The late singer and songwriter Blaze Foley is almost unheard of outside of the circles of music fans who follow that scene closely. For many Austin musicians, he was a crazy saint, an iconoclast who was banned from virtually every bar in town, but whose songs are deeply admired and whose persona was singular – he didn't give a good god damn what anybody thought of him. He has been immortalized in Lucinda Williams' beautiful "Drunken Angel" and songwriter-guitarist Gurf Morlix, who played with him, lovingly mastered a record they made together in the late '70s which was released in 2006 as Blaze Foley & the Beaver Valley Boys. Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kings of Leon, Lyle Lovett, and John Prine, among others, have recorded his songs. He's been exploited on a few compilations that have come out over the years with awful post-production work that he would never have agreed to. Fat Possum deepens the legend further without soiling the artist in the process. The Dawg Years is a collection of 20 Foley songs, recorded when his moniker was Deputy Dawg.
Pure delight: two of Britain’s most exciting singers together with one of the most vibrant of the English period bands, in a collection of wonderful duets from Händel’s English oratorios and odes. Both Carolyn Sampson and Robin Blaze collaborate with Masaaki Suzuki in his recordings of Bach Cantatas, for which they are receiving high praise. ‘Sampson's rounded, lyrical, glowing tone is just what I want to hear in the warm-hearted soprano cantata O holder Tag’ said the critic in International Record Review about BIS-CD-1411, whereas The Times, UK, has described Robin Blaze as being ‘blessed with a most alluring countertenor – creamy in tone, naturally expressive, exquisitely controlled…’.
The Franco-Flemish composer, Johannes Ockeghem, sang at Antwerp at the Bourbon court before joining the French royal chapel in 1451. Ockeghem spent most of his professional life at the French chapel and his output was quite prolific. He composed 14 settings of the Mass, including one of the earliest polyphonic versions of the Requiem. Ockeghem also composed numerous motets and secular songs. He was one of the most original voices in early Renaissance polyphony and his music dazzles with its ingenuity and beauty.
Recorded live at the Melodka venue, Brno, Czech Republic in September 2019.
Jephtha (1751) was Handel's last oratorio. It does not have quite the dramatic sweep of Messiah or Israel in Egypt, but it contains many moments equal to anything in Handel. These include the choruses, several of which are among the most dramatically effective fugues ever composed. One attractive feature of this excellent recording of the oratorio under the directorship of Harry Christophers is that these choruses are crystal clear in texture, with all the words intelligible: hard enough for the soloists, who likewise won't have you turning to the booklet, and well-nigh remarkable for a chorus. Christophers' group the Sixteen consists of 18 members here, plus an orchestra of 30, so this is a fairly sizable performance by current standards.
Buxtehude’s cantata cycle, Membra Jesu Nostri, is a unique work. Based on texts from a medieval Latin hymn, ‘Salve mundi salutare’, the cycle contains seven cantatas each dedicated to a different part of Christ’s crucified body. The texts are based on the concept of an observer contemplating Christ’s body on the cross starting with his feet and moving up to his knees, hands, side, breast, heart and finally his head. Buxtehude plays cleverly with musical colours and textures and changes the mixture of voices and instruments to dramatic effect as the work develops.