Oracle Sisters Blue Left Hand

It’s good to have Richard Strauss’ fascinating, somewhat atypical concerted works for piano left hand available on a single disc, especially in well played and strongly projected readings like these. At times the slow-motion harmonic scansion and rhapsodic piano writing throughout the Paregon to the Symphonia Domestica evoke Scriabin’s misty muse. By contrast the Panathenäenzug, subtitled Symphonic Etudes in the form of a passacaglia, uses a time-honored baroque form to generate opulently scored, post-Wagnerian froth.

The listener may see the phrase "piano Erard 1905" on the cover of this album of Ravel works and wonder whether the historical performance movement has really gone too far. And truly this is, at least from a modern standpoint, an unusual and even bizarre Ravel recording. It's not so much the Erard piano, which sounds as though it was made to play Fauré and Debussy, but is not so far from other concert grands. What's strange is the general interpretation by Flemish historical keyboardist Jos van Immerseel, known mostly for his performances of music from the eighteenth and perhaps the early nineteenth centuries.

Within the framework of his complete Brahms cycle, Geoffroy Couteau presents an original programme focusing on the trio Brahms formed with Robert and Clara Schumann, and on their relationship with Joseph Joachim. All these personalities lie at the heart of the conception of both the Concerto in D minor and the transcription of Bach’s Chaconne; two works that also reveal their shared devotion to Bach.

Jimmy Smith - The Complete Sermon Sessions (2009) {2CD Set Groove Hut Records–Blue Note rec 1957-1958}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 0.98 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 351 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 45 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1957-58, 2009 Blue Note / Groove Hut Records | GH 66712
Jazz / Hard Bop / Soul Jazz / Organ Hammond B-3

2009 release from the Jazz great containing Smith's complete classic Sermon sessions, in chronological order, together for the first time ever on a single set. These are his only preserved collaborations with Lee Morgan, the formidable trumpet player whose life came to a tragic end after being shot by his girlfriend at the tender age of 33. Tenor saxophonist Tina Brooks is also featured here. The outstanding reedman would pass away at the age of 42 after a life of drug addiction and self abuse. The great Jimmy Smiths was a Jazz musician whose performances on the Hammond B-3 electric organ helped to popularize this instrument.