The First The One

The four clarinet concertos by Louis Spohr (1784–1859) have fared well on disc, relatively speaking. Notorious for their difficulty, these works have been slow to win champions among top-flight clarinetists, but the tide is turning. Paul Meyer is a French clarinetist no relation, apparently, to the German siblings Sabine and Wolfgang Meyer who has recorded a number of CDs on various labels including Denon and EMI. For Alpha he has previously recorded the clarinet chamber music of Schumann. I believe the present recording, in which he also serves as conductor, is his first in that capacity.

"Paint It Black" (originally released as "Paint It, Black") is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones, written by the songwriting partnership of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and first released as a single on 6 May 1966…

Mulgrew Miller - Live At Yoshi's. Volume One + Volume Two (2005) [2CD] {MaxJazz}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (image)+CUE+LOG -> 868 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 336 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 105 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2004, 2005 MaxJazz | MXJ 208 / MXJ 212
Jazz / Hard Bop / Post Bop / Piano

Everything falls into place very nicely on this initial volume from Mulgrew Miller's two-day gig at Yoshi's in the summer of 2003. With the strong support of bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Karriem Riggins, Miller's volcanic virtuosity on the piano is simply stunning. Taking no prisoners with his hard bop dash through the standard "If I Were a Bell," Miller immediately afterward soothes the crowd with Donald Brown's lovely, but only occasionally dissonant, tribute "Waltz for Monk," which might sound to many listeners like more of a salute to Oscar Peterson.

Practically a one-man band, Elegant Simplicity is headed by composer, arranger, programmer, producer and multi-instrumentalist Steve McCabe. Their material is highly keyboard- and guitar-oriented melodic prog that will alternately remind you of Camel, Genesis, The Alan Parsons Project, Barclay James Harvest and Mike Oldfield.
The first thing one notices when studying this 2015 release is the large number of performers taking part, and the second thing is that neither of Steven's long-time collaborators, Ken Senior and Christopher Knight, have a part to play on this album (although apparently, they were involved with the original demos)…

In 1978, Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded one album as a group in addition to doing some recording separately. That year, Knight provided her first solo album, Miss Gladys Knight, for Buddah/Arista, while the Pips recorded Callin' (their second album without her) for Casablanca. And together, they recorded The One and Only, which didn't go down in history as one of their all-time classics but is a generally pleasant, if unspectacular, soul-pop outing. This LP finds the quartet working with various producers, including Michael Masser, Richie Wise, Tony Camillo, and the Van McCoy/Charles Kipps team.

Switzerland's best symphonic prog band of any consequence, Flame Dream released its third album, Out In The Dark, in 1981. Recorded at Patrick Moraz's legendary "Aquarius" studio in Geneva and surpassing 1979's excellent Elements, it is a classic of European progressive rock. Amazingly, in continental Europe, brilliant, classic progressive rock music was still being produced with little regard for the prevailing winds of disco, new wave and punk. Flame Dream had hit it big in Europe with release of Elements. The music on Out In The Dark continues in the same vein as on their preceding albums, with rich, keyboard heavy compositions by vocalist/wind instrument player Peter Wolf (son of the noted Swiss classical pianist and brother of classical/avant-garde composer and pianist John Wolf-Brennan) and keyboardist Roland Rockstuhl.

Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, Steve Swallow - The Life of a Trio, Sunday (1989) {Owl Records OWL060CD rel 1990}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 214 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 160 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (jpg) -> 91 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1990 Owl Records | OWL060CD
Jazz / Contemporary Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Chamber Jazz

The second night of the 1989 reunion in New York of the 1961-1962 Jimmy Giuffre 3 with pianist Paul Bley and (now electric) bassist Steve Swallow in some ways eclipses the first. The fact that there is more integration between the trio members as a whole than on the first evening is certainly one place to start. At the very beginning, "Sensing" – with Giuffre on soprano and Bley playing bass notes in the lowest register as Swallow enters and takes over the role and Bley moves to the middle – is a stunner, though it is only four minutes and 13 seconds long.