At a time in which even highly regarded English musicians went hungry because their employers withheld their salaries, John Hingeston was fortunate. The pastor's son from York caught people's attention as a youth with his organ playing and soon was in the service in the Earl of Cumberland. He was sent to London to receive further education and became a loyal servant. When Oliver Cromwell came to power, he made him his master of music. After the restoration of the monarchy, he played viol and was the keeper of wind instruments at the court. The young Henry Purcell was his apprentice and successor. He was a staunch advocate for his less privileged colleagues, enjoyed a distinguished reputation as a teacher, and left behind a considerable body of melodious chamber music for string instruments (and organ). Some of these features highly original instrumentation, reflecting half a century of British musical history - a 'missing link' comes to light between Orlando Gibbons on the one hand, and John Blow and Henry Purcell on the other.
Herve Niquet and Le Concert Spirituel are paying tribute to Michel-Richard de Lalande, who died 300 years ago: 'Louis XIV's master of music, renowned for his sacred music and numerous divertissements, was also a remarkable composer of symphonies,' says Herve Niquet. Niquet imagines 'a rehearsal at Lalande's home as he prepared his latest compositions for the King's supper. And Massialot, his cook and maître d'hôtel, not only brought him food and drink, but also read him numerous letters and newspapers delivered by mail coach." In addition to the suites and caprices, we therefore hear a "delightful" letter from the Princess Palatine, wife of Monsieur, the King's brother, and a drinking song from 1683, entitled Pourquoi boirions-nous de l'eau? This colourful album confirms that in aristocratic France of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, "the most exquisite refinement coexisted quite unashamedly with the most unabashed vulgarity" (Francoise Rubellin).
A Jazz Landmark of the Black Diaspora Reborn First released in 1971 as part of BYG Records' groundbreaking Actuel series, Jacques Coursil's Black Suite remains one of the boldest expressions of the Black Diaspora's creative and political awakening. Recorded in Paris on June 10, 1969, this visionary work now returns in a newly restored and remastered edition, revealing it's full depth and clarity for the first time in decades. Featuring a transatlantic ensemble - Jacques Coursil, Anthony Braxton, Arthur Jones, Burton Greene, Beb Guerin, and Claude Delcloo - Black Suite bridges the radical spirit of the American avant-garde and the intellectual fire of postcolonial Europe. Across two long, meditative movements, Coursil transforms jazz into a language of liberation, evoking the writings of Frantz Fanon, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and Aime Cesaire as well as the fierce energy of the Civil Rights era. "Black Suite is a work of Black Excellence." - Kevin Le Gendre Born in Paris to Martiniquan parents, Coursil embodied the dialogue between African, Caribbean, and African-American identities, turning sound into philosophy and music into movement. With it's blend of intellect, emotion, and resistance, Black Suite stands alongside the seminal works of Pharoah Sanders, Eddie Gale, and Frank Lowe - timeless statements of self-definition and artistic freedom. Half a century later, Black Suite still speaks powerfully to our time: a sound of struggle and pride, of beauty and becoming - still unbroken.
A Jazz Landmark of the Black Diaspora Reborn First released in 1971 as part of BYG Records' groundbreaking Actuel series, Jacques Coursil's Black Suite remains one of the boldest expressions of the Black Diaspora's creative and political awakening. Recorded in Paris on June 10, 1969, this visionary work now returns in a newly restored and remastered edition, revealing it's full depth and clarity for the first time in decades. Featuring a transatlantic ensemble - Jacques Coursil, Anthony Braxton, Arthur Jones, Burton Greene, Beb Guerin, and Claude Delcloo - Black Suite bridges the radical spirit of the American avant-garde and the intellectual fire of postcolonial Europe. Across two long, meditative movements, Coursil transforms jazz into a language of liberation, evoking the writings of Frantz Fanon, Leopold Sedar Senghor, and Aime Cesaire as well as the fierce energy of the Civil Rights era. "Black Suite is a work of Black Excellence." - Kevin Le Gendre Born in Paris to Martiniquan parents, Coursil embodied the dialogue between African, Caribbean, and African-American identities, turning sound into philosophy and music into movement. With it's blend of intellect, emotion, and resistance, Black Suite stands alongside the seminal works of Pharoah Sanders, Eddie Gale, and Frank Lowe - timeless statements of self-definition and artistic freedom. Half a century later, Black Suite still speaks powerfully to our time: a sound of struggle and pride, of beauty and becoming - still unbroken.
Hailed as "a blazing hot mess of awesome" by The New York City Jazz Record, the Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO) traverses a huge swath of musical terrain, guided by the highly developed ears, ceaselessly omnivorous tastes and playful yet meticulous artistry of it's leader, Michael Leonhart. Following their 2018 debut album The Painted Lady Suite, MLO will release their second full length, Suite Extracts Vol. I on August 30, via Sunnyside Records. // The surprising collection documents an aspect of the MLO 's mission: playing covers, but in the Leonhart way - with widely disparate material ranging from Fela Kuti to Spinal Tap to Howlin' Wolf to Ornette Coleman curated into song sequences, forming anarchic yet internally coherent thoughts on some of Leonhart's chief musical passions. The album features notable guests Chris Potter, Nels Cline, Donny McCaslin, John Ellis, Erik Friedlander and many others in the context of a vibrant and unclassifiable 20-piece ensemble. // The MLO has developed and refined the suites through the course of it's monthly residencies at Jazz Standard, one of New York's most prestigious jazz rooms. Leonhart continues to pursue his vision there, with unconventional instrumentation and a shapeshifting community of sought-after players from a variety of cutting-edge scenes and disciplines.
Dan Laurin has released around thirty albums on BIS since the beginning of his collaboration in 1987. Laurin’s recorder music spans the globe and across the years, from England to Japan, and from the Renaissance to today. This latest release journeys to early 18th century France, and features composers such as Nicolas Chedeville, Anne Danican Philidor, Charles Dieupart, Marin Marais, and more.
Raaf Hekkema writes of his new release: "Since I started teaching at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, I have become more conscious of my self-chosen mission: to create a place for the saxophone within the classical music tradition. One way to do this is to forge a stronger bond between the players and the classical tradition, in the knowledge that the saxophone repertoire too is indebted to the great composers of the past. The most influential of them all is, without a doubt, Johann Sebastian Bach. The path to this recording was long, windy and fascinating. It started with the awareness that the cello suites provide exceptional playing material for saxophonists. But I long felt that for playing Bach on the saxophone, only the light-sounding soprano saxophone would do- which was, I believed, incompatible with the instrument for which the suites were written. During preparations for my previous recording of Bach's partitas for violin, I discovered that the alto sax- fitted with an old-style mouthpiece- could reproduce the refined articulation of the violin. Vintage mouthpieces represent the sound ideal of days gone by. Then came the idea to play the suites on six different saxophones, each of which holds a unique place in the history of the instrument. After that, much time went into working out a usable assignment of transpositions and an appropriate choice of instruments, the resulting sound character being the deciding factor.
The Far East Suite is an album by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, recorded in New York City on 19 December to 21 December 1966. The nine compositions on the original album were all composed by Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (except for one by Ellington).
Hailed as "a blazing hot mess of awesome" by The New York City Jazz Record, the Michael Leonhart Orchestra (MLO) traverses a huge swath of musical terrain, guided by the highly developed ears, ceaselessly omnivorous tastes and playful yet meticulous artistry of it's leader, Michael Leonhart. Following their 2018 debut album The Painted Lady Suite, MLO will release their second full length, Suite Extracts Vol. I on August 30, via Sunnyside Records. // The surprising collection documents an aspect of the MLO 's mission: playing covers, but in the Leonhart way - with widely disparate material ranging from Fela Kuti to Spinal Tap to Howlin' Wolf to Ornette Coleman curated into song sequences, forming anarchic yet internally coherent thoughts on some of Leonhart's chief musical passions. The album features notable guests Chris Potter, Nels Cline, Donny McCaslin, John Ellis, Erik Friedlander and many others in the context of a vibrant and unclassifiable 20-piece ensemble. // The MLO has developed and refined the suites through the course of it's monthly residencies at Jazz Standard, one of New York's most prestigious jazz rooms. Leonhart continues to pursue his vision there, with unconventional instrumentation and a shapeshifting community of sought-after players from a variety of cutting-edge scenes and disciplines.
A memory of family evenings, this album created with the renowned musician and producer Rob Mounsey goes far beyond a simple recital: it is an intimate gathering, at the crossroads of ancestral recollection and musical imagination. Yiddish song, Romantic lied, opera arias, jazz, and Broadway musicals: a tenor already well-versed in early music ventures here across continents, generations, and repertoires. Each piece becomes the echo of a story shared between nostalgia, invention, and transmission.
Drummer, vibraphonist, and composer Michael Waldrop's second release on Origin is an ambitious and diverse representative of his work, highlighted by a wide-ranging, cross-genre aesthetic and his wildly dynamic big band. Inspired by the earthy and primal works of Cuban artist Wilfredo Lam, arranger Jack Cooper transformed three of Waldrop's compositions into an evocative and epic "Origin Suite," with the movements titled after three of his paintings. Featuring Waldrop's Big Band, guitarist Jimi Tunnell, saxophonist Mario Cruz, and German vocalist Marc Secara, it's a dramatic opening for an album that goes on to feature several other very distinctive voices including percussionists Brad Dutz & Jose Rossy, and keyboardist Scott Kinsey, and compositions by Jimi Tunnell, Gerald Stockton, Waldrop and Jack Copper. "Waldrop writes hummable tunes that jump in guess-where twists... sharing bustling charts with ex-boss Jack Cooper, he packs missed crannies with lightning fills." -DOWNBEAT
Jonathan Ferrucci, one of the most exciting young pianists, presents his eagerly awaited second recording for audite. Following his highly acclaimed performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccatas, Ferrucci now turns his attention to one of Bach's best-known and most demanding keyboard cycles: the six "English Suites", a universe of Baroque music comprising concertante preludes and French dance movements.
2-CD set consisting of the album "Atlantic Suite", plus "Suite P.E.I.", part of a CBC album called "All Star Jazz in Concert at the CNE"; the remaining selections are from a never before released session from 1973-79, inc. Nimmons 'n Nine Plus Six band fet. Dave Caldwell, John Capon, Art Ellefson, Dave Field, Jerry Johnson +.
The 18th century had a dynamic musical scene in which much experimentation went alongside respect for accepted traditions. A wide range of hybrid forms emerged in the wake of the French dance suite and the new Italian solo sonata: not only sonatas with divergent forms and suites in which French character titles suddenly gave way to Italian tempo indications, but also everything in between. Korneel Bernolet here presents an anthology of European 'compiled' sonatas in the form of or derived from suites, alongside contrasting compositions that sought the true sonata form. He plays the Joannes Daniel Dulcken magisterial 1747 single-keyboard harpsichord, whose ambassador and titular player he is.
The Suite / Orlando Cela, Lowell Chamber Orchestra
Navona
CD
$16.99Jan 22, 2021
Though there are thousands of languages and countless political differences across the world, people tend to come together through equally endless forms of music and dance. On THE SUITE, the Lowell Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Orlando Cela, focuses the lens on the Baroque dance suite as a method of expression that’s ripe for international flavor, artistic individualism, and human storytelling. Suites by Georg Philipp Telemann and Johann Sebastian Bach examine the gallant style’s history and set the groundwork for modern interpretations. The Baroque vanguards pass the torch on to two contemporary composers, Anthony R. Green and Jose Elizondo, who shape and mold the style to match their own compositional artistry as they paint musical pictures of civil rights activism, heart-warming moments in the sun, and the passing of time. What results is an alchemical combination of the old and the new that not only celebrates the original Baroque form, but expands upon it with contemporary, cross-cultural flair.
2018 release. The concept of freedom in music relates to many things. Bassist/composer Clovis Nicolas didn't eschew formal jazz harmony and rhythm in the search for freedom but found a measure of added purpose and space for his bass playing in a chord-less band format without piano or guitar. Freedom Suite Ensuite is a recording of Nicolas's efforts in this formation and a tribute to the musician who exemplifies playing free within a form, saxophone great Sonny Rollins.
