Happy Friday and an early happy Birthday to Philip Glass who turns 87 on Wednesday. Welcome to New In Music This Week: January 26th.
The slow start to the year is finally over and there are a lot of new releases to explore. Here are my favorites!
My top pick for New In Music This Week: January 26th is:
CLASSICAL: PHILIP GLASS SOLO – Philip Glass – Orange Mountain Music
Two years ago with the pandemic still an issue, Glass revisited his music and recorded new solo piano versions of those works. There’s a quietness to this album and given that many of the same compositions are found on his 1989 album Philip Glass: Solo Piano, this album gives you an opportunity to compare and contrast Glass at age 52 and again 32 years later.
The compositions he selected are Opening, Mad Rush, Metamorphosis I, Metamorphosis II, Metamorphosis IIi, Metamorphosis V and Truman Sleeps. The latter is from his score for The Truman Show. That, along with Opening, did not appear on the earlier Solo Piano album.
Most of the new performances are a bit slower in tempo and feel more contemplative than their earlier predecessors. I’ve always found Glass’s music, for the most part, deeply emotional. This album (also available on vinyl) confirms the emotional wallop his music possesses.
Here is the rest of New In Music This Week: January 26th
CLASSICAL: LA DANSE – Martin James Bartlett – Warner Classics
If you like solo piano performances of works by French composers, this album by Bartlett is for you.
He performs works by François Couperin, Claude Debussy, Reynaldo Hahn, Jean-Philippe Rameau and Maurice Ravel.
I’m not familiar with Hahn but will certainly explore more after hearing two of his waltzes for two pianos on this recording. Alexandre Tharaud joins Bartlett for those two tracks.
My favorite track is also the most ambitious of the album, a piano transcription of Ravel’s La Valse. This waltz is a great way to end the dance.
CLASICAL: MORE STORIES – Anneleen Lenaerts – Warner Classics
This EP features nearly 19 minutes of solo harp music. Lenaerts has transcribed works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold; Wolfang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert and Richard Struass for this album.
The transcriptions are smart and beautiful and allow for a transformation of music we’ve known into a wonderful showcase for her talent. Perhaps the best known is Mozart’s Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397. My personal favorite is a transcription from Korngold’s opera Die tote Stadt.
CLASSICAL: ECHOES OF LIFE (Deluxe Edition) – Alice Sara Ott – Deutsche Grammophon
Pianist Ott’s Echoes of Life was released in 2021. With 31 tracks and a 64-minute runtime, it was a full meal of music, predominantly Chopin’s Preludes op.28, an Ott favorite and specialty mixed with music by Chilly Gonzales, György Ligeti, Arvo Pärt, Nino Rota and Toru Takemitsu.
This deluxe edition adds 11 more tracks and 25 more minutes of music. She includes a little more Chopin, plus compositions by Bach, John Field and Valentine Silvestrov.
At the time of the original album’s release Ott said that the album “portrays how I see myself as a classical musician today.” Ott was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2019, so this is a welcome release of additional material she recorded – one assumes at the time of the original recording.
JAZZ: THE BLUE LAND – Matthieu Bordenave – ECM Records
If you don’t know saxophonist Bordenave, this album is a terrific introduction. The Blue Land is a mostly quiet and contemplative recording that features eight original compositions by Bordenave and a cover of John Coltrane’s Compassion.
Joining him on this album are drummer James Maddren who joins his usual trio of bass player Patrice Moret and pianist Florian Weber.
JAZZ: JET BLACK – Satoko Fujii Tokyo Trio – Libra Records
Just when you think you know what a piano, bass and drums trio is going to be along comes Fujii and her trio offering wild changes of instrumentation, tempo while keeping the music wholly original and surprising.
Fujii plays piano and is joined by Takashi Sugawa on bass and Ittetsu Takemura on drums in this live recording which forces listeners to fully accept the combination of improvisation within fully composed music.
Her music cannot be easy to play, but it is certainly well worth your time listening to it.
JAZZ: TOUCH OF TIME – Arve Henriksen/Harmen Fraanje – ECM Records
This seems to be a week in which a lot of improvised music is being released. Case-in-point is this album by trumpeter Henriksen (who also plays electronics) and pianist Fraanje. Not that everything is improvised on this album, but a good portion of it is yielding beautiful results.
The album opens with Melancholia and includes tracks such sa The Dark Light, Winter Haze, the title track and Passing on the Past. This quietly powerful album struck me as one contemplating life in our truly chaotic world.
JAZZ: IN DUO – Dave Liebman & Jeff Williams – Whirlwind Recordings
This is another album for those who like their jazz fully improvised. This recording comes from a 1991 performance at Bar Room 432 in New York City. It finds saxophonist Liebman and drummer Williams freely exploring their music in an exact time and place without restrictions.
There are two tracks on the album: First Set and Second Set. This is jazz improvisation from start to finish by two musicians who are fully in synch with one another and in that moment in time. It’s truly fascinating to listen to.
JAZZ: SHOOTING STAR – ÉTOILE FILANTE – Reverso – Alternate Side Records
This wonderful album was actually released last week, but I didn’t know about it until after already publishing New In Music This Week.
Reverso is a collaboration amongst cellist Vincent Courtois, trombonist Ryan Keberle and pianist Frank Woeste. With their previous they have created albums in response to work of important French composers including Milhaud, Poulenc and Ravel.
This album is inspired by the work of Lil Boulanger. Her last name may be familiar as she was the younger sister of Nadia Boulanger. Lil wrote extensively until her death from intestinal tuberculosis at the age of 24.
All ten songs on Shooting Star were composed by each of the musicians.
From my first track of the album, La Muse, I was excited by this music. I continue to be excited by it and have listened to the album at least six times this week. Do check it out.
VOCALS: REVISITING ELIS REGINA – Darwin Del Fabro – Madalena Music
The non-binary Del Fabro is an actor who has appeared in stage in plays and musicals (including the original Brazilian production of Fiddler on the Roof). This new recording celebrates Elis Regina, a Brazilian singer who rocketed to fame in 1965, but who died tragically in 1982 of a drug overdose.
This hauntingly beautiful album accomplished two great things: I started exploring Elis Regina and want to hear more from Del Fabro. Their voice is one that once heard is not going to be easily forgotten.
VOCALS: TAMMY GRIMES – Tammy Grimes – Kritzerland
You have to be of a certain age to know or remember Tammy Grimes. She was a Tony Award-winner for her performance in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (Featured Actress in a Musical) and Private Lives (Best Actress in a Play.)
This recording comes from early in her career when she appeared as Julius Monk’s Downstairs at the Upstairs and finds Grimes performing with pianists Carl Norman and Stan Keen.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t heard the whole album, but the excerpts I’ve heard make this a must-have for anyone interested in hearing one of the most unique and talented women to grace a Broadway stage.
My favorite excerpt is of Oscar Levant and Edward Heyman’s Blame It On My Youth.
This album is only available through Kritzerland and can be ordered here.
That’s it for New In Music This Week: January 26th.
Enjoy the music!
Enjoy your weekend!
Main Photo: Part of Luis Alvarez Roure’s painting for the cover of Philip Glass Solo
