The Accompanist Berberova

The Roberta Martin Singers were an African-American gospel group based in the United States. The group was founded in 1933 by Roberta Martin, who in that same year had just become acquainted with gospels music, which was different from the traditional spirituals which were popular at the time. Theodore Frye and Thomas A. Dorsey were directing a junior choir at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois, and asked Martin to serve as the accompanist. From this junior choir, Martin selected six young men at random to form a group, Eugene Smith, Norsalus McKissick, Robert Anderson, Willie Webb, James Lawrence, and W.C. Herman. This group was named the Martin and Frye Singers, and in 1936, the group adopted the name of The Roberta Martin Singers. The Roberta Martin Singers (RMS) contained no traditional bass. For a brief period of time, the group was known as the Martin and Martin Singers, when Sallie Martin joined Roberta's group.

Norman Simmons - The Art of Norman Simmons (2000) {Savant ‎SCD 2029}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 469 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 172 Mb
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© 2000 Savant ‎Records | SCD 2029
Jazz / Bop / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Piano

As the accompanist for singers Dakota Staton, Carmen McRae, and Joe Williams, as well as a member of bands led by Johnny Griffin, Roy Eldridge and others, pianist Norman Simmons has spent little of his fifty-plus years as a musician in the spotlight. On the appropriately titled The Art of Norman Simmons, he successfully strikes a balance between putting his own talents front and center and melding them with musicians he respects and admires. The members of his quintet share the common goal of swinging in a relaxed, unhurried manner and no one ever feels compelled to shout to make a point.

It was the heroic age, the postwar age when American pianists first made their mark in the great wide world. The heroes took many forms: the apollonian Van Cliburn, the dionysic Byron Janis, and the mercurial Gary Graffman, along with many, many others. The most intellectually brilliant and technically incendiary member of the pantheon was Leon Fleisher. While other heroes rode the Russian war horses of Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov to fame and glory, Fleisher stuck with Beethoven and Brahms, the Alpha and Omega of German composers for the piano. In these Columbia recordings of Beethoven's Third and Fourth piano concertos from the 1959 and 1961, Fleisher teamed with George Szell, the sternest of living conductors, leading the Cleveland Orchestra, the most virtuosic of American orchestras, and the results are transcendent.

The vocal blend here is ravishing. Seldom have individual singers matched their voices more richly in this repertoire, with Patricia Clark leading with a sweet, soaring soprano, her gentle touch of vibrato ideal for Dowland's melodic lines. The choice of songs too is admirable, offering some of Dowland's very finest inspirations. Patricia Clark and Edger Fleet were both performers with the Deller Consort, and Desmond Dupre was Alfred Deller's accompanist for most of his career. Mastering engineer Doug Pomeroy provides an ultra-high-end, crystalline, digital transfer that allows every nuance of the recording's exceptional acoustics to shine!