The Birds

Dave Holland's debut as a leader, Conference of the Birds, doesn't seem to get its proper due outside of avant-garde circles; perhaps, when discussing the greats, Holland's name simply doesn't spring to mind as immediately. Whatever the case, Conference of the Birds is one of the all-time avant-garde jazz classics, incorporating a wide spectrum of '60s innovations. Part of the reason it works so well is the one-time-only team-up of two avant-garde legends: the fiery, passionate Sam Rivers and the cerebral Anthony Braxton; they complement and contrast one another in energizing fashion throughout.

Portuguese pianist Daniel Bernardes studied both composition (with Emmanuel Nunes and Karlheinz Stockhausen) and jazz (with Carlos Barretto and João Paulo Esteves da Silva, two names of the Clean Feed catalogue). “Liturgy of the Birds” comes from his explorations of Olivier Messiaen's compositional techniques, applied here to a jazz setting, bringing together a piano jazz trio (with double bassist António Augusto Aguiar and drummer Mário Costa, the same of “Oxy Patina” and the Emile Parisien Sfumato Quintet) with Drumming GP, an international reference in the world of modern percussion. "Liturgy of the Birds" is an hommage to Olivier Messiaen, alluding to his profound devotion to Christianity and his love of the birds to the point of notating and using their chants throughout his works. To Bernardes, «the language of Messiaen is a possible path to contemporary jazz», and listening to this astonishing record we have to agree with him. If you’re searching for something new and surprising, search no more: here it is.

Released in 1968, The Birds, The Bees & The Monkees featured a trio of Top 40 hits, "Tapioca Tundra," the group's sixth million-selling single "Valleri" and the #1 "Daydream Believer." The set includes mono and stereo mixes of the original album on individual discs, each expanded with rare and unreleased tracks…

Ottorino Respighi: Gli ucelli (The Birds); Vertrate di chiesa (The Church Windows) – Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy
Domenico Scarlatti (arr. Vincenzo Tomassini): Le donne di buon umore (The Good-Humored Ladies) – Cleveland Orchestra; Louis Lane
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 315 MB | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | 4 RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical

Editorial Reviews - Amazon.com
Sometime in the ‘70s, Sony (then CBS) released a two LP set called The Respighi Album which contained, among other pieces, The Church Windows and The Birds. Now The Birds had been recorded before and was pretty well known, but Church Windows was a stereo novelty, and it made a tremendous impression. Now this legendary performance has been remastered onto a budget-priced CD at a fraction of the cost of the original! It sounds better than ever–those magnificently deep organ pedals in the second movement (depicting the Archangel Michael with his flaming sword) will send your neighbors running for cover. What fun! –David Hurwitz