Music
- album_review-
Mendelssohn: Symphony 3, Scottish
|Wonder of wonders—the great German classical recording company Deutsche Grammophon has issued its first LP in a quarter-century (on 180-gram vinyl, no less): Gustavo Dudamel conducting the Vienna Philharmonic, in a December 2011 live-in-concert performance ...read more -
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Hérold-Lanchbery: La Fille Mal Gardée
|A perennial on our founder’s Super Disc list, the Hérold-Lanchbery score for La Fille Mal Gardée is among the most famous of audiophile recordings. And like a good many of the “guilty pleasures” discs our ...read more -
Hank Roberts: Everything Is Alive
|The cellist-composer’s eighth album as a leader reunites him with guitar renegade and longtime collaborator Bill Frisell. They’re joined by bassist Jerome Harris and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Recorded live-to-two-track, this cornucopia of sound displays both ...read more -
Ravi Coltrane: Spirit Fiction
|Ravi Coltrane stepped into some seriously oversized shoes twice in his career— first when he took up tenor saxophone, following in the giant footsteps of his legendary father, second when he replaced the late Michael ...read more -
Jenny Scheinman: Mischief & Mayhem
|We have guitarist Bill Frisell to thank for bringing violinist Jenny Scheinman to the attention of listeners who might have overlooked her various other collaborations, as well her half-dozen solo albums. Scheinman, a northern-California native ...read more -
Lisa Mills: Tempered In Fire
|Lisa Mills is best known as a blues singer-songwriter in Europe and from Austin east to Florida, where she works a regular circuit of clubs and festivals across the Gulf Coast states. But if she ...read more -
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Dirty Three: Toward the Low Sun
|If the seven-year gap since the release of Dirty Three’s last studio album, Cinder, has had any noticeable effect, it’s been to strengthen this Australian instrumental trio’s improvisational empathy. Violinist Warren Ellis, guitarist Mick Turner, ...read more -
Bonnie Raitt: Slipstream
|After a seven-year hiatus from recording, Bonnie Raitt is back with a bluesy, soulful album that’s sure to make her fans fall in love with her all over again. Raitt has always had great taste ...read more -
Dave Douglas: Magic Triangle & Leap of Fath
|Trumpeter/composer Dave Douglas has just re-released two of his best early records, the entire output of a short-lived quartet that included tenor saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist James Genus, and drummer Ben Perowsky. Both records featured ...read more -
Ian Tyson: Raven Singer
|An alluring Canadian cowgirl whose mastery of buckin’ broncs defines her life; a fruitless sabbatical to Morocco in hopes of healing a broken heart; a quest to reunite with a paramour in Baja’s sunny climes; ...read more -
Billy Boy Arnold Sings Big Bill Broonzy
|Billy Boy Arnold is one of the few Chicago bluesmen who was actually born in the Windy City, and he grew up learning harmonica from one of the greatest, the original Sonny Boy Williamson (not ...read more -
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Carole King: The Legendary Demos
|Any boomer who ever fell in or out of love listening to Carole King’s many contributions to the American Pop Songbook will enjoy these 13 previously unreleased demos of songs made popular by Aretha Franklin, ...read more -
Regina Spektor: What We Saw from the Cheap Seats
|Russian-born New York-based singer/ pianist/songwriter Regina Spektor is a drama queen. Not in a bad way; let’s just say her engaging, eccentric recordings lean toward the theatrical. On this latest CD, she even leans toward ...read more -
Wes Montgomery: Echoes of Indiana Avenue
|The historical interest that always attends the release of previously unheard recordings by a major artist is enhanced in cases where that artist had a relatively short career, and given that the man most jazz ...read more -
Getz/Gilberto
|Stan Getz is at least partially responsible for the Bossa Nova craze that hit the U.S. in the early-to-mid-Sixties. For 1963’s Getz/ Gilberto the tenor saxophonist teamed with two of Brazil’s leading practitioners, the singer/songwriter/guitarist ...read more