Classical Music

Classical Music

Digitally remastered two-fer containing a pair of albums from the jazz great on one CD. These are vibes player Jackson's 1972 and 1973 albums for CTI. They feature sidesmen such as Hubert Laws, Ron Carter, Herbie Hancock and Freddie Hubbard. These albums were recorded whilst Jackson was still a member of the Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ), finally leaving in 1974, though they reformed in 1981. Jackson died in 1999, but he leaves behind a phenomenal catalog of albums both as a soloist and as a member of MJQ.

Japanese reissue. Part of Universal Japan's 'Hard-to-get' hidden Jazz masterpieces campaign. 2021.

Japanese UHQCD pressing, part of Universal Japan's Limelight Records: Collection of Masterpieces and Rare Records campaign. Since it's establishment in 1962 as a subsidiary label of Mercury Records, Limelight Records has produced hidden masterpieces by Oscar Peterson, Art Blakey, Eric Dolphy, and others. This time, we have selected 10 of the label's best and rarest recordings and reissued them on UHQCD. This is the first UHQCD release of all the titles and the first CD release in Japan for some of them. 2024.

PLENTY PLENTY SOUL

When the world's preeminent vibraphonist joins with one of the world's most talented big bands, it's definitely Explosive. Bassist/arranger John Clayton and drummer Jeff Hamilton have worked with Milt Jackson since the '70s. Now with the Clayton Brothers (Jeff on alto sax) and "Bags" as Qwest label mates, it was inevitable that their distinctive grooves would unite. A firestorm of soulful, swinging tunes, key tracks include "Bag's Groove," "Since I Fell for You" and "Emily."

Vibraphonist Milt Jackson and tenor saxophonist John Coltrane make for a surprisingly complementary team on this 1959 studio session, their only joint recording. AllMusic notes that with fine backup by pianist Hank Jones, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Connie Kay, Bags and Trane stretch out on two of Jackson's originals (including "The Late Late Blues") and three standards: a romping "Three Little Words," "The Night We Called It a Day," and the rapid "Be-Bop." The highlight of the set is the eponymous opening track, which just oozes late-night cool. This deluxe 180-gram 45 RPM 2LP reissue from Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series) is a gem and will be a must-have for all jazz music fans.

CTI All-Time Collection - Phase 2 (60 Titles) This comprehensive reissue series celebrates the legendary American jazz label CTI Records and it's sub-labels Kudu and Salvation, presenting 60 classic titles in total. Each release is accompanied by a deluxe booklet, faithfully reproducing the original liner notes from the Japanese LP editions, making this collection both a rich listening experience and a collector's treasure.

CTI All-Time Collection - Phase 2 (60 Titles) This comprehensive reissue series celebrates the legendary American jazz label CTI Records and it's sub-labels Kudu and Salvation, presenting 60 classic titles in total. Each release is accompanied by a deluxe booklet, faithfully reproducing the original liner notes from the Japanese LP editions, making this collection both a rich listening experience and a collector's treasure.

Also released as "Soul Pioneers" (reissue title, with different artwork in the 1960s/70s), "Milt Jackson Quartet" is one of most important album of this fantastic vibraphone player and composer discovered from Dizzy Gillespie in a small New York club and introduced from him to the major musical figures of 52nd Street. "Milt Jackson Quartet" was recorded in May 1955 at Rudy Van Gelder's Hackensack studio: the sound is warm and intimate, especially for vibraphone and have as personnel also Horace Silver, Percy Heath and Connie Kay. This is an interesting lineup because it includes Jackson, Heath, Kay who are parts of the Modern Jazz Quartet, but here with Horace Silver (at that time closely associated with the nascent hard bop / bop movement). A true blend of lyricism and swing. Milt Jackson's naturally swinging vibraphone style draws from both gospel and bebop and he made the vibraphone take a decisive step forward, towards the absolute solo realisation of the instrument. With a more muted sound, a more flexible playing style, and extensive use of vibrato, Milt Jackson has successfully distinguished himself from the influence of Lionel Hampton making it become one of the most brilliant vibraphonists in the history of jazz.

PRESTIGE COLLECTION

In addition to appearing as a sideman with Blue Note organists Baby Face Willette & Big John Patton, the brawny tenor saxophonist Fred Jackson also cut his soulful leader debut for the label in 1962. Hootin' 'N Tootin' features organist Earl Van Dyke, guitarist Willie Jones and drummer Wilbert Hogan. This stereo Blue Note Tone Poet Edition was produced by Joe Harley, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original analog master tapes, pressed on 180g vinyl at RTI, and packaged in a deluxe gatefold tip-on jacket.

Principal cast: Ernestine Jackson (Ruth Younger); Ralph Carter (Travis Younger); Helen Martin (Mrs. Johnson); Joe Morton (Walter Lee Younger); Debbie Allen (Beneatha Younger); Virgina Capers (Mama Lena Younger); Robert Jackson (Joseph Asagai).
Recorded at Columbia Records 30th Street Studio, New York on October 27, 29 and November 2, 1973. Includes liner notes by Robert Brittan and Judd Woldin.
All songs written by Judd Woldin and Robert Brittan.
RAISIN opened at the 46th Street Theatre in New York on October 18, 1973 and ran for 847 performances, closing on December 8, 1975.

Naxos celebrates the immigrant experience with the release of Peter Boyer’s Ellis Island: The Dream of America, an ambitious work combining spoken word performances of actual Ellis Island immigrant stories with powerful orchestral music. Performed by London’s renowned Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Boyer, this recording features a cast of Oscar-, Emmy-, and Tony-winning actors: Barry Bostwick, Blair Brown, Olympia Dukakis, Anne Jackson, Bebe Neuwirth, Eli Wallach, and Louis Zorich, directed by Tony- and Grammy-winning Martin Charnin.

Boyer fashioned the seven monologues of Ellis Island: Dream of America from interviews in the Ellis Island Oral History Project with actual immigrants who came to the United States between 1910-1940, weaving a dramatic orchestral tapestry around their true stories. The work concludes with a reading of the Emma Lazarus poem The New Colossus (“Give me your tired, your poor…”), an emotionally powerful ending to this celebration of our nation of immigrants.

Ellis Island: The Dream of America was premiered by the Hartford Symphony Orchestra in April 2002 to great acclaim, and its many subsequent performances have also received enthusiastic responses. Gerald Moshell of the Hartford Courant described the first performance as “a searing emotional experience” while Harold McNeil of the Buffalo News described the piece as “at turns, horrifying, whimsical and heart-rending. But it’s always palpably engaging ...”

Peter Boyer is emerging as one of the most successful young American orchestral composers, with nearly 100 orchestral performances of his work to date. In addition to his work for the concert hall, Boyer is active in the film and television industry and is on the faculty of Claremont Graduate University.

The suite is made up of the following sections:

1. Prologue 06:09
2. Words of Helen Cohen, emigrated from Poland in 1920, read by Blair Brown 02:37
3. Interlude 1 01:24
4. Words of James Apanomith, emigrated from Greece in 1911, read by Louis Zorich 02:43
5. Interlude 2 02:07
6. Words of Lillian Galleta, emigrated from Italy in 1928, read by Olympia Dukakis 03:32
7. Interlude 3 01:33
8. Words of Lazarus Salamon, emigrated from Hungary in 1920, read by Eli Wallach 04:16
9. Interlude 4 01:56
10. Words of Helen Rosenthal, emigrated from Belgium in 1940, read by Bebe Neuwirth 04:27
11. Interlude 5 01:01
12. Words of Manny Steen, emigrated from Ireland in 1925, read by Barry Bostwick 04:42
13. Interlude 6 02:24
14. Words of Katherine Beychook, emigrated from Russia in 1910, read by Anne Jackson 02:53
15. Epilogue: "The New Colossus" (Emma Lazarus, 1883), read by all actors 01:50

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REVIEW:

Peter Boyer's Ellis Island: The Dream of America will not surprise or disappoint anyone looking for a straightforward presentation piece in the American populist vein, à la Copland's A Lincoln Portrait. Indeed, the music is so openly tonal, melodic, and richly orchestrated; the attitude so noble and patriotic; and the subject matter so emotionally compelling, it would be surprising and disappointing if Boyer had not followed Copland's example, and had set these authentic immigrant narratives from the Ellis Island Oral History Project in anything less than an accessible, American vernacular style. Yet it is the texts, not the music, which matter most in this work, and listeners will find the effective but expectedly epic score less absorbing than the absorbing performances by actors Blair Brown, Louis Zorich, Olympia Dukakis, Eli Wallach, Bebe Neuwirth, Barry Bostwick, and Anne Jackson, who deliver the historic accounts with believable characterizations and genuine emotions. Of course, any invocation of Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty must include a recitation of Emma Lazarus' "The New Colossus," which is passionately read at the work's conclusion by the cast against the stirring, anthemic accompaniment of the Philharmonia Orchestra. Naxos provides excellent sound, though it is fairly loud in places.

– All Music Guide

Classical Music

Classical Opera continue their series of the complete Mozart operas on Signum with Zaide - a new completion of Mozart's unfinished work by conductor Ian Page. Composed during his early 20's, Mozart began work on the opera in Salzburg but later left the work to compose Idomeneo, subsequently leaving no overture or third act. The opera is set in a totalitarian regime where a couple have fallen in love, incurring the jealous of the ruling sultan.

Composers include Robert Anderson, C. Coleman, Fanel Cornelius, Thomas A. Dorsey, Robert Fryson, G. Haenssler, Brendan Keeley, Robert McGimsey, Lars Morlid, Kenneth Morris, Lukas Di Nunzio, Peter Sandwall, Felicia Taylor, Ken Taylor, Leon Taylor and Lee Weisman. Lyricists include James Waddell Alexander, Robert Anderson, Anonymous, Bible - Old Testament, C. Coleman, Thomas A. Dorsey, G. Haenssler, Lars Morlid and also includes such artists as Choralerna, the Golden Gate Quartet, Mahalia Jackson, Soul Affair, Tullamore Gospel Choir, Brendan Keeley and more.

This disc received the 2001 Gramophone magazine award for "Best Chamber Recording."

BLISS: Oboe Quintet / Piano Quartet / Viola Sonata

Classical Music

Classical Music

Includes work(s) by Judith Bingham. Ensembles: BBC Symphony Chorus, Fine Arts Brass Ensemble. Conductor: Stephen Jackson. Soloist: Thomas Trotter.

Deluxe CD/DVD Edition of Michael Jackson's revolutionary 1979 recording Off The Wall includes the original album bundled with the new documentary Michael Jackson s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, directed by Spike Lee. The deluxe softpak includes a 16-page booklet containing a new essay and photography plus a piece of chalk and inside panels with a chalkboard finish. The importance of Michael Jackson's Off the Wall cannot be overstated. Recorded when he was just 20-years-old, the album heralded Michael's emancipation as a singular musical force and creative visionary. It's the record that "invented modern pop as we know it" according to Rolling Stone magazine. It smashed the ceiling on record sales for black artists, ushering in an exciting new era of R&B-to-pop crossover airplay, chart, marketing and sales trends not seen before in modern pop music. For Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, director Spike Lee assembles a wealth of archival footage, including material from Michael's personal archive, interviews with contemporary talents and family members, and Michael�s own words and image to create this insightful chronicle from the star's early rise to fame through the release of this seminal album. A look at a chapter of his career that is rarely examined, Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall allows audiences to travel with Michael as he gets his start at Motown, strikes a new path with CBS Records, and forges a relationship with legendary producer Quincy Jones. An illuminated portrait emerges of how an earnest, passionate, hard-working boy would become the "King of Pop."

Barthold Heinrich Brockes wrote a libretto on the Passion of Christ – based on the account in Matthew’s Gospel – which was set to music by many composers of his time, including Reinhard Keiser, Georg Philip Telemann and George Frideric Handel. It is Handel’s version of the latter that the period-instrument ensemble Arcangelo has chosen to present here. Under the direction of Jonathan Cohen, these specialists in the Baroque repertory are joined by the voices of Sandrine Piau, whose numerous Handel recordings are regarded as a benchmark, the tenor Stuart Jackson and the baritone Konstantin Krimmel, recently revealed in a debut recital for Alpha (Saga, ALPHA549). Together they resurrect the operatic splendor of a work that was first performed in 1719 and is thought to have influenced numerous passages of J. S. Bach’s St John Passion, written a few years later.

REVIEW:

Conductor Jonathan Cohen is working with excellent soloists. They're led by soprano Sandrine Piau, who has a crushing 14 arias and brings personality to each one. Tenor Stuart Jackson has a big, exciting voice, and baritone Konstantin Krimmel is splendid in his duet with Mary Bevan. The oratorio also has smaller solo roles, here taken by members of the choir, and all are well handled.

– AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)