Stormae Formidable

This third instalment in Brilliant Classics’ French Cello Sonatas series features the phenomenal composer Louise Farrenc (1804–1875), who is enjoying a much deserved revival amid contemporary focus on women composers, and the enigmatic and formidable Charles-Valentin Alkan (1813–1888), renowned for his complex compositional language and extreme piano virtuosity.

New Soil wasn't the first session Jackie McLean recorded for Blue Note, but it was the first one released, and as the title suggests, the first glimmerings of McLean's desire to push beyond the limits of bop are already apparent. They're subtle, of course, and nowhere near as pronounced as they would be in just a few years' time, but – as with the 1959 material later issued on Jackie's Bag – hints of Ornette Coleman's stream-of-consciousness melodic freedom are beginning to find their way into McLean's improvisations. His playing is just a touch more angular than the ear expects, especially given the very bluesy nature of pieces like McLean's 11-minute vamp "Hip Strut," and pianist Walter Davis, Jr.'s infectious boogie-woogie "Greasy."

The pianist Zlata Chochieva is well known for creating unexpected associations. In "Chiaroscuro", her first album for naive (V7542, 2022), she had combined the worlds of Scriabin and Mozart, in whom she hears not only the same desire for clarity and weightlessness but also a similar poetic sense of rhetoric. Her next album ("i'm Freien", V7959, 2023), a homage to nature, revealed alongside Ravel's Miroirs and Schumann's Waldszenen a short cycle, so little known and graceful (Petite Histoire), by Felix Draeseke! No wonder she is now offering us, for her first album with orchestra, one of the most obscure works of Russian Romanticism, the Piano Concerto by Rimsky-Korsakov.

Jordi Savall & Montserrat Figueras - Cançons de la Catalunya mil·lenària (2011) {Alia Vox AVSA 9881}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 352 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 184 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 133 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2011 Alia Vox | AVSA 9881
Classical / Chamber Music / Vocal / Sacred / World Music

This reissue in the Heritage Series - the original album was released in 1988 - enables us to hear the unique Montserrat Figueras singing a repertoire she embodies like nobody else : the traditional songs of Catalonia. This performance is the natural continuation of her exploration of the great works connected to Catalogne,eg: the Song of the Sybille or the Red Book of Montserrat (Gregorian manuscript): on this shore of Mediterranean Sea, traditional and "classical" repertoires are connected in a very intimate way. This album is a landmark of in the career of Montserrat Figueras: her innovative style of interpretation, characterised by great fidelity to the historical sources combined with an extraordinary creative and expressive power, sounds at its best.

These are two of the most formidable soloists on the Scottish scene, pretty much in straightahead mode.
Saxophonist Smith, as he has demonstrated with the American Joanne Brackeen, is a good duo collaborator with pianists, his more languorous Jan Garbarek-like aspect in other settings put aside in favour of a surging, hard-swinging style. But his formidable range, particularly in sustaining a remarkable purity on long, high sounds, is fully unwrapped on this collection of 11 standards old and new, including traditionals such as Billy Strayhorn's Lush Life, and Steve Swallow's Ladies in Mercedes - the latter opening with an abstractedly Monkish piano intro from Kellock…

The second of two sets that document a Paris concert by trumpeter Donald Byrd, Parisian Thoroughfare features Bobby Jaspar on tenor and flute, pianist Walter Davis, Jr., bassist Doug Watkins, and drummer Art Taylor. Other than Byrd's "At This Time" and Davis' "Formidable," the quintet sticks to bop standards, many of which are quite concise and clock in at around three minutes. Longer versions of the title track (a high point) and "52nd Street Theme" are exceptions. This spirited, bop-oriented music is the equal of the first volume.

Funny band name! However, stylistically they are flexible definitely, no question. With the focus on dual guitar action and varied rhythm work, plus minimalistic keyboard respectively synthesizer attendance. Post/math bands often enough are sounding single tracked, when it comes to my taste, or are exaggerating their trickiness. Though here we have a well balanced relation of finesse and accessibility to state. The six songs are completely instrumental, furthermore also striving for an eclectic blend of quite different progressive rock moves.

It all starts with the voice. At turns heavy and hulkingly powerful, yet agile and pointedly precise, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s vocal not only embodies the tradition of the Sufi qawwali but it is the emotive essence of singing itself.

Donald Byrd - Chant (1961) {Blue Note–EMI Music Japan rel 2014}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44.1kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 313 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 108 Mb | Cover | 5% repair rar
© 1961, 2014 Blue Note / EMI Music Japan
Jazz / Hard Bop / Trumpet

Not released until 1979, this excellent quintet session features the always formidable team of trumpeter Donald Byrd and baritonist Pepper Adams. The accompanying rhythm section includes pianist Herbie Hancock shortly before he joined Miles Davis. The repertoire consists of six likable tunes including an uptempo "I'm an Old Cowhand," "That's All," "Sophisticated Lady," two Byrd originals and Duke Pearson's "Chant." This is superior hard bop from the early '60s.