John Lennon wrote “Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.” My apologies for the absence of this weekly column for a few weeks. But I’m back with New In Music This Week: February 20th and will catch up on some great releases very soon from those three weeks.
My top pick for New In Music This Week: February 20th is:
JAZZ: DARK LIGHTS – Tom Oren – Anzic Records
The opening track of this album, Fantasy in C-Sharp Minor, tells you immediately why pianist/composer Tom Oren won the 2018 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition. His compositional skills are inventive and thoughtful, his playing sublime and his improvisational skills are first rate.
There are six original compositions amongst the nine tracks here. My favorite of those are the title track, the aforementioned Fantasy in C-Sharp Minor and Dawn of Adventure. The covers include Johnny Green’s Out of Nowhere and the Victor Young/Ned Washington standard Stella By Starlight.
As the Fantasy might indicate, Oren is not afraid to dip into the classical music realm. But he just dips in it. This is a jazz album through and through. Many a dark night would be made better by listening to Dark Lights.
He’s joined on this album by Elam Friedlander on bass and Eviatar Slivnik on drums.
Here are the other fine recordings on New in Music This Week: February 20th:
CLASSICAL: ELSA BARRAINE SYMPHONIES 1 & 2 – Orchestre National de France / Cristian Mǎcelaru – Warner Classics
French composer Elsa Baraine lived almost the entire 20th century. She was born in 1910 and died in 1999. Yet her music has been ignored. I didn’t know her work until this very fine album came my way.
Mǎcelaru and Orchestre National De France perform her first two symphonies (written in 1931 and 1938) along with Song-Koï: Le Fleuve rouge which opens the album and Les Tziganes which closes it.
Barraine’s music isn’t easy to categorize. Song-Koï is a very playful piece, yet the opening movement of her first symphony is much darker and contemplative. The second symphony begins in an even darker place – it was composed as the world was bracing for the likelihood of a second world war – yet it doesn’t end darkly. There is cautious optimism reflected in that final movement – probably not the prevailing sentiment at the time. The folksong inspired Les Tziganes (from 1959) is a delightful way to end this album.
ONF and Mǎcelaru have made an album that offers more than just great music. They make a powerfully persuasive argument for Barraine, her music and her legacy.
Note: Next week we will have an interview with Cristian Mǎcelaru
CLASSICAL: BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO. 5 / KILIMILLETS: SUITE FROM THE MOTHERS OF KHERSON – Ukranian Freedom Orchestra / Keri-Lynn Wilson – Deutsche Grammophon
The main attraction on this recording is the suite of music from Maxim Kolomieets’ opera The Mothers of Kherson. The opera will have its world premiere later this year with Wilson conducting.
Kolomieets is a Ukrainian composer and the opera is centered on two women who will do everything it takes to rescue their daughters who are trapped in a Russian camp in Crimea.
The music heard here is beautiful and bodes well for the opera itself.
A side note: Wilson is married to the Metropolitan Opera’s Peter Gelb. The Met commissioned the opera and has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine throughout the Russian invasion. They also helped the formation of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra.
JAZZ: EUPHONIC GUMBO – Julie Benko – Club 44 Records
Ash Wednesday marked the start of Lent two days ago, but for those who want to keep the Mardi Gras spirit alive, Euphonic Gumbo is for you.
Julie Benko, famously Beanie Feldstein’s understudy in Funny Girl, and her husband, Jason Yeager, have long been fans of New Orleans music and this album is a total celebration of that tradition.
St. James Infirmary, Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?, Let the Good Times Roll and Tipitina are amongst the well-known songs they perform and it sounds like they are having a great time doing so.
In additiona to Yeager who plays piano, organ and celeste, the band includes Michael O’Brien on bass; Sasha Papernik on accordion; Justin Poindexter on strings and banjo; Jay Sawyer on drums; Gabe Terracciano on violin; Andy Warren on trumpet; Ron Wilkins on trombone and Linus Wyrsch on clarinet. Fellow Funny Girl cast member John Manzari joins for St. James Infirmary.
JAZZ: EVERYTHING HAPPENS TO ME – 1959 – LIVE AT THE CELLAR – Art Pepper – Omnivore Recordings / Widow’s Taste Music
Four glorious hours of music performed live by alto saxophonist Art Peper with pianist Chris Gage, bass player Tony Clitheroe and drummer George Ursan.
These recordings come from a series of performances at The Cellar in Vancouver in 1959.
Often recordings like this come with alt takes, but this is four discs of music with very few repeated songs. There are a few incomplete tracks, but this is a must-have recording for fans of Pepper.
Though his life had many challenges including drug addiction and stints in prison, he sounds great on this recording. He was in his mid-30s at this time and his playing is lively, inventive and has both a sense of ease and purpose.
A lot of things did happen to Pepper, but this music should happen to you to understand how good he truly was.
JAZZ: ISAIAH – MEG OKURA – Adhyâropa Records
Violinist/composer Meg Okura is truly an original. One listen of Isaiah reveals an artist fully in touch with her identity, her place in the world and the voice she uses to express herself. She is celebrating her 20th anniversary of her Pan Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble and what a great way to celebrate it is!
Unless you are already familiar with Okura’s work, this album will come as a surprise given its multitude of influences from her homeland, Japan. The biggest surprise (and the most rewarding gift) is how beautiful and rewarding Isaiah is.
The album is anchored by African Skies with a beautiful introduction. Her arrangement and adaptation of Michael Brecker’s song is positively stunning.
Okura is working with a large ensemble here. The album vacillates between a variety of styles, but remains fully and uniquely Okura’s vision.
JAZZ: SIMON SAYS – Simon Mogul – self-release
You know a musician has serious chops with the other musicians who have had him join them all show up to appear on his album.
Simon Mogul is that kind of musician. He’s a tenor sax player who is all off 26-years-old. Bassist Curtis Lundy produced this album of originals. Pianist Tyler Bullock, drummer Rodney Green, pianist William Hill III, drummer Eric Kennedy and trumpeter Jeremy Pelt appear on some or all of the tracks.
They do so for two reasons: Mogul has written great music and he is a fierce saxophonist. He is not slave to the past, but he certainly knows it well. His play evokes thoughts of Sonny Rollins and many other musicians.
I love this album, but Speak From the Heart is easily my favorite track. I will be waiting to hear what else Simon Mogul has to say.
MUSICALS: ALL THE WORLD’S A STAGE – Original Cast Recording – Joy Machine Records
All I needed to know about this album was that it features book, music and lyrics by Adam Gwon. I’ve been following his career since I first heard Ordinary Days in 2010.
Gwon is in fine form with this musical about a gay high school teacher who gets pulled out of playing safe to help a student competing for a statewide theater title who chooses to perform a monologue from Angels in America. That choice infuriates the conservatives within the school.
This OCR features the Keen Company cast from the 2025 world premiere production: Eliza Pagelle, Jon-Michael Reese; Matt Rodin and Elizabeth Stanley.
Juan A. Ramírez, writing in the New York Times, said the musical is “an unassuming, 100-minute marvel” and “disarmingly powerful.”
The album makes a great case for theater companies to produce All the World’s a Stage. After hearing this record, I really want to see this show.
VINYL REISSUES:
JAZZ: GENIUS OF MODERN MUSIC, VOL. 2 THELONIOUS MONK – Blue Note Vinyl Classic Series
For you younger readers, there was a time when long playing vinyl records were 10-inch instead of 2-inch that we all know now. In 1952, Blue Note released a compilation album by Thelonious Monk that had songs that would become classics such as Who Knows? And Straight, No Chaser. This reissue assembles 12 songs from his 10” records in a re-mastered monolog re-issue.
The songs include Carolina Moon, Hornin’ In, Skippy, Let’s Cool One, Suburban Eyes, Evonce, Straight No Chaser, Four In One, Nice Work, Monk’s Mood, Who Knows and Ask Me Now.
That’s all for New In Music This Week: February 20th.
Enjoy your week and enjoy the music!
Main Photo: Part of the album art for Meg Okura’s Isaiah (Courtesy Adhyâropa Records)