recent listening November 13-30, 2016

Evan Parker & AMM – Title Goes Here
Markus Stockhausen and Florian Weber – Alba
Leo Smith – Occupy the World
Leo Smith – Golden Quartet
Keith Jarrett – My Foolish Heart
Keith Jarrett – Carnegie Hall
Keith Jarrett – Rio
Keith Jarrett – Staircase
Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Paul Motian – Hamburg ’72
Keith Jarrett – Sun Bear Concerts
Brad Mehldau – Where Do You Start?
Charlie Haden and the Liberation Music Orchestra – Time/Life
Charlie Haden and Kenny Barron – Live in Slovenia 1998
Herbie Hancock – the New Standard
Yo Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone
Leonard Cohen – the Songs of Leonard Cohen
loscil – First Narrows

The God Box

George Grella on recent Stravinsky boxes – sounds good to me.

The Big City

Richard Taruskin had the honor and privilege of writing booklet notes for not one, but two important collections of Stravinsky’s music that were released last year. In Deutsche Grammaphon’s Stravinsky: Complete Edition, he summed up the composer’s rare stature with the following anecdote and analysis. Tarsukin writes that Vladmimir Ussachevsky told him:

‘…after crossing [himself] and rising from [his] knees in front of Arnold Schoenberg’s death mask in [Schoenberg’s] working room, [Stravinsky] turned to Mrs. Schoenberg and said “Now I am alone.” Who, you, who can say that now?’

It was a haunting question. There were still composers one admired, even revered. But Carter, Berio and Boulez were honored in one camp. Copland, Shostakovich and Britten were honored in another. Stravinsky was honored in both: his music was indispensably a part of the academic canon and the performing repertoire alike. People both praised it in the classroom and paid…

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recent listening November 1-13, 2016

Kenny Drew – Winter Flower
Tim Hodgkinson – Sang
Still Blue Turning – Hurricanes
Robin Cox Ensemble
Peter Erskine – As It Was
Zsófia Boros – Musicbox
Wolfgang Muthspiel – Rising Grace
Mats Eilertsen – Rubycon
Ferenc Snetburger and Marcus Stockhausen – Streams
The Best of Teo Macero
Leo Smith – Spirit Catcher
Marilyn Crispell and Gerry Hemingway – Table of Changes
Marilyn Crispell and Gary Peacock – Azure
Joshua Redman & Brad Mehldau – Nearness
David Liebman, John Abercrombie – the Art of Respect
Charlie Haden and Gonzalo Rubalcaba – the Montreal Tapes
Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker