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La Comedie Humaine - Chansons balzaciennes

Alpha

$20.99 Nov 29, 2024

Arnaud Marzorati and his singers, 'Les Lunaisiens', are unrivalled specialists in the popular French songs of the past centuries. Here they tackle two great monuments of 19th-century France: the writer Honore de Balzac, and songwriter Pierre-Jean de Beranger, a poet and composer highly famed in his day for his genius in depicting society in all it's social diversity, from the poorest to the very richest. During this period Balzac was also making his sharply drawn portrayals of more than 5,000 characters in the course of his great opus of around 90 novels bearing the overall title of The Human Comedy. Here the 'Lunaisiens' have recorded musical settings of a wide selection of witty and often satirical verse, reflecting all the Parisian themes that obsessed Balzac: social climbing, money and greed, corruption, love and betrayal. With the participation of Lucile Richardot and Cyrille Dubois, Arnaud Marzorati and his ensemble give an enthusiastic account of Balzac's extraordinary human menagerie. As Marzorati concludes: 'The Human Comedy was greatly inspired by song.'

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La Comedie Humaine - Chansons balzaciennes
Alpha Nov 2024
CD
$20.99

American Classics - Ives: Songs Vol 1

Naxos

$19.99 Jun 24, 2008

For this Volume 1 of the songs of Charles Ives (the series will include all of the songs he completed), Naxos employed the services of no less than 13 singers, a potentially risky decision that happily turns out very well. All of the soloists, who represent all voice-parts (including countertenor in two selections), are first-rate singers, many quite young with blooming opera careers, each with a clear and compelling competence in how to sing songs. And these aren't just any songs, but some of the most fascinating, engaging, joyful, humorous, nostalgic, sentimental, artfully written songs in the repertoire.

The programming scheme is to present the songs alphabetically--not only is this handy if you want to find a particular song, but it also happens to create a very satisfying recital with an entertaining mix of styles, texts, and themes. This volume begins perfectly with "1, 2, 3" and ends (also appropriately!) with "Cradle Song", and in between we get such gems as "Aeschylus and Sophocles" (1922), "At Sea" (1921), "At the River" (1916), "Autumn" (1907), "The Cage" (1906), "The Camp Meeting" (1912), "Charlie Rutlage" (1920), "The Circus Band" (1894), and the lovely parlor-songs "Because of You" (1898) and "Because Thou Art" (1901).

Some singers are better than others at articulating the words--particularly important here since the texts are provided only online--and naturally, with this variety of voices, timbres, and techniques, some will appeal more than others to a given listener. For instance, I found Lielle Berman just a bit too "church-soprano-ish" in "The Collection", likewise baritone Patrick Carfizzi's southern accent for "Charlie Rutlage" is somewhat forced and inauthentic, and while it's well sung, to me, countertenor Ian Howell's "A Christmas Carol" is just too precious for its own good. But these are minor, personal quibbles in what overall is an extraordinarily satisfying, consummately entertaining, and consistently thoughtful collaboration that's always respectful of both the serious and humorous, the simple and the complex, the overtly melodious and abstract aspects of these often challenging songs.

Highlights are many, but include all four of bass David Pittsinger's songs, mezzo Leah Wool's "Ann Street", tenor Kenneth Tarver's "At Parting", baritone Robert Gardner's "The Cage" and "The Circus Band", soprano Sara Jakubiak's "Abide with Me" and "At the River"--and I could go on. You might think that listening to 29 Ives songs at one sitting would be a bit much, but thanks to these terrific singers, their fine accompanists, and to Ives' wildly, wonderfully varied, expert songwriting, it's just a pure pleasure--and you'll even find yourself smiling many times throughout.

There have been several excellent, highly recommended Ives song compilations issued on disc, including a complete edition from the early-1990s on Albany, a single-disc program on Decca (type Q3671 in Search Reviews), and two first-rate collections (61 songs all together) from Gerald Finley on Hyperion (for reviews, type Q9249 and Q11530), and this one promises to join them as an essential addition to every Ives and American song listening library. On to Volume 2!

--David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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American Classics - Ives: Songs Vol 1
Naxos Jun 2008
CD
$19.99

JAZZ HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR

GRP RECORDS

$16.49 Aug 10, 1999

Ebullient piano legend Horace Silver is the innovator of the hard bop style that virtually defines today's "straight-ahead" jazz sound. Along with Art Blakey (with whom he founded the seminal group the Jazz Messengers), Silver brought a fresh infusion of funk, gospel, R&B and roots music back to jazz (which had become more abstract during the bebop era). Jazz Has a Sense of Humor consists of 9 new, jaunty Silver originals that aptly make his point that jazz can be both witty and playful.

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JAZZ HAS A SENSE OF HUMOR
GRP RECORDS Aug 1999
CD
$16.49

PEOPLE GET FUNNY

MUSIC ON VINYL

Vinyl

$40.49 Mar 22, 2024

Eddie Harris was an American jazz musician, best known for playing tenor saxophone and for introducing the electrically amplified saxophone. During his career he recorded over 50 albums, mixing jazz with funk which resulted in Grammy Award nominations for two of his albums. The 1983 People Get Funny... recording contains the title track 'People Get Funny When They Get a Little Money' and 'La Carnival', which are sublime examples of his jazz-funk style accompanied by vocals and scatting. 'Silver Plated' and the other tracks are more in the jazz-hard-bop style. Featured on the album are drummer Carl Burnett, electric pianist William S. Henderson III and bass-player Larry Gales. People Get Funny... is available as a limited edition of 500 copies on translucent pink vinyl. * 180 GRAM AUDIOPHILE * INCLUDES 'LA CARNIVAL' * LIMITED EDITION OF 500 COPIES ON TRANSLUCENT PINK COLORED VINYL Track listing: SIDE A 1. People Get Funny When They Get A Little Money 2. La Carnival 3. Ski Ball 4. Three Quarter Miles SIDE B 1. Silver Plated 2. Hal Strang 3. The Time Of My Life 4. Step Down To The Top

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PEOPLE GET FUNNY
MUSIC ON VINYL Mar 2024
Vinyl
$40.49

Milhaud: Melodies et Chansons, Vol. 1 / Falk, Schleiermacher

MDG

$23.99 Jan 06, 2023

The song oeuvre of Darius Milhaud is almost unmanageable. Holger Falk and Steffen Schleiermacher approach this huge convolute with a first selection that already shows the entire breadth of Milhaud's compositions - from humorous cabaret pieces to serious songs, from extended cycles to occasional works "thrown down" with a nimble hand. Throughout his long life, Milhaud remained faithful to tonality. He followed atonality and twelve-tone music of his contemporaries with interest, without ever applying it even on a trial basis. Nevertheless, the simultaneous sounding of different tonalities became almost a trademark of Milhaud - along with his preference for exciting borrowings from distant peoples and exotic rhythms. The "Vocalise-Étude" in 5/8 time sounds more like a South American dance than a vocal exercise; "Dans les Rues de Rio" contains a variety of acoustic memories of a stay in Brazil's capital; the "Soirées de Pétrograd", based on recordings by Russian emigrants, seems almost cartoonish-cabaret-like. And the text is always in the foreground. Milhaud leads the words with his music to a new sphere - to be observed especially well in the "Poèmes juifs". Holger Falk, with his highly flexible voice, knows excellently how to shape this expansion of meaning, and he is supported by Steffen Schleiermacher, who is as sensitive to sound as he is expressive on the contemporary Steinway.

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Milhaud: Melodies et Chansons, Vol. 1 / Falk, Schleiermacher
MDG Jan 2023
CD
$23.99

You Mean the World to Me / Kaufmann

Sony Masterworks

$11.98 Sep 16, 2014

Projects such as this can go so horribly wrong. Opera singers trying to perform “lighter” fare usually do no favors either to themselves or to the music. Only rarely does a classically trained singer working exclusively in that world show an ability to convincingly capture a popular style; usually the inflections and expressive nuances are just “off”, unnatural-sounding, and sometimes even humorous in their attempts at loosening or altering long-practiced, specialized technique. Fortunately, the music on this happily successful effort is many steps removed from the merely “popular”–and the singer, tenor Jonas Kaufmann, is likewise far from a typical opera singer.

The works on offer are characterized by Kaufmann as “tenor hits from the age of the talkies”, a special time in Germany’s cultural history when his grandfather, from whom he first heard many of these tunes, was studying in Berlin, a period that for this recording roughly spans the decade from 1925-35, the world of Sally Bowles and the Kit Kat Klub, as well as Franz Lehár, Emmerich Kálmán, Paul Abraham, and Erich Korngold. In a way, these songs are the “classical music” of a time and place during which many of the composers of the real thing were expelled, banned, exiled, or imprisoned. Yes, these songs are lighter fare than we associate with the most refined operatic repertoire, but, especially as Kaufmann sings them–or rather, performs them–their “lesser” musical/artistic credentials warrant absolutely no apologies. And there are many, many moments of music and singing as spectacular as you’ll hear in any opera.

I’ve praised Kaufmann’s “rich, baritonal tenor” and have cited his “uncommon lyricism and emotional depth” and “lovely high-register soft singing” (in his recording of Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin), and in his review of Wagner arias, colleague Robert Levine is equally impressed, describing the tenor’s “easy ascents above the staff”, “smooth legato”, “phrasing that confirms great musicianship”, and “beautiful, fully rounded, lustrous sound”. You get the idea: Kaufmann has established himself–at least in the opera world–as perhaps the pre-eminent tenor. All of the above traits and techniques and abilities are on display here, from the two versions of Lehár’s “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz!” (one in English, the other in French) and Kálmán’s “Grüss mir mein Wien”, to Eduard Künneke’s “Das Lied vom Leben des Schrenk” (complete with concluding high-C) and Korngold’s gorgeous, disc-highlight “Glück, das mir verblieb”. The latter is a duet–and here is another plus for this recital: the singer accompanying Kaufmann on this and two other numbers, soprano Julia Kleiter, is wonderful, a superb singer who matches the tenor perfectly, vocally and stylistically.

The accompaniments, including several arrangements by Andreas Tarkmann, are all finely played by the Berlin Radio Symphony and Jochen Rieder, and recorded in the broadcasting studio of the former East German Radio–noted for its excellent acoustics, and apparently retaining much of its ambience from that earlier time. You may not love absolutely all of the selections here (I could have done without the too-sappy “My little nest of heavenly blue”, another by Lehár), but I’m pretty certain that you will enjoy every single note. Highly recommended.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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You Mean the World to Me / Kaufmann
Sony Masterworks Sep 2014
CD
$11.98

Moniuszko & Friends Romantics

DUX

$19.99 May 01, 2026

Beloved songs by Stanislaw Moniuszko are presented here in a striking new sound world, inspired by the tradition of 19th-century home music-making, where the piano gives way to plucked instruments-lutes and guitars. This bold artistic vision is further enriched by masterful spoken interpretations of poetry by writers close to the composer, delivered by acclaimed actor Krzysztof Gosztyla. Two contrasting vocal voices-a light, luminous female timbre and a strong, resonant male voice-come together to tell a story in which wit and humor intertwine with moments of tender, nostalgic reflection.

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Moniuszko & Friends Romantics
DUX May 2026
CD
$19.99

Mix & Match

MY FUNNY VALENTINE

SBME SPECIAL MKTS.

$12.02 Feb 01, 2005

Miles' quintet (with George Coleman, Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams) was a band for the ages, one that performed with an incandescent beauty remarkable even for them on February 12, 1964 at Lincoln Center. Their explorations of All of You; Stella by Starlight; All Blues; I Thought About You, and the title classic are joined by revelatory new notes by Carter!

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MY FUNNY VALENTINE
SBME SPECIAL MKTS. Feb 2005
CD
$12.02

Serenade / Hampson, Pikulski

PENTATONE

SACD

$21.99 Sep 15, 2017

With Serenade, Thomas Hampson's first album exclusively dedicated to French song, Mr. Hampson brings his passion for works by French opera composers to the PENTATONE label. Curated with the French Literature scholar Sylvain Fort and in a first collaboration with the Polish pianist Maciej Pikulski, the track listing includes romantic and introspective as well as humorous selections by Bizet, Chabrier, Chausson, Gounod, Magnard, Massenet, and Saint-Saëns, featuring texts written by some of France's most revered writers including Victor Hugo, Paul Verlaine, Rosemonde Gerard, and others.

REVIEW:

There are many byways through the well-stocked garden of French song for those who want to explore further afield. Thomas Hampson has put together an imaginative programme that places just a handful of well-known songs along its path, including Chabrier’s jolly parade of ducklings in “Villanelle des petits canards” and Chausson’s hothouse “Le temps des lilas."

-- Financial Times (U.K.)

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Serenade / Hampson, Pikulski
PENTATONE Sep 2017
SACD
$21.99

Funny Girl (New Broadway Cast with Lea Michele)

MASTERWORKS

$16.17 Jan 20, 2023

Sony Masterworks Broadway is proud to announce the release of the Funny Girl New Broadway Cast Recording. Starring Emmy Award Nominee Lea Michele as Fanny Brice, Tony and Olivier Award nominee Ramin Karimloo as Nick Arnstein, the cast also features Tony & Drama Desk Award Nominee Jared Grimes and four-time Tony Award nominee Tovah Feldshuh. (Sony)

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Funny Girl (New Broadway Cast with Lea Michele)
MASTERWORKS Jan 2023
CD
$16.17

ALL WE GET IS LIFE

APARTE

$20.17 Dec 20, 2024

Cage and Dowland: the two Johns, four hundred years apart, share a common taste for sober expression, concise forms and intimate realization - and for the pleasure that comes from words as such. Each cultivates this desire in his own way. Cage, like a tightrope walker, approaches the essence of musical thought with humor, lightness, and depth, and Dowland aims for the expression of feelings in their purest form. Cultivating as always a fertile anachronism, the Theleme ensemble brings together the complete works for two voices and lute by Dowland, several compositions by Cage, and world-renowned artist Sting offers a reworking of his hit song, "Shape of My Heart", which in this new arrangement becomes a kind of 21st-century lute song, coming full circle on an album where Renaissance and present meet, mingle, and merge to transcend the boundaries of aesthetics and genres.

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ALL WE GET IS LIFE
APARTE Dec 2024
CD
$20.17

Corrette: Symphonies Des Noëls, Concertos Comiques / Arion, Et Al

Early-music.com

$18.99 Nov 18, 2008

CORRETTE Symphonies des noëls: No. 2 in D; No. 4 in D; No. 5 in a; No. 6 in A. Concertos comiques: No. 4, “Le quadrille”; No. 7; No. 19, “La Turque”; No. 24; No. 25, “Les sauvages et la Furstemberg” • Arion (period instruments) • EARLY-MUSIC.COM 7768 (67:32)

What a delightful disc this is! These examples of light, humorous music still amuse us nearly 300 years after they were written. Michel Corrette may have been more important for his work in fields other than composition. He published 15 methods to instruct students in all of the common instruments. He was active as a publisher of his own works and the music of others. But he also was very active as a composer of, among other things, cantatas, ballets, motets, organ pieces, harpsichord sonatas, and symphonies. He was the first composer in France to compose concertos for wind instruments and for organ.

Today Corrette is probably best remembered for his 25 Concertos comiques , published between 1733 and 1760. The concertos are based on well-known songs and popular tunes. Corrette performed these delightful works during the intermissions of performances of the Opéra-comique at the St. Laurent and St. Germain fairs. The Symphonies des noëls are suites of variations based on popular noëls, which are “profane airs, dance tunes, drinking songs, and New Year’s pieces” according to one description. The melodies are immensely pleasing, and Corrette’s variations testify to his enjoyment in working with them.

The music is performed by seven members of the Canadian period-instrument group Arion. Their tempos are lively but not rushed. The performers are obviously very talented and expert.

This recording was issued on the Atma label in 1999; it does not seem to have been reviewed in Fanfare . Two of the Noëls and Concerto comique No. 25 are available elsewhere, but there is no other collection that allows us to hear so many of these splendid works. I cannot imagine anyone whose spirits would not be lifted immediately on hearing this disc. My only regret is that Arion did not follow up with recordings of the other works from these two collections. Highly recommended.

FANFARE: Ron Salemi

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Corrette: Symphonies Des Noëls, Concertos Comiques / Arion, Et Al
Early-music.com Nov 2008
CD
$18.99

COMEDY
ATLANTIC Oct 1990
CD
$16.49

YOU

SAVANT

$16.63 Jan 28, 2022

Jazz vocalist Giacomo Gates is blessed with a smooth and supremely expressive baritone voice and an all-inclusive musicality which encompasses a hipster-like coolness, a smattering of vocalese, an Eckstine-like seductiveness, the story telling ability of a griot, a firm footing in the blues and a sense of swing which is second-to-none. His performances can be quiet and full of insight (or innuendo) or be ebullient and joyful. Whatever style Gates may offer - be it sensitive, sensuous or syncopated - he infuses the music with an understated humor, wry cultural and social implications and an impish delight in surprising his listeners. You is a perfect example of Gates at his best with the vocalist putting together a program with a unique and decidedly altruistic leitmotiv. As Gates himself says, "The context of many songs written and recorded, are composed by people with 'I' problems... but not these songs. All of these songs are about you." Here are 18 songs everybody knows and loves, arranged with creativity and wit and featuring Gates' gregarious delivery so that there can be no mistake, "it's all about you!"

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YOU
SAVANT Jan 2022
CD
$16.63

SONGS FOR CABRIOLETS

Frémeaux

$20.99 Jun 14, 2019

Initially released in the year 2000, Karl Zéro's first album, a little pop gem, reached cult status. Inside this tribute to extreme cocktail music, space age pop and late Fifties' exotica, audiences discovered thirteen deliciously 'vintage' acid drops, cha cha chas and other ritmos locos... Produced by Karl Zéro and Alexandre Desplat, the album, recorded in Karl's own inimitable, singer/talk-show presenter style, contains a mischievous mix of poetry and humour that takes Henri Salvador, Daisy d'Errata and Eric Laugérias for a ride in the wake of Marino Marini, Xavier Cugat or Mikis Theodorakis. A kind of musical U.F.O., this record adorned one of the most remarkable X-Files episodes and met with international success.

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SONGS FOR CABRIOLETS
Frémeaux Jun 2019
CD
$20.99

IVES, C.: Songs, Vol. 6

Naxos

$19.99 Nov 18, 2008

When, in 1922, Charles Ives published a volume entitled 114 Songs, he was indirectly drawing attention to the fact that the genre had played a central part in his output. 85 years on and, for all that his wider reputation may now rest on his orchestral, chamber and piano music, songs represent the heart of his creative thinking. Nor was that initial volume comprehensive; Ives having written almost 200 songs, of which this present edition includes all those he completed. The expressive variety encountered is accordingly vast: indeed, the gradual evolution of Ives's songwriting, from those drawing overtly on the Austro-German Lieder and English parlor-song traditions to ones that evince anarchic humor as keenly as others do a profound vision, is analogous to the evolution of American music over the last quarter of the nineteenth and the first quarter of the twentieth centuries. Although it would be possible to collate Ives's songs according to type, the alphabetic approach adopted by this edition ensures each volume (of which this is the sixth and last) contains a representative cross section of his achievement. A wide range of poets is set (Ives could be highly interventionist when it suited his purpose), including (mainly early) German settings as well as forays into French and Italian writers. Moreover, the temporal distance (1887-1926) traversed by the songs is as little compared to their stylistic diversity or their emotional range. The extent to which Ives reworked songs throughout his career is considerable, whether substituting a text or reworking the actual music. To this end, songs with a musical or textual connection are cross linked accordingly (i.e. in brackets at the end of the relevant paragraph). The setting of Rudyard Kipling's Tarrant Moss (1902) uses just two verses, treated in a peremptory fashion as if to suggest that the text was merely the nearest one to hand (see also Volume 5, track 27, Naxos 8.559273). Set to an anonymous text, There is a Certain Garden (1897) has a tripping and irregular piano part against which the vocal line unfolds a little awkwardly, though the charm of the song is undoubted. A revision of an earlier German song, now to Ives's own text, There is a Lane (1902) is a brief but winsome setting; the fond nostalgia of it's vocal line underscored by the piano (see also below, track 27). A late addition to his song canon, They are There! (1942) was Ives's contribution to the American war effort; setting his own (updated) text with a conviction aptly summed up by the subtitle 'Fighting for the People's New Free World'. It can be performed (as here) by unison voices, and with a lively ad lib instrumental part. Ives left a memorable, breathlessly enthusiastic recording.

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IVES, C.: Songs, Vol. 6
Naxos Nov 2008
CD
$19.99

GLAD RAG DOLL

VERVE

$16.49 Oct 02, 2012

Diana Krall's extraordinary new album, GLAD RAG DOLL is an exhilarating and adventurous exploration of new sounds, new instrumentation and new musicians. It stars a singer and piano player, filled with mischief, humor and a renewed sense of tenderness and intimacy. The record reveals itself at that remarkable vanishing point in time where all music; swinging, rocking and taboo, collide with songs of longing, solace and regret. All are made new again in a vaudeville of Krall's own imagining. It is at once a major departure and a natural progression for the gifted musician. Diana simply calls the album, "a song and dance record".

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GLAD RAG DOLL
VERVE Oct 2012
CD
$16.49

Jewish Travels: A Historical Voyage in Music & Song

ARC Music

$10.49 ~~$20.99~~ Save 50% May 26, 2017

Lutz Cassel came in touch with the culture of his ancestors for the first time in the early 1960s. This was during song contests at the Castle “Waldeck” in Germany. Although he had no idea of his background (he had been raised in the Christian faith) the music touched him deeply and from this time onwards he began to collect everything connected with Jewish culture and especially with Jewish music and to adapt it for his performances in folk clubs. Step by step he developed a repertoire of songs and also the idea to describe the history of the Jewish people and its music and culture. By and by Lutz started to season his performances with jokes, anecdotes and stories from the thousands of years of history of this people, which consists of more than just the Bible, the Roman Empire and the Holocaust. Lutz was often dissatisfied with the fact that singers of Yiddish songs in Germany generally only described the modern history of the Jews. The origins of the songs were not explained and therefore only a few people understood their meaning. His successes in many small cabarets encouraged him to combine history, stories and music. He did this not in the then popular way of many singer/songwriters, with a moralizing undertone, but with humor and irony- the typical self-irony of Jewish humor. This release is a live recording of a concert which took place in the Hamburg Music Hall for the Hanukkah Celebration of 1986.

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Jewish Travels: A Historical Voyage in Music & Song
ARC Music May 2017
CD
~~$20.99~~ $10.49

Carola & Scultore: Petit Soleil

Cyprés Records

$20.99 Mar 08, 2024

Amorosa, a multicultural musical band based in Brussels, is driven by the voice of Stéphanie Scultore who sings about love in French and Portuguese, drawing us into her poetry between the warmth of Brazilian rhythms and the elegance of jazz harmonies. Amorosa's music is generous. Sometimes voluble, sometimes calm. At once intimate and universal, it draws its uniqueness and its modernity from the way it mixes genres, textures and registers while drawing on popular traditions.
Petit Soleil is an album full of love and humor. Stéphanie drew her inspiration from both the birth of her son and the death of her mother a few months later. The music is a tribute to those who are leaving and those who are coming: the people who live within us, the people who are dear to us and accompany us at every moment in a cycle that renews itself endlessly. Each song pays tribute to a place or a person and evokes something of the sky in the form of dialogue, contemplation, poem, prayer, reverie or legend, telling a story that is both intimate and collective, forming a patchwork of a great landscape.
The time of an album, a day or a lifetime, we sit down facing the sea and the sky to rediscover stories and listen to songs, to remember where we come from…

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Carola & Scultore: Petit Soleil
Cyprés Records Mar 2024
CD
$20.99

COLLECTION 1927-34

ACROBAT

$25.04 Jan 15, 2021

The Memphis Jug Band are generally primarily associated with the blues, but in truth they were a more broad-based musical agglomeration, whose music was designed to be danceable, humorous and out-and out entertaining. Their line-up varied across the years, but the essential jug band sound and instrumentation of guitar, jug, kazoo, harmonica, and occasional banjo, mandolin, washboard and woodblocks, remained at the core of their sound, which has provided a template for skiffle groups and modern jug bands ever since, with many of their songs also still being performed by such bands. This great-value 72-track 3-CD set comprises most of their recordings for Victor and Okeh during this era, including recordings as The Memphis Sheikhs and The Carolina Peanut Boys. It features some of those jug band classics which have passed into later bands' repertoires, including "He's In The Jailhouse Now", "Move That Thing", "On The Road Again", and "Bottle It Up And Go". It's a comprehensive overview of their career, and a highly entertaining showcase for their rough-edged but finely-honed skill as entertainers.

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COLLECTION 1927-34
ACROBAT Jan 2021
CD
$25.04

NO FUNNY HATS

LIGHTYEAR (LTY)

$16.49 Sep 28, 2004

On March 3, 1978, Buddy Rich took one of the best bands he ever had (he called them the Killer Force) to a gig at a Sacramento high school. What was captured will make jazz fans flip: no producers, no set lists just electrifying jazz the way Buddy felt like playing it that night: Grand Concourse; Slow Funk; West Side Story Suite; Someday My Prince Will Come, and more!

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NO FUNNY HATS
LIGHTYEAR (LTY) Sep 2004
CD
$16.49

BUTTERBEANS & SUSIE

GHB RECORDS

$16.60 ~~$16.61~~ Save 0% Feb 21, 2006

In 1960, when the music on this CD was originally recorded and released, Joe and Susie Edwards - Butterbeans & Susie - were on the tail end of a phenomenal 50-year-long career as a husband-and-wife comedy team. During the mid-to-late 1920s, when vaudeville was at it's height, and the TOBA circuit was in it's glory, this duo ruled the whole rowdy world of husband-and-wife comedy. This CD contains the entire original LP plus additional informal dialogue and interviews. Features Eddie Heywood, Leonard Gaskin, Jimmy Crawford, Joe Thomas, Gene Sedric, Benny Morton, Dick Vance, Earl Warren and Dickie Wells. Includes: Ballin' the Jack/ Get Yourself a Monkey Man/ There'll Be Some Changes Made/ Construction Gang/ I've Got the Blues for Home Sweet Home/ a Married Man's a Fool/ When My Man Shimmies/ Deal Yourself Another Hand/ Street Piano/ Unitl the Real Thing Comes Along and several interviews.

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BUTTERBEANS & SUSIE
GHB RECORDS Feb 2006
CD
~~$16.61~~ $16.60

Purcell: Love’s Madness / Dorothee Mields, Wolfgang Katschner, Lautten Compagney Berlin

Carus

$20.99 Apr 24, 2012

You really won’t be disappointed with these stylish, polished, engaging performances.

In the old days—that is, the 1980s and ‘90s—this is a recording that would have been done by the Baltimore Consort, with soprano Custer LaRue; but they would have left out the boring stuff, all those endlessly plodding “grounds”, or the excessively torturous (as opposed to the reasonably tortuous) six-and-one-half-minute Expostulation of the Blessed Virgin, in favor of livelier, more virtuosic, or just more light-hearted or even humorous material.

Mields is certainly a wonderful singer—indeed, this is some of the best work she’s done—and the instrumentalists are first-rate. But I don’t buy the legitimacy of the programmatic device that supposedly unifies the chosen repertoire: a “journey into the extremities of the life of the soul, caused by feelings of love.” The word “mad” pops up frequently in the liner notes, supposedly a theme that links all of the music, by Purcell and a few contemporaries—but you’ll be hard pressed to hear and feel this connection as you listen.

That’s not to say that the program isn’t composed of some fine and well-chosen songs—and Mields has admirable command of the material; yet her final, gorgeously sung Dido’s Lament lacks a true emotional connection with the character’s situation, eliminating that oft-recorded, beloved aria as a reason to own the disc. But there are plenty more reasons among the 31 tracks—and if you’re a fan of this period and place (latter 17th-century England), and of songs such as “Sing, sing Ye Druids” and “The Three Ravens”, you really won’t be disappointed with these stylish, polished, engaging performances.

-- David Vernier, ClassicsToday.com

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Purcell: Love’s Madness / Dorothee Mields, Wolfgang Katschner, Lautten Compagney Berlin
Carus Apr 2012
CD
$20.99

Hello Darkness: Songs on Death from Monteverdi to Eilish / Vermeulen, Schulze

Challenge Classics

$18.99 Feb 25, 2022

Dedicating an album to the dark side of the Lied might seem inappropriate in these times of Covid, climate change and refugee crises, but as a mezzo-soprano Olivia has always been drawn to the darker roles in opera, the sad arias in oratorio and the deep laments in song. After our recent recording (‘Dirty Minds’), which focused on ‘la petite mort’, it seemed a natural progression to turn our attention to ‘la grande mort’! Darkness in the outside world and the inner self has always been – alongside Love – one of the chief themes of vocal music, and compositions and songs about death are legion during every period of musical history. The music on this recording is extremely diverse and we relished the idea of programming songs from different centuries in different styles and genres. We begin with a collection of songs about melancholia, inner abysses, longing for death and murderous lust. But the album is also rich in songs about comfort and hope, light instead of despair – with lashings of black humor! Composers down the ages have used innovative approaches to render the theme of death. Chromaticism is used tellingly by Monteverdi and Schubert. Duparc’s sensuous ‘Extase’ (1878), is nothing short of a miniature Liebestod. Korngold and Wolfgang Rihm play with translucent semitone sighs, Schumann’s ‘Nachtlied’ is characterized by hovering harmonies; Strauss and Korngold use late-romantic opulence; while tonality with Charles Ives and Alban Berg begins to lose its hold, while Berg, abandons tonality entirely. John Cage goes a step further and directs the pianist to drum the notes on the lid of a completely closed piano. Randy Newman’s ‘In Germany before the war’ is wreathed in mystery.

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Hello Darkness: Songs on Death from Monteverdi to Eilish / Vermeulen, Schulze
Challenge Classics Feb 2022
CD
$18.99