPartland joining her cornetist/vocalist husband, Jimmy, and his New Orleans trad-style band for a live date. The music is much hotter than McPartland's solo work - she "comps" beautifully behind soloists - and it's a treat to hear her in this more bluesy, extroverted context.

Marian McPartland has continued to grow as a musician over her long career, constantly exploring new songs and new styles while rekindling standards and jazz classics with her own distinctive touch at the keyboard. This pair of 1995 sessions at the Yoshi's Nitespot in Oakland, CA, feature her in a trio setting with bassist Bill Douglass and drummer Glenn Davis. She slowly percolates a driving bop arrangement of "Like Someone in Love," and her striking approach to "If I Should Lose You" conveys the emotion of the song even though the lyric isn't heard. She also ventures into modern Broadway with a mesmerizing waltz interpretation of the ballad "Pretty Women" (from Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd)…

So Long Celeste is the debut solo album by German singer Marian Gold, released in 1992. Included on the album were cover versions of "The Shape of Things to Come" (originally by The Headboys) and "One Step Behind You" (by Furniture). Marian Gold is a German singer-songwriter who gained fame as the lead singer of the German synth-pop recording act Alphaville, but also had recorded as a solo artist.

John Baldwin was a lay clerk at St George’s Chapel, Windsor in 1575 and became a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1598. The so-called ‘Baldwin Partbooks’, held at Christ Church, Oxford, were his creation – a very personal collection, representing his individual tastes and interests from a wealth of English and Continental polyphony and consort music.
As in their previous collaboration, an exploration of the similarly conceived partbooks of Robert Dow, the Marian Consort and Rose Consort of Viols have kept faith with Baldwin’s own intentions, bringing to light some of the rarer gems preserved by this great advocate and music-lover and providing the listener with ‘such sweete musicke: as dothe much delite yeelde’.