CLASSICAL
Federico Mompou; Antonio de Cabezón; Antonio Soler
Music of Silence (digital only)
Xiaowen Shang
Linn (dist. Naxos)
CKD728
This release, by the jaw-droppingly talented pianist Xiaowen Shang, is the latest installment in the Royal Academy of Music’s Bicentenary Series. As befits the retrospective nature of the series, Shang’s recording looks back over several centuries of Spanish keyboard music, from Antonio Cabezón (1510-1566) to Antonio Soler (1729-1783) to Federico Mompou (1893-1987). Instead of playing the works in chronological order, she intersperses sections and movements from different periods throughout the program, moving (for example) from a movement from Mompou’s Música callada to one of Cabezón’s variations on “La Dama le demanda” and then to a section from one of Soler’s keyboard sonatas. As she hops nimbly from period to period and composer to composer, she demonstrates through her playing both what unites these works and what makes each unique, and by so doing creates a unified but not homogenous whole. A brilliant album, recommended to all libraries supporting a keyboard curriculum.
Frank La Rocca
Requiem for the Forgotten; Messe des malades (world premiere recording)
Benedict XVI Choir & Orchestra / Richard Sparks
Cappella (dist. Naxos)
CR430
Contemporary liturgical music presents something of a quandary for the composer: your colleagues expect modernism, but your listeners are looking for uplift, or at least something that fosters spiritual contemplation. The Current Moment demands political relevance, but church music demands timelessness. How to thread that needle? Frank La Rocca does this beautifully: no one listening to his music would doubt that it was written in the 21st century, but at no point is the music either ostentatiously technical or distractingly dissonant. In his use of harmony (along with his gorgeous voice leading) he makes full use of the chromatic spectrum but maintains a warm sense of tonality; the music is dense and rich but always bows to the lyrical messages of charity and devotion. Orchestral forces are used both sparingly and tastefully on the Requiem Mass; the singing by the Benedict XVI Choir is consistently outstanding. For all library collections.
Franz Xaver Mozart
The Two Piano Concertos
Andriy Dragan; Musikkollegium Winterthur / Bogdan Božović
Claves
50-3070
Following on from his 2021 recording of keyboard variations by the same composer, the brilliant pianist Andriy Dragan here returns to the work of Franz Xaver Mozart and presents the latter’s two piano concertos, both written shortly after the turn of the 19th century and both steeped in high classicism but also clearly informed by the emerging Romantic style. Franz Xaver was the youngest of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s sons, and was inevitably doomed to be overshadowed by his father’s prodigious achievements — but his own work should not be overlooked. The younger Mozart’s grasp of essential forms and techniques never constrains his creativity, and there is a joy in his writing that belies the pressure and frustration he experienced in attempting to make his own name as a musician. (Hints of depression can be found in the texts he chose for various cycles of lieder.) Dragan has spoken movingly of his love for Fran Xaver’s work, and his affection and affinity for these pieces is clearly evident in his playing here. Highly recommended.
Marc’Antonio Ingegneri
Vol. 4: Missa Gustate et vedete; Motets (world premiere recording)
Choir of Girton College, Cambridge; The Western Wyndes / Jeremy West
Toccata Classics (dist. Naxos)
TOCC 0716
I’ve been following this ongoing series of recordings with both interest and pleasure. Though little-known today (everything on this disc is a world-premiere recording), Marc’Antonio Ingegneri can fairly claim to have been one of the architects of the glorious sound of 17th-century Venice. He is remembered today primarily as the teacher of Claudio Monteverdi; however, these recordings demonstrate that he was also a supremely gifted composer himself. While the Mass and motets performed on this album don’t tend to scale the heights of grandeur associated with Monteverdi and his colleagues, you can clearly hear the seeds of that later style in his choral writing; the music is intensely emotional and at times elaborately complex. The Marian antiphons and Easter motets on this program reflect both the demands of Roman Catholic liturgy and the stylistic ferment of the times. The Choir of Girton College delivers these works with appropriate fervor and admirable accuracy.
Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard
Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release)
Quatuor Bozzini
Important
No cat. no.
I can’t promise that you’ll enjoy this piece, exactly, but I can promise that you’ll find it interesting — and if your library supports coursework in composition and orchestration, it will be especially valuable. Niels Lyhne Løkkgaard’s one-movement work Colliding Bubbles is written for string quartet, where the string players also play harmonicas — the score requires each musician to play both instruments simultaneously. It’s not a Cagean joke, nor is the resulting sound in any way chaotic; however, the sound is both texturally thin and intense, and there’s not much in the way of dynamic variation. What you hear are woven threads of pitches dense with high harmonics, moving slowly together and apart. This is probably a piece that is much more enjoyable to experience live, where you can see what the performers are doing — but even just as a recording, it will offer great opportunities to discuss contemporary compositional technique with students.
JAZZ
Chet Baker & Jack Sheldon
In Perfect Harmony: The Lost Album
Jazz Detective
DDJD-016
In the late 1960s, trumpeter/singer Chet Baker was not in a great place. Years of drug addiction and the loss of his teeth during a drug transaction that turned violent had left him essentially unable to play. But in the early 1970s he made a comeback, which is commonly reckoned as beginning with his 1973 live album with Lee Konitz. But as it turns out, in 1972 he had also recorded a full album with his fellow trumpeter/singer Jack Sheldon. The sextet date (featuring guitarist Jack Marshall, pianist Dave Frishberg, bassist Joe Mondragon and drummer Nick Ceroli) was recorded in the studio by Marshall, who unfortunately passed away of a heart attack while he was shopping it around to record labels. The tapes then languished in his family’s archives for 50 years before being unearthed and prepared for this release. The program is wonderful: the contrast between Sheldon’s exuberant, extroverted singing and playing style and Baker’s much cooler, straight-toned approach is very fun, but the best thing about this album is the way it shows how fully Baker had returned to form by this point: his voice is as strong and clear as it ever was, and his playing is very good (if not quite at a 1950s level). This is an essential document for any library’s jazz collection.
Sonny Rollins
Freedom Weaver: The 1959 European Tour Recordings (3 discs)
Resonance
HCD-2065
While Sonny Rollins remains not only the foremost living exponent of bebop and the only surviving member of its first generation of practitioners, he has never been satisfied working within the strict parameters of that style — or of any style, really. While he has hewn generally to a straight-ahead mode, he’s never been afraid to experiment with either form or format. Consider, for example, these recordings from his 1959 European tour, during which he brought with him only a bassist and a drummer (the bassist was Henry Grimes throughout; at various times the drummers were Pete La Roca, Kenny Clarke, or Joe Harris). The material was standards and Rollins originals, but the chordless ensemble ensured that the music sounded highly unusual; Rollins’ solos are often untethered and wild — not in a skronky, harmolodic way, but like a bird just let loose from its cage. In Aix-en-Provence he plays “Woody ‘n’ You” for nearly sixteen minutes and “Lady Bird” for nearly nineteen; other performances are more typical in length, but no less innovative in style. The recorded sound is startlingly good throughout.
Behn Gillece
Stick Together
Posi-tone
PR8256
Vibraphonist Behn Gillece is one of my favorite members of the Posi-Tone Records crew, a forward-thinking but always straight-ahead player and composer, and a great bandleader. His seventh album on this label as a leader finds him leading an all-star quartet that includes pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Boris Koslov, and drummer Rudy Royston on a program consisting almost entirely of his own compositions. There’s fast-and-furious bebop (“Four of a Kind”), subtly Latin balladry (“Changing My Day”), soulful funk (“Get on It!”), slightly outside experimentation (“In the Huddle”), and much more, with absolutely no filler. As a leader, Gillece is not only authoritative but also generous, giving his sidemen plenty of space in which to work — which every one of them deserves. A brilliant outing from perhaps the finest living exponent of straight-ahead jazz vibes.
Allison Burik
Realm
Self-released
No cat. no.
The music on Allison Burik’s new solo album reflects the artist’s fascination with “women and non-binary characters throughout folktales, lore, and real-world history.” Burik plays saxophone and sings, and the elements of sax and voice are central throughout this odd and eerily beautiful set of compositions. At times the vibe is identifiably jazz-adjacent — on “Birka 581,” for example, there is a steady rhythm and the alto sax part draws on jazz phrasing and tonality. But “Solstice III (The Promise)” is sort of a free-form pop song (an all-too-brief one), and other pieces create a much more abstract and sometimes almost ambient mood. But Burik’s particular talent for drawing structured beauty out of abstraction and improvisation is a constant thread, and the album hangs together magnificently as a unified musical statement.
Owen Broder
Hodges Front and Center, Vol. 2 (vinyl & digital only)
Outside In Music
OIM 2402
I raved in these pages about the first installment in this series, on which saxophonist and composer Owen Broder reflects musically on the influence of legendary alto player Johnny Hodges on Broder’s own development as a player and a writer. The first volume focused as much on tunes associated with Hodges (especially during his time in Duke Ellington’s orchestra) as on his own compositions, but Hodges the writer is more thoroughly represented on this second volume. As before, Broder and his quintet play with a contemporary sensibility but also with deep respect for the tradition Hodges represents. You can hear Broder’s love for Hodge’s melodic approach in his every solo, and in particular his veneration of Hodge’s approach to development. Listen carefully to “Wabash Blues” and “Big Smack,” and you’ll realize that what you’re actually hearing is a master class. Highly recommended to all jazz collections.
FOLK/COUNTRY
Emily Nenni
Drive & Cry
New West (dist. Redeye)
NW6575
Emily Nenni is a bit of a puzzle to me. Her voice is clear and bell-like, but there’s a strong whiff of the barroom in every note she sings. She sounds completely relaxed, but her voice cuts through the mix without any obvious effort. (In fairness, the mixing by Matt Ross-Spang probably deserves some of the credit for that.) Stylistically, she’s coming from the heart of honky-tonk country — but none of her songs sounds clichéd or trite (even when there’s a harmonica in the arrangement). Take “Lay of the Land” as an example: the introductory bars leave you expecting something in the vein of Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” — but when the song proper starts, it’s very different; still a swaying Texas waltz, sure, but with an unexpected melody and a slightly idiosyncratic arrangement. “I Don’t Have to Like You” verges on… well… funk (while never sounding like anything other than a country song). So I don’t know. You figure it out. You’ll enjoy the process.
The Georgia Sea Island Singers et al.
The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
SFW CD 40258
During the Civil Rights era, the Georgia Sea Island Singers gained a strong following in the urban folk music scene by bringing traditional songs from the Gullah Geechee community to young city audiences on the mainland. This concert, recorded (with remarkably high-quality sound) in 1965, finds the group alongside legendary bluesman Mississippi Fred McDowell and cane fife player Ed Young; Alan Lomax was the emcee. The gospel songs they share are sometimes faintly familiar, but more often from a repertoire that was developed and reformulated over time within a small community on an island in the ocean — the result being music that is often thrilling and sometimes eerie to the point of hair-raising. You may think you know the song “Let My Children Go,” but it’s almost certainly not this one; and if you expect to hear clear echoes of “Bold Riley” in “Goodbye My Riley-O,” you’ll probably be mistaken. The stomping, the shouting, and the raw, astringent harmonies are never less than captivating. For all library collections.
Skeeter Davis & NRBQ
She Sings, They Play (expanded reissue)
Omnivore
OVLP-546
On paper, this may not seem like an obvious match: country-music legend Skeeter Davis with Terry Adams and the New Rhythm & Blues Quartet. But Adams had been a fan of Davis since his early childhood, so when he saw her performing at an amusement center in Massachusetts they struck up a friendship that eventually resulted in them recording these sessions together in 1981. The music is absolutely and utterly delightful. Stylistically, the songs range all over the place, from a fantastic version of Adams’ “I Want You Bad” (which some CDHL readers may think of as a Long Ryders song) to hardcore honky-tonk arrangements of “You Don’t Know What You Got ‘Til You Lose It” and “Everybody Wants a Cowboy” (featuring the legendary Buddy Emmons on steel) and a startlingly fantastic rendition of “Someday My Prince Will Come.” Long out of print and now reissued with six bonus tracks, this brilliant album should find a home in every library collection.
ROCK/POP
Brynn Andre
Honeymoon (digital only)
Self-released
No cat. no.
This appears to be the third full-length album from Minnesota singer-songwriter Brynn Andre, following two albums released in 2011 and a slow string of singles and EPs in the years since. On Honeymoon the sound tilts back and forth between indie pop (“Fertile Ground,” “Canyon Heart”) and a sort of gentle synth pop (“Good Time”) with occasional excursions into rather experimental electro production (“Reliable Man”). Andre has a gorgeous, plainspoken voice and a real way with a subtle hook — there’s nothing here to make you pump your fist in the air, but plenty of choruses you’ll sing along with in the car. Honestly, “Trailblazing” (“I don’t want to live unless it’s Technicolor”) makes me think about what U2 might sound like if its members were all women. Highly recommended.
Jessie Baylin
Strawberry Wind (deluxe edition)
Blonde Rat/New West (dist. Redeye)
NW 6418
I don’t generally review children’s music in CDHL, and didn’t realize I was making an exception in this case until I read the press materials. One of the reasons I tend to steer clear of children’s music is that I find so much of it condescending and annoying — so the fact that most listeners might not recognize these songs as being intended for children is (in my view) a big point in its favor. As for the music itself: Baylin’s songs (and Richard Swift’s production) are anachronistic: there are moments when you’d swear you’re listening to an album from 1962. It’s also highly idiosyncratic: note, for example, the deeply weird “la-la-las” and Sonny-and-Cher-style drums on “Dream Catcher”; at the same time, note the Tin Pan Alley vibe of “Same Old Tune” and note that Katy Perry would kill for the melismatic passages on the title track. Personally, I would kill for the guitar tone on “Magic of Your Mind.” I hope Baylin’s young son enjoys this album as much as I did.
Maria Chiara Argiró
Closer
Innovative Leisure (dist. Redeye)
IL2118
This lovely but compact album (it comes in at under 30 minutes) is the fourth from the Italian-born, London-based Maria Chiara Argiro, a singer, composer, and keyboardist who operates in a musical world composed of familiar elements that combine in utterly unique ways. For example, the keyboard hook on “Light” strongly evokes Kate Bush. “Time,” on the other hand, hints at jungle in its gentle double-time rimshots and juddering sub bass, but also suggests 1970s Laurel Canyon pop in the vocal harmonies. On most tracks, the vocals are quite abstract: notice how they’re chopped up and used almost like percussion samples behind her more conventional singing on both “Koala” and “Sun,” and used as a sort of sonic watercolor wash on “Closer.” Elsewhere, the housey thump of “Floating” is nicely leavened by a thoughtful and plaintive trumpet solo. There’s not a single weak track on this odd and deeply beautiful album.
Survival Guide
deathdreams
Double Helix
DHR-235235-0014
Emily Whitehurst’s primary musical background is in postpunk (in her guise as Agent M, she was the frontperson for Tsunami Bomb; since then she’s also led The Action Plan), but her solo work as Survival Guide finds her exploring a different dimension of contemporary pop music: I’d characterize it as punk-tinged dream synthpop. The arpeggiated keyboards and gauzy mix on “Lady Neptune”; the study beats and heavily reverbed vocals on “wordswordswords”; the fist-in-the-air chorus on “Fight Me”; the borderline-industrial beats on the album-opening “Bad Little Seed” — this kind of sonic variety is the hallmark of someone who doesn’t care much about arbitrary genre boundaries, and may her tribe increase. Also, she has a great voice — and there are some really solid hooks buried in those layers of sound (if you’re listening in the car, good luck staying under the speed limit during the chorus to “Don’t Feel Bad”).
WORLD/ETHNIC
Tarek Abdallah & Adel Shams El Din
Ousoul
Buda Musique (dist. MVD)
860381
Joined on this, their second album, by violinist Christian Fromentin, oud player and singer Tarek Abdallah and percussionist Adel Shams El Din embark on an exploration of the maqâm tradition in five melodic modes: nahawand, higazkar, rast, bayyati and sikah. The duo employed a variety of extended rhythmic patterns to create a set of five suites, each of which explores the modal melodies and the rhythmic patterns through controlled improvisation; the bulk of the music is played by only oud and percussion, but Fromentin’s occasional contributions bring a welcome third dimension to the sound as well, and the final track features Abdallah’s unaccompanied singing. All of the playing is excellent, and there are moments when improvisation and rhythmic precision are balanced so perfectly that the result is simply thrilling.
Lee “Scratch” Perry
The Megawatt Box Set of Lee “Scratch” Perry (3 discs)
Megawatt (dist. MVD)
MEGW 0362
In the later decades of his life, the legendary reggae producer Lee “Scratch” Perry — whose Black Ark recording studio had produced some of the most era- and genre-defining recordings of the roots reggae era — was invited to join a wide variety of producers who created backing tracks for him and asked him to intone his typically disjointed and weird pronouncements atop them. As one might expect, many of these projects resulted in unlistenable nonsense. But some were more successful. In the latter category are three albums organized and produced by John Saxon: The End of the American Dream (2007), Scratch Came, Scratch Saw, Scratch Conquered (2008), and Revelation (2010). The instrumental backing tracks he created are stylistically varied: more electro-funk oriented on American Dream, and more dancehall reggae on Scratch Conquered and Revelation (both of which feature contributions from George Clinton and Keith Richards). There are low points here, of course — for example, on “An Eye for an Eye” Perry pronounces “On Jah solid rock I stand” while a woman moans sexually in the background, a juxtaposition both tasteless and puzzling. But being inscrutable was Perry’s brand for most of this life; on these albums, at least, his odd pronouncements are tethered to some seriously compelling music.
Piper Street Sound
Black Eyed Peace (EP; vinyl & digital only)
Piper Street Sound
No cat. no.
Piper Street Sound
Black Eyed Dub (EP; vinyl & digital only)
Piper Street Sound
No cat. no.
A few years ago, in the middle of the COVID pandemic, Atlanta-bassed reggae producer Matt Mansfield (doing business as Piper Street Sound) released a modest but delightful EP of four instrumental tracks titled Black Eyed Peace. It prominently featured guitarist Andy Bassford, along with a fine horn section and several other sidemen. Now comes something even better: a set of dub versions based on those original tunes, each by different remix artist: the great bassist Victor Rice gives the title track a subtle but searching new vibe, with the bass granted a new prominence; Mad Professor brings his trademarked digital-roots vibe to “A Shadow in August,” recasting the track in a more dramatic way (as is his well-established wont); Naram puts the horn section in a deep bed of reverb and echo on his remix of “Icemilk”; and Mansfield himself contributes a VIP of “Stonesteady” that harks back to the glory days of King Tubby. The vinyl version includes both releases, with the original tracks on the A side and the dub versions on the B. Very, very nice.
Torulf
Ristningar I Ginnungagap (digital only)
Grimfrost
4648
Torulf is “a Nordic tribal artist from Sweden,” whose “compositions are manifestations of his own outer voyages and inner experiences.” What do those compositions sound like? Honestly, not like what you’d probably expect. Each track on Ristningar I Ginnungagap is a massive soundscape from which various elements emerge out of the dark: pounding but distant drums, ancient fiddles, synthesizers, and Torulf’s voice, which is heavily treated with echo and reverb and seems to come booming at you from the back of a very deep cave. He sings in a combination of Swedish and Old Norse, and his songs convey a heady mix of joy, defiance, pride, and foreboding. I’m sure he’s telling stories of some kind, but my Old Norse being pretty rusty I’m only getting a sense of mood. Still, that mood is quite compelling, as is the music itself.