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Volume 8 Issue 5 - February 2003

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • February
  • Theatre
  • Jazz
  • Musical
  • Arts
  • Bloor
  • Orchestra
  • Symphony
  • Faculty

that even come with

that even come with separate that involves two people singing or musicians withdrew their services. booklets. Everlasting Light features vocalizing tones directly into each · · For a couple of years, the only · two major choral works, De Ange/is other's mouths. The effect is truly product being released was and Everlasting Light. The first, for fascinating. · stockpiled material, or vocal-sansmezzo-soprano (Laura Pudwell), · Hatzis incorporates actual instruments. Radio became the major choir and offstage voices, is based recordings of katajjaq into these source of new music for listeners, on the 12th Century antiphon 0 various works, sometimes untouched but as there was no capture gloriosissimi lux vivens angeli by but sometimes, as in Hunter's mechanism for most fans, personal · Hildegard of Bingen. This is a very Dream, various studio effects are disc recorders being rare in those beautiful piece that uses light textural applied. The name of the CD comes days, there was a· major vacuum in layers and has very limfted or from a radio documentary of the the music business. cautious dissonances that are tern- same name in which Hatzis Into the gap· jumped the pered by the use of vocal drones. combines throat singing and independent (read small) labels The title piece was written for the electronic samples from Western which recognized that signing with Elmer Iseler Singers and is dedicated Civilization. For example, the the Union and paying approved fees to the memory of its founder. Set . sounds of jet airplanes and electronic would allow them the markets the for countertenor, tenor, baritone, keyboards creating an aura of space hard-headed majors were giving up. 1 marimba, crystal glasses, and 'choir that symbolizes the invasion of For ·jazz fans, the Savoy Records the EIS are joined by Daniel Taylor, Western Culture on the North. The .label became a inajor source of Benjamin Butterfield, Russell Braun, blend is truly profound. material, especially in the percussionist Beverley Johnston and Troy Milleker burgeoning be-bop market. the Amadeus Cliamber Singers for Over the last 60 years there have this performance. There is a sense been ups and downs for Savoy as of continuous melody but it appears the label changed hands and became that Hatzis was·.very careful to make more-and-less available. It's current the text extremely clear throughout. again, and that's a great opportunity The sound is very spatial as is most Timeless to get your hands on some seminal of Hatzis; music. Savoy 60th Anniversary jazz sounds. (sampler) A two-disc sampler is a good Savoy Jazz SVY 17133 Timeless Charlie Parker Savoy SVY 17107 Best of The Complete Live . Performances on Savoy Charlie Parker "Savoy SVY 17112 starting point: Savoy@hAnniversary­ Timeless is an overview of the label's jazz material, with an occasional nod The second CD, Footprints in New Timeless Snow, centres around the culture of Miles Davis the Inuit, in J5articular in the newly Savoy SVY 17116 created territory of Nunavut. This is a compilation of works influenced While World War Two raged in by a unique form of music called Europe and the Paciflc, a sort-of war throat singing. It is a technique, was underway in the United States usually practiced by Inuit women, itself. It was the Musicians' Union' (James C. Petrillo, President) versus the Recording Industry. The union was demanding that the labels treat their members more . fairly, with standard session fees, royalties, and the like. The major re~ord companies wapted none of that, so

to the emerging R&B urban black market of the '40s. You'll find important jazzers like Charlie Parker, Stan Getz and Miles Davis. While the programming might seem a bit disjointed, the variety on offer offsets any awkwardness. . Savoy's greatest jazz artist was undoubtedly Charlie Parker; the lead character of Be Bop jazz, and some of his masterpjeces are included in the series called Timeless . Savoy SVY 17107 is a 17-track compilation of Bird masterpieces such as Koko, Donna Lee, Steepleciwse and that great blues Parker's Mood. The 1945-48 period of Parker's career was consistently brilliant, and the group's personnel relatively stable. The very young Miles Davis is on all the tracks, and other greats include Max Roach, Bud Powell and John Lewis. Transfers of the original 78s are very good and straight-ahead honest, with no electronic gimmickry. Every music fan should have some Charlie Parker material, and this package of studio recordings is a good start. Parker's radio performance material from t~e Royal Roost in NYC in 1948 and the next'couple of years was recorded off the air by hobbyist Boris Rose, and after Parker's 1955 death was released by Savoy. A good sample of ¢at work is heard on Best of The Complete Live Peiformances on Savoy. Miles is again on the earliest of these airchecks, replaced by the underappreciated Kenny Dorham on the last half of the CD, and most of the piano work is by Al Haig, one ~f the seminal bebop pianists. Disc jockey 'Symphony Sid' Torin's chatter is held to a minimum, but does add authenticity. Even more than half a century after the fact, these audacious chance-taking performances are thrilling · There's more Charlie Parker on display in a release under Miles Davis' name in that Timeless series (SVY 17116). Davis was but a potentially great trumpeter when Bird took him under his wing in the mid-40s and helped him develop his fa.tent talent. Of the 13 tracks here, only three were actually recorded under Miles' name, on which Parker played tenor sax, rather than his familiar alto. With no overlap of material from the Parker Timeless CD mentioned earlier, this one is a good companion, with titles such as Salt Peanuts, Yardbird Suite and Groovin' High highlighting the evolution of Miles Davis. Ted O'Reilly DG ORIGINAL MASTERS: Lieder and Opera Scenes 1~42- 1973 Hans Hotter DG 474006-2 (3CDs) The complete 1950's concerto recordings Wilhelm Kempff DG 474024-2 (5CDs) The Nine Beethoven Symphonies and four overtures Eugene Jochum DG 4740!8-2 (5CDs) Live recordings.1944-1953 Wilhelm Furtwangler 474030-2 (6CDs) Complete DG recordings Janacek Quartet 474010-2 (7CDs) Deutsche Grammophori has issued the first five boxes in.what is to be a ' series of limited editions each devoted to significant performances by a single artist. They are gathered from the vaults and re-masterec;l in DG's Emile Berliner Studios. hens hotter Arguably the greatest Wotan of· his day, the timbre of Hans Hotter's sonorous bass-baritone voice was unmistakable. His lieder, too, was exemplary and . here are some beautiful examples. His sensitive Winterreise (1961) and Schwanengesang (1973) and lieder by Wolf, Strauss, Loewe, and Brahms is followed by arias by Verdi, Leoncavallo, Bizet and Wagner. "A love of lieder and the joy of interpreting them are emotions that have accompanied me my whole life like whe flusir

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