KEEP TELLING YOURSELF THAT

This is an album of works of the 20th Century for Flute, Clarinet, and Voice, also featuring piano, harpsichord, and viola. All of the musical compositions are based upon first-rate works of poetry. The compositions by composers such as Aaron Copland, Marilyn Biery, Cornelius Boots, Jay Batzner, and David Biedenbender feature text by poems such as “As It Fell Upon a Day,” by Richard Barnefield, “Provincetown, August,” by Terry Blackhawk, and even classics in the literature canon such as Canterbury Tales and works by William Shakespeare. This programme was recorded in 2015 at the Staples Family Concert Hall at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. The artists are Central Michigan University Music School faculty, and the project was funded by a Creative and Scholarly Support Grant from the university.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

The Chineke! Orchestra return to Signum in a new live orchestral recording from the Royal Festival Hall, London. Drawn from exceptional musicians from across the continent, the orchestra is part of the Chineke! Foundation – a non-profit organization that provides career opportunities to young Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) classical musicians in the UK and Europe. Their motto is ‘Championing Change and Celebrating Diversity in Classical Music’. The Chineke! Orchestra is the brainchild of Chi-chi Nwanoku OBE, FRAM, who says: “My aim is to create a space where BME musicians can walk on stage and know that they belong, in every sense of the word. If even one BME child feels that their color is getting in the way of their musical ambitions, then I hope to inspire them, give them a platform, and show them that music, of whatever kind, is for all people.” In this live concert recording under conductor Roderick Cox they perform Sibelius’s 2nd Symphony and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3, featuring multi-award-winning pianist Gerard Aimontche.

This three-CD reissue of the noted series of seven 10-inch vinyl EPs that Cold Blue released in the early 1980s (during the label’s short-lived initial incarnation) was a Gramophone magazine “Critic’s Choice” in 2004. Extraordinary music for violins and percussion, electric guitar, electronic keyboards with voices, solo and duo pianos, cello, pedal steel guitar, wind instruments of pre-Columbian design, readers, and more from composers Peter Garland, Rick Cox, Barney Childs, Read Miller, Michael Jon Fink, Daniel Lentz, and Chas Smith. John Schaefer, longtime producer of WNYC’s New Sounds called the series of 10-inch EPs “Cold Blue’s little ‘ism’-skirting discs…a whole wonderful world of new sounds.” (This boxed set includes a 24-page full-color booklet.) In Arts Journal, Kyle Gann wrote about the reissued set, “A new three-disc set reissued from the hip southern-California label Cold Blue has me so mesmerized I can hardly quit listening to it.” Josef Woodard writing in The Santa Barbara Independent declared the boxed set “Decidedly cool—in hipness quotient and emotional temperament. Beguiling.” Roger Thomas, writing in Int’l Record Review called the set “My favorite item this month . . . the work of composers whose work might be described as avant-garde but which also exhibited the back-to-fundamentals approach which is so often an aspect of the best American music…a striking set…. This spare, uncluttered music is a compelling listening experience, sounding as fresh today as when it originally appeared.” And Gramophone magazine wrote, “The sounds are spare, wistful, innocent and soft-spoken, often beautiful in a way no other music is.”

Six elegant, dark, sensuous soundscapes in which emotions seem to bubble just below cool surfaces. Harmonically rich and texturally subtle music that features idiosyncratic electric guitar playing techniques developed by composer/performer Cox, whom noted guitarist-composer Ry Cooder has called “a hidden master of the crepuscular and the diaphanous.” On this CD Cox is joined by celebrated composer/trumpeter Jon Hassell, popular film composer Thomas Newman (piano), and composer/performer/instrument designer Chas Smith (pedal steel guitar). The Wire magazine wrote of this album, “Gently undulating melodies are held in soft focus, without becoming cloying; [Cox’s] enveloping harmonies are less innocent than they first appear. Prettiness with a tough core.” And Fanfare magazine wrote, “If you imagine floating through the night sky on a large abstract tapestry, you’ll get a feeling for what Cox’s music is like.” Motion (UK), opined, “Quiet music of consummate musicianship…an achingly beautiful suite of pieces featuring slowly, oh-so-slowly shifting soundscapes. One of a kind and clear candidate for every ambienteer’s ‘Best of 2001’ list.”

This album is the first in the "Legacy" series in which the United States Army Field Band honors the lives and music of individuals who have made significant contributions to choral music and education. Randall Thompson, an American composer, composed three symphonies and numerous vocal works, however he is most noted for his choral works. (Altissimo)

A selection of 40 scenes and speeches performed in live Royal Shakespeare Company productions from 1959 to thre present day. Performers include Judi Dench, Ciaran Hinds, Ian Holm, Derek Jacobi, Alan Rickman, Ian McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Anton Lesser, Paul Robeson, Laurence Olivier, Sinead Cusack, and more. (Opus Arte)

Classical Music

Marty Walker performs music for clarinet and bass clarinet written for him by composers Daniel Lentz, Peter Garland, Jim Fox, Michael Jon Fink, Rick Cox, and Michael Byron. Performing with Walker are noted new music stalwarts William Winant, Wadada Leo Smith, Amy Knoles, and others. The music runs the gamut from a lush work for ten pianos and ten clarinets to a technically thorny solo and includes just about everything in between. Although the individual pieces are on their surfaces quite different from one another, they share a certain commonality—an embrace of music’s inherent sensuality. Critics have described Walker’s playing as “masterful,” “flawless,” and “true artistry.” Minnesota Public Radio’s Michael Barone called this album a “mild-mannered, soul-filling collection of contemporary ‘meditations’. . . think Satie and Morton Feldman, and you come close to the overall mood. Delicate textures prevail…the thinking-listener’s slow lane.” 21st Century Music magazine wrote, “If people are best known by the company they keep, then clarinetist Marty Walker is blessed indeed. He keeps wonderful company with an excellent series of composers…. Both the playing and the recording quality are sparkling.”

Written in his late teens: Flight, for solo flute, whose swooping crests and curlicues are fervently relished in Michael Cox's performance. Benjamin describes the piece as 'inspired by the sight of birds soaring and dipping over the peaks of the Swiss Alps'. Listening to the piece you'll hear a panoply of songs surfing the musical thermals in the alpine either: low, long-breathed cries and calls, filigree flocks of ornamentation in the atmospheric heights of the flute's register, a chorus of vapors conjured by a single instrument. Into The Little Hill is based on the Pied Piper story, allowing audiences an immediate entry point into the opera's dramaturgy. But Crimp's re-telling simultaneously updates the story, with its politicians, photographs, and limousines, and opens up further mythic dimensions to the narrative. The drama of Into the Little Hill is concisce, clear and simultaneously ambiguous, even chilling. Benjamin says, 'Martin's text is hard-edged, formal, and hyper-condensed'. The reason for its musical and dramatic success is Benjamin's unerring feeling for expressive characterisation. Each layer of Into the Little Hill's score is immediately identifiable, from the Crowd's baying cries of 'Kill them' rightat the start of the piece, to the rodentine scurrying of the rat's music, and the Mother's lamenting grief in the last scene. Dream of the Song is a mysteriously sensual and sensually strange song-cycle for countertenor, a halo of female voices that are similar in register, but so different in timbre and sound and expression, and orchestra. The counter-tenor sings poems, in English, by Jewish poets of 11th century Andalucia, themselves inspired by Arabic poetry of earlier centuries. There are images of ravishment and wonder here - moonlight, the celestial tent of the sky, a dream of a gazelle, a harp, a flute - but they are always undercut by other ideas. Above all, it's the gossamer rapier of Benjamin's music that cuts to the heart of these settings.

This recording is in the DVD Audio format and will only play on hardware specifically compatible with the DVD Audio format. Standard CD players will not play this CD.

British music for the clarinet was hugely indebted to the elite interpreters who inspired this important repertoire. they included Frederick Thurston, who first performed three of the works on this recording. Sir Arnold Bax's sonata, much admired and imbued with Celtic folklore, is heard in a version that restores the manuscript's original phrasing. the pieces by roger Fiske and Iain Hamilton are heard in Premie. re-recordings, while Richard Rodney Bennett's duo Concertante was commissioned by the eminent soloist in this recital, Nicholas Cox.

Brass instruments are a vital part of the festive fabric of Christmas, and Tchaikovsky’s iconic ballet The Nutcracker is made even more joyful with the brassy brilliance of Septura. Narrated by preeminent actor Derek Jacobi, The Nutcracker is set on Christmas Eve, with music both rapturous and fantastical. It tells the story of how young Clara’s favorite present, a nutcracker shaped like a little man, turns into a handsome prince at midnight. Septura has been acclaimed by Brass Band World for its ‘stylistic perfection’ and ‘beautifully portrayed artistry.’

Off-shoot of Grand Dominion Jazz Band 1988-89.

Vocalist is backed-up by Lovie Austin-pno, Tommy Ladnier-crnt, Jimmy O'Bryant-clr, Arville Harris-sax, 1923-24.

British clarinetist & his American counterparts create the energy, joy & richness of 1950s ensemble-driven, blues-drenched New Orleans jazz.

As a young man in England, Norrie Cox led his own outfit, the San Jacinto Jazz Band, during the trad boom of the late '50s and early '60s. Cox moved to the U.S. in '66 but it wasn't until '89 that he, along with cornetist Charlie DeVore, put together their dream band, the New Orleans Stompers. With two Delmark CDs out already ("Dance Hall Days" (DMK #236) and "Move the Body Over" (DMK #231), the band is back for a live album with special guest Butch Thompson, master of ragtime, stride and classic jazz piano. Butch is also well-known for his 12-year stint as pianist and band leader on public radio's "A Prairie Home Companion".

Recorded in a classic woodfloor dance hall, this album features traditional New Orleans style jazz at it's best, feat. Charlie DeVore, Jim Klippert, Mike Carrell, Bill Evans & Donald Berg.