Pharoah Sanders / Elevation (Verve Vault Series) The album is a spiritually resonant final Impulse! Studio statement that bridges the raw fire of earlier albums with a deeper, more spacious sound. Format: Vinyl Genre: JAZZ Release Date: March 2026

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.

The most internationally acclaimed opera composer of Brazil, hailed by Verdi as a “real musical genius”, Antonio Gomes is today all but forgotten outside his native country (where the brilliant overture to Il Guarany is regarded as a national artistic treasure). The opera itself is known largely from books and from a recording by Caruso and Destinn of the love duet at the end of Act 1. After the enthusiastic reception in Rio of a couple of his operas, Gomes, who came from a family of modest musicians, was awarded a grant enabling him to study in Milan. There he wrote Il Guarany, which was produced at La Scala in 1870 with huge success.

The story is set in sixteenth-century Brazil and deals with the love of Cecilia, daughter of the Portuguese nobleman Don Antonio, and the ‘noble savage’ Pery, chieftain of the Indian tribe of Guarany (who eventually accepts baptism). They are threatened both by the hostility of the cannibal Aimore tribe and by Spanish adventurers led by Gonzales, who has designs on the silver mine owned by Antonio and on Cecilia. The opera ends spectacularly a la Meyerbeer when Antonio, to save his daughter, blows up his castle with himself and his enemies in it. The work is categorized as an ‘opera-ballet’, but, at least in this performance, there is no music for dancing.

So Italianized was Gomes that except for a very few bars there is no real local colour: indeed Cecilia’s first aria, rich in coloratura, is a polacca! Overall the music, for Indians and whites alike, is purely Italian, similar to middle-period Verdi, but the atmospheric orchestration is far more adventurous and inventive – one example being the sinister opening to Act 2. Highlights other than the duet mentioned are Pery’s aria at the start of Act 2, a jaunty adventurer’s song by Gonzales, Cecilia’s Act 2 soliloquy (which however leads to a rather conventional ballad with quasi-guitar accompaniment), and the duet scene for the lovers in the savages’ camp. The stars of this performance, given before an excited but discriminating audience, are Domingo himself in the title-role – ardent and committed (though, as elsewhere, he will not alter the intensity of his projection for asides), Villarroel on the most brilliantly stunning form I have heard her, and the capable and intelligent Alvarez; too many of the others are afflicted with tiresome wobbles. Both chorus and orchestra are excellent, and John Neschling (who I think has not come our way before) invests the whole with a real dramatic sense. Those who like full-blooded romantic opera should not miss this.

-- Lionel Salter, Gramophone [5/1996]

BRAHMS: SYMPHONY NO 1, ETC MU

Classical Music

When I reviewed Robert White's Angel collection of Beethoven and Weber folk-song arrangements {The Gallant Troubadour, Fanfare 9:4), I mentioned this RCA collection as another possible source of pleasure to those who enjoyed the Angel set. Here it is on compact disc sounding at least as good as ever with the tenor in his element supported by virtuoso playing (Beethoven's settings were supposed to be playable by amateurs but they'd better be good amateurs). Full texts are provided, but so clear is White's enunciation that you'll have little need for them; one of the songs, “The Soldier,“ is probably better known nowadays as “The Minstrel Boy.“ Unfortunately, RCA could think of nothing appropriate that would serve to fill the CD out, so it contains only 44:25 of music, including pauses between songs, but what's here is certainly choice.

-- James Miller, FANFARE [9/1987]

PIATIGORSKY / MENOTTI / BEGLARIAN: Remembering Piatigorsky

A Tribute To Jascha Heifetz (2015) Itzhak Perlman, Samuel Sanders "The first person in my evolution is Jascha Heifetz," Itzhak Perlman told The Strad magazine, "... Heifetz created a tradition for himself." In this tribute Perlman - who has also now created his own tradition - performs pieces arranged by the legendary Lithuanian-born violinist.

Tom Saunders keeps Wild Bill Davison's flame burning with this stirring tribute album featuring Chuck Hedges, Bill Allred, Johnny Varro, Paul Keller, and Rick Fay.

Criss Cross is proud to present the leader debut of bassist Joe Sanders, who is most widely known on the international scene for his long association with pianist Gerald Clayton's Trio, and is often heard with the best and brightest of his New York City peer group, of whom he convenes three - pianist Luis Perdomo, alto saxophonist Wil Vinson, and drummer Rodney Green (rising star vocalist Gretchen Parlato joins the mix on Sanders' Journey and Sorrow) for a diverse recital comprising 7 strikingly melodic, harmonically sophisticated originals that cover a range of stylistic food groups, as well as 2 jazz standards (Cedar Walton's Hindsight and Pat Metheny's Question and Answer) and a songbook chestnut (The Things We Did Last Summer).

As far as drummer Brandon Sanders is concerned, everyone should have a grandmother who runs a jazz club. It was at the Casablanca, his grandmother's nightspot in Kansas City, that he was first exposed to the music of such greats as Jimmy Smith, Grant Green, and Lou Donaldson. Sanders may be long removed from those formative days, but on this CD, his sophomore recording for Savant, he pays homage to the influence and memory of his grandmother, Ernestine Parker, in the the album's first track, "Miss Ernestine." With his understated, whispery light touch on the drums, Sanders breathes fresh life into favorites, such as Parker's "Moose the Mooche" and Monk's "Four in One." The group shifts into pop mode on the Michael Jackson hit "Human Nature," which features guest vocalist Christie Dashiell, who also delivers a sensuous version of Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss." Featuring vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Keith Brown, bassist David Wong and saxophonist Chris Lewis, "The Tables Will Turn" marks another important chapter in Brandon Sander's career.

With Pharoah Sanders' blessing, this limited edition 2 LP box set presents the definitive, remastered version of PHAROAH, his seminal record from 1977, along with two previously unreleased live performances of his masterpiece "Harvest Time." PHAROAH will be released a year after the legendary tenor saxophonists' untimely death, and two years after the release of what was to become his final album, the widely acclaimed PROMISES, a collaboration between the composer Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra.

Paganini: 24 Caprices (2015) Itzhak Perlman - Each of Paganini's 24 Caprices presents the violinist with a specific technical challenge. Emerging triumphant in consistent and spectacular fashion, Itzhak Perlman - always a perceptive musician - also tells a captivating story with every piece. With amazing album cover art.

THEMBI (VERVE BY REQUEST SERIES)

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in deluxe gatefold jacket. Pharoah Sanders' third Impulse! Album, 1969's Karma, is a milestone of the Spiritual Jazz movement and a natural progression in the sonic exploration that Sanders, along with John and Alice Coltrane, had spearheaded over the previous five years. "The Creator Has a Master Plan" is as close as Spiritual Jazz comes to having it's own anthem. Verve's Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes.

Sanders' individual approach and the strikingly singular language developed by the trio have commanded the attention of no less discerning a stylist than pianist Fred Hersch. "When you know that Fred Hersch is watching and listening to everything you're doing, you have a tendency to deliver at your utmost capabilities," Sanders describes.

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