Anyone who delves into the musical analysis of these 25 gems-into their incredible thematic structure, into their harmonic cosmos-will fall in love with them. Yet, the purely emotional enjoyment of such simply beautiful folk songs is also readily accessible-and, indeed, likely just as Britten intended, as a folk composer of his time. - Daniel Johannsen
The American composer William Bolcom (b. 1938) is best-known for his large-scale setting of William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience," which is available on a 3-CD Naxos set. This new collection of Bolcom's songs also on Naxos shows the composers's lifelong fascination with Blake. It includes an early lyrical setting of Blake's poem, "Mary" which deals with a beautiful and intelligent young woman and her rejection by her society. In the several torch and cabaret-style works it includes, the collection also shows Bolcom's attempts to fuse classical with popular styles of music. Bolcom also has done so in his piano music, much of which is heavily influenced by ragtime. The songs on this CD are performed and selected by soprano Carole Farley with Bolcom himself at the piano.
CD reissue. H.E.R. is a compilation album by H.E.R., originally released in 2017. The album comprises songs from the two prior EPs along with six new tracks, including the duet "Best Part" from Daniel Caesar's album Freudian (2017). The six new songs were also released on a third EP, H.E.R., Vol. 2: The B-Sides, on October 20, 2017.
In German-speaking countries, carolers go from door to door every year between Christmas and Epiphany. They collect donations for children in need and, with their songs, carry the blessing of God into every house. Children and young people from choirs belonging to the German Pueri Cantores Choir Association have sung a total of 25 carols for this album, including established classics such as “Stern über Bethlehem”, but also surprises such as the “Sternsinger-Rap”. This release heightens the joyful anticipation of carol singing, making it easier to learn the new songs as well as motivating people to sing.
These eight songs are the fruit of Lead Belly's first visit to New York in 1935, but the record company's financial downfall prevented all but two-"Pigmeat" and "Black Snake Moan"-from reaching the market. This album reverses that misfortune of unavailability, and the notes provide vignettes of the bluesman's experiences.
Songbook is the title of French clarinetist Pierre Genisson's new album, recorded with pianist Bruno Fontaine, and several surprising guests. Featuring a laid-back mix of repertoire taken from the American Songbook and from French popular repertoire. Terrific lineup of artists includes Monica Bellucci on "I Got You Under My Skin", Lambert Wilson on "My Funny Valentine", Thibaut Garcia on Salvador's "Syracuse" and on "Smile", Youn Sun Nah in "La Javanaise", Kimberose on "What A Wonderful World".
Life Stories brings together soprano Claire Booth and pianist Jams Coleman in a vibrant program exploring the borderland between classical song and cabaret. At it's center is Zoe Martlew's Hotel Babylon, a contemporary cycle written for Booth: seven sharply drawn character studies that trace a playful yet unsettling journey through temptation, vice and redemption. Blending cabaret, expressionism, tango and baroque echoes, Martlew's music creates a modern counterpart to Schoenberg's Brettl-Lieder, reimagined for the 21st century. Surrounding this new work is a constellation of composers who also navigate the everyday and the existential through song. Gershwin's The Man I Love and I Got Rhythm offer melodic clarity and bittersweet simplicity; Eisler's Hollywooder Liederbuch excerpts deliver intimate, politically charged reflections from the composer's American exile; and Poulenc's Banalites reveals profound emotion beneath it's surface wit and elegance. Earl Wild's piano transcriptions of Gershwin bring Romantic virtuosity into dialogue with the album's lyrical core. The program concludes with Thomas Ades' Life Story, a candid, fragmented setting of Tennessee Williams that mirrors the fragile human connections running through the disc. Together, these works form a compelling portrait of storytelling in song-by turns ironic, tender, biting, and deeply humane.
Rachmaninoff & Gershwin: Transcriptions by Earl Wild / Wilson
Avie Records
CD
$19.99Sep 15, 2023
John Wilson brings us a double helping of Wild’s exquisite solo piano distillations following the Gershwin–Wild Virtuoso Etudes that featured on his AVIE Records debut (AV2458): ‘This album gives listeners a chance to hear singing – an art form at once simple and complex – carried in a different; very deftly crafted musical vehicle; that of Earl Wild’s skill as a transcriber.’
REVIEWS:
If the second solo album by young American pianist John Wilson had a title, it might well be “Virtuoso,” for that description permeates his musical selections as well as his dynamic interpretations. Wilson follows in the footsteps of previous pianistic giants Sergei Rachmaninoff, George Gershwin, and Earl Wild, all of whom have contributions on this new release–indeed the pedigree of these composer–arranger–pianists runs through Wilson’s musical DNA.Wild’s renowned re–workings of Gershwin’s music for the stage is represented here by the Fantasy onPorgy and Bess, alongside Gershwin’s own Three Preludes for solo piano. Wild also turned his hand to solo piano arrangements of Rachmaninoff’s soulful songs for which Wilson feels a close affinity thanks to his frequent collaborations with singers.
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco: Stories, Sonnets & Serenades - He
Dynamic
CD
$16.99Apr 18, 2025
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco always remained faithful to a tonal musical language. He is mostly known today for his guitar works, but his output is much richer and more varied than is widely appreciated. Castelnuovo-Tedesco selected Heinrich Heine's more ironic poems in the three collections recorded here, adding light-hearted quotes from Schumann and Verdi in his cycle The Stories of Joseph. Also included are unpublished songs such as La canzone di Usigliano with it's references to Tuscan folk songs, and the Three Sonnets from the Portuguese, which reflect the romantic and dreamy character of texts by Elizabeth Barret Browning.
The BYU Young Ambassadors’ new production, "Heartsongs: Melodies of Love," is a fast-paced musical revue created for family audiences. + "Heartsongs" features show tunes from award-winning Broadway musicals as well as popular international hits by the Beatles, Elvis Presley, Adele and Michael Jackson. + Since their premier performance at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan, the BYU Young Ambassadors have performed in over 67 countries and appeared before millions, including many government and arts leaders.
With Pianosong, Alexandre Tharaud pays homage to the great French singers and songwriters of the 20th century (Brel, Piaf, Barbara, Gainsbourg, Trenet, Ferre, Berger) by transposing their songs into a new pianistic and symphonic language. This is not a cover album, nor a tribute in the conventional sense. It is a collection of musical metamorphoses, through improvisation, arrangement, orchestration, and interpretation.
With Seeing, Tord Gustavsen begins an intricate new chapter in his series of acclaimed trio recordings, initiated in 2003 with Changing Places - an album that is today considered a classic. "The new recording with it's compact, concentrated song forms, reflects my personal development as I get older, going for the essentials in life and music," says the Norwegian pianist. The group's interplay draws strength from restraint, patiently building the music toward it's climaxes, while Gustavsen, a true master of the trio format, shapes the whole with his delicate touch and subtle gospel glow.
In October 2012, Mars premiered the first single, "Locked Out of Heaven," from his highly-anticipated sophomore album UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX. On October 20th, Mars made his comeback to national television when he joined the elite club of hosts and performers for SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE alongside the likes of Mick Jagger, Justin Timberlake and Elton John. Mars not only showcased his comedic talent to the millions watching, but also debuted the first live performance of "Locked Out of Heaven" and premiered a brand new song, "Young Girls," from the historic stage in New York City. UNORTHODOX JUKEBOX is due in stores December 11th. Mars and his songwriting/production team the Smeezingtons (Mars, Philip Lawrence, Ari Levine) partnered with heavyweight producers including Jeff Bhasker, Mark Ronson and Diplo to create the 10-track album.
On a late spring morning in 1968, seventeen-year-old Roslyn Kind graduated from high school in Brooklyn and immediately began a new job later the same day. “I graduated to ‘Pomp and Circumstance’ in the morning,” she recalls, “and that evening I was in RCA Studio B, down around 23rd Street in Manhattan, making my first recording.”
Kind’s two RCA albums Give Me You and This Is Roslyn Kind are fascinating time capsules from a period – 1968-69 – when American popular music was undergoing seismic changes. There is a bit of Broadway to be heard – “I Only Wanna Laugh” from the 1969 flop Jimmy, as well as a ballad from a 1965 Charles Aznavour revue, plus songs by Richard Maltby and David Shire, and Hal Hackady and Larry Grossman (who were about to see their musical Minnie’s Boys produced on Broadway). But most of the material reflects Kind’s own taste and current trends in popular music. There are songs by Lennon and McCartney, Mann and Weil, Harry Nilsson, Jimmy Webb, and Rick Evans of the then-hot one-hit-wonder (“In the Year 2525”) duo Zager and Evans.
Vinyl LP pressing. I Put a Spell on You is the 1965 album by Nina Simone, and features some of her best known songs. "I Put a Spell on You" is a song originally by Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The original version gave the song an ironic theme, but Simone transformed it into a thrilling love song, complete with horns and strings. It had become one of her most well-known songs. Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist who worked in a broad range of musical styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Simone's musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.
The Flamingos were one of the many doowop vocal groups of the 1950s whose group name was borrowed from that of a bird - The Robins, The Penguins, The Orioles and The Ravens were among the others. They are regarded as one of the genre's very best and most talented groups, and Billboard magazine wrote of them: "Universally hailed as one of the finest and most influential vocal groups in pop music history, the Flamingos defined doo wop at it's most elegant and sophisticated." Like so many of their peers, they suffered from the fact that one of their biggest R&B hits was covered for the pop market by a mainstream artist - in their case, it was Pat Boone recording their landmark song "I'll Be Home" to score a pop No. 1. This great value 80-track 3-CD set comprises almost all the titles which they release during this primary period of their career, and comprises all their A & B sides released on the Chance, Parrot, Checker, Decca and End labels along with the tracks from their first three LPs "The Flamingos", "Flamingo Serenade" and "Flamingo Favourites" which were not otherwise released on singles. It naturally includes all the dozen or so hits they had during this time, including "I'll Be Home", and their biggest pop hit "I Only Have Eyes For You". Including substantial booklet notes, this provides an entertaining overview of their most important work, ranging with ease across R&B, rock 'n' roll and ballad styles, and is a worthy showcase for their distinctive talent.
A release celebrating the centennial of the birth of German soprano Elfride Trotschel. Songs and arias by Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, among others. Ms. Trotschel not only had exceptional vocal and acting ability; she truly lived her roles, transforming into one of many fragile female figures, whether Rusalka, Tatyana, Mimi or Butterfly, suffering and perishing just as they did. 'She sang what she felt,' as Professor Reinhard Ulbricht, Staatskapelle leader for many years, describes it.
SMOOTH & SWINGING: THE SINGLES & ALBUMS COLLECTION
ACROBAT
CD
$19.99Nov 10, 2023
The top bands and accompanists of the day during his career, including Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie and Erroll Garner, and became famous during the 1970s, beyond the scope of this collection, for an album he made with John Coltrane. Unlike his more middle-of-the-road peers in the world of post-war sophisticated pop, he did not make records aimed at the singles charts so is less well-known than artists like Tony Bennett, Johnny Mathis and Mel Torme, but was a singer who was highly-regarded by his peers and aficionados. This excellent-value 52-track 2-CD collection comprises material drawn from singles and albums, featuring recordings with the orchestras of Earl Hines, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Carroll, George Williams, Norman Leyden, Perez Prado, Howard Biggs and Frank Hunter, plus the Errol Garner Trio. It includes selected titles from Regent/Savoy album Johnny Hartman Sings, and his albums on the Bethlehem label Songs From The Heart, All Of Me: The Debonair Mr. Hartman and And I Thought About You. He was a fine interpreter of the repertoire of the Great American Songbook, and this collection offers an insight into the talents of a performer who has not has the attention he merits, and is an entertaining showcase for his work.
Founded in 1977 by Lionel Hampton, the Who's Who in Jazz label existed as a means to present to the world the best musicians that the jazz world had to offer. With Lionel chairing the recording sessions (and also featuring on several of the sessions himself), these recordings have truly earned their title featuring jazz greats such as Buddy Rich, Charles Mingus, Terumasa Hino, Sonny Stitt, Teddy Wilson, Stephane Grappelli and Dave Brubeck, amidst the many others. Lionel Hampton Presents: Buddy Rich is a studio album recorded in 1977 that sees Rich teaming up with Tom Warrington (bass), Candido (congas), Barry Kiener (piano), Paul Moen (saxophone), Steve Marcus (saxophone) and Lionel Hampton (vibraphone) to showcase an array of classic compositions including 'Moment's Notice', 'My Funny Valentine' and 'Giant Steps'.
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL JUKEBOX CLASSICS: TRUE LOVE
UNIVERSAL UK
CD
$20.99Nov 14, 2025
Four CDs. Following the huge success of our rock & roll collection 'Jukebox Classics' in 2024, NOW Music proudly presents 'NOW That's What I Call Jukebox Classics: True Love Ways'. A stunning selection of the most cherished love songs of the '50s and '60s - 100 truly unforgettable tracks. Includes tracks by Buddy Holly, Bobby Vee, Marty Wilde, The Righteous Brothers, Dusty Springfield, Connie Francis, Lesley Gore, Elvis Presley, Paul Anka, Danny Williams, The Crystals, The Platters, The Ronettes, Carole King, Tommy James & the Shondells, Brian Hyland, Bobby Darin, and many others.
'Come On Up To The House: Women Sing Waits' is a unique compilation full of fresh interpretations of songs by the legendary Tom Waits. Aimee Mann, Joseph, Patty Griffin, Rosanne Cash, Phoebe Bridgers, Corinne Bailey Rae, Angie McMahon, Courtney Marie Andrews, and more each put their own unique spin on the gravel-voiced songwriter's work. "... to hear it all through these women's voices: for me, this is where the whole thing was delivered. I didn't just want to go to church, I wanted to go to their church. In much the way Burt Bacharach songs often seem most fully themselves in the hands of Dionne Warwick, or Dusty Springfield, or Jackie DeShannon, The Shirelles, Aretha, or Karen Carpenter. Or the way standards feel so fully standard in Ella Fitzgerald's rendering of the material. The Waits songs I was hearing through these women were breathing differently and deeply. In just the way Dylan cuts the definitive version but never stakes out the song's territory in a way that leaves no room for majestic covers, the recordings I was gathering were showing me the remarkable strength, the resonance of Waits' stuff. No one took ownership of the material, it was all on loan, still belonged to Tom Waits. But what a series of loans! And that's how it is with the very, very best songs. It all brought me back to the Tom Waits I'd begun to see an outline of as a young man, back to the Waits my mother brought into the family dining room. That strange and beautiful character who seemed to belong to no one. Who I now believe belongs to us all." - Warren Zanes, producer "Tom is a true original as a songwriter, singer and arranger. There just is no one like him. Beneath some of the layers of sound and his truly unique vocal phrasing, are some of the most beautiful and heartfelt songs I've ever heard. After some great creative discussions many years back with an old publishing colleague, the concept of focusing on the sheer beauty of these songs by having them interpreted by a group of amazing artists with stunning voices, was a must do project. Fast forward fifteen years later, we were thrilled with the passion and enthusiasm these artists showed when we approached them with the idea, which you can hear in their performances. Truly a musical celebration." - Scott Robinson, executive producer
