Stephane Grappeli

Violinist Stephane Grappelli plays his usual repertoire (standards ranging from Stevie Wonder's "You Are the Sunshine of My Life" to "Chicago" and the Reinhardt-associated piece "Minor Swing") in a quartet with the guitars of John Etheridge and Martin Taylor and bassist Jack Sewing. The music, although a bit predictable, is enjoyable, for Grappelli has never lost his enthusiasm for playing swinging jazz. He performs "Let's Fall in Love" and "Love for Sale" as if he had just discovered those songs.

Stephane Grappelli may have given up standing during concerts late in life as a concession to his health, but at the age of 82, he still swung like mad with the best of them, as heard in this 1990 concert recorded in Tokyo. Accompanied by guitarist Marc Fosset and bassist Jean-Philippe Viret, with the addition of accordion player Marcel Azzola on a few selections, the violinist devotes a good part of his show to the expected standards from the 1930s and 1940s. Highlights include a swinging "Just One of Those Things," a delightful "Honeysuckle Rose" and a loping "Ol' Man River," the latter which adds ripples supplied by Azzola's accordion, until the dam breaks and the second half of the song comes on like a spring flood…

Violinists Stéphane Grappelli and Stuff Smith performed together on a few occasions, but this 1965 studio session, first issued by Barclay, was one of the more difficult dates to acquire until Universal Music reissued it on CD in 2002, as a part of their extensive Jazz in Paris series. With a solid rhythm section (pianist René Urtreger, bassist Michel Gaudry, and drummer Michel Delaporte) that pretty much sticks to a supporting role, it is clear that Smith's gritty tone rubs off on Grappelli as the session progresses. Highlights include Smith's "Blues in the Dungeon" (during which Grappelli playfully alternates between playing pizzicato and arco to back Smith's hoarse but swinging vocal) and an equally playful, swinging take of "This Can't Be Love"…

Cellist Camille Thomas’ program of beautiful cello arrangements invites us to find hope amid uncertainty, to see light in the darkness. From Purcell’s grief-stricken “When I Am Laid in Earth” to Bruch’s yearning “Kol Nidrei” and Dvořák’s nostalgic “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” Thomas finds beauty deep within pain. But in Donizetti, she celebrates the power of love, in Wagner gentleness, and in Mozart steadfastness. Fazil Say’s 2017 Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, “Never Give Up”, a musical response to the terrorist attacks in Paris and Istanbul, is searing and often upsetting, cello flowing like tears, orchestra twisted, demented. Birds bring peace, at last, to a modern masterpiece that confronts anguish and distress with strength and optimism.