Nazi Best Music

This is a gem of a CD. It's a well-chosen, well-performed and well-presented anthology of mid-Baroque German sacred cantatas. Bass Peter Kooij and the seven-person L'Armonia Sonora are directed by gambist Mieneke Van der Velden. They have a close and warm affinity not only with one another, but also for the music; it's music as varied as it's beautiful. Its rich, sustained sonorities will stay with you long after you have finished the uplifting experience of listening to the CD. Released on the enterprising Ramée label De profundis clamavi comprises seven sumptuous examples of the music written in the north German Länder in the period after the Thirty Years War. It's music which not so much 'reflects' that profound conflict, as is 'affected' by it – weighed down with detached regret and unselfconscious resignation.

The great bassist and composer Charles Mingus had his diehard supporters and detractors. His explosive intermingling of devil may care attitude, imposing character and aggressive music was sure to rub some listeners the wrong way and was just as likely to attract adventurous fans. But his genius could not be denied; it just may have taken some time to break down barriers.

Edith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "the Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing…

Even though he came from the theater himself, Bob Fosse, when he came to make a film of Harold Prince's musical Cabaret, did what most movie directors do, taking the 15-song score and cutting two-thirds of it to leave five songs – "Wilkommen," "Two Ladies," "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," "If You Could See Her," and "Cabaret." (In addition, "Sitting Pretty" was performed instrumentally and "Married" in German.) He then allowed the show's songwriters, John Kander and Fred Ebb, to add material to emphasize the film's two musical stars, "Mein Herr" and "Maybe This Time" for Liza Minnelli and "Money, Money" for Minnelli and Joel Grey.

Although critics will argue over the merits of his work, there is no denying that Serge Gainsbourg is one of the most fascinating figures in French popular music. He is best-known on this side of the Atlantic for "Je T'aime Moi Non Plus," a breathy duet with Jane Birkin whose slick, sensual soft rock melody won over many a listener (Birkin's convincingly acted moans of pleasure made it fairly scandalous).

Édith Piaf is almost universally regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Still revered as an icon decades after her death, "The Sparrow" served as a touchstone for virtually every chansonnier, male or female, who followed her. Her greatest strength wasn't so much her technique, or the purity of her voice, but the raw, passionate power of her singing. (Given her extraordinarily petite size, audiences marveled all the more at the force of her vocals.) Her style epitomized that of the classic French chanson: highly emotional, even melodramatic, with a wide, rapid vibrato that wrung every last drop of sentiment from a lyric. She preferred melancholy, mournful material, singing about heartache, tragedy, poverty, and the harsh reality of life on the streets; much of it was based to some degree on her real-life experiences, written specifically for her by an ever-shifting cast of songwriters.