DISCOVERIES is a CD review section designed to complement and enhance our pre-eminent coverage of Toronto’s live classical and new music concert scene, featuring reviews by Wholenote columnists and independent contributors.  CDs are considered for review in the following five categories:
 

Concert prep - CDs, new or otherwise, which tie in with events being featured in the current issue of the magazine. Note that many discs in the other categories also relate to upcoming events as noted;

New and Recent Releases – newly released CDs relevant to our magazine’s coverage of the music scene;

Worth Repeating – CDs newly re-issued, or previously released but still generally available, deemed particularly noteworthy by a member of our editorial panel;

Indie list – Small label and independent release CDs, often featuring individuals or groups active on the local music scene.

Disc(s) of the month – Discs of special interest, often with a particular connection to the month’s concert activities.
 

We think DISCOVERIES is a logical and exciting extension of The WholeNote’s coverage of the Toronto music scene. We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. Catalogues, review copies of CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 60 Bellevue Avenue, Toronto ON M5T 2N4. 
 

David Olds, Editor, DISCOVERIES

Classical Kirkby (Orpheus and Corinna) Emma Kirkby, soprano Anthony Rooley, theorbo-lute BIS CD-1435

British soprano Emma Kirkby possesses the ideal voice for early music – flexible, clear and radiant. Among her numerous honours, she was chosen to make the first recording of a recently discovered Gloria by Handel, a work she will perform with Tafelmusik in mid-April.

But her latest recording, “Classical Kirkby”, is quite different. Kirkby actually started out as a classical scholar, and this program was originally presented in lieu of an inaugural lecture when she was invited to be honorary president of an association of classical scholars. It features 17th and early 18th century English lute songs with texts either by ancient authors, or based on ancient themes.

Kirkby sings two Odes of Horace by John Wilson in their original Latin. Two unique songs by Henry Lawes are sung in the original ancient Greek of Anacreon, then presented in alternative settings by the same composer in their “English’d” versions. Thomas Campion’s When to her Lute Corinna sings brings out Kirkby’s wit, while in Nicholas Lanier’s tragic Hero and Leander she creates a highly dramatic narrative. This features colourful interplay with the theorbo-lute of Kirkby’s long-time partner Anthony Rooley, although, unfortunately, he has been recorded too recessively.

The music of Handel’s under-appreciated rival Maurice Green has long been championed by Kirkby, and his setting of Shakespeare’s famous Orpheus with his Lute is irresistible in its depiction of the billowing sea. John Weldon’s Stop, o ye waves continues the nautical theme with a catchy dotted-note figure, stylishly supported, as throughout this delightful recording, by Rooley.

Pamela Margles 

Concert Note: Emma Kirkby performs with Tafelmusik Orchestra and Choir on Wednesday, April 9, at 7:00 pm, April 10-12 at 8:00 pm, and Sunday April 13 at 2:00 pm.

George Crumb Complete Edition Volumes 1-6 Various artists  Bridge Records  (www.bridgerecords.com)

An imposing self-assigned responsibility informs every note of George
Crumb’s music: a composer should add only exceptional pieces to music
history’s long list of works. Crumb acquits this responsibility admirably. In 1962, at the age of thirty-three, he produced his first work combining unprecedented extensions of sonority using numerological structures for organizing harmony, rhythm, and form.
Sometimes the sonorities come from virtuosic stretching of familiar instruments and voice. Other times they come from unusual instrumentation played in unusual ways: sitar, electric bass, carillon, and more. 

A second assumed responsibility is never standing still. Crumb aims to make each work unique. The forces range from works for solo instrumentalists to the mammoth Star-Child (Volume 3, Bridge 9095) with its multiple orchestras, chorus and children’s chorus, trombone and solo soprano. From the first measures you know that you are entering a new sonic world. 

The best place to start in this superb set from Bridge (manufactured and distributed in Canada by Verge Music www.vergemusic.com) is the recent Volume 6 (Bridge 9127), which has a good sampling of Crumb’s wares. You get the Pulitzer-winning Echoes of Time and the River, Gnomic Variations featuring a solo piano played like nothing you’ve heard before, the Pastoral Drone for organ and the intimate Four Nocturnes for violin and piano. A special bonus is the inclusion of the first compact disc reissue of the 1971 performance of Lux Aeterna by the late Jan De Gaetani for whom Crumb wrote much of his vocal music. Then I would go to Volume 2 (Bridge 9069), which features two of the compositions that we can hear in concert this month: Quest, a chamber piece composed for guitarist David Starobin; and a return to Crumb’s passion for the poetry of Federico Garcia Lorca, Federico’s Little Songs For Children. 

I eagerly await the next installment in this ambitious project. Volume 7 is due out in June of this year and will include Crumb’s take on the horrors of the Vietnam war, Black Angels for amplified string quartet.

Phil Ehrensaft

Concert Note: Students of the Glenn Gould School perform well-known works by George Crumb including Black Angels on April 11 at 7:30 at the Royal Conservatory of Music. New Music Concerts presents “The Unknown Crumb” (including Quest and Federico’s Little Songs) on April 13 at Glenn Gould Studio.

100 Years of Dance Orchestre symphonique de Québec; Yoav Talmi Analekta FL 2 3156

The OSQ reveal themselves as hale and hearty as they enter the second century since their founding, responding readily to Yoav Talmi’s gracefully melded phrasings and subtle nuances of tempo and dynamics. Eight selections from the exceedingly familiar Slavonic Dances by Dvorák provide the first 30 minutes of this album. Dvorák’s presence returns in the concluding 15 minutes as well, as orchestrator of five of six Hungarian Dances by his proponent, Brahms.

Sandwiched between these 19th century stalwarts are a trio of popular modern selections, beginning with Bartók’s 1917 Rumanian Folk Dances. Québec is well represented by Claude Champagne’s tried-and-true Danse villageoise and François Dompierre’s recent Les Diableries for violin and orchestra. The flashy Dompierre work, with its echoes of the same Québecois fiddling traditions that inform Champagne’s work, is incisively performed by OSQ concertmaster Darren Lowe.

The recorded sound achieves both great depth and clarity, with the violins distributed to the left and right in the 19th century manner. As enjoyable as these performances may be, I find it frustrating that this narrowly focused sequence of dance tracks gives little sense of what this venerable orchestra might achieve in weightier repertoire.

Daniel Foley

Concert Note: Yoav Talmi leads the Quebec Symphony Orchestra in some weightier fare at Roy Thomson Hall on April 9 with violin soloist James Ehnes.

NEW AND RECENT RELEASES
 
 

Beethoven: Piano Trios Op.1 Gryphon Trio Analekta FL 2 3170

Last month the Gryphon Trio celebrated its tenth anniversary with a Music Toronto performance that included the North American premiere of a recently discovered trio by the Romanian composer George Enescu. That the Gryphons were chosen for this honour by the eminent Belgian musicologist Harry Halbreich is an indication of just how accomplished these young local musicians have become. 

The tenth anniversary concert also provided an occasion to launch the group’s fourth CD for the Analekta label featuring two trios from Beethoven’s Op.1. Recorded last September in the warm acoustic of Domaine Forget in Saint-Irénée Quebec, these lively performances testify to the group’s ensemble skills. The repertoire gives plenty of room to explore dynamic range and dramatic contrast, in particular with Beethoven’s surprising weak-beat sforzandos, playful scherzos and dark mood adagios. And the break-neck prestissimos are exhilarating, but the Gryphons never lose control. I’ve been comparing this recording to the performances released as “Beaux Arts Trio – The Early Years” (Philips 438 948-2) and I must say that the Gryphons hold their own even in such auspicious company. 

My only complaint with this fine recording is what it does not include. The Gryphon Trio is one of Canada’s foremost proponents of contemporary music but you wouldn’t know it from their discography. Surely now, with four CDs of the standard repertoire, it’s time for Analekta to “take a chance” and record some of the fine new works that have had so much success in concert at home and abroad.

David Olds

Editor’s Note: As we go to press it has come to my attention that Analekta will indeed release a CD of works written especially for the Gryphon Trio later this year. 

Concert Note: The Gryphon Trio is featured in the Soundstreams/Music Toronto/CBC Radio Two presen-tation of music by Serge Arcuri and Ingram Marshall at Glenn Gould Studio on April 3.

Elegia Matthew White, alto & Les Voix Baroques Analekta AN2 9902

I have always admired Matthew White’s musicality as well as the intelligence and honesty of his singing, and so jumped at the chance to review this CD. White performs here with a small, Montreal-based instrumental ensemble of which he is the programming director.

The CD program, comprising lamentations and elegies by German and English composers of the 16th to 18th centuries, features some of the true gems of the genre. Byrd’s Ye Sacred Muses receives an almost magical rendition here, and J. S. Bach’s Ich habe genug (BWV 82)
is performed with supple, elegant phrasing and a sense of delicate intimacy.

An excerpt from Blow’s Ode on the Death of Henry Purcell displays White’s broad palette of sound and great expressive capacity. Some exquisite instrumental music by Biber, Thomas Simpson, Purcell,
Tallis and Holborne is played by Les Voix Baroques with thoughtful attention to detail, sweetness of sound, and energetic abandon, as befits each particular work. Despite some tempos which feel slightly too hurried, a few missed opportunities for instrumental word-painting, and momentary lapses in tuning, this is a delightful CD which I will enjoy again many times to come.

Alison Melville

Nino Rota Jennifer Swartz; Alain Trudel Orchestre Metropolitain;  Yannick Nézet-Séguin ATMA ACD2 2294

Though composer Nino Rota (1911-1979) is justly celebrated for his contributions to the films of Zefferelli, Coppola, Visconti, and above all, Fellini, his extensive catalogue of concert music (some 100 scores in all) is little known outside his native Italy. The present album celebrates both sides of this prolific artist.

The sprawling Suite from La Strada was the result of a commission from La Scala of Milan for a ballet based on the renowned 1954 Fellini film of that name. It incorporates music from several of his most successful film scores along with music especially composed for the full-length ballet. Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin does his best to bring cohesion to this cornucopia of sources, though it is no easy task. Stylistically, Rota was a musical chameleon, and the Suite is little more than a string of memorable melodic pearls loosely bound together by the most fleeting of transitions.

Rota’s 1947 Harp Concerto shows a much finer sense of form, employing the neo-Baroque formulas that were the height of French fashion at the time. It remains a highly attractive, deftly orchestrated work. The highly ornamented harp part is charmingly performed by Jennifer Swartz. The 1966 Trombone Concerto is an equally appealing work, expressed in a listener-friendly neo-classical vernacular. Canada’s singular trombone soloist, Alain Trudel, delivers an effortless interpretation of this important addition to the limited repertoire. Montreal’s alternative orchestra is an impressive one, though one not inclined to play as romantically as they might in this repertoire.

Daniel Foley

Concert Note: Trombonist Alain Trudel is featured as both conductor and composer with the Royal Conservatory Orchestra on April 25 at Glenn Gould Studio

Scarlatti - Sonatas for clavecin, Vol.2  Luc Beausejour  Analekta FL 2 3163

Relentless charm, wit that catches you off guard, subtlety - well every now and then, entertaining - always. Scarlatti was a remarkable composer for the keyboard. You would think that after the first 2 or 3 hundred sonatas, there would be a limit to what a composer could do that was not a re-hash. It’s like dim-sum for the harpsichord. An incredible variety and even when you’ve tried them all, there are other cooks who can make it the same, but different.

Luc Beauséjour is a great cook, well, interpreter, when it comes to Scarlatti. He even has a kind of tongue-in-cheek grin with the Sonatas that are “serious”. The raucous ones bounce along without a care in the world.
What happy music! The wonderful keyboard technique is transparent. Yup, some of these are a real workout, but they just fly from his fingers. Beauséjour gets great sounds out of the Wm. P. Ross harpsichord, after Boffo, 1574. Rather an early design for Scarlatti, but quite successful for these sonatas.

You would think that all this excitement would wear one out - nope. I hope that Luc goes on to record many more (maybe all 555!). He’s certainly the man for it.

Den Ciul

Actus Tragicus  Theatre of Early Music  Daniel Taylor  Atma ACD2 2288

This handsome disc features the brilliant Canadian countertenor Daniel Taylor’s bold experiment called the “Theatre of Early Music”. The group has some high ideals, including “bringing back the sacredness” to the “creative” process of making music. The instrumentalists hail from Montreal and the singers are soprano Suzie LeBlanc, Taylor, tenor Ian Honeyman and the renowned English bass Stephen Varcoe. 

With the Bach and Telemann cantatas recorded here an interesting question arises: does one need a conductor/leader to – if not explicitly conduct – at least synthesize and streamline the excellent musical ideas from all involved? I don’t have a definite answer, but it’s clear from these recordings that while Taylor is the founder of the Theatre of Early Music, he’s encouraging all of the musicians to express their own ideas and responses to the music. This works most of the time, but with the Actus Tragicus (BWV 106), one gets the sense from the outset that the performances are too self-indulgent. The tempo of the opening Sonatina is really too slow, though I readily admit that the harmonies and sonorities of the gambas and recorders are heartbreakingly beautiful. All of the vocalists sing beautifully, but it’s only Varcoe who seems to bring a refreshing forward-motion to his singing. He knows where and when to relax to great effect, but most of the time he keeps things moving and takes the listener’s breath away with his remarkable phrasing. 

I can’t get enough of Daniel Taylor’s singing – it’s an absolute marvel – but I think he needs to take better control of this group. The raw material he has access to is extraordinary and the potential for memorable, profound music making is clearly there. Long live the Theatre of Early Music. 

Larry Beckwith

Editor’s Note: Taylor’s earlier disc of Bach Cantatas with the Theatre of Early Music has been nominated for a JUNO award. See “Discs of the Month” for full details.

A Jazz Celebration The Marsalis Family Rounder Records/Marsalis Music 1166133022

The juggernaut that is the Marsalis family of New Orleans seems to dominate the ‘official’ jazz scene these days. Consider trumpeter Wynton’s considerable activities with the Lincoln Center in New York and Ken Burns’ Jazz on PBS; saxophonist Branford’s performances and productions; and the younger Delfeayo, a trombonist and producer. The youngest is the drummer Jason, thought of by the other family members as probably the best of the lot.

The paterfamilias is pianist Ellis Marsalis, until recently teaching at University of New Orleans, and always gigging. It was his retirement from that school that caused the clan to reassemble in the home town in the summer of 2001 for a concert taped for PBS, a DVD and this CD release. The bassist was Roland Guerin, and there are guest appearances by Harry Connick, Jr. and trombonist Lucien Barbarin, heard on the traditional Saint James Infirmary. (Connick also sits in at the piano with Ellis on another track.)

This release offers a nice wide range of easy-to-hear jazz, mostly in a middle-of-the-road contemporary style, with features for each of the players. Ellis himself sparkles on The Surrey With The Fringe On Top (featuring some tasty drum work by Jason), and contributes four original compositions.

While this is not the most challenging music you’ll listen to this year, it certainly bears repeated hearings, and offers a nice range of styles and groupings, giving the earlier jazz sounds of Saint James and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue the on-stage respect the music deserves.

Ted O’Reilly

Mystery Theatre Erosonic Victo cd 085

Erosonic’s new release “Mystery Theatre” illustrates that when two virtuoso instrumentalists combine their talents, magic can happen.
Baritone saxophonist David Mott and accordionist Joseph Petric have created a musical journey ranging from quiet contemplation to feverish technical prowess to a plethora of musical colours. 

Established in 1994, the duo’s CD features three works by David Mott, two by Mott and Joseph Petric, and an electro acoustic composition by David Keane. The compositions, which feature scored and/or improvisational elements with contemporary music, free improv and jazz leanings, reflect the composers’ solid understanding of the instrumentation. From the challenges each work presents, the interpreters create a fascinating world of sound. Worth noting is the title track Mystery Theatre by David Mott, which the liner notes explain is an exploration of “vast sonic spaces and deep emotional terrain”. The two instruments seem to melt together as phrases overlap, dynamics shift and effortless rapidly moving lines intertwine to display Erosonic at its best.

The high production values have only occasional mixing and intonation miscalculations while the extensive liner notes could be adjusted to allow listeners to make more of their own musical responses. Both seasoned and first time new music listeners will find Erosonic’s “Mystery Theatre” a worthwhile recording to check out.

Tiina Kiik

Concert Note: Joseph Petric is featured in the Music Gallery's Composer Now series concert presented by Earshot! on April 26. 

The Soul of Pipa Vol. 2 Liu Fang Philmultic PMPCD001-2

This CD is a veritable feast of alluring sounds, ranging from the eloquent and lyrical to the flamboyant and percussive. The varied soundscape produced by one player and one instrument is quite dazzling. Liu Fang’s masterly technique (e.g. tremolo, delicate harmonics, lyrical tunes, and boisterous percussive effects), as well as the music itself -- which is based on short sections characterized by ever-changing tempos and dynamics -- all evoke an improvised and exciting quality.

The pipa has for a long time been one of the most popular instruments of Chinese classical and folk music. Dating back as far as the T’ang dynasty (618-907), it is a pear-shaped, fretted, short-necked lute with a bent neck which is both a solo and ensemble instrument. Liu Fang studied pipa from the age of six, and is a graduate of the Shanghai Conservatory. She has been based in Montreal since 1996 and has clearly made great inroads in the Canadian and European market. 

This CD is the second in a set of three featuring music for the solo pipa. Unfortunately, the liner notes give us no information about the music itself, other than titles and composers. Considering this is aimed at a general Canadian audience, some background would have enhanced most people’s understanding of the form, techniques, and programmatic song titles. The eight featured pieces range from traditional, e.g. The Ambush which depicts an ancient battle scene, to more recent works by composers of the late 19th/early 20th centuries such as Liu Tianhua and Hua Yanjun. 

Definitely a CD to enrich anyone’s musical palette and provide a sample of China’s rich musical heritage, it is more readily available in Quebec stores but can always be found through www.philmultic.com.

Annette Sanger

Russian Album: Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, and Samuel Dolin Alexander Tselyakov, piano Golomb Records GLDC 5701-3

Russian-Canadian Alexander Tselyakov lives in the Toronto area, has a pedigree from the Moscow Conservatory, and is definitely someone worth hearing if you like Russian pianists playing traditional bravura Russian repertoire. 

Here is a grab-bag of the familiar and less familiar, Romantic and modernist works that are now tender, now fiery, now diaphanous, now spiky. Tselyakov’s playing throughout this recital-flavoured release offers command and directness. 

Great to be reminded of the impressionist flavours of Rachmaninoff, when so often we just put him in that has-been-virtuoso box. The Prelude in G Major Op.32, No.5 and famous G-sharp Minor Prelude, Op.32 No.12 shimmer with atmosphere. Tchaikovsky’s F-Major Variations are conservative yet quite wonderful: a simple yearning theme, followed by a clutch of Schumannesque portrayals. Prokofiev’s affable Fifth Sonata, and several short pieces by Scriabin round out the CD, recorded in Germany. In addition the disc includes the world-premiere performance of a driving Toccata by Canadian Samuel Dolin recorded live at the George Weston Recital Hall by CJRT-FM in 1999.

Philosophy professor and impresario Jan Narveson contributed the sweater-and-slippers informal liner notes. The self-produced CD doesn’t provide purchase/distribution information but there is a website: www.tselyakov.com. 

Peter Kristian Mose

Concert Note: The Chrylark Arts and Music Series presents Alexander Tselyakov at Heliconian Hall on May 4 at 3 pm.
 

WORTH REPEATING
 
 

Beethoven: Symphony No.5; Schubert: Symphony No.8; Wagner: Die Meistersinger: selections; Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune  Leopold Stokowski; London Philharmonic/London Symphony EMI Classic Archive DVD-V 72434 928439-5

One of the first recordings I owned was the Schubert “Unfinished” with Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra, recorded in April 1927 and a staple in the Victor catalogue for 20 years. No one could have known that 42 years later he would be conducting the same work for a medium not yet invented, television. 

The London Philharmonic concert was filmed at a public concert in the Fairfield Hall, Croydon on 8 September 1969. It came as no real surprise to hear two dynamic performances and to see baton-less Stokowski carving the music out of the air, often outlining or shaping rather than simply beating time and cuing in instruments. His mannerisms were unique and the gestures often quite extravagant but he got exactly what he wanted and we can now see how it was done. The video image is superb and the colour true. 

The two London Symphony pieces date from a concert of 14 June 1972 in London’s Royal Festival Hall. The Wagner is suitably noble and the Debussy, always a Stokowski show-piece, shows that he had not lost his touch. As a “tasty bonus”, the DVD includes a B&W recording from 1961 with Pierre Monteux conducting the LSO in Dukas’ L’Apprenti Sorcier. Interesting, but offering barely a hint of that conductor’s exceptional interpretive skills. Still, better to have it than not.

Other DVD-Vs in the same release were the Beethoven Cello Sonatas with Rostropovich and Richter; Menuhin playing concertos by Beethoven, Mozart and Bruch; and a recital by Regine Crespin with bonus tracks by Denise Duval.

Bruce Surtees

Mengelberg conducts Wagner, Humperdinck, Richard Strauss and Mahler Concertgebouw and New York Philharmonic-Symphony  Orchestras NAXOS Historical 8.110855

For examples of pure orchestral power, which doesn’t necessarily mean volume, you must listen to this exemplary new release from Naxos Historical. The Preludes to Tan-nhauser and Lohengrin, recorded by English Columbia in 1932 and 1927 respectively, define ‘powerhouse’! Mengelberg habitually took a lot of extra time tuning and balancing an orchestra with clearly heard results. Mark Obert-Thorn’s restoration of the seven tracks is outstanding!

Bruce Surtees

Jazz at the College of the Pacific, Vol. 2 Dave Brubeck Quartet Fantasy OJCCD-1076-2

Creative jazz and popular success can go together and Dave Brubeck is living proof - an artist who never watered down or altered his music in order to gain a wide audience. Creative booking - he had one of the first groups to play regularly on college campuses - and the necessary spot of luck here and there, resulted in one of the few jazz groups to achieve great popularity and to this day it is one of the few household names in jazz.

This album of previously unreleased performances is from one of those early campus concerts, recorded at the College Of The Pacific in December of 1953, the same concert that produced the original Jazz at the College of the Pacific (Fantasy 3223/0JCCD-047-2). It wears well and is, I believe, one of the best-recorded performances by his long-time musical companion, Paul Desmond. His delicate, introspective playing on Stardust, is a thing of beauty.
Desmond’s phrasing is full of unexpected delights, twists and turns. His harmonic sense is unmatched by any other horn player I can think of, but there is no simple running the changes here; this is a melodically inventive mind running on all cylinders. And bassist Ron Crotty and drummer Joe Dodge propel things along very nicely, thank you.

Brubeck’s classical training is evident in Let’s Fall in Love. He studied at Mills College with Darius Milhaud and like his teacher, the use of polyrhythms and polytonality (playing in two keys at once) are a hallmark of Brubeck’s music. There are those who find his approach too “scholarly” and even unswinging, but the musical joys of this CD far outweigh any of that criticism. It is clear from their obvious rapport that he and Desmond were two musical minds destined to find each other. This was one of the great musical marriages in jazz.

Jim Galloway

Soulville Ben Webster Quintet Verve 314 521 449-2

Was there ever a more lyrical-sounding tenor saxophone in all of jazz?
The Webster trademarks are all there on this CD - the big, full-sounding tone with the underlying fire and passion, the breathy notes and distilled phrases, all the stuff of which the Ben Webster legend is made. The quintet recordings were originally issued on Lp and no doubt aficionados already have them, but this really is worth adding to the CD collection.

Webster staked his claim to greatness with the Ellington band between 1939 and 1943, but these small group performances from 1957 provide the ideal intimate setting, with Oscar Peterson proving yet again what a great accompanist he is; Ray Brown on bass and Herb Ellis on guitar make their usual magic, and Stan Levey adds just the right touch on drums. A straight-ahead swinger like Webster couldn’t ask for any better.

It is difficult to choose favourites, but Time On My Hands and Where Are You? are stand-outs for me, perfect late night soft lights listening. (Beulah, peel me a grape.) The CD has an added bonus in that there are three extra tracks in addition to the original LP selections, and they feature Ben Webster on piano! As a young musician it was his first instrument and he demonstrates that he was no slouch as a stride piano player. Try it - you’ll like it.

Jim Galloway

The Three C’s  Benny Carter, Bill Coleman, Henri Chaix Sackville SKCD2-2058

Genuine small group swing music is a too-rare commodity these days, and the release of some new material by master musicians is welcome.

Visiting American jazz giant Benny Carter, and the expatriate under-recognized great Bill Coleman, each share the stage with Swiss pianist/bandleader Henri Chaix (pronounced ‘shecks’) on “The Three C’s”.

Altoist/composer Benny Carter was 61 years old, re-establishing himself as a performer, rather than as a composer/orchestrator which had occupied him for decades. Concert producer Arild Wideroe signed him for concerts with Chaix’s octet in Lausanne, Geneva and Baden.

This last event on November 9, 1968 was taped in stereo by Swiss radio, and the results are finally out of the vaults, offering 43 minutes of swing sounds.

Four of the seven selections are delightful Benny Carter originals, and he is featured with just the rhythm section on two standards, I Can’t Get Started and Body and Soul. The other standard, ‘S Wonderful, uses the whole band.
While the visitor is of course centre stage, Henri Chaix, a formidable musician, shines as both soloist and accompanist: his Basie-like support work with bassist Alain Du Bois and drummer Romano Cavicchiolo are world class. Tenor man Michel Pilet is solid, too.

Trumpeter Bill Coleman was twice a member of Benny Carter’s big band, in the mid-’30s and again in the early ’40s, but he preferred life in Europe, living in France in the last half of the 1930s and again from 1948 until his death in 1981. As a result, he is less well known on this side of the Atlantic than he should be.

The thirty minutes of his Geneva studio recordings for Swiss radio included here should gain some attention for his elegant, yet swinging trumpet, and his comfortable vocals (one in French!). On these ’57 and ’58 mono recordings Chaix’s quintet is heard.

With a four-piece rhythm section, and Michel Pilet’s big tenor, Coleman’s light tone, often with mute, smoothly glides along.

Tunes featured include Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams, Blue Turning Grey…, When My Sugar Walks Down The Street and the French blues! N’Embrassez Pas Ma Femme.
 
 

DISCS OF THE MONTH

COMPLETING OUR JUNO ROUNDUP

Almost certainly lost from view on the CTV JUNO Awards special, Sunday April 6, will be the classical and post-classical nominations – twenty in all – most relevant to our readers. DISCoveries is proud to note that, including the five CDs reviewed below, we have covered all nineteen commercially available nominees this year. We invite you to visit our website at www.thewholenote.com for a complete list of the classical nominations, along with quick links to all our previously published reviews.

Reviewed This Month

Classical Album of the Year, Solo or Chamber Ensemble:
Liszt: Paganini Studies & Schubert Transcriptions, Marc-André Hamelin (Hyperion)

Classical Album of the Year, Large Ensemble or soloist(s) with large ensemble accompaniment:
Bruch: Concertos Vol.II, James Ehnes/Mario Bernardi/OSM (CBC): 

Classical Album of the Year, Vocal or Choral Performance:
Of Ladies and Love, Michael Schade (Hyperion): DISCoveries April 2003
Bach Cantatas, Daniel Taylor/Theatre of Early Music (ATMA)

Classical Composition of the Year:
Concerto for Cello, Heather Schmidt (This is the Colour of My Dreams - CBC)