Small Changes

Count Basie was among the most important bandleaders of the swing era. With the exception of a brief period in the early '50s, he led a big band from 1935 until his death almost 50 years later, and the band continued to perform after he died…

Antonio Rosetti (born Anton Rösler c. 1750 - died 1792) was a German musician, initially a liveried double-bass player in a noble's establishment, who became a popular composer in his time. He is all but forgotten now, but it was his Requiem Mass that was played in tribute to Mozart a week after the latter's death. And for a long time he was known for his 'Harmoniemusik,' a form of wind band music popular in German-speaking countries well into the 19th century. He is also given credit for inventing the wind quintet, a form that certainly has took on a life of its own to the present day. Finally, he is remembered for having written numerous horn concerti that are occasionally revived.

Saxophonist Donny McCaslin’s fiercely creative quartet chosen by David Bowie to play on Blackstar, the album that would be his swansong, after he heard them in the 55 Bar one fateful New York night in 2014. Two years and an immoderate amount of mainstream press attention later, here is the 50-year-old saxophonist’s heartfelt tribute to his erstwhile boss. McCaslin and his colleagues – keyboardist Jason Lindner, bassist Tim Lefebvre and drummer Mark Guiliana – were already the sort of voracious, open-minded musicians who were drawing inspiration from the creative end of rock’n’roll. But the time spent with Bowie has clearly marked them. Concise, hard-edged, dark and mysterious, Beyond Now sounds like the future of music. There could be no more fitting tribute to the man who sought them out.

SAHARA is a mid-70's act that produced two albums, but prior to that they'd worked and released another as SUBJECT ESQ. The music is rather typical early 70s proto-prog with elements of JETHRO TULL (for the flute-guitar interplay), early YES, and the occasional saxophone riffs remind of early VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR…

In February 2009, on a date very close to the celebration of Mendelssohn’s 200th birthday, we got together for the first time in a quintet lineup in order to perform a small concert in the form of a public rehearsal. The repertoire was rapidly chosen: it had to include at least one piece by Mendelssohn. After that successful experiment, we spontaneously decided upon the composer’s second surname for our new quintet…

In addition to co-creating Judas Priest's outstanding body of work, Rob Halford has also issued music outside of the beloved legendary Birmingham band - which is precisely what the new 14-CD boxset, The Complete Albums Collection, showcases. Included are four albums by the ferociously thrash-inspired Fight, as well as the lone album by the industrial-inspired 2wo (which featured guitarist John 5, and saw Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor serve as executive producer), plus 7 titles from the solo band Halford, which saw the Metal God gloriously return to pure, unadulterated metal. With the arrival of The Complete Albums Collection, metal fans will now have the definitive collection of Rob Halford s stellar work outside of the mighty Judas Priest, all in one set.

With ensemble vocal jazz, the danger is always that tight and complex harmony writing will come across as too smooth and too sweet – for some reason, chords that sound sharp and bracing when distributed among reed instruments can sound cloying and overly slick when sung by human voices. The vocal/instrumental quartet New York Voices don't avoid that trap entirely on their latest album (and their first as an ensemble in seven years), but they continue to demonstrate their mastery of the genre with a solid program of new and old songs and innovative arrangements. Their take on "Darn That Dream" is startlingly new (and features a fine bass clarinet solo by Bob Mintzer), and the lyrics that group members added to John Coltrane's "Moment's Notice" work very nicely. Not everyone will agree that the world needed a vocal jazz version of Laura Nyro's "Stoned Soul Picnic," but the New York Voices' version is really lots of fun and is sure to bring a nostalgic tear to more than one baby-boomer eye. Apart from a couple of saccharine moments on "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," A Day Like This is a pleasure from start to finish. Recommended.

Compilation CD's. Those Classic Golden Years - An Essential collection the second half of the sixties and the early seventies…