HutchFan

Very persuasive Schumann. Dark and brooding. Romantic with a capital "R." Tennstedt doing his thing.

and

and

Irene Kral with Alan Broadbent - Where Is Love? (Choice, 1975)

Bob Brookmeyer - Through the Looking Glass (Finesse) with Dick Oatts, Tom Harrell, Jim McNeely, Marc Johnson, and Mel Lewis The Art Farmer / Benny Golson Jazztet featuring Curtis Fuller - Back to the City (Contemporary) with Mickey Tucker, Ray Drummond, and Marvin "Smitty" Smith Superb.

Kenny Burrell with Frank Wess - Monday Stroll (Arista-Savoy) Excellent 1956-57 recordings originally released under Frank Wess' name. Most cuts feature Wess on the flute.

!!! NP: Earlier:

Ralph Towner / Solstice - Sound and Shadows (ECM, 1977) with Jan Garbarek, Eberhard Weber, and Jon Christensen

Very strange that this terrific music sat on the shelf for 20 years before being released. Oh yeah! 5 BIG STARS for that one.

NP: Sibelius: Symphony No. 1; Swan of Tuonela / Stokowski, National PO (Columbia/Sony) Yesterday evening, I listened to Barbirolli's recording of Sibelius' First with The Hallé Orchestra. The two conductors' interpretations are very different. But I love them both. Ironically, Stokowski's version strikes me as the more youthful reading. (He was in his 90's when the recording was made.) When Stokowski's at his best, he conveys an unbelievable sense of color, momentum, and vitality. This Sibelius 1 embodies those qualities. Barbirolli, on the other hand, brings a sense of struggle to the music, imbuing it with a sense of hard-won victory. His reading always makes me think that the story's being told by sagacious old man, like the hero in Tennyson's "Ulysses." Or at least that's how I like to think about this stuff.

Inspired by the Hampton Hawes talk above.

Thanks! EDIT: Speaking of Baker & Brahms . . .

Oh, I bet that's good! Baker's studio recording of Vier ernste Gesänge is -- Yowza! -- really, really good. What do you think of this BBC recital, soulpope?

Discs 8 & 9

Pharoah Sanders - Village of the Pharoahs / Wisdom Through Music (Impulse)

Buy with confidence, amigos. My Charles Tolliver Mosaic Select set arrived quickly, exactly as described. Thanks again, mikelz!

Second listen today: Having just re-watched 2001: A Space Odyssey recently, there's something about this music that reminds me of the "Dawn of Man" section of that movie. Both share a similarly strange, otherworldly but still-somehow-familiar quality. Dr. Freud's Das Unheimliche!

Chopin: 4 Ballades, etc. / Zimerman (DG)

The worst of the PDs are just plain LAZY and DISRESPECTFUL to the music & musicians. One small step away from those shite downloads with the wrong musicians on the cover. I'm not lumping them all together. Example: I'll plop for Fresh Sounds if the OJC is no longer available. Different kettle of fish. *************** Sorta off topic, but these Savoy DL covers still bother me: If the medium is the message, then it's loud and clear: "We couldn't care less." Same vibe (pun intended) as the cheap PDs.

Charles Tolliver - Mosaic Select 20 Disc 1 - originally released as Live at Slugs', Vols. 1 & 2 Such great music. The whole band cooks... but Stanley Cowell. (!!!)

Been coming back to this again and again lately:

David Oistrakh - The Complete EMI Recordings Disc 8 - Prokofiev - Violin Concerto No. 1 with Lovro von Matačić, London SO - Violin Concerto No. 2 with Alceo Galliera, Philharmonia O - Violin Sonata No. 2 with Vladimir Yampolsky (p)