Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘music’

mucha alma: Gloria Estefan, Alma Caribeña

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on May 18, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Sometimes an artist with formidable cross-genre credits returns to her roots, as much for her own soul’s sake as to mine a promising market. The results are often mixed, for spanning multiple blocks of fans is more than just a technical feat. As often enough, the broadening loosens the soil that surrounds the roots. To be widely admired is, often inevitably, to be far from home. (more…)

Read Full Post »

what kind of flame? Steven Curtis Chapman, Declaration

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on May 13, 2008| Leave a Comment »

An album of the caliber of Steven Curtis Chapman’s Declaration worms its way deeper into an appreciative listener’s soul with every new pass-through. Its appeal is multi-layered. Each new encounter with this kind of music reveals a new facet, a previously unheard sound, the pleasure of an allusive turn of phrase that had gone undetected.

Chapman winks and nods a fair bit in this CD, a hobby that doesn’t distract him from exploring life-and-death themes via some very fine music. The album’s opening track–the jaunty, witty, `Live Out Loud’ starts the winking in earnest, but you get the idea he’s just getting down to business and having a bit of meaningful fun while he arranges his desk. (more…)

Read Full Post »

my father’s music: Vintage Jazz (Sunday Times Music Collection)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on April 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The eyes of my father’s generation still light up when the occasion arises to speak of Duke Elington, Harry James, Benny Goodman, and Django Reinhardt. These are the artists who, with their bands, contribute to this remarkable entry in the mid-90’s CD-a-week collection offered to subscribers by London’s Sunday Times.

Frankly speaking, the first four tracks—by the Duke—are enough to make you think we’ve been in terminal cultural decline ever since the likes of ‘Sophisticated Lady’ went silent. This is smooth, sophisticated, textured jazz with an enormity of understatement that commends it to repeated listening. Bombast was out, smooth was in. I have never heard a trombone sound so alive as the one in Ellington’s band on this album.

This remarkable 1994 release brings the sounds back with varying degrees of remastered clarity. No matter, even with a bit of static between some tracks and these ears, the music is golden.

Read Full Post »

four men singing: Medieval Music (Hilliard Ensemble, Sunday Times)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on April 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »

In the mid-90s, it was possible to receive a CD each week from London’s Sunday Times Music Collection. The eclectic library of music that results now seems a treasure.

One of the finer anthologies and one of the few to record a single collection of artists on a themed CD was ‘Medieval Music’, all of it performed by London’s Hilliard Ensemble (www.hilliardensemble.demon.co.uk). Four-part a capella men’s singing in the style of what will strike the novice as close to Gregorian Chant is an acquired taste. But it can be acquired and there exists no better cluster of singers to help with the acquisition than the Ensemble. Rarely does one hear a more disciplined vocal music than this.

It’s ear candy for disciplined ears.

Read Full Post »

deep: Stephanie Blythe, Handel & Bach Arias (EMI/Virgin Classics)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , , , on April 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

The inimitable John Nelson, conductor of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, has a knack for giving little known musical pieces and as-yet uncelebrated artists their due. He has made good on this worthy capacity by conducting his consort in a debut recital CD of one of our moment’s finest contraltos.

Stephanie Blythe works her way sensuously through this Baroque repertoire with all the gravitas of an ancient mariner, yet as well with the supple litheness of youth. (more…)

Read Full Post »

the best for last?: Mozart, The Last Five Symphonies (Philips Duo)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , , on March 26, 2008| Leave a Comment »

One grows accustomed to approaching the `last’ works of an artist with an aging master in mind, perhaps resting just a bit on laurels accrued over a lifetime of meritorious productivity. Not so with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, one of those giants who was taken early from his craft. Perhaps, from an aesthetic point of view, an early demise was not purely tragic. Given what we think we know of Mozart, a long life might have represented endless artistic decline. He died at something close to the apex of his trajectory. (more…)

Read Full Post »

another superb standard from Philips Duo: J.S. Bach, Brandenburgische Konzerte Nr. 1-6/die Violinkonzerte (i musici)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , , on March 14, 2008| Leave a Comment »

While living in Costa Rica, my only convenient place to buy classical CDs was a bookstore that was heavy into the Philips Duo package. As a result, I now own many recordings in this series. Nobody beats Philips Duo for producing affordable recordings of venerable performances at the highest artistic and technical standards.

I musici playing all of Bach’s Brandenburg and Violin concerti is no exception. The oldest performances on this double-CD set are a half-century old. Yet they sound as crisp and clear as you’d hear them this evening in the concert hall. That’s simply awesome. (more…)

Read Full Post »

monochrome delirious: Goo Goo Dolls, Greatest Hits (the Singles)

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on February 22, 2008| 1 Comment »

It’s not the best idea to get to know a band by way of a greatest hits album. It’s the Cliff Notes approach to music, worthy only to the degree that it leads to deeper immersion.

My son gave me this CD for Christmas. Prior to this, I knew the Goo Goo Dolls mostly via the preternaturally beautiful `Better Days’. But I’m beginning to get it. (more…)

Read Full Post »

on my mind: Damien Rice, O

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on February 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This stunning Damien Rice offering is by turns imperfect, soulish, quirky, self-absorbed, and fantastic.

Rice’s persuasive voice is complemented with uncommon tact by gorgeous female accompaniment. Though it never ceases to be a Damien Rice album, Lisa Hannigan and her friends are so good that they play a solid supporting role without which Rice would not be what he is. Almost the same can be said of the understated but skillful acoustic guitar that encircles Rice’s voice throughout O‘s tenspot of tracks. (more…)

Read Full Post »

at least there’s you: Daughtry, Daughtry

Posted in reseña, tagged , , on February 8, 2008| 1 Comment »

Like the mythological Athena, Daughtry seems have sprung full grown and fully armed from the head of his father, call him Music. I mean, where is the warm-up here? Where is the amateurish posing, the awkward yearning to be profound?

This eponymous debut album plays like a very strong sophomore effort, not the uneven first shot that one anticipates from a First Time Thing. The band’s sound fronts Chris Daughtry’s convincing voice and persona against the backdrop of tight vocal harmonies, crisp guitar and bass work, and unobtrusive but effective drumming. (more…)

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »