{"title":"Andy Russell","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"faure-orchestral-music-georgiadis-rte-sinfonietta-et-135518","title":"Fauré: Orchestral Music \/ Georgiadis, Rte Sinfonietta, Et Al","description":"REVIEWS:\u003cbr\u003eBBC Music (6\/98, p.67) - Performance: 3 (out of 5), Sound: 4 (out of 5) -  \"...the exquisite and atmospheric miniatures that make up the Mozariaan 'Masques et bergamasques' and the incidental music for 'Pelléas et Mélisande'....feel ever fresh....The 'Shylock' suite....contains beautiful moments and Lynda Russell's pure, light voice suits the style very well...\"","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":44625430642922,"sku":"730099436021","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/226185.jpg?v=1778347278"},{"product_id":"britten-war-requiem","title":"Britten: War Requiem","description":"Britten: War Requiem","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":44711408304362,"sku":"730099455824","price":29.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/127353.jpg?v=1778341193"},{"product_id":"blue-on-the-d-l-3","title":"BLUE ON THE D.L.","description":"Young jazz lion, trumpeter, Russell Gunn reutns with this Blue on the D.L., a great blues-based, classic jazz album containing a fierceness of attack! 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The Langston Hughes Project came from jazz guitarist Larry Simon, who is the founder of JazzMouth, unique festival in Portsmouth, New Hampshire that combines jazz and spontaneous music with readings by some of the finest poets. Hughes’ texts are brought to life by the rich, soulful delivery of Eric Mingus, son of Charles Mingus. For some years he worked as a session musician and backing singer, playing on dates with artists such as Carla Bley, Bobby McFerrin and Karen Mantler. He has also performed with the Mingus Big Band, Elliott Sharp’s Terraplane, Todd Rundgren, Elvis Costello, Nick Cave, Catherine Sikora and Levon Helm, and a featured performer in many of Hal Willner’s projects. Simon also brought David Amram — composer, conductor, multi-instrumentalist, and author — to the project. As a classical composer and performer, his integration of jazz, folk and world music led him to work with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Willie Nelson, Charles Mingus, Levon Helm and Betty Carter. Amram has composed more than 100 orchestral and chamber music works, and written many scores for Broadway theater and film, including the classic scores for the films Splendor in The Grass and The Manchurian Candidate. Amram collaborated with Hughes on the cantata \"Let us Remember.\" Importantly, in the 1950s Amram collaborated in clubs with Langston Hughes and Jack Kerouac on the spontaneous creation of words and music which came to be known as “jazz\/poetry.” And jazz\/poetry is what “Langston Hughes: The Dream Keeper” is. Half of the poems find Mingus with Amram on piano, as a duo. 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Featuring an exceptionally diverse collection of Yuletide classics including \"Deck the Halls,\" \"O Holy Night\" with powerhouse tenor Rodrick Dixon, and New York Voices' jazzy twist on \"Santa Claus is Comin' to Town,\" alongside Gounod's \"Ave Maria\" and \"Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus,\" which cleverly combines Edward Elgar's \"Nimrod\" from Enigma Variations with text from an 1897 editorial in the New York Sun, narrated by Broadway star Brian Stokes Mitchell expressing the child-like wonderment felt during the holiday season.","brand":"Fanfare Cincinnati","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013222224106,"sku":"870362000013","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2042844.jpg?v=1778316262"},{"product_id":"american-originals-russell-cincinnati-pops-157105","title":"American Originals \/ Russell, Cincinnati Pops","description":"\u003cp\u003eAmerican Originals: 1918 is the newest release from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features iconic American songs interpreted by a diverse array of acclaimed musical collaborators including MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Rhiannon Giddens, Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers, Americana artist Pokey LaFarge, and tap dancer Robyn Watson. The follow-up to the Pops’ innovative American Originals album, American Originals: 1918 reimagines songs first brought to life in the first third of the 20th century as well as American popular standards from World War I and some of the first well-known tunes from the advent of jazz. The 95th Cincinnati Pops album includes fresh new renditions of “Over There,” “God Bless America,” “Swing Along,” “Memphis Blues,” “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” “How Ya Gonna Keep ‘em Down on the Farm,” and “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” among many other classic tunes. 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The work draws on their shared history of enslavement and dispersion, their ongoing quest for social justice, and similarities in their forms of musical expression.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003ca href=\"http:\/\/www.arkivmusic.com\/classical\/listPage.jsp?list_id=421\u0026amp;page_size=50\"\u003eClick here\u003c\/a\u003e to view all available releases in the  \u003cb\u003eMilken Archive Series\u003c\/b\u003e at ArkivMusic.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Milken Archive","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013231104234,"sku":"636943941423","price":8.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/589675.jpg?v=1778341282"},{"product_id":"voyage-russell-cincinnati-pops-orchestra-147952","title":"Voyage \/ Russell, Cincinnati Pops Orchestra","description":"\u003cp\u003eVoyage is the newest release from the Cincinnati Pops conducted by John Morris Russell and features the world premiere recording of the title track by Academy Award-winning composer Michael Giacchino, written to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing and the historic “giant leap for mankind.” This 96th Cincinnati Pops album draws inspiration from the stars and also features selections from Holst’s The Planets, as well as science fiction favorites from both the big and small screens.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fanfare Cincinnati","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46013233922282,"sku":"870362000150","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3679515-2412286.jpg?v=1778275228"},{"product_id":"call-me-madam-dinah-shore-original-broadway-201232","title":"Call Me Madam \/ Dinah Shore \u0026 Original Broadway Cast","description":"\u003cp\u003eCall Me Madam is a pure adrenalin shot of circa-1950 zeitgeist, a screwball comedy pulled from the headlines with impeccable timing. The show was conceived as a vehicle for Ethel Merman, at that moment arguably the biggest star in Broadway musicals, and reunited her with Irving Berlin, composer\/lyricist of her blockbuster 1946 hit Annie Get Your Gun. A red-hot ticket when it opened on October 12, 1950 at the Imperial Theatre, Call Me Madam proved to be the blockbuster Merman and Berlin hoped for. They were in the very best of hands: George Abbott directed, Jerome Robbins choreographed and the casting was supervised by Abbott’s new young assistant, Harold Prince. The cast included an Oscar-winning leading man (Paul Lukas), the bright new presence of Russell Nype as Mrs. Adams’s lovelorn attaché and – as Merman’s underutilized understudy – the young Elaine Stritch. The capitalization for the entire show came from NBC and its record division, RCA Victor. Unfortunately a big problem loomed as Merman was under contract to Decca Records who refused to release her to star in what was sure to be a hit record.  Ultimately, RCA Victor turned to one of its hottest singers, Dinah Shore, to step into Merman’s shoes for the original cast recording. It rose to No. 6 on the Billboard album chart but by the late 1950s, it had been deleted from the catalog. The recording got an LP reissue in 1977 but it disappeared again until this Masterworks Broadway release, and is the first and only authorized CD version of RCA Victor’s Call Me Madam digitally remastered from the original tapes.  \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RCA","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46015553994986,"sku":"887254277323","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/3893237.jpg?v=1778279562"},{"product_id":"vaughan-williams-symphonies-7-8-bakels-bournemouth-68201","title":"Vaughan Williams: Symphonies 7 \u0026 8 \/ Bakels, Bournemouth So","description":"Naxos has very intelligently included the spoken superscriptions for each movement of the \"Antartica\" at the end of the disc, so those who want them (a minority, to be sure) can program them in. Kees Bakels and his Bournemouth forces lead excellent performances of both works, and it's particularly gratifying to be able to report that both the conductor and the recording engineers seems to have taken pains to ensure that the special percussion effects in both symphonies are well caught. Of course, the music itself is splendid. The Sinfonia antartica (a.k.a. the film score to Scott of the Antarctic) takes up where Holst's Planets left off, and fans of that work will love this icy-sounding sequel. The Eighth Symphony, with its fabulous finale employing \"all the 'phones and 'spiels known to the composer,\" deserves to be much more popular than it is. That last movement is a humdinger! So while you're waiting to hear these two masterworks of the composer's old age in a live concert, why not shell out a few bucks and enjoy them at home?    --David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com","brand":"Naxos","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46019982885098,"sku":"730099573726","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/235880_0cf7be36-e038-4618-a15f-ec71c7f76f76.jpg?v=1778346419"},{"product_id":"tried-true","title":"TRIED \u0026 TRUE","description":"Tried \u0026amp; True is music with a big, beating heart. Two first cousins and sons of two members of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, HM play country music with electric and rock influence. They are also joined onstage by former \"Hot Band\" member, Albert Lee. This DVD-Audio\/Video disc contains bonus features including 40 minutes of additional live concert video, small club performances and a bus trip to Vegas.","brand":"AIX Records","offers":[{"title":"DVD","offer_id":46025378332906,"sku":"704338004890","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1104886_71b7dab3-b71f-49ae-8b02-53e185ad5ae7.jpg?v=1778338049"},{"product_id":"damrosch-symphony-in-a-major-festival-overture-144103","title":"Damrosch: Symphony in A Major; Festival Overture; Etc.","description":"The ability of record companies to spring surprises on the public is always pleasant, and here Toccata Classics gives us the opportunity to hear what must be one of the very first American symphonies. Leopold Damrosch is almost unknown nowadays, but his son Walter was for many years the principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and the father himself also conducted that body giving the American premières of the Brahms First Symphony and the Berlioz Requiem. Damrosch left Germany for the USA in 1871 and remained there for the remaining thirteen years of his life, during which time he wrote this four-movement symphony; but he never heard it played, and it remained unpublished and in manuscript until 2005 when it was finally edited for performance. This recording was made immediately following the première on 8 February 2015, and it reveals a fascinating if uneven work.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  It is unfortunate that the disc begins with the Festival Overture written immediately before Damrosch’s departure for America and dedicated to Georg II, the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen. The booklet note discerns some influences of Wagner, especially Die Meistersinger; but any Wagnerian overtones are less than immediately apparent, bearing comparison (if at all) to some of the overblown marches that Wagner wrote for cash towards the end of his career. The tone is unremittingly loud and overblown; and that impression is reinforced by a closely observed recording in a claustrophobic acoustic which serves only to emphasize the thick brass writing and Damrosch’s reliance on busy string figuration which sometimes fails to achieve an ideal balance, shading into pure decoration. After the symphony the disc concludes with Damrosch’s orchestration of Schubert, a piece which the booklet informs us was popular with American audiences during the composer’s lifetime, but which rarely rises about the workaday.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  No, the real piece of interest on this disc is the unpublished and previously unperformed symphony, and I mean no disrespect to the young players here when I say that one can imagine a better case being made out for the work. I have already noted the claustrophobic acoustic — like a confined broadcasting studio. We should also note the questionable balances which bring out the heavy brass at the expenses of the strings (and especially the violins), although these are not as serious in the symphony as in the more stridently scored other items on the disc. The playing is not always impeccable — there appears to be a split horn note very near the opening of the first movement, or at least an appoggiatura which fails to sound convincing — and although one can hear that the violins are working hard and achieving commendable degrees of accuracy they remain overshadowed by the sonorous trumpets and trombones. The woodwind playing, on the other hand, is superbly executed and well observed by the recording. Add to this the committed conducting of Christopher Russell, and booklet notes which are both informative and substantial, and we have here an issue which is of rather more than purely documentary interest. I am amazed that the composer’s son failed to program the symphony with the New York Philharmonic when he was their conductor – maybe he was unaware of its existence – but its revival is decidedly welcome. Perhaps American professional orchestras might care to look at it now that Azusa Pacific have broken the trail.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  The conductor’s own booklet essay makes much of the parallels between the music of Damrosch and that of Wagner and Brahms, but the echoes seem to me to be much closer to Bruckner especially in the more atmospheric pages. The opening quiet string tremolos conjure up a definitely Brucknerian feel, and the episodic construction of the rest of the movement also has traces of that composer — but would Damrosch have heard any of the symphonies? The short second-movement Intermezzo is charming; and the solemn march of the third movement builds to a tremendous climax, crowned by a stroke on the gong, and including some positively manic episodes. After this lengthy movement, the most extended in the symphony, the finale is comparatively brief and conventional. As I have already observed Christopher Russell, whose explorations of rare repertory have included first American performances of symphonies by Havergal Brian and Robert Simpson, clearly relishes the music and manages to make it cohere even when it is at its most waywardly rhapsodic.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  One more minor cause for complaint in this disc is the ridiculously short breaks between individual tracks – not just between movements in the symphony, but at the beginning and end of that work as well. The result is that the atmospheric slow introduction sounds almost like an odd sort of continuation of the raucous Festival Overture; and even more seriously, the arrival of the Schubert arrangement comes as a real shock immediately after the closing bars of the symphony’s finale. The listener will need to stand by the pause button at these points, but otherwise Toccata’s presentation is impeccable. This label’s restless exploration of the outermost fringes of the repertory is always fascinating, and the Damrosch symphony here deserves rather more than polite intellectual interest.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  – MusicWeb International (Paul Corfield Godfrey)","brand":"Toccata","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027738153194,"sku":"5060113442611","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/2953753.jpg?v=1778302744"},{"product_id":"contemporary-sound-series-1-265290","title":"Contemporary Sound Series 1","description":"\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eEARLE BROWN\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12biU\"\u003e—A LIFE IN MUSIC—VOL. I \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12b\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Paul Price, cond;\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e1–3,5\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e John Cage, cond;\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e4,7\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Manhattan Percussion Ens;\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e1–8\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Christoph Caskel (perc);\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e9–11\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Aloys Kontarsky (pn, wood blocks);\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e10\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Bernhard Kontarsky (cel, cymbals);\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e10\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e David Tudor (pn);\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e11\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e AMM;\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e12\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e Musica Elettronica Viva\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e13 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"BULLET12b\"\u003e•\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12\"\u003e WERGO 6928 (3 CDs: 116:15) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eROLDÁN \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eRitmicas: \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12b\"\u003eNo. 6;\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e1 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12b\"\u003eNo. 5.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e2 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eHARRISON \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eCanticle No. 1.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e3 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eRUSSELL \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003e3 Dance Movements.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e4 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003e3 Cuban Pieces.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e5 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eCOWELL \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eOstinato pianissimo.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e6 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eCAGE\/HARRISON \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eDouble Music.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e7 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eCAGE \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eAmore\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12b\"\u003es.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e8 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eSTOCKHAUSEN \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eZyklus.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e9 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eRefrain.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e10 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eKAGEL \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eTransición II.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e11 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eAMM \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eAMM.\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e12 \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"COMPOSER12\"\u003eMEV \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"ARIAL12bi\"\u003eSpacecraft\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan class=\"SUPER12\"\u003e13 \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThough born in Massachusetts, Earle Brown was a young composer living in Denver in 1950 when Merce Cunningham and John Cage came to perform and lecture at the McLean School. His wife at that time, Carolyn Rice Brown, was a dancer who attended Cunningham’s master class. Almost immediately, the four realized they had much in common, and Cage persuaded the Browns to move to New York in 1951—Carolyn was one of the founding members of Merce Cunningham’s dance company (where she was to remain for 20 years as a featured performer) and Earle eventually collaborated with Cage at the Project for Music for Magnetic Tape. This experience with electronic equipment allowed Brown to work as a recording engineer—recording and editing pop, jazz, and classical music—for Capitol Records from 1955–1960. In 1960 he began producing records for Bob Shad’s Time label, having convinced the well-established jazz and pop maven to allow him to record a series of avant-garde compositions. The first of these remarkable documents was issued on Time, but after that label folded in 1966, Brown continued to produce the series for Shad’s larger Mainstream imprint. All 18 of these recordings were reissued on LP in the 1970s, but have not appeared on CD until now. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eBrown’s broad knowledge of new music, along with his professional connections, resulted in a groundbreaking collection of music that had been largely unheard—indeed, in some cases, all but unknown—at the time. Represented, of course, were Brown himself and his friends in the “New York School”—Cage, Morton Feldman, Christian Wolff, and their foremost interpreter, pianist David Tudor. But Brown also included what was for the most part the first American documentation of composers from Europe like Nono, Berio, Maderna, Scelsi, and Boulez; Maxwell Davies and Birtwistle from London; an album devoted to South American composers; and one featuring the next, post-Cage generation of American radicals, Ashley, Mumma, Lucier, and Behrman. Equally important, however, was Brown’s understanding that this unfamiliar, often shocking new music needed the best possible performances in order to convince listeners of its merits, as well as the best possible sound quality to capture its tonal subtleties and extravagances. By recording performers like Tudor and pianist Yuji Takahashi, flutist Severino Gazzelloni, violinist Paul Zukofsky, vocalist Cathy Berberian, and experienced ensembles often under the direction of the composers themselves, Brown helped to establish a tradition of new-music performance styles and techniques that would stand as a model for subsequent generations of interpreters. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThis long-awaited release (collectors have been paying big bucks for the precious Time and Mainstream LPs) initiates Wergo’s two-year schedule of the reissue of all 18 albums, in six three-CD sets. Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the total playing time listed above averages out to less than 40 minutes per CD. Wergo has decided to maintain the integrity of the original releases’ production by reproducing the cover art, reprinting the original liner notes, and yes, limiting each CD to a single LP’s worth of music. Their digitalization of the original sound quality, which was excellent to begin with, has been handled with care (although some lingering tape hiss is inevitable)—the proof is the first CD, where the percussion timbres are clean, crisp, and vivid. I did notice one new production error in this CD release—on disc 3, the two pieces have been mislabeled; \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eAMM\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e is the first piece on the disc, and \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eSpacecraft \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003ethe second, not the other way around, as listed on the CD cover and in the booklet. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eWhat about the music, then? The first disc, “Concert Percussion for Orchestra,” reminds us that adventurous composers, looking for new sounds and timbres in the days before electronics, turned to percussion in order to expand the available palette of colors, and with them began to explore the rhythmic intricacies of other, non-classical, ethnic musics. Cuban composer Amadeo Roldán’s works for percussion ensemble date from 1930, William Russell’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eThree Dance Movements\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eThree Cuban Pieces\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e from later that same decade. Henry Cowell’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eOstinato pianissimo\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e (1934) has become one of the repertoire’s classics. John Cage plays the prepared piano solos in his \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eAmores\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e (1943). Though for the most part concise exercises in unusual rhythms and timbres, many of which sound commonplace and simplified today, these pieces nevertheless were highly influential for their time, and display a charming sense of exploration, atmosphere, and, yes, even swing. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eThe Stockhausen and Kagel works on the second disc were hot off the press in 1960, and they receive gripping readings. The solo percussion score \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eZyklus\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, once so jolting, now has an almost meditative feel to it, and this version of \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eRefrain\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e emphasizes its delicacy and spontaneity, offering a constellation of Webernesque detail. Mauricio Kagel’s \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eTransición II \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003esurveys a wider range of attacks and rhythms, with previously recorded and live taped components increasing the complexity of tonal relationships. Tudor and percussionist Caskel (who works directly inside the piano) pay sharp attention to the task at hand, briskly aligning the aleatoric elements of the score. (Alternate versions may be heard from the ensemble L’Art pour L’Art on the cpo label and Aldo Orvieto, Dmitri Fiorin, and Alvise Vidolin on Mode.) \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eFinally, we have what is probably the most unusual album released in the series, recordings of group improvisations by the British band AMM (which at this time included composer Cornelius Cardew) and the Rome-based group of American expatriates including Frederic Rzewski, Alvin Curran, and Richard Teitelbaum (and one Hungarian, Ivan Vandor), Musica Elettronica Viva. Both ensembles featured live electronics as a major part of their instrumental arsenal, and both gleefully embraced noise as a confrontational device and a link to the ritualistic musical activities that, without benefit of a predetermined compositional design, produced their truly spontaneous structures. Drones—frictional, layered, and ambient—are the source for much of their aural environment, and acoustic instruments—pianos, saxophones, even cello—are played with pseudo-electronic timbres or mixed into the fray so as to be all but unrecognizable. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan\u003eAMM’s contribution is an edited excerpt from a longer, live performance (which may be heard in its entirety on “The Crypt—12 June 1968: The Complete Session” on the Matchless label). In addition, silences of various lengths were edited into the performance after the fact, interrupting the music according to some unexplained, Cagean provocation. Interestingly, these silences still contain several small tics and pops, suggesting that rather than edit in fresh, totally silent digital silence, Wergo decided to use the analog silence taken from an LP (the master tapes may have been unavailable), thus once again maintaining the integrity (albeit flawed) of the original release. MEV’s live activity, \u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan style=\"font-style:italic\"\u003eSpacecraft\u003c\/span\u003e \u003cspan\u003e, was an open improvisation that they performed a number of times in their early years—other versions may be found on the Alga Marghen label, and in the valuable four-CD set “MEV 40” on New World. The AMM and MEV improvisations have less-than-optimal sound, and are difficult to listen to without flinching, but as examples of controlled chaos they project a raw, immediate catharsis unmatched by any other music of their time. Earle Brown’s decision to include them as representation of the cutting-edge of new music’s new repertoire, giving improvisation a platform equal with composition, was gutsy and prophetic. The remaining releases in this most welcome series will afford further examples of the breadth of Brown’s vision. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e  \u003cspan style=\"font-weight:bold\"\u003eFANFARE: Art Lange \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Wergo","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46027745296618,"sku":"4010228692822","price":37.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0614\/3423\/3066\/files\/1554779.jpg?v=1778286583"},{"product_id":"live-at-jazz-at-lincoln-center","title":"LIVE AT JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER","description":"Catherine Russell's Live at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Dot Time Records captures her GRAMMY-nominated artistry in a vibrant, career-defining performance. A powerhouse ensemble and vintage-inspired arrangements honor the Hot Club of New York and the rich lineage of swing, blues, and early jazz. Featuring \"Now You're Talkin' My Language\" and \"Never Too Old to Swing.\"","brand":"DOT TIME","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46054992609514,"sku":"604043917921","price":17.68,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}]},{"product_id":"complete-recordings-on-american-decca","title":"COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON AMERICAN DECCA","description":"COMPLETE RECORDINGS ON AMERICAN DECCA","brand":"DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":46055179256042,"sku":"028948640348","price":52.02,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}]}],"url":"https:\/\/arkivmusic.com\/collections\/andy-russell.oembed","provider":"ArkivMusic","version":"1.0","type":"link"}