mikeweil

it's Jimmy Heath's "The Quota" - I linked it from amzon ... But that happens to me all the time - more often with Firefox than with Opera.

Simply great!

This is .... I don't know how to put this in words. Peace to all victims and their families.

That cake is hard to top. Since another one could cause stomach trouble, enjoy the one above and feliz cumpleanos!

R.I.P. Great pianist from whose writings I learned quite a bit - thanks for everything!

There is a considerable number of middle and upper class people in India (and those who migrated to places all over the planet) who are much more oriented towards western culture - mostly educated in England, and they respect traditional Indian culture but do not have such a deep knowledge as one would suspect. These people would have made the fusion with Western influences, anyway.

I have a hard time to find appropriate words on this occasion. His albums and a book he wrote, along with a fascinating four hour concert of an all-star ensemble he had taken on tour, were my introduction to Indian music, and will always remain my reference point for this. A million thanks for fascinating music, an inspired as well as inspiring life and a never ending dedication to the music and culture of his people - a spirit of true tolerance has left us. He was an ambassador to the music just like Brubeck. R.I.P.

The four bonus tracks are from Cal Tjader's Verve LP "Plays the Contemporary Music of Mexico and Brazil" - four of the six Brazilian tracks.

Back to Leroy Henderson - he also plays on my favourite Groove Holmes disc: That's a name a can't remember from my Mongo sleeve notes, but my collection is far from exhaustive. What was he on, Mike? MG

Ahlgrimm was a pioneer of harpsichord playing in the middle of the 20th century, influenced a lot of people, but died more or less in obscurity - read here. I have this edition: Sounds better than I remembered. A little dated (modern concert pitch and tuning, and not a historical instrument, as knowledge on harpsichord building was still limited at the time of the recording), but worth a listen when you can find a cheap copy. Her playing is very good and personal.

AllMusic on Carter Jefferson: "Born 1946 - Died December 9, 1993 in Kraków, Poland A reliable and advanced soloist who spent most of his career as a sideman, Carter Jefferson is best-remembered for his association with Woody Shaw during 1977-1980. Jefferson started on clarinet and played alto before settling on tenor, going on tour early in the backup bands of the Temptations, the Supremes, and Little Richard. In 1971, he moved to New York to attend New York University and soon spent two years with Mongo Santamaria and a period in 1973 as a member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. After his important stint with Woody Shaw (with whom he recorded several times), Jefferson worked with many top players, including Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Cedar Walton, Jerry Gonzalez & the Fort Apache Band, Malachi Thompson, and Jack Walrath's Masters of Suspense. His premature death in Poland after emergency surgery was a major loss. Carter Jefferson only led one record, The Rise of Atlantis, on the Timeless label in 1978." I have his recordings with Mongo and the Fort Apache band - he fitted very well in the Latin Jazz context.

That building looks so familiar, but ....

R.I.P. I listened to him very closely while checking his recordings with Cal Tjader for the latter's discography, and came to appreciate him more and more. I always liked his playing, appreciated his attempts at expanding jazz rhythmic phrasing beyond standard swing patterns (which someone like Joachim Berendt never quite understood) and wish he would have reocrded a trio album during the tenure of the quartet with Joe Morello. He was one of the real original piano stylists, IMHO. My thoughts are with Iola and his children - and thanks for that wonderful music.

Another great German harpsichord composer on a level with Händel is Christoph Graupner - Canadian Geneviève Soly made a series of excellent recordings of them:

If you really buy Siegbert Rampe's CD, please let me know what you think - IMHO it's the only Händel harpsichord CD that really gives an impression of what his playing powers really might have been. It all depends on what chances the performer takes to embellish the written text ... Rampe had just been involved in editing the Händel Handbuch on the instrumental works and researched a lot of new findings on Händels instruments and performance practice, when he recorded that disc - so far the only using a large harpsichord with 16" register. Händel had two of those, one brought from Hamburg and another custom made in England. The Gottlieb Muffat suites are rather underrated - in fact they are up to par with Bach's Clavier-Übung I, and English and French suites, and silightly superior to Händel's two printed books, and Kuhnau's or Mattheson's pieces. IMHO Muffat's book is the only harpsichord collection on the same level as Bach's Clavier-Übung I - but he was overlooked as he published nothing else for harpsichord (only an organ book) due to his employment at the Viennese court. I wrote some about him here.

Händel wrote several Chaconnes with variations, some were labelled "suites" and printed in such collections, some received their titles from later copyists or editors of manuscripts. Borgstede finds some of them boring and shortens them .... the problem was that Händel saw himself more as a keyboard improvisor and didn't bother to print stuff - contrary to Bach who notated every detail Händel wrote down only a skeleton that he filled out - he didn't want to share his tricks. That's why Muffat's ornamented version is so important. Those who like Händel will like Muffat's Suites just as well: Mitzi Meyerson's recordings is excellent, and Händelians will find out that he quoted or borrowed from every other piece in the collection .... And yes, the two discs are all Baumont recorded.

The mess with the work numbers is due to the fact that many performers/labels do not bother to use the numbering from the official Händel-Werke-Verzeichnis (HWV), which didn't exist in Richter's time. The suites are the same no matter if they call them "keyboard" or "harpsichord" suites That work-list contains much more, btw, than any performer ever recorded (Edgar Krapp's on LP for Eurodisc was the most complete, but never was reissued on CD), as authenticity of several pieces is doubtful. Händel as so populat that numerous bootleg prints attributed to him were printed. The two collections of suites most performers record are pieces he authorized ( I can tell you more next year after I have dug my way through the respective chapters of the new Händel-Handbuch). The Baumont recordings are very nice, and his choice of instruments is always interesting - to get them all you have to buy used copies of the two single CDs on ERATO, or the reissue king ubu pictured above, as they pefererred Ton Koopman's recording in the box set. The Ludger Rémy is nice, but his Händel sounds too much like Bach to me. The best single disc selection coming closest to Händels sound is Siegbert Rampe's, and I strongly recommend to listen to Pollerus' recording of Muffat's ornamented version (see my post # 2). Another very interesting recording is Christopher Hogwood's double disc on clavichord:

While you "can"?

I have both, but no idea when my move will allow comparative listening ....

I had only MP3s to preview the music and identify the songs, but these sounded very good for a radio recording. p.s. just saw they chose a photo of Cal Tjader from the 1970's ....

This rare item was included on a recommendable Verve compilation:

Do you have the equipment to copy that to DVD? I'd love to watch it, if only for the Tjader combo ...