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mjzee

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  1. Riccardo Muti - The Complete Warner Symphonic Recordings, disc 6.
  2. Bracha Eden and Alexander Tamir - The Complete Decca Recordings, disc 1.
  3. mjzee

    Quincy Jones RIP

    https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/music/quincy-jones-celebrated-music-producer-to-stars-dies-at-91-4e03cb0d?st=5EbL5E&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink Excellent obituary in the WSJ. Quincy had a harrowing early life. A remarkable career, a remarkable life. RIP.
  4. Release date December 6: Dynamic extremes are explored and tuneful hooks - some melody, some harmony, others beat-based - patiently assembled, often completed in mesmerizing fashion. Where subtle rhythmic twists and harmonic progressions constructed around piano triads recall cutting-edge inspirations from the world of art-rock, other expositions reveal a tight-knit jazz trio elaborating a chamber sound focused on close listening and reacting. Recorded at Lugano's Auditorio Stelio Molo in 2023, Samares was produced by Manfred Eicher.
  5. Release date November 15: When you wish upon a star… that turns out to be Saturn. Previously unheard Ra culled from the archives and compiled based on their association to that children's film corporation with the cartoon rodent. Features almost a half hour of non-LP bonus material! Jazz aficionados and Disney nerds alike will marvel at how seamlessly Sun Ra and his Arkestra put their own unique twist on both well-known and overlooked Disney songs. Pink Elephants on Parade takes nine songs from Disney’s storied catalog and recontextualizes them as beautiful, fun, and sometimes terrifying pieces of Afrofuturist jazz. The collection also shows further proof of how Ra was always willing to transcend conventions of jazz. Listen to the full album and you will likely never look at the Disney music catalog the same way ever again. Originally known for accompanying Dumbo and Timothy’s colorful alcohol-induced hallucinations, this song is given a whole new life by Ra and the Arkestra in more ways than one. It also feels faithful to the original at the same time, with the cacophony of horns, drums, percussion, and cowbell resembling that of a marching band. However, the demented grandeur of the song is turned up to eleven with zany vocal lines (hence the high-pitched “What’ll I do” inflections) and other performances that somehow sound more evil and gruff here than they did on Oliver Wallace and Ned Washington’s version. Though the Sportsmen’s vocals from that particular arrangement had a certain creepiness to it, the Arkestra takes a previously innocent sounding song and makes Pink Elephants On Parade sound even more terrifying. 1. The Forest Of No Return (9:30 Club) 2. Someday My Prince Will Come (9:30 Club) 3. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Virginia 1988) 4. Let's Go Fly A Kite (Zurich 1987) 5. Second Star To The Right (Virginia 1988) 6. Pink Elephants On Parade (Regatta Bar 1990) 7. Whistle While You Work (9:30 Club) 8. Wishing Well (9:30 Club) 9. Never Never Land (Staches 1985) 10. Second Star To The Right (Alternate, Virginia 1988)
  6. Release date November 29: When eminent jazz practitioners with shared histories convene in the studio without rehearsal or preparatory gigs, a perfunctory, by-the-numbers session is often the outcome. That is decidedly not the case on Solid Jackson, whose personnel, four of whom participated on the well-wrought day-after-Christmas of 1994 Criss Cross album titled Consenting Adults, reside in any hardcore jazz connoisseur's "top-five." This second gathering of M.T.B. (titled for the surnames of Brad Mehldau, Mark Turner and Peter Bernstein, and to signify upon the late '80s "young lion" band OTB) is an intense, focused recital that reinforces the exalted position each member holds in the 2024 jazz landscape. Everyone listens. No one overplays or goes for "house." The ambiance is one of concentrated excellence.All in all, the session is, as the cliche goes, "all killer, no filler, " performed at a level that might have provoked Charlie Haden to respond with a hearty "Solid Jackson." "There was a natural blend, " Bernstein says. "We all go way back, and everyone was very comfortable being around each other. One thing I like about making a record is that you're able to spend a day with people you've been meaning to hang out with for a long time. It's not just a party. You're working, too. But that's how we interact socially - by playing music. I was amazed. It's 30 years after we did the first one, but everyone is relatively intact. It's really a miracle. We're all still here; we get to play together again."The Album was recorded November 25 / 26, 2024 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, NYC. Recording engineer Mike Marciano. Sound engineer Mike Marciano also did the mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NYC. Photography by Anna Yatskevich. Some might think that guitarist Oz Noy, a celebrated voice in jazz-fusion over the last quarter century for applying his formidable guitar chops to funky rhythms and blues-based changes on 13 leader albums and hundreds of plugged-in concert performances, is not an obvious fit for Criss Cross, whose 420+-album catalog connects almost exclusively to the various tributaries of the hardcore acoustic jazz river. Noy, 52, begs to differ. "I've known about Criss Cross since my brother brought home albums when I was a teenager, " he says, discussing the back story of his label debut, Fun One, a creative, sophisticated and, shall we say, swinging trio encounter with pianist David Kikoski, bassist James Genus and drummer Clarence Penn. "I know Peter Bernstein's albums and Adam Rogers' albums. I love Mike Moreno's last album. I know how the albums sound. I started to study jazz chords and harmony when I was 13. I started making a living playing pop and rock music when I was 15 or 16, and for all my years in New York I've had an electric trio that plays groove music mixed with jazz and funk that's enabled me to get a record deal and make albums. But I've been playing standards and jazz all my life, and probably since 2017 with this quartet. I've just never recorded it."From 2017 until March 2020, when COVID shut down New York City, the group's encounters transpired on Thursday nights at the 55 Bar, the Greenwich Village basement where high-level practitioners like alto saxophonist-composer (and frequent Criss Cross artist) Dave Binney and guitarists Mike Stern and Wayne Krantz held years-long weekly sinecures. After the Christopher Street landmark shut down two years later, Noy "moved our operation" to the Bitter End on Bleecker Street, a signpost venue in the development of comedy and various streams of second-half-of-the-20th-century popular music where Noy has played regularly with his power trios for more than two decades. From the beginning of 2024 until the end of July, when Noy recorded Fun One, he frequently workshopped this repertoire there "with some form of this band."The Album was recorded July 26 / 27, 2024 at the Samurai Hotel Recording Studio, NYC. Recording engineer Mike Marciano. Sound engineer Mike Marciano also did the mixing and mastering at Systems Two in NYC. Photography by Anna Yatskevich.
  7. Release date December 6: Wow! Recorded Live In Performance At The Childe Harold is a stunning, powerful and passionate performance by the legendary singer and songwriter Al Jarreau, captured at his first appearance in Washington, D.C. in August of 1976. Previously unreleased and originally recorded for WHFS radio in Washington, D.C., the tape remained tucked away for nearly 50 years until now. This exhilarating and driving performance highlights Jarreau at an amazing time in his career, swinging for the fences. CD Digipak.
  8. Release date December 6: Cookin' At The Queens: Live In Las Vegas 1984 & 1988 is a previously unreleased collection of the complete performances of the unsung jazz guitar great Emily Remler that were broadcast on KNPR Las Vegas as part of Alan Grant's "4 Queens Jazz Night from Las Vegas" weekly radio program. This is the first release of Emily Remler music in 33 years! 2 CD set.
  9. Release date December 6: Motion I is the debut album from Out Of/Into, the collective formerly known as The Blue Note Quintet, featuring pianist Gerald Clayton, alto saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, vibraphonist Joel Ross, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Matt Brewer. The band was formed in celebration of Blue Note Records' 85th Anniversary and embarked on an extensive U.S. tour in 2024 during which they honed a distinctive, progressive sound that is the perfect embodiment of the Blue Note ethos. "Blue Note has been such a wonderful home for the community, for incredible musicians, for creativity, for all these years," says Clayton. "You can't help but think about all those masters, all those heroes that you've grown up listening to. To get a chance to pay tribute and try to carry some of that essence forward is truly just an honor."
  10. Release date November 8: At The Deer Head Inn, released in 1992, was the first selection of material from pianist Keith Jarrett's spontaneous, and in retrospect historic, return to the Pennsylvanian venue of his early years. "The music has the dash and the unabashed lyricism of Keith Jarrett's best work," wrote Stereophile in 1994. All attributes applicable to this edition, featuring 8 previously unreleased performances, which dives deeply into the magic of this special live event. A one-night-only coming together of a Jarrett trio with Gary Peacock (bass) and Paul Motian (drums). CD with O-card packaging.
  11. I just received the October issue of BBC Music Magazine. Y'all might be interested in the cover story "What's Wrong With Bruckner?" As they state: For something of a contrast, we dive deep into the life and music of one of classical music's most divisive composers, Anton Bruckner. To mark the composer's 200th anniversary this year, Stephen Johnson makes a case for this obsessive, troubled and endlessly polarising composer. Love or hate the Bruckner symphonies? Stephen has lived with them, and taken great comfort from them, for years - and he makes a compelling case for their deeply spiritual appeal and sometimes overwhelming emotional power. https://www.classical-music.com/magazine/issues/october-2024 Now listening to: Riccardo Muti - The Complete Warner Symphonic Recordings, disc 5.
  12. Yes, but which sessions were recorded for Design? Blumenthal seems to say that there was a session for Design. Maybe it's just an error on his part.
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