Here is a riddle for you: When are nine titles really 31? When there are some deluxe (and I mean really deluxe) collections in New in Music This Week: August 22nd.
My top pick this week is:
JAZZ: YOU’RE EXAGGERATING! – Paul Cornish – Blue Note Records
It would be very easy to just write, “Listen to this album now.” You might suggest that I would be overstating the quality of the writing and playing on Cornish’s debut album. But truly, this should the first new album to listen to this week for anyone who likes jazz or thinks they might.
I felt the same excitement when I first heard this album that I had when I first heard Jason Moran and Vijay Iyer (one of Cornish’s instructors at one point.)
Cornish has worked with Haim, Joshua Redman, Kanye West and more. On Redman’s most recent album, Words Fall Short, his playing gave us a taste of what his first album might be like.
You’re Exaggerating! is not just a taste. It is the first course of what I hope will be many more. Listening to him, along with bassist Joshua Crumbly and drummer Jonathan Pinson, is the musical equivalent a watching a supernova. (Guitarist Jeff Parker joins for one track, Palindrome.)
Queinxiety, Star Is Born (not at all related to fame or himself) and Queen Geri and the three tracks to listen to if you aren’t willing to just explore the entire album. But you’ll be doing yourself a disservice if that’s all you listened to.
Cornish’s playing is thoughtful, intelligent, full of dexterity, reverential and forward-thinking. The challenge for him now is to come up with a second album that makes good on the promise of You’re Exaggerating! I have no doubt he will. This is the start of a very exciting recording career.
Here are the other fine releases New in Music This Week: August 22nd:
CLASSICAL: EDGE OF THE STORM – Telegraph Quartet – Azica Records
Telegraph Quartet continues their exploration of music of the 20th century with this recording of works that reflect the ten-year period beginning two years after the start of World War II and concluding one year into the Korean War.
Edge of the Storm opens with Grażyna Bacewicz’s String Quartet No. 4. She wrote this work as part of her role in the Underground Union of Musicians. Her quartet is from 1951. I wasn’t familiar with Bacewicz or this piece, but I was immediately captured by its intensity.
The second work is the much better-known String Quartet No. 1, Op. 25 in D major by Benjamin Britten. This work was composed in 1941 in America after Britten was living in exile.
The album concludes with Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s String Quartet No. 6 from 1946. Weinberg’s inspiration for this work came from the disappearance of his sister and parents. His father-in-law was purged by Stalin’s regime and was never seen again. This is a truly sad and somber work.
Telegraph Quartet plays all three works beautifully. They never try to make these pieces anything more than what they are: intensely personal responses to a world at war with devastating personal consequences.
CLASSICAL: THE SEASONS – Yunchan Lim – Deutsche Grammophon
Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons is the most famous of classical compositions acknowledging each three-month period we call a season. Russian composer Tchaikovsky went about it a different way. He wrote twelve pieces – one for each month of the year. You can see and listen to him perform November HERE.
This work has been arranged for symphony orchestras, for violin and orchestra, piano trio and chamber ensembles. But it began its life for solo piano.
Yunchan Lim’s take is much darker and serious than most recordings. Lim still offers plenty of romanticism in this recording. But I think fans will be surprised at the darkly emotional approach he’s using to interpret these pieces.
It is a surprising choice for so young a musician (he’s 21). But it reflects a point-of-view that is refreshing. This album will ask you to think anew about Tchaikovsky’s twelve little pieces.
FILM SCORES: JOHN WILLIAMS: THE ANTHOLOGY – VOL. 1 1969-1990 – John Williams – Sony Classical
Fans of John Williams will need some deep pockets this year as Sony Classical is releasing a 75-disc collection of John Williams’ film scores. The first of the three volume set gets released today and covers his scores from The Reivers (1969) to Home Alone (1990).
There are 22 discs in this first release. This includes some of his most popular scores including Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the Star Wars Trilogy and more.
It also includes some scores that aren’t as popular that I think are quite good including The Fury, The Witches of Eastwick and The Accidental Tourist. There are over 23 hours of music on this anthology.
These boxes are not available via any streaming services.
JAZZ: KEITH JARRETT AT THE DEER HEAD INN: THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS – ECM Records – Vinyl Only
Early in pianist Jarrett’s career, he performed at the Deer Head Inn in Pennsylvania. One such appearance on September 16, 1992 featured Jarrett performing with drummer Paul Motian and bassist Gary Peacock.
In April of 1994, ECM released At the Deer Head Inn. It featured seven tracks and is considered one of Jarrett’s most enjoyable recordings. In 2024 The Old Country was released with eight more tracks from that concert.
The original recording has long been one of my favorites. You can hear them perform Bye Bye Blackbird HERE. The Old Country is also quite good. Their performance of How Long Has This Been Going On is one of my favorite of this George and Ira Gershwin classic.
ECM is releasing on vinyl only, a 4-LP set that has all 15 tracks together. This is the first time for them to be released on vinyl. Given ECM’s high standards for their recordings, you know this vinyl is going to sound amazing.
JAZZ: SPLIT DECISION- Eric Alexander and Vincent Herring– SMOKE Sessions Records
A split decision is when there’s no consensus as to the winner of a match (usually boxing). That was going to be the result when tenor saxophonist Alexander and alto saxophonist Herring started playfully teaming up under the guise of doing battle with one another. Something they’ve been doing for several years.
There’s only going to be one winner when these two guys get together: the audience.
This live recording finds Alexander and Herring joined by Mike LeDonne on piano, Lewis Nash on drums and John Webber on bass.
Amongst the songs they perform in this concert recording are Horace Silver’s Strollin’, My Romance by Rodgers and Hart and two Hank Mobley tunes: A Peck a Sec and Soft Impressions. You can hear A Peck a Sec HERE.
This is the third in a trilogy of concerts from SMOKE Jazz Club. But let’s keep this bout going for another 7 rounds. I want a full 10 round battle!
OPERA: EL CAMINANTE – Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes/ David Guzmán/Michelle Johnson/Juliette Lee Kaoudji/Boston University Opera Institute & Symphony Orchestra/William Lumpkin – Navona Records
Cuban composer Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes composed five operas. El Caminante debuted in Cuba in 1921. Then it appears to have been relegated to the dustbin of history. Or it would have been had the piano-vocal score not been found in Harvard University’s archives in 2020.
In Francisco Villaespesa’s libretto, Ginesa’s daughter Yolanda can’t walk. They want to find a cure for her condition. They both pray to Jesus to answer their prays. They believe he listened when a stranger shows up asking for water. He’s the caminante. He finds Yolanda very attractive and kisses her. In that moment Yolanda can walk again. He continues on his journey and her life has been changed forever. Not every opera has to be tragic (see the next listing).
Thank God El Caminante was found. From the three-and-a-half minute prelude that opens this one-act opera, this is beautiful music. It’s a brief work, but utterly enchanting.
OPERA: DIDO & AENEAS – Joyce DiDonato/Michael Spyres/Fatma Sad/Il Pomo d’Oro/Maxim Emelyanychev – Erato
Anyone who knows mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato’s singing knows that baroque music fits comfortably into her amazing voice. So it might come as a surprise that she never sang the role of Dido in Purcell’s opera until 2024.
The operas centers on a doomed love story. Dido is the Queen of Carthage. Aeneas is a Trojan her. Though they fall madly in love, their relationship is manipulated by a sorceress who convinces Aeneas to abandon the love affair for greater pursuits in what would become Rome. Dido, left alone is abject grief, kills herself. (A tragic ending, of course.)
This recording was made in Essen, Germany. DiDonato is joined by Michael Spyres as Aeneas.
This is a beautiful recording. DiDonato truly shines in this role. You can see and hear her sing When I Am Laid in Earth from Dido & Aeneas HERE.
OPERA: GROUNDED – Jeanine Tesori/Metropolitan Opera Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Deutsche Grammophon
This live recording from the Metropolitan Opera comes from the 2024 premiere of this opera composed by Jeanine Tesori based on George Brant’s play (he wrote the libretto.)
It tells the story of a female fighter pilot (Emily D’Angelo) whose pregnancy results in her operating military drones instead of flying jets. It’s about more than that simple plot point and navigates its way through the moral conundrum faced when working with contemporary warfare technology and its implications – both actual and moral.
While the opera got mixed reviews, I find anything Tesori writes to be worth my time. This recording is no exception. I believe she is one of the top three composers working in musical theater today. From Thoroughly Modern Millie to Caroline, or Change to Shrek The Musical and Kimberly Akimbo, her range and versatility is unparalleled.
This excursion into opera Is not her first. I certainly hope it won’t be her last.
That’s all for New in Music This Week: August 22nd.
Enjoy your weekend!
Enjoy the music!
Main Photo: Part of the album art from Paul Cornish’s You’re Exaggerating