1956. The Brookmeyer dates reflect the valvetrombonist's Kansas City heritage - he grew upwith the musical legacy of the great K.C.jazzmenringing in his ears ... The Thompson-Pettifordis a desert island disc that should never beout of the catalogue. The music captured at thesesessions displays jazz at its peak. Tenor saxophonistLucky Thompson and virtuoso bassist '"'Oscar Pettiford were probably never heard tobetter advantage than here ...Cocktails For TwoJoe Temperley; Harry AllenSackville SKCD2-3071Don Brown... Recorded at a specially organized bonus eventduring Sunnie Sutton's Rocky Mountain JazzParty in Denver, "Cocktails For Two" presentsthe soulful baritone sax of Joe Temperley (heturned 77 a week before the session) and thesingular tenor of 40 year old Harry Allen, with a wonderfully supportiverhythm section of the elegant pianist John Bunch, solid Greg Cohen onbass and the irrepressible Jake Hanna on drums. These great playersoften cross paths at similar jazz party events, and that comfort level allowsthem to pick up their horns and cruise through a session of standardslike this one. While mostly the full quintet, they mix it up a bit with atrio feature for Bunch/Cohen/Hanna, the gently swinging My Romance;Allen's ballad feature Everything Happens To Me; and a pretty one forTemperley, Polka Dots and Moonbeams .. .Ted O'ReillyStengamCor FuhlerPotlatch P206 (www.vergemusic.com)Best described as a reductionist nocturne, "Stengam",a solo piano outing, is more hypnotic thanharmonic. Featuring one continuous 20-minuteperformance, plus two shorter introductorytracks, the CD highlights the talents ofDutch keyboardistCor Fuhler who uses such stimulatorsas e-bows and magnets to transform the sound of an acoustic grand pianoas if electronic add-ons are altering its function. Without overdubbing, yetin full control of the instrument's keyboard, strings and soundboard, Fuhler'sinternal action include buzzy scratches with affiliated resonations sothat each string's overtone reflects back on the externally sounded note ...Ken WaxmanConcert note: Cor Fuhler's Corkestra is featured in the Jazz Avant seriespresented by the Music Gallery and Rough Idea on May 15.POT POURRIClara Rockmore's Lost Theremin AlbumClara Rockmore; Nadia ReisenbergBridge Records BRIDGE 9208If you were to walk into a room with this CDplaying, not knowing what it was, you mightdo an auditory double take - is that a humanvoice, or a violin or cello with very extendedrange, you might wonder? You'd be wrong onall counts. One of the earliest electronic instruments,the Theremin, operating on the principle of valve oscillatorsand ether waves, is essentially a wooden box with a number of knobs, andtwo antennae to control pitch and volume by waving ones hands aroundthem. Clara Rockmore (born Clara Reisenberg in 1911 in Vilnius, Lithuania),was America's greatest virtuoso on the instrument, and even helpedin its development, with inventor Leon Theremin. She in fact credits Mr.Theremin with saving her "musical s.anity", as she had been an accomplishedviolinist before having to give it up due to physical problems ...Karen AgesBack ForwardHeribert FriedlNon Visual Objects(www.nonvisualobjects.com)Trans-Bernard Gunter; Heribert FriedlNon Visual Objects(www.nonvisualobjects.com)With "Back_ Forward", Heribe1t Friedl has createda CD based solely on recordings of the hackbrett( cimbalom). A co-founder of the Viennabased Non Visual Objects label, Friedl states "Thetracks should show the changes of concretesounds into abstraction, without losing the soulof the sound itself. On "Back Forward" musicalmovement happens in a clearly defined space.Even though the initial point and the endpoint arenever the same, the path between is always equal." ... With his musical partner,Bernhard Gunter, on "Trans-" Friedl unravels a mysterious, eerie side ....Tom SekowskiStuart McLean's History of Canada -I Remember WayneStuart McLean; CBC Radio Orchestra;Mario BernardiCBC Records SMCD 5242... Stuart McLean's "History of Canada" consistsof two humorous works for narrator andorchestra. Stuart McLean is his vintage self,with delightful dead-pan irony in every line.His irreverent view of Canada's history is very entertaining, and can beappreciated by those who are historically knowledgeable and those lessso. In fact, if one were completely ignorant of our national past, much isthere to be learned from this thirty-four minute production .. .John S. GraySong of the Lodz GhettoBrave Old WorldWinter & Winter (www.winterandwinter.com)Described as a musical performance piece,"Song of the Lodz Ghetto" is a musical depictionof life in one of the largest ghettos in Polandduring the Second World War. Drawingon ethnographic recordings of survivors madeby Israeli ethnomusicologist Gila Flam in the1980's, Brave Old World weaves together atableau of contiguous sound (each track segues into the next, sometimeswith instrumental interludes), made up of songs composed in the Lodzghetto in the 1940's as well as original pieces in the same style ...Karen AgesGamelan from Central JavaVarious ArtistsARC Music EUCD 1902Produced by Italian gamelan activist and archivistGiovanni Sciarrino this is an idiosyncraticintroductory survey of the Javanesegame Ian, a type of orchestra with roots aroundthe late 16th century closely entwined with thehistory ofindonesia. The tracks here were recordedin Java and also in the gamelan diaspora - Italy and England.Starting our journey is one of the most ancient Javanese gamelan pieces,Gendhing Munggang. This 3-tone melody, played on a sacred gamelanfrom the court of the Sultan of Surakarta, was recorded in situ at theSekaten, an Islamic religious festival, as was Gendhing Sekaten, perfonnedby gamelan Kyai Guntur Sari (Venerable Essence of Thunder), itspersonal name suggesting connections to powerful forces of nature ...Andrew TimarReminder: visit www.thewholenote.com for full length reviews.66 WWW.THEWHOLENOTE.COM MAY 1 - ) UNE 7 2007
DISCS OF THE MONTHSelections from the 2006 National TourNational Youth Orchestra of Canada;Jacques LacombelndependentNYOC2 (www.nyoc.org)I will try to avoid every cliche about theNYOC here: this orchestra holds its ownalongside major professional orchestras, andwill be judged by that standard. The new CDis an ambitious double-disc release,containing something over 115 minutes ofexcellent performances.Leading off with Shostakovich's 1st is a boldstroke, and it certainly pays off: the orchestra'sdynamic range is immense (careful, headphoneusers!) and the players truly are in top form.Debussy's La Mer then follows, with suchaccuracy and a real sense of the 1905 period,that I'm afraid that I'll be ignoring my favoriteSimon Rattle for some time to come. Who canbest the NYOC's rendition of Ch.am de Rossign.olby Stravinsky? This 1914 tone poem ischallenging enough for big Europeanorchestras, yet these musicians make it soundtotally effortless. And they give us a finish ofgreat strength with Don Quixote by Strauss.Conductor Jacques Lacombe deservesaccolades for his work on this CD.The tracks were recorded over two days inJuly 2006 in McGill's legendary Pollack Hall.Engineer Kevin Tighe and Producers JulianJeun and Georges-Etienne D'Entremont haveworked miracles with their microphones andrecorders. The photographers have evenincluded some monochrome action shots, butthe players are in their best duds, and so,presumably, not captured during these sessions.Unreservedly recommended.John S. GrayTen PlanetsRichard SacksArtifact Music ART-037This remarkable CD is quitesimply a tour de force ofmusical creativity, with abrilliantly paced program of Canadianmasterpieces played by the gifted percussionistcomposerRichard Sacks.The disc opens and closes with Michael J.Baker's The Waldo, an extraordinary work formarimba performed in its fraternal-twinincarnations as both an acoustic and acoustic/electronic piece. Baker's grace of musicalgesture and senses of spaciousness and humourare all beautifully in evidence here. RodneySharman's Apollo's Torch for vibraphone isexquisitely expressive, as are Barbara MonkFeldman's Verses for Vibraphone andGlockenspiel, the latter of which in particularhas a pungent yet reflective 'Zen' flavour. Therichly varied sound worlds of James Tenney'sMaximusic, and Sacks's own Ten Planets withits rich multiplicity of textures and rhythms,make for the more high-octane expressions onthis disc. And every piece receives aremarkable performance from Sacks, whoplays with great musical insight and sensitivityas well as obvious technical virtuosity.Sacks suggests listening to his disc in one sitting- surprising, perhaps, in this world of i-Podsnippet taking - but he rewards you richly forso doing. Besides the virtuosity andexpressiveness, there's a subtle yet distinctivelyreflective quality to this disc which I very muchappreciated. Try it, you'll like it.Alison MelvilleConcert Note: Rick Sacks is a long-timemember of Arraymusic whose "Array Legacy"concert features music of Michael J. Baker andother past Arraymusic directors at YorkUniversity's Accolade Centre on May 19'h.PNER: Fruhling & WinterPartitas for Harpsichord Vol.6Genevieve Soly"Graupner couldn't ask for a linerinterpreter than Soly" 10/10Classics Todayg"' Nz
