Friday, March 1, 2024
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
SAVINA YANNATOU & PRIMAVERA EN SALONICO— Sumiglia (2005) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless
If ever there were a seamless collaboration between a recording artist and a producer, this one is it. Greek vocalist Savina Yannatou and her band Primavera en Salonico make their ECM studio debut with Sumiglia, produced by label head Manfred Eicher. Eicher signed Yannatou in 2002 and issued the live Terra Nostra in early 2003. That recording garnered international attention because of the musical adventurousness of the singer and her live band who can reach dizzying improvisational heights whether they are playing folk songs from Greek, Corsican or Sephardic traditions or new pieces informed by Arab and Armenian cultures and modalities. Nothing, however, could have prepared listeners for this offering. Eicher's understanding of Yannatou's linguistic (she sings in over 12 different languages here) and tonal gifts, and her band's seemingly limitless abilities to not only encounter many traditions but highlight their similarities as well as differences, is deeply intuitive. Sumiglia offers no window dressing, only pristine, natural sound infused with the adventure of intimate live performance where musicians encounter one another and prod each other to delve deeper into the nature of song itself. Yannatou is a singer for whom the human voice is an instrument first that communicates not lyric and style so much as emotion and history. She erases cultural boundaries while honoring cultures. She sings as if time was no longer a factor in the communication of a song from antiquity, and she is inseparable from her protagonists. This is true whether that character is a young Ukrainian woman in love, a grief-stricken Sicilian woman who laments the Earth's cruelty, the lover in a Greek or Palestinian wedding song, or the haunted lovesick poet in a Spanish Gallican ballad, just to name a few. Primavera en Salonico don't just support Yannatou, they enter into dialogue with her in both verse and chorus and fill the spaces with risk, excitement and a deep-listening empathy, using accordions, ouds, guitars, violins, nay, tamboura, double bass, percussion, quanun and kalimbas. Eicher offers balance, capturing this crackling yet utterly human excitement as it happens, holding the space for each song to intuitively wrap itself around the performers and reach its full expression. Sumiglia is one of the most daring and poetically inspiring recordings to come down the pipe in decades and sets a new standard for exploration as well as interpretation and execution in world music. It is breathtaking in its freshness, bold in its vision and utterly sensual in its utterance. Thom Jurek Tracklist & Credits :
EMMA SHAPPLIN — Carmine Meo + 3 Movies & Radio Songs (1997) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
Every year or two somebody from the classical world gets the bright idea to record a classical album with a little something extra for the groundlings: some percussion, some sound effects, maybe some strings. Sometimes the result is insulting, sometimes it's just gilding the lily, and sometimes it works. Carmine Meo, however, sidesteps this problematic phenomenon altogether by making up its own classical music and then turning it into pop. That's right, most of the numbers on the album, even though they sound like lush, romantic arias, are originals.
And despite the disheveled-hair packaging of Emma Shapplin and the truly bad poem she contributes to the liner notes, it works. Why? Because Shapplin, notwithstanding her less-than-opera-caliber voice, sings with absolute conviction, and because her team is determined to entertain. So what if "Cuor Senza Sange" borrows its opening from Peter Gabriel, or if the synthesizer from "Favola Breve" is right off of Who's Next? None of that matters because "Spente le Stelle" truly reaches for the stars, and so do many of the other tracks. To be sure, the classical music aficionado is going to hear this album as slightly "off" in much the same way that "Adiemus," for all of its glorious aspirations, sounds slightly "off." But the composers, producers, and Shapplin are to be congratulated on creating something better than the alt-rock perversities and syrupy ballads that seem to have dominated the airwaves. Excelsior! [The U.K. edition includes 12 tracks.] Kurt Keefner
Tracklist & Credits :
BJÖRK — Homogenic (1997-2011) SHM-CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless
By the late '90s, Björk's playful, unique world view and singular voice became as confining as they were defining. With its surprising starkness and darkness, 1997's Homogenic shatters her "Icelandic pixie" image. Possibly inspired by the end of her relationship with drum'n'bass kingpin Goldie, Björk sheds her more precious aspects, displaying more emotional depth than even her best previous work 
indicated. Her collaborators -- LFO's Mark Bell, Mark "Spike" Stent, and Post contributor Howie B -- help make this album not only her emotionally bravest work, but her most sonically adventurous as well. A seamless fusion of chilly strings (courtesy of the Icelandic String Octet), stuttering, abstract beats, and unexpected touches like accordion and glass harmonica, Homogenic alternates between dark, uncompromising songs such as the icy opener, "Hunter," and more soothing fare like the gently percolating "All Neon Like." The noisy, four-on-the-floor catharsis of "Pluto" and the raw vocals and crunching beats of "5 Years" and "Immature" reveal surprising amounts of anger, pain, and strength in the face of heartache. "I dare you to take me on," Björk challenges her lover in "5 Years," and wonders on "Immature," "How could I be so immature/To think he would replace/The missing elements in me?" "Bachelorette," a sweeping, brooding cousin to Post's "Isobel," is possibly Homogenic's saddest, most beautiful moment, giving filmic grandeur to a stormy relationship. Björk lets a little hope shine through on "Jòga," a moving song dedicated to her homeland and her best friend, and the reassuring finale, "All Is Full of Love." "Alarm Call"'s uplifting dance-pop might seem out of place with the rest of the album, but as its title implies, Homogenic is her most holistic work. It might not represent every side of Björk's music, but Homogenic offers some of her most impressive heights. Heather Phares Tracklist & Credits 
Monday, February 26, 2024
Sunday, February 25, 2024
EVE CORNELIOUS & THE CHIP CRAWFORD TRIO — I Feel Like Some Jazz Today (1999) APE (image+.cue), lossless
The title of this CD is a little ironic since Eve Cornelious is an
obvious jazz singer, and a very good one. She teams up with her husband
(pianist Chip Crawford) and various local players (mostly from North
Carolina) of whom bassist Michael Howell and veteran trumpeter Ray
Codrington are best known. Various songs are dedicated to Miles Davis
("My Funny Valentine"), Carmen McRae, Esther Phillips, Betty Carter, and
Ella Fitzgerald ("Air Mail Special") with the repertoire being mostly
standards plus a couple originals and new lyrics to Miles Davis'
"Flamenco Sketches." Eve Cornelious' warm voice and swinging style makes
one wonder why she is not a lot more famous. Scott Yanow
Tracklist :
1 I Feel Like Some Jazz Today 7:42
Chip Crawford
2 My Funny Valentine 8:38
Lorenz Hart / Richard Rodgers
3 Tenderly 6:00
Walter Gross / Jack Lawrence
4 I Love Paris/April in Paris 7:45
Vernon Duke / E.Y. "Yip" Harburg / Cole Porter
5 Flamenco Sketches 6:42
Eve Cornelious / Chip Crawford / Miles Davis / Michael Howell
6 Better Go Now 11:45
Chip Crawford
7 A Thoughtful Message 4:00
Eve Cornelious
8 Lush Life 4:21
Billy Strayhorn
9 Air Mail Special 5:24
Charlie Christian / Benny Goodman / Jimmy Mundy
Credits
Bass – Michael Howell
Drums – Alvin Atkinson
Vocals, Executive-Producer – Eve Cornelious
Percussion – Beverly Botsford
Piano, Executive-Producer, Producer, Arranged By – Chip Crawford
Soprano Saxophone – Reggie Codrington
Tenor Saxophone – Ira Wiggins
Trumpet, Flugelhorn – Ray Codrington 
