Personify

Not 'just another Schubert recording, but a major artistic achievement’ [Christian Girardin, harmonia mundi] Matthias Goerne is totally invested in the recording and editing process. Vol. 9 (the last one in the series) is due out towards the end of 2014. Future recordings will include Brahms with Christophe Eschenbach and Mahler (arr. Berio) Early Songs to be recorded in September 2014 with Josep Pons and the BBCSO.

Grant Green, being known mainly as a soul-jazz guitarist, eventually gravitated into the popular boogaloo sound, a derivation of Latin music. The Latin Bit is the natural bridge to that next phase, though a bit premature for most in 1961-1963, even relative to the subsequent bossa nova craze. Pianist Johnny Acea, long an underrated jazzman, is the nucleus of this session, grounding it with witty chops, chordal comping, and rhythmic meat. The Latino rhythm section of drummer Willie Bobo and conga player Carlos "Patato" Valdes personify authentic, seasoned spice, while at times the chekere sound of Garvin Masseaux makes the soup too thick. At its collective best, the group presents a steady, serene, and steamy "Besame Mucho" and the patient, slow, slinky, sultry "Tico Tico.".

Nearly all of Loewe's most popular ballads are included in this collection, sung by a voice that is admirably suited to them, and interpreted by an intelligence that dramatizes each song grippingly without the need to inflect every emotive word. Quasthoff's baritone has a rich and sonorous extension into the bass range, a broad palette of vocal colour (so he can personify the child, the father and the sinister wraith in Erlkonig or act out the fraught colloquy of Edward without ever ceasing to sing) and it is a voice that can touch lightly or sing quietly without losing tone.