New Album Releases Project 2020-11-16

And then there were … Liner Notes

This week so many BANGERS in both NARP sections, so do take notice and be prepared to take some excursions of both the heart and mind.

To say that classical music as we know it in the 20^th and 21^st centuries couldn’t be the same without Nadia Boulanger would be an understatement of epic proportions. Just about any recording paying tribute is welcome here. Last month Deutsche Grammophon on their Eloquence label from Australia released this Nadia Boulanger box-set, Icon: The American Decca Recordings. I cannot wait to get my grubby paws on the discs.

I got hooked on Weather Report’s Heavy Weather album when it first came out and I had no idea about any members of the band. Now I know so much about them, especially Jaco so I was happy to take Charlier Sourisse Multiquarium Big Band – Remembering Jaco for a spin.

Daniil Trifonov’s – Silver Age is a glorious couple of hours spent at the keyboard with a master. I have waxed on and on in previous NARP editions about Daniil’s creativity, thoughtfulness, intonation, and technique. This is a marathon, not a sprint: two-plus hours of keyboard bliss.

Die Toten Hosen’s – Learning English Lesson 3- MERSEY BEAT! The Sound of Liverpool. If you don’t know the German Punk band Die Toten Hosen (The Dead Trousers) you should. They’ve been around for decades and this recording of familiar 60s era British treats is a HOOT! Turn the volume way past 11 on the dial. And do track down both Lessons 1 and 2 in the Learning English series.

Elina Garanca & Malcolm Martineau – Schumann & Brahms: Lieder. I am such a HUGE fan of Elina and in audiophile terms when the topic of Female Vocals comes up, it is remiss to focus solely on the Jazz and Pop singers.

Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story was the very first musical that I could appreciate as a young boy growing up in New York City. I have attended countless performances around the world and seen it staged as a play, an opera, as well as a set of instrumental suites. This week, a twist, as Gwendolyn Masin & Melisma’s Saxophone Quartet – West Side Story took me somewhere new. I could not imagine this treasured music arranged for a quartet, and they pulled it off. #Magical

And, now for some bullet points:

• Elina Duni – Lost Ships
• Ghost Funk Orchestra – An Ode To Escapism
• Greg Foat – Symphonie Pacifique
• Haruka Nakamura – Still Life スティルライフ
• Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl – Artlessly Falling
• Peter Hesslein – Night Drive
• Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Jazz Is Dead 002
• Pablo Valotta y Camaradas – Mundo Desmedido
• The Nels Cline Singers – Share the Wealth

I did say this week was chock full.

The Re-Issues, Re-Masters and Miscellany reminded me how much I miss. Dolores and The Cranberries, Roxette, and Tears for Fears. And I had to include the FM Broadcast Recording of Derek and the Dominos because it was a production of my hometown radio station, NYC’s WNEW-FM. And while I can never say no to Charlie Mingus, I was taken by surprise with the album Habiba courtesy of Kirk Lightsey and Rudolph Johnson with the All-Stars.

New Releases

Astrig Siranossian, Nathanael Gouin & Daniel Barenboim – Dear Mademoiselle – A Tribute to Nadia Boulanger

Daniil Trifonov – Silver Age

Die Toten Hosen – Learning English Lesson 3- MERSEY BEAT! The Sound of Liverpool

Elina Duni – Lost Ships

Elina Garanca & Malcolm Martineau – Schumann & Brahms: Lieder

Frank Peter Zimmermann – Martinu: Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2, Bartok: Sonata for Solo Violin

Gautier Capucon – Emotion

George Benson – Weekend in London (Live)

Ghost Funk Orchestra – An Ode To Escapism

Greg Foat – Symphonie Pacifique

Gwendolyn Masin & Melisma Saxophone Quartet – Bernstein – West Side Story

Haruka Nakamura – Still Life スティルライフ

Hayk Melikyan – An Armenian Palette

King Khan – The Infinite Ones

Mariss Jansons, BRSO – His Last Concert – Live at Carnegie Hall

Martin Helmchen, Andrew Manze, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin – Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 3 & Triple Concerto

Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl – Artlessly Falling

Nikolai Lugansky – Beethoven: Late Piano Sonatas

Pablo Valotta y Camaradas – Mundo Desmedido

Peter Hesslein – Night Drive

Roy Ayers, Adrian Younge, and Ali Shaheed Muhammad – Jazz Is Dead 002

Signum Quartett – Schubert: Ins stille Land

Simon Rattle, LSO – Beethoven: Christ on the Mount of Olives

Tangents – Timeslips

The Nels Cline Singers – Share the Wealth

Yundi, Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra – Chopin: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2

Re-Issues, Re-Masters & Miscellany

Bruce Turner – Deep in My Heart

Charles Mingus – At Bremen 1964 & 1975

Derek and the Dominos – FM Broadcast N.Y.C. 1970

Kirk Lightsey and Rudolph Johnson with the All-Stars – Habiba

Paul Mauriat – Emmanuelle & Fantastic 4 Channel

Roxette – Bag Of Trix Vol. 2 (Music From The Roxette Vaults)

Tears for Fears – The Seeds of Love (Super Deluxe Edition 2020)

The Cranberries – No Need To Argue (Deluxe)

Share NARP with your friends, share it with your enemies. Now, more than ever, the walls just “gotta’ come down. Music does not discriminate. Let’s be like music.