Recording of the Month
- Written by: S. Andrea Sundaram
- Category: Recording of the Month
BIS/eClassical.com
Format: FLAC 24/96 Download
Musical Performance: ***1/2
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
The nyckelharpa is an instrument of Swedish origin dating back to at least the 14th century. It is bowed like a violin, but instead of the musician’s fingers pressing the strings against the fingerboard to alter the pitch, it has a series of key-activated frets. In addition to the four main strings, the modern nyckelharpa has 12 sympathetic strings that are tuned to the pitches of the chromatic scale. (Older examples had varying numbers of sympathetic strings with different tuning schemes.) These give the instrument added resonance, and a complex timbre rich in upper harmonics. The nyckelharpa is important in the Swedish folk tradition -- an image of one appears on the reverse of the 50-kronor banknote.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Mei Music
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Though I’ll always cherish memories of Charlie Byrd, who helped introduce Brazilian music to US audiences, who’d have thought that Washington, DC, had an active Brazilian jazz community today -- or that one of its brightest lights would turn out to be Emy Tseng, who was born in Taiwan, and came to DC by way of Seattle and New York City? But it’s undeniable on the evidence of Sonho, which features Tseng in 11 buoyant cuts, backed by first-rate musicians who would be welcome in any world capital.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Concord Picante CPI-34173ADV
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2
When Stefon Harris, David Sanchez, and Christian Scott went to Havana for a week in May 2010, to make a studio recording and give a live performance at the Cubadisco Festival, they brought a film crew along. The BBC picked up the resulting documentary, Ninety Miles, and last year Concord Picante released a CD/DVD package that included footage from the group’s festival performance. The CD of studio recordings was well received, and now Concord has released seven live tracks from the festival as Ninety Miles: Live at Cubadisco.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Linus 270155
Format: CD
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2
I listen to a lot of recordings by jazz singers, and though there might be a bit of difference among them, at times they can all seem to sound alike. So it was with no particular hope that I put this one in the player and sat down to listen. What I heard was a pure breath of fresh air from Canada, an album so original and appealing that it seemed to blow all the cobwebs out of the corners of my listening room.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Columbia/Analogue Productions CAPJ 8192 SA
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD
Musical Performance: *****
Sound Quality: *****
Overall Enjoyment: *****
Few jazz recordings from the LP era have enjoyed the enduring popularity of the Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out. A brisk seller when released in 1959, it has remained in print ever since, and sold enough copies to be certified platinum. That was a great year for jazz -- Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and Charles Mingus’s Mingus Ah Um were also released in 1959. All three were produced by Teo Macero, engineered by Fred Plaut, and released by Columbia Records.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Linn Records
Format: 24-bit/96kHz FLAC (download)
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****1/2
Midway through Too Much in Love to Care, I thought, "Score another hit for Claire Martin." I hear a lot of music, and always look forward to new albums by a favorite entertainer. Peggy Lee was an example; I gobbled up every new album of hers that I could afford. I didn’t need reviews -- I knew that if Lee had recorded it, it would be wonderful. Claire Martin has become my most eagerly anticipated artist for this decade -- and, as she’s only 45, probably for a few decades to come.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
ABC Paramount/Analogue Productions CAPP 385 SA
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
Miles Davis is credited with having brought Betty Carter to the attention of Ray Charles, who used her talents on tour in the late 1950s and recorded this duet album with her in 1961. Charles had switched from Atlantic Records to ABC Paramount, where he could have more control over his master tapes and thus make more residual money, not to mention have more control over his recording sessions.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Premonition 90763-1
Format: LP
Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: *****
Overall Enjoyment: *****
Patricia Barber is an audiophile favorite, and her record label, Premonition, has recently revisited some of her earlier recordings to see if they could be improved on. Although Café Blue was already admired for its sonic quality, last year’s vinyl reissue was a pronounced improvement over both the original CD release and Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab’s reissue. Remixed, remastered, and pressed by RTI on high-quality, 180gm vinyl, this new edition removed some heavy-handed reverb and presents Barber and her band more honestly and likeably.
- Written by: Rad Bennett
- Category: Recording of the Month
Verve/Analogue Productions CVRJ 8606 SA
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD
Musical Performance: ****1/2
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****
This 1964 set can polarize jazz lovers. Many find it the consummate recording of this trio, which had been together five years when it was taped. Others think the repertory is trivial. Peterson chose for this set such popular favorites as "Quiet Night of Quiet Stars (Corcovado)," "People," "The Girl from Ipanema," "The Days of Wine and Roses," and "My One and Only Love." Balancing these chestnuts are some slightly less familiar standards: "Have You Met Miss Jones?," "D & E," "You Look Good to Me," and "Time and Again." Here's the formula: Peterson usually makes a clear statement of the tune up front, then goes off on one or more of his incredible variations, manipulations that give him a chance to show off his fleet, refined, and graceful fingerwork. Bassist Ray Brown and drummer Ed Thigpen are virtuosos in their own rights, but also know how to fit in as part of the ensemble. To say that the three are tightly knit is to understate the obvious.
- Written by: Joseph Taylor
- Category: Recording of the Month
Impulse!/Universal Music/Analogue Productions CIPJ 74 SA
Format: Hybrid SACD
Musical Performance: ***1/2
Sound Quality: ****1/2
Overall Enjoyment: ****
The posthumous reputation of jazz singer Johnny Hartman (1923-1983) got a boost in 1995, when Clint Eastwood chose some of his recordings for the soundtrack to The Bridges of Madison County. Hartman had never been a household name. Hardcore jazz fans probably know him best for John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, the sole album by the saxophonist to feature a singer. Coltrane knew Hartman from their brief stints in Dizzy Gillespie’s late-1940s big band, and in 1963 he brought the singer to Impulse! Records, where Hartman would record two more LPs.
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