Welcome to the start of the weekend. There are some great re-issues on vinyl this week, some recordings that might challenge you (and the genres they represent) and the end of a trilogy – all New In Music This Week: June 2nd.
Our top pick of New In Music This Week: June 2nd is:
BROADWAY: CAMELOT OBCR (Broadway Records)
Lincoln Center Theater’s revival of the Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe musical Camelot received 5 Tony nominations including Best Revival of a Musical. The musical tells the story of King Arthur (Andrew Burnap) and the knights he pursues for his round table. Amongst them is Lancelot Du Lac (Jordan Donica) who falls for Arthur’s beloved Guenevere (Phillipa Soo). The show is filed with such songs as I Loved You Once in Silence, If Ever I Would Leave You, How to Handle a Woman and the title song.
I haven’t seen this production, but Donica apparently steals the show with his incredible singing. That’s reason enough to follow this recording wherever it wants to take us.
Our other choices as the best of what’s New In Music this Week: June 2nd are:
CABARET: ACOUSTIC SONDHEIM: LIVE FROM BROOKLYN – Eleri Ward (Ghostlight Records)
Every day a little death. Apparently with this final volume of her trilogy, Ward is going to move on from Stephen Sondheim‘s music. But before she does she’s releasing this live in studio recording with special guest Bobby Conte (Company). Ward has a good thing going with these recordings and I’m looking forward to whatever she does next.
Her lo-fi recordings of Sondheim’s music had me losing my mind with how beautiful they were. It will be agony not to have more recordings of this musical theater genius from Ward, but I know things now about unique ways to bring color and light to his music.
CLASSICAL: MUSIC FOR A NEW CENTURY – Daniel Hope and the New Century Chamber Orchestra (Deutsch Grammophon)
Violinist Hope has assembled a fascinating line-up of music to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the New Century Chamber Orchestra. Pianist Alexey Botvinov joins for a performance of Philip Glass‘s Third Piano Concerto. The remaining three works are having world premiere recordings on Music For a New Century. They are Tan Dun’s Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Orchestra with Percussions; Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Lament for Solo Violin and String Orchestra and Jake Heggie’s Overture Joyfully. The latter three works were all commissions by the NCCO.
CONTEMPORARY OPERA: BLACK LODGE – David T. Little (Cantaloupe Music)
Last year Opera Philadelphia gave the premiere of this modern opera by David T. Little. Press materials describe Black Lodge as a metal/punk-infused opera. If you’re expecting Puccini, this won’t be for you. But if you want a work that pushes the envelope of what the form can do, Black Lodge is definitely for you.
The libretto is by poet Anne Waldman and the story of a man trying to escape from the torment of demons of his own design has echoes of William S. Burroughs and David Lynch. Black Lodge is performed by Timur and the Dime Museum with the Isaura String Quartet. Fasten your seat belts, this is going to a bumpy ride..but a seriously fascinating one. Little is amongst our finest contemporary composers.
JAZZ: SLOW DRAG – Donald Byrd (Blue Note Records)
This is one of two of the June reissues of vinyl only reissues of classic jazz albums remastered from the original master tapes. Slow Drag was originally released in 1967 and found the trumpeter joined by bassist Walter Booker, drummer Billy Higgins, saxophonist Sonny Red and pianist Cedar Walton. This proved to be one of Byrd’s last hard bop albums.
The six songs on this album are the title track, Secret Love, Book’s Bossa, Jelly Roll, The Loaner and My Ideal. His version of Secret Love is definitely different than the version many people know by Doris Day.
JAZZ: TORRENT – Satoko Fujii (Libra Records)
Pianist Fujii doesn’t just play the key on the piano, she plays the whole damn thing. Inside, outside, it’s all fair game for her adventurous music. You can’t call what she does traditional jazz for she incorporates multiple genres into her music. the end result is endlessly fascinating and definitely unique.
Each tracks sounds exactly likes its title: from the opening title track to the closing track, Wave Crest. Rather amazingly, all six tracks were completely improvised during the recording session. Titles were only added after they had all been recorded. If you’ve never heard Fujii before, this is a great way to get introduced to her superb talent.
JAZZ: THE JUNGLE – Wynton Marsalis (Blue Engine Records)
In 1997 Wynton Marsalis became the first recipient of a Pulitzer Prize in Music for a work that was jazz. He won the award for Blood on the Fields, an incredible work that defied easy categorization.
He’s back with another epic work: his Symphony No. 4 which also defies a single genre to define it. One ting that does define it is it is resolutely a work that has New York City at its heart. There are six movements in the symphony which definitely gives the listener a feeling of being in NYC.
The symphony concludes with a 15-minute final movement entitled Struggle in the Digital Market which sums up one of the points Marsalis is making with this work: the challenge of being alive in our modern day world.
This is a recording of a performance from 2019 with Marsalis, the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Nicholas Buc.
JAZZ: TIME FOR TYNER – McCoy Tyner (Blue Note Records)
This is the second of the two June vinyl-only releases. This was pianist Tyner’s 3rd Blue Note album and it was released in 1969. Tyner used an interesting combination for his quartet on this album: vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, bassist Herbie Lewis and drummer Freddie Waits.
The six tracks on the album are African Village, Little Madimba, May Street, I Didn’t Know What Time it Was, The Surrey With the Fringe on Top and I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face. The first three are originals and the last three come from the musicals Too Many Girls, Oklahoma! and My Fair Lady.
That’s it for the best of what’s New In Music This Week: June 2nd. What are you listening to? Leave a message in the comments section. Enjoy the music and enjoy your weekend.
Main Photo: Part of the album art for Camelot