In a timely and nicely varied program, Joey DeFrancesco and his quartet pay homage to peaceful protest and social activism. It’s a soulful sequence of songs that taken together may even convince listeners to consider questions of freedom—in jazz, in society, in personal action—or just induce them to sit back and enjoy the ride. – DownBeat Magazine

SINGERS SESSIONS WITH DINAH WASHINGTON SARAH VAUGH

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing in gatefold jacket. One of the most lauded (and brilliant) trumpet players in the history of jazz, Clifford Brown adds to his luster on this varied program of nine engaging tunes. Featuring the 1955 version of the Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet, a group also including tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Richie Powell, and bassist George Morrow. One of the premiere early hard bop units.

SOULAR ENERGY

Ray Brown on bass, Monty Alexander on Piano/vocal Johnny Griffin on saxaphone and Martin Drew on Drums, This quartet swings for 73 minutes of pure hip hop jazz. In 1980 these 4 great jazz giants got together for the very first time to record this record. This album was first recorded by direct disc one take and that's was it, no second chance. This CD has never been released in the USA.

BASSICS: BEST OF RAY BROWN TRIO 1977-2000

Born October 13, 1926, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ray Matthew Brown took piano lessons from the age of eight, but after noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one. With a vacancy in the high school jazz orchestra, he took on the upright bass. As a young man Brown became increasingly well known in the Pittsburgh jazz scene, with his first experiences playing in bands with the Jimmy Hinsley Sextet and the Snookum Russell band. After graduating high school, having heard stories about the burgeoning jazz scene on 52nd Street, he bought a one-way ticket to New York. He arrived in the city at the age of 20, met up with Hank Jones, with whom he had previously worked, and was introduced to Dizzy Gillespie, who was looking for a bass player. Gillespie hired Brown on the spot, and he soon played with such established musicians as Art Tatum and Charlie Parker. Between 1956 and 1965, Ray Brown released a number of albums on which he performed as leader or co-leader. He made four records alongside Barney Kessel and Shelley Manne between '57 and '60, performing as The Poll Winners, and in the early sixties made two with his old buddy Milt Jackson. Brown was later adopted by the rock and pop fraternity and has appeared on albums by Steely Dan, Linda Ronstadt, Barry Manilow, Maria Maldaur, Elton John, Lionel Ritchie, Stephen Bishop, Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello. While never reaching the status of many of his contemporaries, Ray Brown's legacy is virtually unparalleled in the history of jazz, having appeared on literally hundreds of albums during his lengthy career, and remaining a name to drop in all the right circles. This delightful 4CD set features many of Brown's finest early albums, up to the mid-1960s, and includes recordings he made alongside Ella Fitzgerald, Milt Jackson, The Pollwinners, and of course all the records from this era on which he performed as leader.

Japanese pressing features the high-fidelity UHQCD format. Green label coating. *UHQCD (Ultimate High Quality CD) is an upgraded version of HQCD, a high fidelity CD format developed by Memory-Tech.

MEMORIAL ALBUM

Recorded in late 1954 and early 1955, this set marks the pinnacle of what some called the "most definitive bop group of the era" until Clifford Brown's fatal car accident in 1956. The second of four albums Brown and Max Roach made together, Clifford Brown & Max Roach enlisted the duties of Harold Land (tenor saxophone) with Richie Powell (piano) and George Morrow (bass) solidifying the rhythm section around Roach. Brown's compositions "The Blues Walk," "Joy Spring," and "Daahoud," are spotlighted as some of the finest in hard bop, with notable mentions of Bud Powell's "Parisian Thoroughfare," and Duke Jordan's "Jordu." Verve Acoustic Sounds Series features transfers from analog tapes and remastered 180-gram vinyl in deluxe gatefold packaging.

ULTIMATE COLLECTION

Originally recorded in 1954, Brown and Roach Incorporated is a foundational hard bop album featuring the virtuosic collaboration between trumpeter Clifford Brown and drummer Max Roach. This 180-gram vinyl edition includes the original quintet's dynamic performances along with bonus tracks.

Rich Brown bought his first six-string bass in 1999, "Everyone made fun of me" he recalls with a characteristically warm smile - since then he's established a reputation as first-call player for the leaders of an impressive variety of adventurous projects, from Steve Coleman to Rudresh Mahanthappa to James 'Blood' Ulmer. Over the past two years, whenever time allows, he's been paying regular visits to the studio of his friend, the guitarist and producer Elmer Ferrer. Away from the pressures of the commercial industry, Rich seized the opportunity to explore and expand the vocabulary of his instrument. 'NYAEBA' took shape: written and performed entirely on the bass guitar. Rich drew inspiration from the many remarkable musicians he's supported as a bassist, or encountered in the richly multicultural music scene in his adopted hometown of Toronto. Throughout the album, the commitment to melody and story ensures that the technique, though prodigious, never overshadows the tale. Each tune was built up with multiple tracks in the studio, with no looping or sequencing involved. The sonic versatility on display is astounding, but the album retains the organic, intimate feel of a performance. This album will no doubt sit comfortably among the essential solo bass albums, showcasing what's possible on the instrument. While many solo bass records center the instrument itself, what's unique about Rich's approach is that he puts the composition and music first, using the electric bass as the vehicle. With a focus on texture, movement and melody, and a striking range of voices, this is not your average electric bass album. A1. Ukudlala A2. The Sum of Our Tears A3. Heart of a Lonely Woman A4. Nyaeba (The Griot) B1. Kalagala Ebwembe B2. Sowetoeira B3. Turiyasangitananda - The Transcendental Lord's Highest Song of Bliss (A Meditation for Alice Coltrane) B4. The Kingdom of Heaven is Within

Grammy Award-winning Contemporary Jazz/R&B superstar Norman Brown has sold over 5 million albums in his extraordinary career and virtually lives at the top of the Billboard Contemporary Jazz sales and radio charts. Having headlined with with virtually every Contemporary Jazz superstar from Boney James to Dave Koz to Gerald Albright, Norman's non-stop touring has electrified audiences from coast to coast! Authentically Norman has Norman Brown's hit-making talents on full display. Highlights include the uber-funky "Home Stretch," the romantic "Valentine," the joyful "Chillax'" and much more.

"This charming recording combines traditional plainchant elements with a setting of the Mass to French carol tunes, arranged in Baroque polyphony by Marc-Antoine Charpentier, a prolific and intriguing composer of church music...All is well and tastefully done by the Virgin Consort, directed by Kyler Brown."

-- Sarah Bryan Miller, New York Times [101996]

Track Listing
1. I Don't Know Why (I Just Do) / Love Me Or Leave Me
2. When I Take My Sugar to Tea
3. I'll Be Around
4. Strictly For the Birds
5. Before Love Went Out of Style
6. Soft Shoe
7. Smilin' Through
8. I Can't Give You Anything But Love
9. It's Easy to Remember
10. Play It Again Sam
11. Be a Child

Personnel: Cleo Laine (vocals); Dudley Moore (piano); Ray Brown (bass); Nick Caroli (drums).

This album is the result of two giant entertainers from the British Isles getting together in London in 1982 for a session of ballads and traditional pop. Dudley Moore was more famous, at least in the United States, for his comedic roles in a number of films. But he was a pianist and composer of no mean skills. Cleo Laine had been a singing talent of the first order since the 1950s and often performed and recorded with husband and sax player John Dankworth. Dankworth is present on one cut on this album. While Moore dashes off some nice solo work on such cuts as "When I Take My Sugar to Tea" and an Erroll Garner-like "I Can't Give You Anything but Love," it's Laine's wide-ranged, full-throated, expressive, and clear-as-a-mountain-lake voice that dominates the session. She sets the table for "I Don't Know Why I Just Do," recalling a few lines from "Love Me or Leave Me," and squeezes every ounce of feeling from "I'll Be Around." Then there's a fun, hip, overdubbed, scatting 1960 girl-singer rendition of "Before Love Went out of Style." The album's highlight track is a bluesy "Soft Shoe," where Dankworth chips in with his soprano sax and Laine and Moore engage in congenial patter. Moore's fellow rhythm section players are the inestimable Ray Brown and Nick Ceroli, which is the icing on a tasty musical cake that this album serves up.

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

-----

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

After his storied stint with Ray Charles and years of solo LPs on Atlantic, Hank came to Kudu in the '70s. This funk-soul-jazz delight from '75 teams his sax with Bob James, Randy Brecker and Pepper Adams among others; the title Stevie Wonder tune joins Sho Is Funky; Groovy Junction; Jana, and more!

Classical Music

Scheidemann: Organ Works, Vol. 3

Includes work(s) for organ by Heinrich Scheidemann. Soloist: Julia Brown.

Classical Music

Félicien David was the pivotal figure in French opera that ignited the obsession for setting works in the exotic East. Almost all the country's leading composers in the late 19th century followed his lead, including Saint-Saëns, Delibes, Gounod and Massenet. Premièred in 1862 and recorded here for the first time, David's magical opera Lalla Roukh uses evocative orchestration to support the fairy-tale plot of an Indian princess and her journey in search of love. The work contains some memorable melodies, the most famous of which, Charmant oiseau, has been a favorite of the world’s greatest sopranos.

"The best of the music has great charm and is less self-consciously exotic than the orientalia of, say, Bizet or Massenet. Noureddin's serenades re ravishingly sung by Emiliano Gonzalez Toro. Marianne Fiset is supremely elegant in the title role." -- Tim Ashley, The Guardian [4/10/14]
“All the principals have firm, clear voices...Marianne Fiest as the heroine has a bright, perfectly placed soprano, attacking even the most exposed notes with precision.” -- Gramophone [6/2014]

Classical Music

Classical Music