New In Music This Week: September 26th

This is my first official list since summer gave way to fall. Here is New In Music This Week: September 26^th:

My top pick is:

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: ASBTRACTIONS – Anna Clyne/Marin Alsop/Baltimore Symphony Orchestra

I’ve long been following composer Anna Clyne’s work and hoping an album of her recent compositions would come out. Here it is and it is terrific. Well worth the wait and worth exploring for those unfamiliar with her writing.

That Marin Alsop and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra have recorded this album is no surprise. Alsop and Clyne have been collaborating for 15 years. And it shows. There’s an assuredness to this playing that comes through in this excellent recording.

Abstractions opens with Within Her Arms which Clyne composed after her mother’s death in 2008. It’s a work I’ve heard in concert and given the subject matter is clearly emotional.

But I love the five-movement suite that gives this album its title. The journey it took me on when I first listened to it was one I’ve happily repeated many times since. Abstractions is inspired by various pieces of art. It reminds me of my own reaction when experiencing art in galleries and museums for the first time. There’s wonder, mystery, contemplation and a dizzying high that comes from those first encounters.

You can listen to “Abstractions II: Auguries” HERE.

Restless Ocean lives up to its title from the opening. Yet there is a stillness that can be found within this 4-minute work. But there’s no time to be complacent – either as a musician or a listener. The restlessness of that ocean was bound to return.

The album closes with Color Field, a 3-movement work inspired by both the paintings of Mark Rothko and the music of Scriabin. Both Abstractions and Color Field are world premiere recordings. Check it out. There’s a reason it is my top pick this week.

Here are the other fine new releases found in New In Music This Week: September 26^th:

CONTEMPORARY CLASSICAL: SUN TRIPTYCH – Dobrinka Tabakova – ECM New Series          

One can never know the thinking behind when an album gets released. Most of the music on composer Tabakova’s superb new album was recorded in 2020 and 2021. It took four years, but at least it got released. This is my first introduction to her music and I’m a fan.

The album opens with two works for piano and viola: Whispered Lullaby and Suite in Jazz Style. Maxim Rysanov plays viola and Asol Kim plays the piano. The pieces were composed for Rysanov. It’s no wonder. He plays beautifully.

I would love to imagine Franz Schubert listening to Fantasy Homage to Schubert which turns his Fantasy in C Major into something far more futuristic than Schubert could ever have imagined. Tabakova conducts the BBC Concert Orchestra for this work.

There are more discoveries to be made with Sun Triptych which I will leave to you. Suffice to say that Sun Triptych makes me wonder what else Tabakova has composed since 2021 and when might we be able to hear it. 

JAZZ: DAMAGE CONTROL – Gary Bartz/NTU  – OYO Records

When you’ve achieved the career that saxophonist Gary Bartz has, you earn the right to do what makes you happy. This album clearly serves that purpose for Bartz. But to suggest it’s just a feel-good album would be to overlook the subtleties built into it this fine album. It’s those subtleties that make Damage Control a great start for what is meant to be a trilogy of albums called the Eternal Tenure of Sound Trilogy.

He says of this album that “These are songs that I play in my house just for me when I just wanna relax and chill. They inspire me and they make me feel good.”

Those songs include Fantasy, You Bring Me Joy, 100 Ways and more. Bartz is joined by pianist Barney McAll and Kassa Overall on drums.

You can listen to “Fantasy” HERE.

Considering his elder statesmen position in jazz, it’s no surprise that an all-star mix of newer stars and established veterans joined Bartz for this recording. They include Theo Croker, Keyon Harrold, Terrace Martin, Daniel Merriweather, Spaceman Patterson, Niles Rodgers, Rita Satch, Shelley fka DRAM and Kamasi Washington.

Damage Control made me feel good. So I’ll be looking out for the next recording in Bartz’s trilogy.

JAZZ: THE GIANTS OF JAZZ – Frank Sinatra/Count Basie/Duke Ellington – Ume

This double-vinyl release combines two Sinatra albums: It Might As Well Be Swing in which he recorded with Count Basie and His Orchestra and Francis A. & Edward K. with Duke Ellington. The first album was originally released in 1964 and the second in 1968.

Quincy Jones was the arranger and conductor for It Might As Well Be Swing. Sonny Burke produced the record. It contains two of Sinatra’s best-known recordings: Fly Me to the Moon and The Best Is Yet to Come.

Burke also produced Francis A. & Edward K. with Billy May serving as arranger and conductor. This is a big band album and one that is more relaxed than you might expect. It is considered a forgotten jewel in Sinatra’s catalog, even if not everyone was convinced of all of his singing on the album.

This remastered version is only available on vinyl. I think both albums are worth listening to. Remember, these were recorded and meant to be on vinyl in the first place.

JAZZ: LA DIMORA DELL’ALTROVE (The Abode of Elsewhere) – Luigi Grasso/NDR Big Band – LP 345

The idea of a central theme or two followed by multiple variations is most commonly found in classical music. Luigi Grasso brings that concept to this inventive big band album featuring Hamburg’s NDR Big Band.

On this album Grasso offers up a main theme followed by its first variation. That’s followed by a second theme that is followed by three variations: the first two of the first theme and the last of the second theme. The album concludes with an epilog (Epilogo).

I couldn’t help but think of Gil Evans (one of my favorite jazz composers and arrangers) when listening to the Primo Tema. But as the variations and second theme revealed themselves, I heard a voice that is uniquely Grasso’s.

He’s clearly very familiar with classical music. That knowledge allows La Dimora Dell’Altrove to have a more formal structure than other recordings. But within that Grasso explores jazz traditions from decades ago and looks inward to create different harmonies and solos that indicate there’s more great music ahead from him.

This recording is available on vinyl which I would anticipate tobe the optimal way to experience it.

JAZZ: LULLABY FOR THE LOST – Donny McCaslin – Edition Records

There aren’t a lot of rock bands that use the saxophone as well as Bruce Springsteen. One artist who did, particularly late in his career, was David Bowie. He turned to Donny McCaslin for his last studio album, Blackstar. If you’ve heard that album you know how fierce a player McCaslin is. 

Fierce is a good description for this album that is truly a 21^st-century jazz fusion album. McCaslin wrote or co-wrote all nine tracks on Lullaby for the Lost.

In the press release McCaslin says the album’s journey is about, “learning to channel pain into something meaningful, even beautiful.” He and his band go there. When the album needs to be raw and filled with angst, it is. When it needs to introduce some light, it’s there. When catharsis is a necessary by-product of the emotional rollercoaster this album offers, it comes, just perhaps not as you might expect.

You can listen to “Celestial” HERE.

It is precisely that unexpectedness that makes this album particularly compelling. As is the playing by Zach Danziger on drums, Tim Lefebvre on bass, Jason Linder on keyboards, Jonathan Maron on bass, Ben Monder on guitar and Nate Wood on drums.

Remember when Tina Turner introduced Proud Mary by saying “I think you might like to hear something from us nice and easy. But there’s just one thing. You see, we never, ever do nothing nice and easy.” 

Lullaby for the Lost wouldn’t be half as impactful as it is if McCaslin had opted to do things nice and easy. This is jazz that is rough in all the right ways.

JAZZ:  TOKYO – Wolfgang Muthspiel/Brian Blade/Scott Colley – ECM Records

If you haven’t heard Muthspiel’s previous albums with Blade and Colley, you’re in for a real trio record. By that I mean one in which the trio functions as a collective whole. They are a very tight trio of musicians whose every choice seems predicated on creating the most cohesive presentation of the 10 tracks on Tokyo.

Muthspiel plays guitar, Blade is on drums and Colley is on bass.

The album opens with Ketih Jarrett’s Lisbon Stomp and closes with Paul Motian’s Abacus. In between are eight Muthspiel originals. They straddle multiple genres throughout Tokyo, but they come off as perfect partners for the musical journey he’s offering.

You can llsten to “Roll” HERE.

Without question my favorite track is Weill You Wait. Not just for the pun the title presents, but also the clear inspiration Kurt Weill served both the composition itself and the playing of it.

Tokyo is one of the best jazz albums of the year just because of the seamlessness of the playing by Blade, Colley and Muthspiel.

MUSICALS: MY FAIR LADY – Scarlett Strallen/Jamie Parker/Sinfonia of London/John Wilson – Chandos

For the many cast or soundtrack albums released of Lerner & Loewe’s classic musical, My Fair Lady, this recording marks the first time that a complete recording of the show has been released.

Sinfonia of London, under the direction of John Wilson, follows up their recordings of Carousel and Oklahoma! with this thoroughly enjoyable record.

Scarlett Strallen sings the role of Eliza Doolittle. She’s been in Mary Poppins, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, Travesties and Passion. 

Jamie Parker sings Henry Higgins. He was an Olivier Award-winner for his performance as the adult Harry Potter in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He was recently on stage in a revival of Next to Normal in London.

You can listen to “The Rain in Spain” HERE.

Alun Armstrong is Alfred P. Doolittle, Laurence Kilsby as Freddy Eynsford-Hill, Julia McKenzie as Mrs. Pearce, Malcolm Sinclair as Colonel Pickering and Penelope Wilton as Mrs. Higgins.

This is a truly wonderful album that is not just for those who want complete recordings. My Fair Lady is a great musical for a reason. This album gives you all of them over the course of 2 hours. I’ve grown accustomed to this album. You will, too.

That’s all for New In Music This Week: September 26^th.

Enjoy your weekend!

Enjoy some music!

Main Photo: Album art from Damage Control by Gary Bartz & NTU