The mastery of an instrument or a musical language doesn't necessarily mean that a musician must be frivolous in performance with displays of their masterful technique or engagement in superfluous overplaying. Sometimes it is the restraint that shows the maturity and taste of a performer. Rufus Reid and Sullivan Fortner are musicians who have the easy ability to astonish but show their class in their control.  Of course, Reid has been admonished as one of the best bassists in jazz for decades, leaving him nothing more to prove. The heralded young pianist, Sullivan Fortner, has a maturity beyond his years and the pairing of the two allows for music making of the highest caliber. Their duo recording, It's The Nights I Like, shows just what kind of magic can made without resorting to histrionics and letting the music shine.

Both sides of Rufus Reid, the jazz one and the classical one, come togeth er on this album; in fact, it's like two albums for the price of one. The six tracks on which his trio is joined by the internationally acclaimed Sirius Quartet show off his facility for writing daring, memorable string arrange ments that draw equally from jazz and Western classical music. (Two of the six are by Allee, also a sophisticated composer whose musical interests are as broad as Rufus's.) Forming a delightful counterweight to these hybrid, chamber-jazz enterprises are five tunes that feature just piano, bass and drums: three blues-based excursions, a tender ballad and a jazz samba. The blurring of the lines between jazz and classical musicians - en couraged by the conservatories where both genres are increasingly part of the curriculum - is vividly demonstrated throughout the album, and especially in the title track. Recruiting the Sirius Quartet for this project proves to be an inspired choice - they are as celebrated for their facility with improvisation as they are for their adventurous repertoire. They play with precision and fire throughout, as demonstrated in the title track, which includes dazzling improvised solos by violinist Gre gor Huebner and cellist Jeremy Harman. Eschewing false dichotomies, Rufus insists on bringing both sides of his musical personality to bear.

Broken Shadows brings together four luminaries of the American jazz scene: Tim Berne, Chris Speed, Reid Anderson and Dave King. Broken Shadows has very strong connections, in twos. Saxophonists Tim Berne and Chris Speed have been playing together since 1992; Bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King - two thirds of the legendary band The Bad Plus - have been playing together for over 35 years. Named after an Ornette Coleman composition, this all-star project honors the legacy of the music of their idols and mentors Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman, Charlie Haden and Julius Hemphill. "Most all of the songs have melodies; infectious and singable. Songs you would want to put in your pocket and take them home. In a time of songs treated as vehicles for improvisation, with this band, the vehicle is the song", writes Branford Marsalis in the liner notes, celebrating the emotional power and impact of Broken Shadows: "Harmonic data does not create emotion; the ability to change color in ones sound does. This is something that Broken Shadows understand, be it explicit or implicit. The twelve tracks range from lamentation, or insouciant swagger, to utter joy, and all the colors in between."

This is an audio-only (i.e., with no video content) Blu-ray disc playable only on Blu-ray players.

It is also available on standard CD.

Taken from two concert performances in January, 2015, this is the first installment of an entire Ring Cycle from the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden to be recorded by Naxos. It makes you hungry for the rest.

The recording is clean and clear, with no artificial anything. Van Zweden’s approach is closest in memory to Herbert von Karajan’s–intimate and chamber-like, a family drama that happens to be played out in magical, mythological terms. Also like Karajan, van Zweden takes his time (at 2 hours and 33 minutes, this is on the longish side) and offers seamless segues between scenes. When a solo instrument is featured in Wagner’s dense orchestration, it is given a spotlight, and beautiful moments are to be bathed in–the motif after the Rainbow Bridge is created and the singing that follows rarely have sounded so tuneful and lovely. The Hong Kong Philharmonic is not Berlin or Vienna or the Met, but it has nothing to fear–the playing throughout is smooth and handsome. The opening Rhine passage is dark but clear, the piling up of the gold in Scene IV is beautifully built, and the opera’s final moments are indeed the grandest, as they should be–one of the few instances when van Zweden pulls out all the stops.

The storytelling is at the fore; impeccable diction is the order of the day. As revolting as Alberich always is, we can actually hear the flirtatious playfulness in the opera’s opening moments until he realizes that he doesn’t have a chance. And from then on, he’s simply vile–Peter Sidhom sings with an audible sneer and a ringing top to the voice that we rarely get in this role. He’s a baritone with remarkable “face”.

The back and forth between the fine, unexaggerated Fricka of Michelle De Young and the remarkable, surprising Wotan of Matthias Goerne is natural and familiar, and Goerne is the surprise of the performance. His experience and expertise as a Lieder singer comes in very handy in this opera: his interacting with Loge and his cajoling of Mime and Alberich all are textually and dynamically right-on. The bottom of the voice sounds remarkably rich, and while the top notes are brighter than we normally hear, he has authority. One wonders, however, about his Walküre Wotan….

David Cangelosi’s slimy Mime is vivid and actually sung–note for note, and Kim Begley’s Loge is performed with wonderful detachment: he knows he’s smarter than anyone else. Deborah Humble’s Erda could have been darker-hued, but her attention to the text turns her scene into the “event” it should be. Anna Samuil’s Freia is much like every other soprano’s who sings the part: good at complaining and being afraid. Kwangchul Youn’s Fasolt is on a grand scale; Stephen Milling’s Fafner not so much. Froh, small part though it is, deserves a better profile than Charles Reid gives it, and the Donner of Oleksandr Pushniak begins his “Heda…” on an unsteady note but recovers quickly. The Rhinemaidens–Eri Nakamura, Aurhelia Varak, and Hermine Haselböck–are a terrific, articulate, tuneful trio...


First choice among Rheingolds is still the Decca, but Testament’s release of a 1955 Bayreuth performance with Hans Hotter is certainly in the running, and as a non-gimmicky performance, may even be better. But this new set gives a wonderful overall view of this opera, and at a remarkable price.

-- Robert Levine, ClassicsToday.com

The opening salvo of Wagner's tetralogy, Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung), Das Rheingold establishes immediately the epic nature of Wagner's intentions in a epochal tale that owes much to Old Norse and Icelandic sagas. Featuring the acclaimed conductor Jaap Van Zweeden with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, this production is graced with the presence of noted soloists such as Matthias Goerne, Kwangchul Youn, Eri Nakamura and Michelle DeYoung, among others.

The twelve volumes comprising The Complete Songs of Robert Burns remain the benchmark of all Burns songs recordings. This groundbreaking series took seven years to complete and involved over 80 musicians. Encompassing ballads and bawdy songs, patriotic and political anthems plus songs which bring Scottish people and places to life, these volumes touch all aspects of human nature and represent a vigorous folk tradition past and present. ‘...a delightful cornucopia of excellent, often hauntingly authentic performances.’ (BBC Music Magazine)

From her days singing with the Count Basie band as a replacement for Joe Williams, to her Indian summer of renewed popularity, Irene Reid always lived up to her moniker, the Queen of Uptown Blues. Like Dinah Washington & Esther Phillips, Irene had a church background and never lost that divine intensity or power to convey the emotions in a lyric. Her most notable post-Basie gig was playing the wicked witch on Broadway in "The Whiz." Here is a program featuring Irene, the Charles "Mighty Burner" Earland, Eric Alexander and the rest of the crew doing what Irene did best: The Uptown Blues.

Etienne Cutajar is a star of the future and an extraordinarily gifted horn player. This CD presents music for horn with piano, with harp and solo. Included are two world premiere recordings: The Fantasie Sonata by Charles Camilleri (who attended the recording sessions and was most delighted with the performance!) and Jean-Michel Damase's "Aspects".