Viva 2007

Chris Potter's quartet Underground should be looked upon as one of the many facets in the saxophonist's prismatic view of contemporary jazz. Certainly the band is oriented toward a progressive jazz image with the electric guitar work of the brilliant Adam Rogers and Craig Taborn's witty and pungent Fender Rhodes keyboard. Assumedly the concept of Underground harks somewhat to the fusion of Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea. But Potter's vision with this combo goes beyond those static and funkier values, entering a wilder, unabashed, and fierce aggression that cannot be corralled. In live performance at the storied Village Vanguard nightclub in Greenwich Village, you expect and receive long drawn-out compositions, extended solos especially from Potter, and new music tried out as audience experiments.

This unique 70CD box set includes all the studio recordings Maria Callas ever made. It contains 26 complete operas, four of which are studio repeats, plus the complete studio recitals made during her recording career, from 1949 to 1969.

It's pretty simple-this boxed set contains EVERYTHING La Divina recorded in the studio, including newly-licensed and newly-remastered material! That's the first 69 CDs; the 70th CD is a CD-ROM containing the tracklists and photos. And the set comes inside a hardcover slipcase containing a color booklet packed with even more photos of this most photogenic of opera singers. As for the contents, well, again, it's EVERYTHING she did in the studio.

Following the breakup of the Smiths, Morrissey needed to prove that he was a viable artist without Johnny Marr, and Viva Hate fulfilled that goal with grace. Working with producer Stephen Street and guitarist Vini Reilly (of the Durutti Column), Morrissey doesn't drastically depart from the sound of Strangeways, Here We Come, offering a selection of 12 jangling guitar pop sounds. One major concession is the presence of synthesizers – which is ironic, considering the Smiths' adamant opposition to keyboards – but neither the sound, nor Morrissey's wit, is diluted. And while the music is occasionally pedestrian, Morrissey compensates with a superb batch of lyrics, ranging from his conventional despair ("Little Man, What Now?," "I Don't Mind If You Forget Me") to the savage political tirade of "Margaret on a Guillotine." Nevertheless, the two masterstrokes on the album – the gorgeous "Everyday Is Like Sunday" and the infectious "Suedehead" – were previously singles, and both are on the compilation Bona Drag.

Usually regarded as the Belgian ZAO, Cos develops an European type of chamber-rock, built on onomatopoeic vocals or sung in French or German. The band displays beautiful themes interwined with complex orchestrated rhythms. Its music evokes the Canterbury School (Caravan, Hatfield And The North…), the anguished and dark music of King Crimson or Quiet Sun and Terje Rypdal's atmospheric jazz-rock. Pascale Son uses her high-pitched voice, able to perform the most incredible modulations, and this allows her to become one of the best singers in that style. The leader Daniel Schell is a guitarist extraordinaire, and proves to develop ideas as original as Robert Fripp's.

Il Nascimento dell’Aurora belongs to the genre of the serenata, which was so well-loved in the 18th century. These serenatas were chiefly short operas of tribute, set in arcadian-pastorale surroundings, staged either fully or partially, and often performed outdoors. Mythological figures first shown in the timeless world of legend leave their mythological framework at the end of the work to congratulate and pay tribute to an actual person. The commission for Il Nascimento dell’Aurora was presumably given to Albinoni between 1711 and 1717 to celebrate the birthday of Elisabeth Christine von Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, wife of Emperor Karl VI. The work is for five solo voices, strings and continuo with obbligato theorbo.