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Saturday, January 18, 2025

IsoAcoustics Discover What You've Been Missing

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: Written by: Richard Freed; Category: Richard Freed's Keepers; Created: 01 September 2010

201009_keepers_a4 Do centenaries and other round-numbered anniversaries of composers have any real significance? They are of course seized upon as marketing tools by concert promoters and recording companies, but have they any useful purpose beyond that? To be sure, we hardly need an anniversary to remind us of Beethoven or Bach or Mozart, but, despite our not unjustified skepticism, we do enjoy honoring the memory of the creative wonders who gave us such amazing, self-renewing intellectual and sensory stimulation and pleasure. (I don’t recall the phenomenal Johann Strauss’s being so honored, but then he does have the New Year concerts.) Last year we had the bicentenaries of the death of Joseph Haydn and the birth of Felix Mendelssohn, this year the bicentenaries of the births of both Robert Schumann and Fryderyk Chopin (and the centenary of our own Samuel Barber and William Schuman), and next year the bicentenary of the formidable Franz Liszt. The season just ended and the one beginning now are marked with festivals of various proportions and other activities (specifically including recordings) marking the sesquicentenary of the birth of Gustav Mahler (July 7, 1860) and the centenary of his death (May 18, 1911).

In this context, the 150 years since Mahler’s birth break down neatly into three 50-year periods: (a) his life and the recognition he enjoyed, primarily as a conductor; (b) his death, at which time he confidently predicted, “My time will yet come,” and the years of artistic and political upheaval, including two horrendous World Wars, during which various disciples and enthusiasts worked to bring his music into the mainstream; (c) the 50 years since the Mahler centennial, which have confirmed and reconfirmed the ever more secure place of his music in the so-called standard repertory. One of the conspicuous validations, in honor of the double anniversary, is the “free streaming experience of all of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies,” performed by the Orchestre de Paris under Christoph Eschenbach, offered as a collaborative undertaking by the websites of that orchestra and of Medici TV.

In his own lifetime Mahler was vastly respected as a conductor, but far less accepted as a composer. He did have his enthusiasts, and several were powerful figures. When he conducted the premiere of his vast, six-movement Third Symphony, on June 9, 1902, in Krefeld, Richard Strauss, whose tall, slim figure made him recognizable to everyone present, strode down an aisle to the stage at the end of the performance to congratulate him. Also in the audience was the 31-year-old Willem Mengelberg, who had seven years earlier taken up the post of conductor of the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, and who determined at that concert in Krefeld to champion Mahler’s music.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 15 May 2024

Contemporary Records / Craft Recordings / Acoustic Sounds CR00601
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****½
Sound Quality: ****½
Overall Enjoyment: ****½

I’ve reviewed quite a few of the Contemporary Records / Acoustic Sounds vinyl reissues by Craft Recordings. It would be easy to just say, “Buy them. They sound great.” That would be true, but Craft has made it a point to reissue Contemporary Records LPs that deserve more recognition. Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section is well known, but André Previn’s take on West Side Story is perhaps less so. Craft has done jazz lovers a service by casting a wide net.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 April 2024

Rhino Records R1 516251 / 603497830824
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ***½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

The consensus among fans and critics is that Grateful Dead was primarily a live band, and its studio recordings were rarely good examples of its art. There are exceptions, of course. Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty, both from 1970, have long been considered outstanding and are among the best albums in rock music.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 December 2023

Golden Wolf Records GW009LP
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Drummer and producer Adam Deitch has worked on a lot of records since 1994, with musicians as diverse as John Scofield and DJ Quik. He is a member of three bands, which gives him the opportunity to show his grasp of different musical styles: electronica with Break Science, psychedelic funk with Lettuce, and 1960s-style soul jazz with the Adam Deitch Quartet.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 November 2023

Craft Recordings / Contemporary Records / Stereo Records CR00391
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ***½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

In the 1950s, Contemporary Records released a number of Broadway-themed LPs by trios led by pianist André Previn or drummer Shelly Manne. The sessions fronted by Previn featured Manne on drums and Red Mitchell on bass; Manne’s featured Previn and bassist Leroy Vinnegar. In my June 2023 review of the Craft Recordings / Contemporary Records reissue of West Side Story, the 1959 album by André Previn and His Pals, I wrote: “I’m already anticipating the Craft Recordings reissue of Manne’s My Fair Lady this fall.” Modern Jazz Performances of Songs from My Fair Lady was a 1956 mono release by Shelly Manne & His Friends, and its popularity led Contemporary to ask Previn and Manne to record more albums in the same vein.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 October 2023

Craft Recordings / Contemporary Records / Acoustic Sounds CR00595
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ***½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Jazz composer and saxophonist Ornette Coleman was so revolutionary that even now, 65 years after he recorded his first album, his music remains challenging. His recording debut, Something Else!!!! (1958), and its follow-up, Tomorrow Is the Question! (1959), both appeared on Contemporary Records, whose owner, Lester Koenig, signed Coleman after bassist Red Mitchell brought his work to Koenig’s attention.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 September 2023

Universal Music Recordings 4868197
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****½
Sound Quality: ****
Overall Enjoyment: ****

Empty Glass (1980) was Pete Townshend’s second solo album, but his first to consist of songs he recorded with an eye toward official release under his own name. The album that preceded it, Who Came First (1972), included demos of songs recorded with The Who, tracks Townshend wrote in tribute to his spiritual advisor, Meher Baba, and one tune each by Billy Nicholls and Ronnie Lane, who were also followers of the Baba. The tribute songs originally appeared on limited-edition releases.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 August 2023

Jazz Is Dead Records JID018
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***
Overall Enjoyment: ***½

When the great Nigerian drummer Tony Allen was in Fela Kuti’s band, Africa 70, he helped invent Afrobeat, which combined American funk and jazz with Nigeria’s own musical heritage. Allen played with Kuti throughout the 1970s and began recording on his own in 1975, while still with Africa 70. He began focusing on his own music more intently by the mid-1980s and worked with younger musicians in various genres throughout the 2000s. He played in two bands with Blur’s Damon Albarn: The Good, the Bad & the Queen, and Rocket Juice & the Moon.

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 July 2023

In+Out Records IOR LP 77146-1
Formats: LP, 24-bit/96kHz WAV download

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ****½
Overall Enjoyment: ****½

In 2002, jazz guitarist Larry Coryell was more than 30 years into his career when he recorded Tricycles for In+Out Records, a jazz label based in Germany. He was touring Europe with two other American musicians, drummer Paul Wertico and bassist Mark Egan, and in November they went into a studio in Heidelberg. According to Coryell’s liner notes, the weather had been bad during the tour. While the musicians were recording, they came down with “influenza or something . . . but somehow, we could still play.”

: Written by: Joseph Taylor; Category: Recording of the Month; Created: 01 June 2023

Jazz Is Dead 17
Format: LP

Musical Performance: ****
Sound Quality: ***
Overall Enjoyment: ***½

Adrian Younge and Ali Shaheed Muhammad have helmed 16 previous recordings for the Jazz Is Dead series. They’ve worked with well-known jazz musicians, such as Roy Ayers, Brian Jackson, and Gary Bartz, as well as more obscure players. For Jazz Is Dead 17, they’ve developed nine tracks with jazz keyboard player Lonnie Liston Smith, whose discography includes 16 titles as a leader, and many other outings as a sideman. He contributed keys to albums by Miles Davis, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Gato Barbieri, and many other musicians over a career that began in the late 1960s.