Barry O'Sullivan CD Reviews Jazz posts
The arrival of a new trio recording such as this often evokes the feeling of greeting an old friend. The familiar reward of plenty of melody and harmony (hugs and kisses) is most welcome.
CD Reviews
Ngarra-Burria (‘To Listen, To Sing’) is a program instigated by Dharug composer and teacher Christopher Sainsbury in 2016 to encourage and enable indigenous composers to ‘create notated compositions and industry connections’.
Born out of a pandemic-inspired reconnection with ocean swimming, these compositions are loosely themed on the physical and philosophical qualities of water as a common thread.
This album is a re-interpretation of Nat Bartsch’s solo piano album, Hope, centered around a jazz quartet and incorporating classical musicians and ambient electronics. The result is a personal recording full of emotional and engrossing music, best heard in one sitting.
It was my great pleasure in August 2022 to attend a concert by the Nomad String Quartet (since named as our artists in residence for 2023) featuring The Best of Danish Folk Songs. These were derived from two collections of folk songs collated and arranged by the Danish String Quartet, already showing in their relative youth a willingness to perform unfamiliar repertoire and intelligently programmed recitals.
Black Money is an original project of band leader, pianist, and composer John McAll, who launched the debut recording in 2009. His following recordings in the Black Money series are Alter Ego, recorded in 2012, and most recently, Pass the Rainbow.
CD Reviews Fine Music Magazine
When the 40 musicians that make up Victoria Brass are playing at full blast, you can be forgiven for thinking that you’re in the middle of an entire symphony orchestra. In numbers like the finale from Sir Arthur Bliss’s Checkmate Ballet Suite, or Mussorgsky’s Coronation Scene from Boris Godunov, you are blown away, no pun intended.
CD Reviews Classical
The Polish-born Soviet composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg is receiving something of a reappraisal from the Western musical world. While not as well-known as other Soviet era composers, such as Shostakovich and Myaskovsky, his music shares many aspects with those contemporaries. The third volume of Weinberg’s string quartets from the Arcadia Quartet features two substantial pieces, Quartets numbers 4 and 16, that provide an excellent overview of Weinberg’s oeuvre.
McAll’s musical compositions have moments of exuberance and fire, and there is a lot happening on each track. Lovers of big band sextet sound will revel in the music revealed on this album.
Giovanni Bassano came to St Mark’s Venice in 1576 where he distinguished himself as director of instrumental music. Giovanni came from the same family of musicians and virtuoso recorder players who settled in England in the early 1500s to enhance the cultural life of the court of Henry VIII.
