Vinyl · 1 disc
CD · 1 disc
Two years after the release of her latest album - the widely critically acclaimed Imprints - Karin Hammar now releases her new album Circles. Like last time, Hammar works with her group Karin Hammar Fab 4 to help her shape 8 new compositions and an interpretation of Nina Simone's "Four Women" into her own musical landscape. The new compositions draw inspiration from such diverse encounters and places: Brazil, Morrocco, her daughter Ella, fellow musician Hildegunn Öiseth, to name a few. The title track was written in a small compartment backstage at Malmö Arena in Sweden prior to a show with Swedish pop star Orup. The Karin Hammar Fab 4 line up includes some of Sweden's finest jazz players: Niklas Fernqvist on bass, Fredrik Rundqvist on drums and new member, guitarist, Andreas Hourdakis who brings a new form, shape, and level to the group's sound. Karin Hammar is widely seen as one of Sweden's foremost trombone players, with four studio albums as a solo artist and numerous collaborations under her belt since debuting in the nineties. She's been given numerous awards in Sweden, including a prize from the Alice Babs foundation.
Vinyl · 2 discs
CD · 9 discs
The performers write: ‘Selecting the repertoire for our album Path to the Moon, we wanted to explore a number of possibilities for binding together a programme. To place different works alongside one another is a wonderful way of bringing out new and unusual qualities in each piece. William T. Horton’s fantastic image The Path to the Moon immediately inspired a flurry of ideas, including works on the subjects of both night and the moon, as well as pieces which invoke the exploratory nature of humankind’s voyage to the moon. Britten wrote his Sonata for Cello and Piano only two years after the first object made by humans had touched the surface of the moon, in 1959. Humans throughout history and from all cultures have been drawn to and taken inspiration from the moon and we have tried to reflect this in our eclectic choice of song repertoire: from Toru Takemitsu to Nina Simone and from Lili Boulanger to Florence Price. As we hope you will hear on this album, Walker’s Cello Sonata rings with echoes of the sound-worlds of blues and jazz and is infused with a beautiful lyricism. We really believe that Walker’s Cello Sonata deserves to become a staple of the chamber music repertoire and are absolutely thrilled to offer you a recording of it in the context of our own exploration of a path to the moon.’
CD · 4 discs
CD · 2 discs
LIFT EVERY VOICE! is a two-CD, 21-track musical retrospective featuring historic live performances and studio recordings by an array of great African American artists who have performed at Carnegie Hall and contributed to the rich cultural history of music. This project covers a diverse cross-section of genres from gospel to swing, classical to contemporary, and spiritual to jazz, and serves as an audio companion to Carnegie Hall’s festival Honor! A Celebration of the African American Cultural Legacy, taking place in March 2009.
Nina Simone and Her Friends is a 1959 album released by the Bethlehem Records label that compiled songs by jazz singers Nina Simone, Carmen McRae and Chris Connor. All three artists had left the label and signed with other companies by the time Bethlehem released this album. The numbers by Simone were previously unissued "left overs" from the recording sessions for her debut album Little Girl Blue (1958) and released without her knowledge. The tracks by Chris Connor and Carmen McRae were already issued together this way as Bethlehem's Girlfriends in 1956 accompanied by the debut recording session of Julie London.
