Following the huge success of it's first Delos recording ('hallmark powdery blend and intonation so pure' - The New York Times), the GRAMMY Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer, under the leadership of Music Director Tim Keeler, is now turning to fourteenth-century's most celebrated composer Guillaume de Machaut. Although born in obscurity around 1300, Guillaume was to enjoy a stellar career that saw him hold various prestigious positions, including at the Cathedral of Reims. This album presents music from both facets of the composer's life, which today we might see as incompatible. With the Messe de Nostre Dame, we see Machaut the devout cleric of a major cathedral. Conversely, songs such as Douce dame jolie and Riches d'amour, among others, show Machaut the courtly poet-composer who sings of the emotional experience of secular love for his noble patrons.
2024 release. Visions is a vibrant and joyous 12-song set that finds Jones singing about feeling free, wanting to dance, making it right, and acceptance of what life brings. It's the yang to the yin that was Pick Me Up Off The Floor, Jones' last album of new original songs which was released early in the pandemic lockdown of 2020 and foreshadowed many of the dark emotions of that period. CD Softpak with 12-page booklet.
This superb recording features a reunion of two of jazz's finest - tenor-saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and clarinetist Pee Wee Russell. At the time of this session, the two had not been on a recording date together in 32 years. Here they revisit "If Could Be With You One Hour", a song they first recorded in a classic version back in 1929.
This 2LP set brings you the LP "Forbidden Fruit" & the LP "At Newport" by Nina Simone. "Gin House Blues" is later re-recorded in a more upbeat way. "Work Song", written by Oscar Brown, Jr. And Nat Adderley tells the story of a chain gang. The title song "Forbidden Fruit" is an humorous up-tempo take on Adam and Eve was part nursery rhyme, part call and response. Nina was supported by Al Shackman (piano), Chris White (Guitar), Bobby Hamilton (Bas) by both performances. "At Newport" is another fine Nina live show, starting off with blues and a stunning reading of "Porgy". She then uses her major spot at Newport jazz festival to show off her diversity going into folk, rhythmic jams and an instrumental version of "You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To" that is almost like a classical recital.
Wesla Whitfield is known for her deft sense of swing and incisive ballad readings. Now she returns to release IN MY LIFE, a gorgeous collection of 15 wonderful works by such diverse composers as Leonard Bernstein, Vernon Duke and Lennon/McCarney.
Just in time for the 200th birthday of Johann Strauss II on 25 October 2025, cpo is releasing the complete recording of a comedy that will itself celebrate it's 130th anniversary on 4 December. In Waldmeister, the undisputed king of the waltz once again pulls out all the stops and delivers a delightful comedy whose scandalous mix-ups ultimately dissolve in a high-proof punch. It's distinctive taste features a hero with a botanical title (Galium odoratum) and a series of evergreens - above all, the leitmotif and proverbial "Trau schau wem" ("Trust, but check"), which is enthusiastically taken up by friend and foe alike. This live recording was made during the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz's guest performance in Vienna and whose new production contributed to this year's Austrian Strauss celebrations.
Cruise line magnate T.F. Bellows (W.C. Fields) is certain his new ship will win a transatlantic race with his rival... but to be sure, he arranges for his ne'er-do-well jinx brother S.B. (Fields, again) to board the rival boat! Of course, S.B. gets on the wrong vessel, making for a comically bumpy voyage! Variety extravaganza co-stars Bob Hope (singing "Thanks for the Memories" in his feature debut), Martha Raye, Dorothy Lamour, Ben Blue. 91 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono; Subtitles: English (SDH).
This legendary Crescent City clarinetist played with Satchmo, King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton, but here are 20 of his rarer '20s sides. Includes Loveless Love with Tiny Parham; Chicago Mess Around with Lovie Austin's Blues Serenaders; Messin' Around with Jimmy Blythe & His Ragamuffins; Sock That Thing with Dixie-Land Thumpers, and more!
C. Schumann & Hensel: O How Enchanting / Pahn, Schornsheim
Haenssler Classic
CD
$20.99Sep 02, 2022
“Oh, do it Clara darling!” said Robert Schumann to his bride Clara, strongly encouraging her to pursue composing. Although the pianist had always composed, when she married in 1840 – without being asked to – she was immediately willing to dispense with this part of her musical output: “A woman does not have to desire to compose – so far not one has been able to do so; should that be what I am destined to do?” Clara is caught up in a crisis and feels resigned: “But I cannot compose…I lack all talent for it.” Only after the wedding did Clara return to composing. As long as her father or husband encouraged her to do so, in her consummate adaptability she did so with joy. But after Robert’s death in 1856, Clara stopped composing entirely.
It does not appear that the Mendelssohns were able to enjoy Heine’s kinder side. Although Heine was sometimes a visitor at their home in Berlin, somehow friendly relations did not develop. However, the poet Heine held Fanny in high regard. She had already set his poems “Was will die einsame Träne” (Why this solitary tear) and “Am leuchtenden Sommermorgen” (On a radiant summer morning) to music in 1827/28. Her song setting of Heine’s “Schwanenlied” (Song of the swan) – was her first published work, but this only happened in 1846. At first Fanny chose to set poems by her bridegroom Wilhelm to music, of which she had already composed “Lebewohl” (Farewell) the same year they met and before the wedded couple were separated for a long period. Upon getting married she, too, began a busy and fruitful artistic collaboration that involved the daily morning ritual of Wilhelm leaving poems on the piano for her to set to music.
Saydisc presents this double album of traditional songs from England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The tracks have been curated from Saydisc's extensive catalog, and only the very best have been included. Native and traditional musicians are featured on this release, offering up an authentic experience, with artists such as The McPeake Family Trio, Ray Fisher, Margaret Barry, Siwsann George, Thomas Hardy, and others performing. Lyrics to all of these songs are included in the liner notes, as well as translations for songs performed in traditional Welsh and Gaelic languages.
The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 is a 1978 compilation album collecting the charting singles of Earth, Wind & Fire. In addition to collecting previously charting songs, the album also included three new tracks for the band: a cover of The Beatles' song "Got to Get You Into My Life" and the original track "September", both of which also became charting singles, the former also winning a Grammy Award, and "Love Music." Love Music was sampled by Ghostface Killah on his track Good featured on his 2006 album More Fish. "September" has been sampled by Crystal Waters on her track "Say... If You Feel Alright" from her 1996 album Crystal Waters.
An extravagant showcase of early sound cinema, this 1929 Warner Bros. Extravaganza brings together over 70 stars in a vaudeville-style revue packed with music, comedy, and spectacle. Hosted by Frank Fay, the film marks a turning point in Hollywood history-introducing audiences to the voices of silent-era legends while celebrating the novelty of the Talkies. Highlights include John Barrymore delivering a Shakespearean soliloquy as Richard III, Myrna Loy in two-strip Technicolor as an exotic dancer, French boxing champ Georges Carpentier singing and tapping through "If I Could Learn to Love," and Winnie Lightner's unforgettable rendition of "Singing in the Bathtub." Add appearances from Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Ben Turpin, and even Rin-Tin-Tin, and you have a vibrant time capsule that captures the excitement, excess, and experimental spirit of cinema's leap into sound.
Richard Strauss considered Mozart to be "the most sublime of all composers". Both Mozart and Strauss wrote exquisitely for the soprano voice and Sabine Devieilhe, with pianist Mathieu Pordoy, has assembled a beautifully balanced programme of their songs. Among them is Strauss's sublime 'Morgen', which brings a guest appearance by violinist Vilde Frang. When Devieilhe and Pordoy performed Mozart and Strauss at London's Wigmore Hall, The Spectator wrote of a "heart-stopping soprano" who made the songs "sound dewy-fresh. Her voice picked up and outlined each word; long lines sounded spontaneous but wholly considered. The clarity and the lightly worn self-awareness of Devieilhe's singing made for a seductive combination."
To this day, music from classic Broadway and Hollywood musicals continues to enjoy immense popularity with audiences and performers alike. Here Simon Keenlyside, one of the world’s most charismatic and sought-after operatic baritones, presents Something’s Gotta Give, an album devoted to songs from musicals – songs that require every bit as much attention to text and interpretation as Lieder, and often the same mastery of vocal technique as operatic arias. Scarlett Strallen, a regular presence of West End and Broadway stages, partners Keenlyside in duets and sings two numbers on her own. They are joined by David Charles Abell, a musician steeped in the tradition of musical theatre, who conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra in wonderfully lush original orchestral arrangements, a number of which have been specially restored for this recording.
The programme includes some of the best-loved numbers in the repertoire, including Cole Porter’s ‘Night and Day’, Rodgers and Hammerstein’s ‘Oh What a Beautiful Mornin’’, and ‘If I Were a Rich Man’ from Fiddler on the Roof. The range represented, from the emotional tour de force of ‘Soliloquy’ to the charming character song ‘Reviewing the Situation’, showcases the many facets of Simon Keenlyside both as an extraordinary vocalist and endlessly charismatic performer.
Despite their relatively short career together and an equally limited recording output, The Moonglows were one of the most important and influential doowop vocal groups of the 1950s, their career spanning the years of the rock 'n' roll explosion in pop as well as the time when mainstream pop artists and labels were plundering the R&B charts for potential crossover hit songs. Led by the legendary Harvey Fuqua, who went on to marry Berry Gordy's sister and became a hugely successful writer and producer at Motown, and featuring his long-time colleague Bobby Lester sharing lead vocals, they recorded initially for Alan Freed's Challenge label, before he got them a deal with Chance, and moved to Chess, with whom they scored their biggest success with R&B No. 1 Sincerely, which was covered by The McGuire Sisters to score a pop No. 1. This great-value 56-track 2-CD set comprises the A and B sides of every single they released before they parted company, their music encompassing rocking up-tempo bluesy R&B as well as smooth, immaculate ballads, with beautifully textured harmonies. It naturally features all their chart entries, including the R&B Top 10 hits Most Of All, Sincerely, We Go Together, See Saw, Please Send Me Someone To Love and The Ten Commandments of Love. It's a comprehensive trawl across a brief but significant career.
Most tellingly, Christmas songs render the joy and anticipation of children at Christmas time. + The children’s choir “SingsalaSing” of the Landesakademie for young musicians in Baden-Württemberg, Ochsenhausen, sing 26 traditional and new yuletide songs from Germany and its neighboring countries. + This CD is part of the “Lieder Project” an effort that promotes and benefits singing with children. + It emphasizes quality and is designed especially for children. + Proceeds from the Lieder Project are donated to causes furthering singing with children.
SOUND OF NATURE (THE): Bird of a Thousand Voices - Blaukehlc
Wergo
CD
$20.99Jul 01, 1992
The Bluethroat is a delightful bird which quickly endears itself to anyone fortunate enough to observe it. Although the playing time of a CD is not enough to demonstrate the full repertoire of a singing Bluethroat, the listener should gain a clear impression of this virtuoso's song from the recordings presented here: The longer you listen, the more you become aware of the seemingly endless variety of the song with it's numerous and deceptively accurate imitations of other birds' voices and even mimicry of frogs, crickets, peals of bells, and other sounds from the breeding grounds and winter quarters. Little wonder that the Sami people of Lappland call the Bluethroat "the bird of a thousand voices". These recordings of the Bluethroat's song were made with the Sony Digital System PCM 2000 (DAT-Recorder); the Red-spotted Bluethroat with a Neumann RSM 190 stereo-microphone with windshield, and the White-spotted Bluethroat with 2 Sennheiser MKH 30 microphones using the "Blümlein" technique; here too, a shield had to be used because of the strong wind.
Frank Martin was arguably Switzerland’s greatest composer. His shimmering Mass for Double Choir, completed in 1926 as ‘an affair between God and himself’, is one of the finest settings of the 20th century, yet it had to wait forty-one years to be shared with others in its first performance. This collection of his choral music also includes his cantata for Switzerland’s National Day and the Ode to Music, along with some charming part-songs. Eclectic and technically superb these pieces display a style that is serenely individual.
Daugherty: This Land Sings (Inspired by the Life and Times of Woody Guthrie)
Naxos
CD
$9.99$19.99Save 50%May 08, 2020
In ‘This Land Sings,’ Grammy Award-winning composer Michael Daugherty has created an original musical tribute to the singer-songwriter and political activist Woody Guthrie (1912-1967). Traveling the backroads of America from coast to coast with a guitar and harmonica, Woody Guthrie performed folk songs of love, wandering and social justice during the Great Depression and the Second World War. Daugherty has composed his own original songs and instrumental interludes that give haunting expression, ironic wit and contemporary relevance to political, social and environmental themes from Guthrie’s era. Under the baton of Grammy Award-winning conductor David Alan Miller, the Albany Symphony’s new music ensemble Dogs of Desire, joined by soprano Annika Socolofsky and baritone John Daugherty, give a poignant and rousing performance.
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REVIEWS:
For the most part, Daugherty doesn’t set Guthrie’s tunes at all, although This Land Is Your Land turns up in a couple of numbers. Instead, he writes words of his own and draws on texts from elsewhere in the progressive strain of thought, dating back to Mark Twain, that animated Guthrie’s production. It all adds up to something quite unlike anything anybody else has done before. Listeners are going to have their own reactions, but this is original stuff, ideally and flexibly performed.
– AllMusic Guide (James Manheim)
Michael Daugherty traveled around the dust bowl of the United States before commencing the work, savoring the backdrop to Guthrie’s life as a writer and performer. It has resulted in an overture and sixteen vocal and instrumental tracks, the words for the songs written mostly by Daugherty. They are funny; they question life and our existence; suffering and love, all expressed in a mix of classical, folk, and jazzy rhythms. It is certainly a different experience that takes the composer down a new road, particularly so in the early part of the score. The excellent punchy sound is ideal for the work. Do listen to it.
The most successful golden-era music series of all time returns with the ultimate collection. Over 60 unforgettable classics across 3 CDs, from Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, The Shadows, Dusty Springfield, Roy Orbison, Tom Jones, Ben E. King and many more. This definitive edition brings together the most loved and most requested songs from the Dreamboats & Petticoats series - a timeless soundtrack to an unforgettable era.
2013 is a banner year for Smooth Jazz keyboardist Brian Simpson. Highlights from JUST WHAT YOU NEED include a percolating "D Groove" featuring sax icon Gerald Albright, the romantic "In the Rain" featuring Marc Antoine, a brilliant guest performance by Dave Koz on t he Jobim classic "Girl from Ipanema," and much much more!! Also featuring Dave Koz.
