J.J. Johnson and Kai Winding were among the leading innovators and primary exponents of the trombone in modern jazz, exploring the instrument's potential in the challenging musical era following the emergence of bebop in the 1940s, where trumpet and saxophone were more suited to the medium's rapid tempos and demand for technical mastery. Having established their reputations as soloists, they came together in 1953 for the first time to collaborate on a series of projects in different group environments. This 77-track 4-CD set features most of the titles they recorded together during this period before they went their separate ways again. It includes material from the "Live at Putnam Central Club" performances plus tracks from the albums "Reflections" on Savoy, "An Afternoon At Birdland" on X, "Jay & Kai" on Prestige, "K + J.J." on Bethlehem, and "Trombone For Two", "Jai & Kai Plus 6", and "Jai & Kai At Newport" on Columbia, as well as titles with Quincy Jones' Orchestra. Among the musicians with whom they perform in the various line-ups are John Lewis, Charles Mingus, Kenny Clarke, Dick Katz, Quincy Jones, Lucky Thompson, Paul Chambers, Milt Hinton, Shadow Wilson, Hank Jones, Ray Brown and others. It makes for fascinating and enlightening listening as they present both familiar and original jazz repertoire in a variety of unusual musical settings, which include their renowned trombone octet, and it's an entertaining showcase for two of the most renowned jazz trombonists of their era.

GREAT KAI & J.J.

Japanese-only remastered pressing. Universal. 2024.

TROMBONE MASTER

J.J. Johnson/Kai Winding - "The Great Kai & J.J. (Verve Acoustic Sounds Series)" [180gram Heavy Vinyl LP] The first-ever Impulse! Release (catalog number A-1) and known as one of the best efforts of Kai Winding and J.J. Johnson, this 1960 session features a collection of jazz heavyweights, including Bill Evans (piano), Paul Chambers (bass), and Art Taylor & Roy Haynes (drums). Bill Evans' playing in particular raises this album beyond a mere Kai & J.J. set and spotlights the group as a whole. Verve Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging. Verve Label Group; Verve; Jazz; Catalog.

EMINENT JAY JAY JOHNSON VOL 1

Track Listing
1. Song After Sundown - Stan Getz/Arthur Fiedler
2. Bridge, The - Sonny Rollins
3. Runnin' Wild - Benny Goodman Quartet
4. Evans - Art Blakey
5. Blood Count - Duke Ellington
6. Ill Wind - Paul Desmond
7. Salt Peanuts - Bud Powell
8. Figurine - Johnny Hodges
9. Swinging 'Till the Girls Come - Lambert, Hendricks & Bavan
10. Sweetheart of Sigmund Freud - Shorty Rogers
11. Stratusphunk - J.J. Johnson
12. As You Make Your Bed - The Sextet of Orchestra U.S.A.
13. Tijuana Gift Shop - Charles Mingus
14. Just a Mood - Red Norvo

A good cross-section of material, but only for those who wouldn't normally purchase any solo releases or boxed sets. ~ Ron Wynn

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. J.J. Johnson adapted the language of bebop to the trombone winning the admiration of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. After playing on Miles Davis' first Blue Note session, J.J. led several dates from 1953-55 with the likes of Clifford Brown, Charles Mingus, Horace Silver and Hank Mobley that were compiled on The Eminent Jay Jay Johnson, Vol. 2 (BLP 1506). This Blue Note Classic Vinyl Edition is mono, all-analog, mastered by Kevin Gray from the original masters, and pressed on 180g vinyl at Optimal.

New York-based jazz vocalist and composer Aubrey Johnson presents her second studio album, her first on Dave Douglas' Greenleaf Music record label, featuring her intricate and vibrant original music and arrangements. As on her first release, Unraveled, she's teamed up with multi Grammy Award-winning producer/editor Steve Rodby (Pat Metheny Group) and engineer Rich Breen (Herbie Hancock, Diane Reeves, The Yellow Jackets). The album's title is drawn from the lyrics of "The Waking", a Theodore Roethke poem later set to music by Kurt Elling, and embodies the spirit of the music-buoyant, hopeful, and exuberant. In addition to her original compositions, the program also features two compositions by Johnson's uncle (the late, great keyboardist and composer Lyle Mays), Joni Mitchell's "Help Me", and a piece by violinist Tomoko Omura (who also plays on the album.) The Lively Air is an exciting and worthwhile sophomore effort by an artist who has truly come into her own.

Whitney Johnson, Lia Kohl, and Macie Stewart are a trio of improvisers individually rooted in deep sound exploration, multi-disciplinary composition, and all manner of cross-genre collaboration. The musical ground covered by their solo practices is correspondingly expansive, and their individual recording and performance credits read as a veritable who's who, ranging from DIY darlings to household names of experimental avant-garde, electronic, indie rock, and more. Their collective sound is based in improvised performance-automatic, intuitive composition via their three voices and three string instruments: viola, cello, and violin, respectively. Influences here are vast, dispatched with more playful ease than a trio of string instruments is typically approached with, and just as likely to be found in the cloud-obscured mountains of Donegal, the low-rent cacophony of a midwestern basement, or the revelatory expanse of the Nurse With Wound list as in the storied halls of the academy. As a recording unit, the trio hones and transforms their performance concept with careful post-production, using multiple tape machines and outboard effects to reimagine their improvised material into meticulously crafted compositions. It's all a response to the spaces they are collectively engaged with, and the use of a highly physical medium like analog tape deepens that spatial engagement with striking, organically psychedelic results. Their debut album, BODY SOUND, will be released on March 20, 2026.

THAT'S THE STUFF: THE SINGLES COLLECTION 1940-57

Track Listing
1. Why Women Go Wrong
2. Nothing But a Rat
3. Jersey Belle Blues
4. Loveless Blues, The
5. I'm Just Dumb
6. Get Yourself Together
7. Crowing Rooster Blues
8. That's Love
9. Somebody's Got to Go
10. Lazy Woman Blues
11. Chicago Blues
12. I Did All I Could
13. In Love Again
14. Last Call, The
15. Rambler's Blues
16. Baby, Remember Me
17. He's a Jelly Roll Baker
18. When You Feel Low Down
19. Victim of Love, The
20. Watch Shorty

Recorded at RCA Recording Studios, Chicago from 1939 to 1944. Includes liner notes by Billy Altman.

Digitally remastered by Jay Newland (June 1992, BMG Studios, New York City).

All songs written by Lonnie Johnson.

Personnel: Lonnie Johnson (vocals, guitar); Joshua Altheimer, Lil Armstrong, Blind John Davis (piano).

Liner Note Author: Billy Altman.

Recording information: 11/02/1939-12/14/1944.

Illustrator: Jacqueline Murphy.

This 20-song collection covers 1930s and '40s material in which Johnson primarily performs blues tunes, doing salty, sassy, mournful, and suggestive numbers in a distinctive, memorable fashion. His vocals on "Rambler's Blues," "In Love Again," the title cut, and several others, are framed by brilliant, creative playing and excellent support from such pianists as Blind John Davis, Lil Hardin Armstrong, and Joshua Altheimer. This is tight, intuitive music in which Johnson set the tone and dominated the songs. If you're unaware of Lonnie Johnson's brilliant blues material, here's an excellent introduction.

Drawn from the worldwide catalog holdings of Sony Classical, which includes both the Columbia/CBS and RCA Victor label imprints, the SONY Classical Originals, SONY Classical Masters Singles and Box Sets, and SONY Opera House series offer an extensive selection of highly desirable and collectible EU (Germany) pressed import editions, smartly-designed and graphically-pleasing, featuring the most sought-after recordings by the world’s preeminent, legendary artists both past and present, with many titles newly re-mastered in 24bit High Resolution Audio.

After recordings of Schubert Lieder (on Orfeo) and Brahms Lieder and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder (Sony), Lipovsek now turns her artistry to two of Schumann’s great song cycles, separated on this disc by half a dozen well-known Schumann songs. The warmth and richness of sound from this Slovenian mezzo-soprano rings out from the first few bars of the Op. 39 Liederkreis. She is now making an international impact: her unique, grainy timbre and a powerful personality offer new dimensions to mainstream repertoire.

In the Liederkreis Lipovsek’s ability to utilise her vocal colouring and delve into contemplative sequences is particularly well illustrated in ‘Mondnacht’, ‘Auf einer Burg’ and ‘Zwielicht’. The haunting poignancy of Schumann’s musical lines in Frauenliebe und -leben are beautifully captured by Lipovsek and Johnson. This is a deep, reflective and rewarding performance with only an occasional vocal strain for some notes. The three central songs, ‘Du Ring an meinem Finger’, ‘Helft mir, ihr Schwestern’ and ‘Süsser Freund, du blickest’, contain wonderful expressive moments. Two minor quibbles: the sound is rather too roomy and spacious for these intimate works, and, for once, although artistically and musically faultless as ever, Johnson does not always sound as technically assured as usual.

-- Elise McDougall, BBC Music Magazine

The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is a translation by Edward Fitzgerald of a selection of poems which were originally written in Persian and are attributed to Omar Khayyam, a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. There are about a thousand poems in the complete volume. British composer Granville Bantock composed this choral setting of the works. Part 1 premiered in 1906, Part 2 in 1907, Part 3 in 1909, and the complete works were performed in 1910 at Queen’s Hall. This four disc set is the only complete recording ever made of the work, and is made up of original BBC Broadcasts from 1968 and 1979.

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REVIEWS:

Those who want to hear Omar Khayyam in all its glorious monumentality will need to buy the Lyrita set. it’s one of the monuments in British music that needs to be heard.

– The Guardian

Del Mar’s soloists sing with urgency and passion. A hugely enterprising addition to Lyrita’s ever-growing catalogue.

– Gramophone

This lively 1979 revival of the complete work is well coupled with other less rare Bantock, especially Fifine at the Fair. Del Mar, an eminent Strauss scholar, has a sure feel for the orchestral writing of this era, well paced and translucent rather than weighty.

– BBC Music Magazine

Classical Music

A wonderful introduction to this amazing composer’s music.

With over 500 works to his name Alan Hovhaness may well be the most prolific American composer as well as one of the most fascinating. His music cannot be pigeonholed since he drew influences from so many varied sources. That said, above all, he insisted on melody, having roundly rejected the path of ‘modernism’ that many others followed in the 20 ^th century. Among those influences was his Armenian heritage inherited through his father. These are very much to the fore in his First Symphony subtitled Exile which references the plight of Armenians who were forced to flee in their millions in the face of an onslaught by Ottoman Turks during the First World War. Lovers of big tunes will revel in the lush sonorities on display. They’re in evidence right from the first notes. These are given to the clarinet which introduces a plaintive tune taken up by other woodwind with the orchestra continuing the Middle Eastern-sounding scales and the music becoming disturbed and agitated. The second, short movement marked Grazioso is further demonstration of the melodies for which Hovhaness is rightly renowned. Woodwind sings out against a background of pizzicato from strings and harp. This allows for an interlude of calm before the third and final movement brings us back to agitation. Driving strings and winds recall the opening theme in chorale form which then becomes the main focus of the orchestra. The powerfully expressed message is that a whole people cannot be suppressed. Its spirit will reassert itself and prevail against all the odds.
 
One of the other influences Hovhaness exploits is his love and reverence of the music of the Far East, particularly Japan and Korea, having studied both. The second work, Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints, has a title that allows him to explore his own impressions of the music from this part of the world. It involves extremely creative ways of approximating the sounds of Japan through clever and inventive use of the instruments of a Western orchestra. The marimba is the instrument of choice to carry the main theme against a background of orchestral experimentation creating a convincing and effective ‘Japanese’ sound for Western ears.
 
Yet another influence which has shown itself in many of Hovhaness’s compositions are mountains. He once wrote “Mountains are symbols, like pyramids, of man’s attempt to know God. Mountains are symbolic meeting places between the mundane and spiritual worlds”. It was a natural thing therefore to have been moved to write a symphony that expresses those ideas following the huge explosion of Mount Saint Helens in Washington State in 1980. The first movement sets the scene and pays reverence to the majesty and mystery of the mountain through use of gorgeous harmonically and melodically rich tunes. These emphasise the mountain’s imperious eminence over its surroundings and its naturally serene nature prior to its being geographically changed by the explosion. The second movement is also calm since it describes the fabulous Spirit Lake in whose waters the mountain was often magically mirrored. Once again Hovhaness uses Japanese-sounding melodies to create the air of mystery and natural beauty of a place which was obliterated by the explosion. The finale opens with an almost hymn-like theme from the strings with tubular bells in the background. A sole flute precedes a representation of the cataclysmic events that rent the mountain asunder, and which continues for much of the movement’s 14 minutes. This musical depiction of the destructive power of nature is extremely potent with plenty of work for bass drums and gong as wave after wave of explosions tear the very fabric of the ground on which the mountain stood. Finally the opening hymn returns to re-establish a measure of calm. Hovhaness doesn’t end the symphony there. Instead he creates a coda to signify the “youthful power and grandeur of the Cascades Mountains” that, as he said, renews the vitality of “our peaceful planet, the living earth, the life-giving force building the majestic Cascades Mountains (,) rising, piercing the clouds of heaven”. This symphony represents an extremely satisfying journey that shows the composer’s unique view of how to use music to describe nature in all its creative as well as destructive power. The disc as a whole is a wonderful introduction to this amazing composer’s music that I for one am only beginning to discover. More of Hovhaness’s works are being recorded all the time. With 67 symphonies alone there’s plenty left to record and to discover and that’s an exciting prospect. Gerard Schwarz is a great advocate of American music and he and his orchestra help do the kind of justice Hovhaness deserves. Ron Johnson does a sterling job on the marimba in the disc’s second work. These recordings were originally made by Delos and they offer an extremely rewarding experience for a whole new audience to discover and revel in.
 
-- Steve Arloff , MusicWeb International

Classical Music

Classical Music

Track Listing
1. I'll Forgive You 'Cause I Love You, But the Wrongs You've Done I Can't Forget
2. I'm Gonna Lose Myself Way Down in Louisville
3. My Old Daddy's Got a Brand New Way to Love
4. Sugar - Fats Waller
5. Beale Street Blues
6. Fort Worth and Denver Blues
7. Penitentiary
8. Better Boot That Thing
9. Bogey Man Blues
10. Whistling Woman Blues
11. Blood Hound Blues
12. Dirty Tee Bee Blues
13. Moaning the Blues
14. Telephoning the Blues
15. Showered With Blues
16. Wrong Doin' Daddy
17. Elm Street Blues
18. When You Lose Your Daddy
19. Mr. Forty Nine Blues
20. Good-Bye Rider

Recorded from 1927 to 1930. Includes liner notes by Billy Altman.

Digitally remastered by Jay Newland (June 1992, BMG Studios, New York City).

SCHUBERT: OCTET CLEVELAND OCT

Classical Music

Dussek: Duos for 2 Fortepianos

The BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under Oramo with an exceptional quartet of soloists give a vivid and heartfelt interpretation of Smyth’s earliest large-scale choral work. Dame Ethel Mary Smyth, DBE was an English composer and a member of the women's suffrage movement. Her compositions include songs, works for piano, chamber music, orchestral works, choral works and operas. Smyth tended to be marginalized as a ‘woman composer’, as though her work could not be accepted as mainstream, yet when she produced more delicate compositions, they were criticized for not measuring up to the standard of her male competitors. She was the first female composer to be granted a damehood. Smyth's extensive body of work includes the Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra and the Mass in D. Her opera The Wreckers is considered by some critics to be the "most important English opera composed during the period between Purcell and Britten." Another of her operas, Der Wald, mounted in 1903, was for more than a century the only opera by a woman composer ever produced at New York's Metropolitan Opera (until Kaija Saariaho's L'Amour de loin in December 2016).

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REVIEW:

With all the awareness of the need to promote female composers it is surprising that no national opera company has taken up Ethel Smyth’s masterpiece The Wreckers. This new recording of the overture reminds us of just what a splendid work it is.

The bulk of the new recording is given over to the Mass in D, which is an exultant outpouring, here given its head by the BBC forces under a conductor who seems to have an innate understanding of the British musical temperament.

– Lark Reviews

This exceptional recording gathers the finest young vocal talents in a unique program of songs by Sullivan, many of them very rarely recorded. Currently widely acclaimed for key operatic title roles in the UK and abroad, the "deeply touching, outstanding" (The Guardian)soprano Mary Bevan, the "elegant yet intense, impeccable" (The Guardian) tenor Ben Johnson, and the "increasingly impressive" (The Financial Times) bass-baritone Ashley Riches - who here appears on Chandos for the first time - span fifty years of Arthur Sullivan's large non-operatic vocal output. They are accompanied by the UK pianist David Owen Norris, who regularly appears in highly praised concerto performances at the BBC Proms. This album continues to celebrate the Shakespeare anniversary but also presents a wide variety of poets, drawing on texts from a vast range of sources, through the voices of today's greatest rising stars.