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Bailey's Bundles
Handel's Messiah 2019
This is the best class of Messiah releases that I can recall in many years. All are imports and may take effort locating, but each of these has their own undeniable charm. Il caro Sassone rests easy. Hallelujah, indeed! Collegium 1704 & Collegium Vocale 1704, Vaclav Kuks Messiah Accent Records 2019 Crisp, brisk, and almost frantically presented, this Czech performance of Messiah stands as one with the greatest velocity on record, competing ...
read moreTen Artists: June 2019
Polly Gibbons All I Can Do Resonance Records 2019 Polly Gibbons's 2017 Resonance release, Is It Me...? was positively received by All About Jazz and other outlets when it appeared. That recording featured a crack trio augmented with soloists, establishing Gibbons as a sensitive yet muscular interpreter of the American Songbook and beyond. All I Can Do finds Gibbons in larger company and in front of a live audience. If Gibbons betrayed any shyness ...
read moreHadden Sayers: The Dopamine Dream
Guitarist and composer Hadden Sayers took the 40th Annual Blues Music Awards by storm, riding the sonic wave created by this dual release of Dopamine Machine and Acoustic Dopamine. Sayers was nominated for the “Acoustic Blues Artist of the Year" for the latter recording. We are in the midst of a blues revolution and Hadden Sayers is a field general in the effort. Hadden Sayers Dopamine Machine Self Produced 2019 Just when ...
read moreThe Country Blues by Samuel B. Charters
The Country Blues Samuel B. Charters 314 pages ISBN: # 978-0306800146 Da Capo 1959/1975 With the miracle publication of blues researchers Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick's unfinished monolith Blues Come to Texas (Texas A&M University Press, 2019), it is worth reconsidering the first example of blues reportage, Samuel B. Charter's The Country Blues, published 60 years ago. It was 40 years ago when I first read this book and since that time have ...
read moreTen Artists: May 2019
Paul JostSimple LifePaul Jost Music2019 I believe there are precious few exceptional male jazz vocalists. There. I said it. Female vocalists? They are legion. But once one has pruned away the vanity projects, the Sinatra wannabes, and the most recent unforgivable cover of “My Funny Valentine," there remain few. Paul Jost is one of those few. The singer's Breaking Through (Dot Time, 2014) revealed a fearless, scat-singing spirit unafraid of not only shaking up the ...
read moreTen on Cellar Live
That crafty Canadian Cory Weeds was onto something with the creation of his Cellar Live and now Cellar Music label. He reveals himself as a man for all seasons in being a confident saxophonist, music historian, and archivist with his new label Reel to Real (in cooperation with that maestro of the catalog, Zev Feldman. With ECM looming so large on the jazz horizon, it is always nice to know that the mainstream remains solidly represented Trinom3
read moreTen Artists: April 2019
Claudia Vorbach Is There a Time? Phoneector 2018 Claudia Vorbach follows up Come Down Easy (Phoneector, 2016) with these 14 smart original compositions infused with the swagger of a confident composer/singer. At first blush, Vorbach sounds like a relaxed Nora Jones, playfully whimsical and vocally daring. Vorbach sings with an assured Van Morrison-fashioned slur that is both rakish and sensual. “Princess With A Cross To Bear" is a dead ringer for “Moondance," swinging hard with ...
read moreI’m Just Dead, I’m Not Gone by Jim Dickinson
I'm Just Dead, I'm Not Gone Jim Dickinson 314 pages ISBN: # 978-1496810540 University of Mississippi Press 2017 “We got stiffed on the gig and drove back to Waco in silence. The sun was coming up over the Brazos when we got back to campus. That was the end of my career with Ramsey Horton and the K-otics, but I learned his Floyd Cramer licks, without which I would not have known what ...
read moreTen Artists: March 2019
Kristina Koller At The Poli Club Self Produced 2019 New York City vocalist Kristina Koller follows up her debut recording, Perception (Self Produced, 2017), with this four-song, extended play live recording. Koller is backed by Fima Chupakhin on piano, Ben Rubens on bass and Darrian Douglas on drums. Their support deepens the organic flavor of Koller's sturdy and expressive voice. After Koller and company deliver a solid “Save Your Love for Me," the group assembles ...
read moreTen Artists: February 2019
Cecilia Bartoli Antonio Vivaldi Decca 2018 2019 marks the thirtieth anniversary of mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli recording for Decca, her label for the duration of her career. Bartoli's first recording was Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia (London/Decca, 1989) opposite famous baritone Leo Nucci. My own introduction to Bartoli was through her Mozart Arias (London/Decca, 1991). For full disclosure, Ms. Bartoli was so beautiful that I purchased that recording based on the cover alone. 20 years ago, ...
read moreMemphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music's Hometown by Robert Gordon
Memphis Rent Party: The Blues, Rock & Soul in Music's Hometown Robert Gordon 272 pages ISBN: # 978-1632867735 Bloomsbury USA 2019 One becomes part of a place when one takes that place for granted. I spent the better part of the 1980s in Oxford, Mississippi, attending graduate school. During that time, I practiced pharmacy in Charleston, the co-county seat of Tallahatchie County, along with Tutwiler. All of these locals are infused ...
read moreLefty Frizzell: An Article From Life - The Complete Recordings
Lefty Frizzell An Article From Life -The Complete Recordings Bear Family Records 2018 Obsession is a great motivator and perhaps the greatest form of appreciation. However, that may be no more than making a virtue out of necessity. The German label, Bear Family Records has made a career of being obsessed in providing a complete accounting of American Music. Previous to this 20-CD box set, An Article From Life -The Complete Recordings was the essential ...
read moreShowcase
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Munich 2016 by Keith Jarrett
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MonkTime by Leon Lee Dorsey
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The Haywain by Hashima
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e.s.t. live in Gothenburg by Esbjorn Svensson
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Greene Street Vol.1 by Will Sellenraad
