Loading...

Here are some LPs that I've gotten in recently and I want to bring to your attention. Espresso, Bob James Trio, EVLP023, from Tappan Zee Records. 2018, Featuring Bob James, Billy Kilson, and Michael Palazzolo. $32.99. Tracks Recorded by Ken Freeman, KFP Studios, Bethlehem, PA. Tracks Recorded at Stagg Studios, Van Nuys, CA.. Assisted by Josh Frank. Mastered by Steve Vavagiaskis for Bang... Read More »

Sweetbeats Productions, Digital download available at Apple Music and Google Music $8.99 I know I've raved about recordings in reviews, even in the last year, where I remarked that I put it in my CD player or an LP on my turntable and I didn't take it out/off for a very long time. That's a... Read More »

Saariaho and Koh. Jennifer Koh, violin. Nicolas Hodges, piano. Hsin-Yun Huang, viola. Wilhelmena Smith, cello. Anssi Kaarttunen, cello, Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, Conner Gray Covington, conductor. Çedille CDR 90000183. There is some contemporary music we listen to because we just want to know what's going on. This is not the same as keeping up with fashion,... Read More »

ORGM-1030, LP $24, available at https://orgmusic.merchnow.com/products/v2/276626/softly-black-vinyl This one threw me for a loop, as my mom likes to say when she's thrown for a loop. I took one look at the cover and thought, "Oh, here's another wonderful ORG reissue from the Golden Age of Jazz." I know of Shirley Horn, but I'm not that... Read More »

John Marks' latest recommendation from his The Tannhauser Gate blog site follows. As always, his recommendations are worth noting. David W. Robinson, Ye Olde Editor Friday, November 9 (2018), Deutsche Grammophon will release the CD Light Eternal—The Choral Music of Morten Lauridsen. Amazon's pre-order price for the CD is $12.59, which is a truly excellent price. But... Read More »

ORG Music, ORGM 1040, LP $27.99, available everywhere For a guy who has owned umpteen copies of Time Out over the years, everything from an early pressing to one of those JVC Super Bit-Mapped CDs to the latest LP remastering from Analogue Productions, my record collection is suspiciously devoid of Dave Brubeck records. Other than... Read More »

Ratings Global Appreciation: 9.5 - Music: A - Recording: 9.5 - Mastering: 9.5 - Lacquer Cutting: 9.5 - Pressing: 9.5 - Packaging: fairly good gatefold + poly-lined paper inner sleaves Category: Memphis soul, funk, protodisco, soul-jazz, Blaxploitation soundtrack style. Format: Vinyl (2x 130 to 150 gram approx. LPs at 33 1/3 rpm) Credits Composed and Produced by... Read More »

Bob James. If you had told me years ago that Bob James of 70s "light" jazz fame was still recording new music in 2018, I'd probably have nodded and said, sure, though I would have wagered that the music would likely be silly place holder stuff, pay the bills sort of at thing. Turns out... Read More »

Yarlung Records, YAR77215, gold substrate CD pressed in Germany. Also available in Single, Double, and Quad DSD download formats, stereo/multichannel Organ Builder and Technician: Manuel Rosales  Recording Engineers: Bob Attiyeh & Arian Jansen  Microphone Technician: David Bock Vacuum Tube Microphones: Ancona Audio Microphone Preamplification: Elliot Midwood  Stereo Mastering Engineers: Steve Hoffman & Bob Attiyeh Surround Sound Mastering... Read More »

How times have changed! Just a decade ago tape enthusiasts literally grabbed any title they could get their hands on just to have something, anything, to play on their machines. Many of those tapes, in retrospect, were pretty darn bad. Jump ahead a decade and there is such a glut of tapes on the market... Read More »

Trio Archè, BOSSI Piano Trios. Marco Enrico Bossi (1861-1925). BOSSI Piano Trios No. 1 in D minor, Op. 107; No. 2 in D, Op. 123. Brilliant Classics 95581. TT: 66.29.  The music of those nineteenth-century Italian composers who didn't write operas is generally well-crafted and colorful. Yet, despite the occasional attempt to stoke interest—a collection of music... Read More »

Sunny War, With the Sun. ORG Music ORGM-1041, LP $15.89 at Amazon.com. I have this really bad habit of judging albums by their covers. Something gets sent to me in the mail, I glance at it, maybe open it up and look at the liner notes and then I place it in the rotation according to what... Read More »

Arvo Pärt. Mullova - Järvi. Onyx 4201. Darf ich..., Fratres, Passacaglia, Tabula rosa, I Ludus, II Silentium, Spiegel im Speigel] I have never been drawn to the extremely popular and to be fair much admired Estonian contemporary composer, Arvo Pärt. I have found his music an example of the dictum that less may be less. It... Read More »

Sarah Reich, New Change. Tap Music Productions B07FTXR22W, CD $9.49 from Amazon.com "I want to be the first tap dancer to win a Grammy Award!" Okay yeah, it's nice to have dreams, kid—wait a minute, did you say tap dancing? A Grammy Award? When you think of tap dancing as an art form, do you think about... Read More »

In Positive Feedback Issue 31 (May/June 2007) I reviewed three CDs from Silva Film Music (HERE). Silva Film licenses the rights to film scores and re-records the music using the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. In my review of 2007 I was impressed by the quality of the performances, the excellent recording and mastering that results in... Read More »

The lute is an ancient instrument with its forebearers having been traced back to 3100 BCE in Mesopotamia. Though a popular instrument during the Middle Ages, the lute reached its zenith during the Renaissance. While gradually falling out of favor after the Renaissance, the lute was still being widely used during the Baroque period. By... Read More »

Paavo Järvi conducts Bruckner's Ninth. BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 in D minor. Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra/Paavo Järvi. RCA Red Seal 88697542572.  TT: 65.39 The notion of Bruckner's music as thick and heavy persists in some circles, but the earliest recorded evidence from the composer's prominent exponents—think Furtwängler, Klemperer, Horenstein —belies the stereotype. Those conductors projected the music in... Read More »

Friday Night In San Francisco  - John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, and Paco De Lucia Back Story Impex Records has now reissued Friday Night In San Francisco on 180 Gram Numbered Limited Edition vinyl. Only 3000 copies will be made available for sale. Remastered by Bernie Grundman and Bob Donnelly from the original master tapes,... Read More »

Vivaldi, Sonatas for Cello and Basso Continuo,  Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello. Harmonia Mundi. It has been quite a while since we've had recordings of this seldom heard, truly engaging music. Christophe Coin did it well in 1989 for L'oiseau Lyre, Susan Sheppard did it fine that same year with L'école d'Orphee for CRD; and then there... Read More »