The 20th century produced no shortage of legendary instrumentalists and vocalists but Louis Armstrong is the only figure who completely changed the way people played music on their instruments and he completely changed the way people sang. Perfecting the concept of the improvised solo, popularizing the use of scat singing, defining the concept of swing - those are just some of the ways "Satchmo" changed jazz, and American popular music - during his lifetime. The Paramount Recordings is a historic 14-track collection of studio sessions the consummate entertainer tracked between 1923 and 1925, recorded at the time for the Paramount label and featuring King Oliver's Jazz Band, Ma Rainey, Fletcher Henderson & His Orchestra, Trixie Smith, Wesley Wilson and Coot Grant. Audio remastered for vinyl and pressed at Pallas Group in Germany. Includes insert with liner notes.

This 1956 concert by Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars is a historical gem, which is finally getting it's vinyl debut with this double LP release. Recorded on March 26, 1956, at the Civic Auditorium in Grand Rapids, MI, it affords jazz fans a chance to hear what the barnstorming Armstrong's shows were like in heartland America. Armstrong's affable presence is pervasive, but not always center stage, as each member of the All-Stars gets his turn in the course of the revue. The release was remastered for vinyl from analog tape and pressed at Pallas Group in Germany on purple vinyl.

Louis Armstrong made a greater impact on American popular music than any other single artist before or since. "What A Wonderful World" became his biggest commercial success, first in the UK and decades later in the rest of the world. Armstrong traveled to England to celebrate this unexpected hit and gave his last great performance, which found him looking back at his entire musical career. That performance, recorded at BBC studios in 1968, was miraculously captured in high fidelity audio and video, and we are proud to release this collection for the first time.

Louis Armstrong made a greater impact on American popular music than any other single artist before or since. "What A Wonderful World" became his biggest commercial success, first in the UK and decades later in the rest of the world. Armstrong traveled to England to celebrate this unexpected hit and gave his last great performance, which found him looking back at his entire musical career. That performance, recorded at BBC studios in 1968, was miraculously captured in high fidelity audio and video, and we are proud to release this collection for the first time.

Part of Dot Time's Legends Series, Louis Armstrong Live in France features the audio from a quintessential European performance by the great Louis Armstrong which was recovered from the archives of the Louis Armstrong House Museum. Louis Armstrong Live in France features the audio from a 1948 performance recorded from Louis Armstrong and His All Stars' run at the Nice Opera House in Paris. This historical concert marked Armstrong's performance at the first ever Nice International Jazz Festival.

Translucent Blue. An absolute treasure, with outstanding sound that brings the great instrumental and vocal prowess of the greatest jazz man ever front and center. Louis has long been recognized as the most influential trumpeter ever, but his vocal talents have often been overlooked.

180-Gram Vinyl Limited Edition. The Real Ambassadors features Louis Armstrong's first and only recorded collaborations with Dave Brubeck (also co-composer and conductor of the album), singer Carmen McRae, and the vocal trio of Dave Lambert, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross. The Real Ambassadors project, which delivered a strong political message condemning racism, was an original Broadway play written and composed by Brubeck and his wife Iola. THE COMPLETE ALBUM + 2 BONUS TRACKS 180-GRAM VIRGIN VINYL LIMITED EDITION

Vinyl LP pressing. 2024 collection. Louis Armstrong made his first studio records in Richmond, Indiana 101 years ago, recording acoustically because microphones hadn't yet been invented. Microphones eventually allowed Armstrong to begin recording electrically to disc and, later, to tape in the mono and "hi-fi" eras. Beginning in the late 1950s, Armstrong began making records in revolutionary stereophonic sound. He had seen and conquered every trend in recording technology between 1923 and his death in 1971-and he continues to conquer them into the 21st century, over 50 years since he passed away. Today, with the advent of streaming and the resurgence of popularity in LPs, there is more music available to the public to listen to than at any previous time in history. Yet, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, people from around the world still choose to listen to Louis Armstrong, much more so than any other artist born at the turn of the 20th century. The question remains: Why? This new collection helps to provide answers.

This is the second volume in a series devoted to the works for strings by Béla Bartók, with James Ehnes the featured soloist. Ehnes had earlier recorded the Violin and Viola Concertos (CHAN 10690), which was made Disc of the Month in Gramophone magazine. On this new recording, he turns to the Violin Sonatas and Rhapsodies, complemented by the earliest surviving work by Bartók for violin and piano, an Andante. He is accompanied by the pianist Andrew Armstrong.

Dedicated to the Hungarian violinist Adila d’Arányi, the sonatas for violin and piano were composed in 1921 – 22, around the same time as the highly successful ballet score The Miraculous Mandarin. Of the two works, the Sonata in C sharp minor is the more traditional in terms of its structure, and characterised by a mood that is sometimes exhilarated, sometimes turbulent – but always virtuosic. The finale builds from a series of increasingly wild dances, folk-like in style but entirely expressionistic.

In the Sonata in C major, Bartók removes himself from classical form and traditional tonal practice, calling on the violinist to distance himself from the romantic manner of playing. At several points, for example, the violin is played without vibrato, producing an ethereally cool and distant sound. The improvisatory character is strong throughout, as the work repeatedly alternates between the quiet and thoughtful, and the stormy and strident. The ending, in contrast to the earlier sonata, is understated, emotional, and expressive.

Bartók’s two rhapsodies for piano and violin, dedicated respectively to Joseph Szigeti and Zoltán Székely, are steeped in the tradition of Hungarian folk music. Exuberant and infectious, the works are heavily inspired by the csárdás, the national dance of Hungary, and display the traditional pairing of lassú (slow) and friss (lively) movements.

*** This Blu-ray Disc is only playable on Blu-ray Disc players and not compatible with standard DVD or HD DVD players. ***



J. STRAUSS II Die Fledermaus • Vladimir Jurowski, cond; Pamela Armstrong ( Rosalinde ); Thomas Allen ( Eisenstein ); Håkan Hagegård ( Dr. Falke ); Pär Lindskog ( Alfred ); Malena Ernman ( Prince Orlovsky ); Lyubov Petrova ( Adele ); Ragnar Ulfung ( Dr. Blind ); Artur Korn ( Frank ); Udo Samel ( Frosch ); Reneé Schüttengruber ( Ida ); Glyndebourne Ch; London PO • BBC/OPUS ARTE 7004 (Blu-ray Disc: 198:00) Live: Glyndebourne 8/17/2003


& Cast & costume galleries. The Genesis of the Waltz. The Architect Returns. Interviews. Frosch interlude


This pretty-much-perfect production of Strauss’s pretty-much-perfect operetta is an ideal specimen to demonstrate the visual and sonic virtues of the Blu-ray medium. The Glyndebourne staging is a feast to watch: the sets and costumes are lavish, the dancing accomplished. Opus Arte’s 24-bit PCM sound is way better than anything you’ve ever heard on a traditional DVD, both the stereo version and the spacious multichannel that puts the listener in the middle of the appreciative audience who experienced the real thing in Sussex back in August of 2003.


Director Stephen Lawless has moved the setting of Die Fledermaus ahead a few decades to around 1910, the Vienna of Sigmund Freud and Gustav Klimt. (Eisenstein’s dressing gown, in fact, is a facsimile of Klimt’s The Kiss .) This Fledermaus is clearly viewed as a play that happens to have awfully good music, and Lawless and Daniel Dooner have created new dialogue for the production. In the hands of an ensemble of terrific singing actors, the texts never impede the headlong momentum of this comic masterpiece.


What a cast! Pamela Armstrong, as Rosalinde, handles the part vocally quite well but is equally concerned with her character’s development: when she dresses up as someone else, Eisenstein’s wife discovers her “real self” (as the soprano puts it in one of the disc’s “extras”). Thomas Allen notes that the high tessitura of his role was a bit of a challenge—it sure doesn’t sound it—but his comic timing is impeccable and the man can actually dance. As Dr. Falke, Håkan Hagegård gives his character an edge: the practical joke that Eisenstein played on him months before the curtain rises for act I has deeply wounded him, and Falke is serious about getting revenge. Singing Alfred in an appropriately seductive manner is Swedish tenor Pär Lindskog who, like Allen, is obviously quite a versatile artist. You’d never know from this performance that the guy also sings Siegfried and Parsifal.


The kudos go on. Lyubov Petrova’s rendition of Adele’s big second-act aria is a showstopper and Malena Ernman is utterly convincing as the terminally bored and sexually ambiguous Orlovsky. It’s a surprise every time Ernman starts to sing and her voice jumps up an octave or two. The smaller parts—Dr. Blind, Frank, Ida, Frosch—are all covered quite well.


Vladimir Jurowski takes the music very seriously (as, the notes remind us, did Gustav Mahler) and his leadership of the LPO is spirited and knowingly inflected. To accompany the curtain calls, Jurowski conducts a rousing “Radetzky March.” Opus Arte provides subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish, and Dutch. There’s a generous supply of extras, including cast and costume “galleries” and brief featurettes on the history of the waltz and the new (in 1994) opera house at Glyndebourne, as revisited by the architect who designed it. We also get observations on Fledermaus from Armstrong, Allen, Hagegård, Jurowski, and director Lawless and, to close, some shtick, mostly about champagne, by Udo Samel, the actor who has the speaking role of the jailer Frosch.


Yes, this one’s on my Want List.

FANFARE: Andrew Quint


Picture Format: 1080i High Definition, NTSC 16:9
Sound Format: 2.0 / 5.0 PCM Audio
Region Code: 0 (All Regions)
Menu Languages: English
Subtitles: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Running Time: 198 min