'"' Of Gilpin's original contributions, Blue Grass and Green Sky and Minority stand out the most. Throughout the disc, instrumentation varies significantly from track to track, and assistance is given by many, including Americans Victor Wooten on bass and Chick Corea's David Weck! on drums. Toronto's Ted Quinlan and Wilson Laurencian help out on guitar and drums respectively. There is no doubt that Andrew Gilpin and Fred Jacobowitz could make some waves in the Canadian music scene with this debut effort. It's well worth a listen and even a purchase, especially for fans of instrumental music. Eli Eisenberg Shimmering Rhythm Ron Davis Trio; Shimmering Rhythm Ensemble Davinor Records (Independent) 3455 Ron Davis is a really, really good jazz pianist. He is the musical equivalent of a great cup of coffee. His playing is like high quality beans blended to perfection for that extra much needed buzz. That's solid technique and an appreciation of various styles with an energetic musicality. The Ron Davis Trio rhythn1 section of Drew Birston on bass and Ted Warren on drums provide a distinctive and supportive environment allowing Davis to spread his musical wings. The Shimmering Rhythm Ensemble is tight. Consisting of such Torontobased musicians as Sasha Boychouk on reeds and Jake Wilkinson on trumpet, they perform arranger Tania Gill's fine work with gusto. Ron's father Alexander Davis is featured singing a Passover melody. Ron Davis acts as co-producer as well as the composer on many tracks (of note the funky Pawpwalk). All in all it is good release, maybe even too good. At times I felt like I had had one too many cups of coffee and longed to hear the players cut loose a bit more from their 70 group playing and show off their individual musical colours in order to tone down that "we're in a recording studio" feeling. The Ron Davis Trio and Shimmering Rhythm release of "Shimmering Rhythm" is fun, full of many influences, and easy on the ears. Take a listen for yourself. Tiina Kiik Luscinia's Lullaby Laurel MacDonald Improbable music (Independent) imacd-04 Laurel MacDonald, born in Halifax, is a Toronto-based artist who creates soundtracks for independent film and dance productions. ln her newest CD collaboration with producer/percussionist/guitarist Philip Strong, we find an electrifying melange of 'East meets West', juxtapositions of cultures, and the mixture of styles ancient, modern and, at times,· futuristic. For example, the second song on the CD, Ysaiophony, mixes l2thcentury organum with a funky backbeat of modern bass and drum; another track, Cada/ Chan Fhaigh Mi, mixes a traditional Gaelic song with gamelan-influenced accompaniment. In other words, each piece is the product of many influences, yet produces something new, fresh, and innovative. Multi-layered voicings are interpolated in such a way that they produce not chaos and confusion, but evoke instead the impression of a harmonious, integrated, multi-dimensional experience, such as we experience in the dream state. (After all, this recording is aptly titled lullaby, Luscinia being the Latin for nightingale.) In many of the tracks, the voice part is not particularly dominant, but treated as an instrument equal to the others in the ensemble and elusive in definition. This CD is perfect for those times when we long to experience a gentle reminder that there is an alternative to the mundane, regimented and predictable thought patterns we allow ourselves to fall into. Dianne Wells OLD WIN E ... NEW BOTTLES It is reliably reported that when Pablo Casa.ls heard Lillian Fuchs playing her transcription for viola of the sixth Bach Cello Suite he said "On the viola, it sounds better". Interesting, because the pre-eminent violist William Primrose had said it couldn't be done but later he performed Fuchs' transcriptions. American Decca recorded Lillian Fuchs playing the Bach Suites over a period of years around 1950. Those three LPs, never re-issued on CD, seU for hundreds of dol.lars each whenever they surface. The Doremi transfers . .. ... on 2 CDs [DHR-7801/2] bear absolutely no artifacts at a.II of their LP source and happily present these persuasive performances to a new generation of music-lovers. r_-. = '" "'" ' ··" . _ NAXOS has issued an attractive CD of 30 British folk songs sung by Kathleen Ferrier from 1949- 1952 [8.111081]. These are still available from :' ·.·:-'" Decca in an omnibus set. But here are they are, painstakingly copied from Decca LPs with the pitch, - •., , ,.,, , ,_, .....«, . 'for the most part flat' on the original Decca discs and a.II subsequent CDs, corrected. Malcolm Walk '" ); ; f" ::: . er's informative notes with his personal reminis- --- cences are a bonus. I should have paid due attention to a six CD set, 100 Best Opera Classics from EMI [72435 86211-2] when it appeared a little while ago. It proves to be --- 100 a discerning and comprehensive collection of performances by EMI's finest artists, heard in their -----' prime: Callas, Schwarzkopf, Corelli, Freni, Christoff, Mesple, Pavarotti, Raimondi, Gedda, Fischer-Dieskau, Domingo, Gobbi ... the list goes on. EMI's star conductors and orchestras support the singers in 100 familiar and not so familiar arias grouped by composers, Adam to Weber. Great for background or foreground play. Each disc is close to the 80 minute theoretical limit and represents outstanding value for the special low price. In accordance with the contract between Karajan and Sony's co-founder, the late Akio Morita, SONY continues to dribble out the von Karajan videos, now reappearing on DVD. The last two to hand are Pictures at an Exhibition from 1986 [SVD53480] and an Eroica, live from the Philharmonie on April 30, 1982 [SVD48434]. The Moussorgsky employs Karajan's flawed routine of first recording the work and then acting it out for the cameras. The Eroica, on the other hand, is the real thing, produced with ZDF, and it is a spectacular, thrilling performance, giving the viewer a good idea of what attending a live Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic performance was like. This performance celebrated the Orchestra's Jubilee 1882-1982. Exemplary photography and full-range dynamic sound, better than Karajan was accorded on any audio-only recording, make this DVD a must have. Recommended without hesitation. NAXOS has moved "Film Music Classics" from their full priced Marco Polo label to the budget Naxos catalogue. In the series are King Kong [Max Steiner], Dracula, etc [Wojciech Kilar], The Maltese Falcon, Mask ofDimitrios, etc [Adolph Deutsch], Red River [Dimitri Tiomkin], Objective Burma [Franz Waxman], La Belle et la Bete [Georges Auric], The Egyptian [Bernard Hermann & Alfred Newman], and Les Miserables [Arthur Honegger]. There is a CD titled Monster Music by Frank Skinner and Hans J. Salter also Captain Blood and other Swashbucklers with scores by Rozsa, Victor Young and Steiner. All good WWW.THEWHOLENOTE.COM stuff. William Stromberg and the Moscow Symphony Orchestra are heard in al1 seven albums wherein the scores were reconstructed as the original orchestrations no longer exist. Full credit to aH concerned is given in the thoroughly researched liner notes. All are in appropriate cinematic sound. The three extant originals? Auric, Honegger and Kilar. B ruce S u rt ees • MAY 1 - )UNE 7 2005
