Those who are superstitious think that Friday the 13ths are particularly unlucky. Not for those who are looking for what’s New In Music This Week: March 13th. I have plenty of great options for you – any of them could have been my top pick.
My top pick is:
JAZZ: BaRcoDe – Ben Wendel – Edition Records
First, the title of the album is specifically listed in both upper- and lower-case letters. Not doubt you can decipher the title, but should there be any doubt, the album art gives you a big clue.
This positively astounding album combines saxophonist/composer Wendel with four vibraphonists and percussionists. What an intriguing combination this turns out to be. It doesn’t hurt to have Patricia Brennan, Simon Moullier, Joel Ross and Juan Diego Villalobos as the line-up of musicians collaborating with you.
The result is hypnotic, inventive and immensely satisfying. Five of the tracks were composed by Wendel. The lone cover is Jobim’s Olha Maria which Wendel refers to in the press notes as “one of my favorite compositions of all time.” It feels very Jobim while still being fully a uniquely Wendel arrangement.
There are albums that come along that so clearly have new ideas at their core. That exploration of something different is, when it works, so exciting. BaRcoDe is just that kind of recording. Something completely original that I won’t easily forget. Nor will you.
Here are the other fine recordings that are New In Music This Week: March 13th
CLASSICAL: COLERIDGE-TAYLOR, DVOŘÁK, STEWART – Gil Shaham / Virginia Symphony Orchestra / Eric Jacobsen – Canary Classics
This isn’t the first album to pair Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto in G minor with Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor. But it is the first time violinist Shaham has paired them and his playing on this album is simply perfection.
In addition to Shaham’s absolute musicianship, the album offers the world premiere of Curtis Stewart’s “F. Harper” from The Famous People. It’s a nearly five-minute composition the reworks Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances into works that include traditional American Slave dances.
Shaham gave the world premiere performance in March of 2023 with the Virginia Symphony. I was very impressed with this part of Stewart’s composition and can’t wait to hear the entirety of The Famous People. Hopefully it won’t be too long before a complete recording is available.
This is an excellent album that rewards listeners with superb performances.
CLASSICAL: MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO. 5 – Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra / Sir Donald Runnicles – Reference Recordings
Having lived in Los Angeles for most of my life, I felt particularly spoiled during Gustavo Dudamel’s tenure at the Los Angeles Philharmonic that I was able to hear him conduct most of Mahler’s symphonies. He’s a master with this material.
So, too, is Sir Donald Runnicles in this fine new recording of Mahler’s most recorded symphony. (The Mahler 1st is probably the most performed of his symphonies.) This is an exquisite recording that digs deep into the emotions Mahler put into this work.
Thomas Hooten, one of the finest classical trumpet players (and a member of the Los Angeles Phil), contributes powerfully to this recording. The whole orchestra seems to have coalesced around Runnicles vision for this performance and it pays off.
The Adagietto (the 4th of the five movements) is particularly powerful. Those who saw Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice (1971) will recall that this movement was used to great effect in the film.
One question that new recordings of classical works always provoke is does the world need another recording of (fill in the name of the work here). Runnicles and the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra make a very clear argument that this recording answers that question with a resounding yes.
JAZZ: HANDMADE – Emilio Solla – Club del Disco
If I were to interview composer/pianist/bandleader Solla about this album the first thing I’d ask is why did you put your Suite de Los Abrazos out of order and separated by other tracks. Not that I think there’s anything wrong with it. I find it intriguing that he made that choice as part of the story he’s telling with this glorious album.
The range of Solla’s compositional capabilities is on full display on Handmade. He can write in a variety of styles and with a full palette of emotions at his disposal.
He also pays homage to Joni Mitchell on the second track of the album. Miles Tango takes a modern jazz approach to Argentine tango. If Astor Piazzolla were alive today, this might be what his music would sound like.
Solla, plays piano on this album, is joined by La Inestable de Brooklyn. They feature Tim Armacost on tenor sax, clarinet and bass clarinet; Alejandro Avilés on soprano and alto sax, flute and piccolo; Rogério Boccato on drums and percussion; Sara Caswell on violin; Mike Fahie on trombone; Edward Perez on bass; David Smith on trumpet and flugelhorn and Rodolfo Zanetti on bandoneon.
The last track, De Viento y de Sal features Sofía Tosello singing lyrics written by Roxana Amed. It’s a beautiful conclusion to this very fine album.
JAZZ: HARLEM RENAISSANCE – Cincinnati Pops Orchestra / John Morris Russell – Fanfare Cincinnati
The music of Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, W.C. Handy, Carlos Simon, Moisés Simon and Kurt Weill with Langston Hughes and performed in this celebration of one of the most important times in New York in the early 20th century.
The Marcus Roberts Trio joins for his arrangement of Johnson’s Yamekraw (first heard on Roberts’ 1995 record Portraits in Blue which you should hear if you haven’t). Mykal Kilgore gives a stunning performance of Weill’s Lonely House from Street Scene early in the album and also closes it out with Calloway’s Are You Hep to the Jive? Tatiana Mayfield clearly has fun with El manisero by Simons – the song is best known by its English title, The Peanut Vendor.
My favorite part of this thoroughly entertaining album is the one-two punch of Handy’s St. Louis Blues and Simon’s Hellfighters’ Blues. The latter work is a nearly five-minute composition that took its inspiration from a James Reese Europe recording from 1919 of another work by Handy, Memphis Blues.
JAZZ: IN THE UNKNOWN (I WILL FIND YOU) – Willy Rodriguez – Sunnyside Records
Drummer/composer Rodriguez perfectly captures the emotional chaos of losing someone to cancer. In this case, his mother. I, too, lost my mother to cancer. Those ten months were filled with grief, anger, questions, disappointment, shock and more. It was a roller coaster ride that continued long after she passed.
The song titles tell you everything you need to know. After the title track are The Perplexity of Eternity, Curie’s Notes, A Room Full of Confusion, Where I Saw You Last, The Route and Follow the Light.
Rodriguez has found a way to encapsulate all those emotions and more in these 7 original compositions.
He’s joined on the album by Leo Genovese on piano and Ingrid Laubrock on saxophone. Allan Harris provides spoken word contributions on the second track, The Perplexity of Eternity.
I don’t know how long ago his mother passed away, but Rodriguez has accomplished so much healing with In the Unknown (I Will Find You). Listeners will likely find a path to healing through this music, too.
JAZZ: PATTERNMASTER – Mark Turner– ECM Records
You know an album is good when you are hooked in the first thirty seconds. Such was the case with saxophonist/composer Mark Turner’s latest album.
As he was with 2022’s Return from the Stars, Turner is joined by Joe Martin on bass, Jason Palmer on trumpet and Jonathan Pinson. He also returns to science fiction as the inspiration for Patternmaster, just as he did with Return from the Stars. Octavia E. Butler’s series gives this album its title.
There are six original tracks here and each one offers the four gentlemen in this quartet equal opportunities to shine – and they do. These guys so thoroughly understand and trust each other that every minute of this album allows listeners to spend time with real masters.
The press release for Patternmaster called this music the quartet’s most “sophisticated.” That’s a great word for it and not in the least hyperbole. This is sophisticated, but also intimate, soul-piercing and thought provoking.
After the first thirty seconds, the remaining 48 minutes flew by so quickly I had to play the album again. Discerning listeners will likely do the same.
MUSICALS ADJACENT: LULLABIES FOR THE END OF THE WORLD – Lena Hall – Joy Machine Records
Broadway fans know Lena Hall as the Tony Award-winner for her performance as Yitzhak in Hedwig and the Angry Inch. She appeared as Audrey in the off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.
This album shows off both her rock ‘n’ roll side and her ability to sing ballads with the best of them. Along with Colin Doyle, Hall wrote all but one of the songs on this album.
Let me just say, these lullabies, as title infers, are more of the “Do not go gentle into that good night” way of thinking. Burn the Sky, Death Comes to My Side, Sunny Day Death Scene are barnburners. Hall’s rock voice is on fire in these and other tracks.
Breathe This Fire, The Pouring Rain and Bastard Child allow her to use her softer voice.
Hall closes out the album with the lone cover (so to speak) of Purcell’s Didot’s Lament. She sings the song beautifully and it’s a great way to close out the album. Of course, it is about a queen who, after being betrayed by a man, decides to kill herself. That was the end of the world for her.
Hall once again shows that she has one of the fiercest voices to have appeared on Broadway. (A place I hope we’ll find her again soon!) In the meantime, have fun rocking out with her lullabies. And don’t forget to check out her Obsessed series of EPs to hear her rock out some more.
OPERA: DIVINE IMPRESARIO: NICOLINI ON STAGE – Randall Scotting – Signum Classics
I was a big fan of countertenor Scotting’s Infinite Refrain: Music of Love’s Refuge. He was joined by tenor Jorge Navarro Colorado. Laurence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music accompanied them.
Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music are back in this recording of works associated with Nicoló Grimaldi, a castrato best known for his singing of Handel’s music. He went by the stage name Nicolini.
Scotting has five Handel works on this outstanding album. He also has selected music written by Attillio Ariosti, Riccardo Broschi, Giovanni Antonio Giaj, Francesco Gasparini, Francesco Mancini and Nicola Porpora. If they aren’t household names, they were during Nicolini’s time and he performed their work.
Nine of the 15 tracks on this album offer the first-ever recordings of these songs. The album opens with one of the best, Mostro crudel chef ai? From Broschi’s Idaspe. I also very much enjoyed Nò, non piangete nò from Ariosti’s Tito Manlio.
Soprano Jenny Bevans joins for three tracks.
Fans of baroque opera will certainly want to settle down with this album. Scotting once again reveals the deep well of talent he has as a singer. That he also has a truly curious mind makes Divine Impresario divinely satisfying.
VINYL REISSUE
CLASSICAL: KAPUSTIN: PIANO MUSIC – Marc-André Hamelin – Hyperion
Pianist Hamelin’s 2004 recording of multiple works by Nikolai Kapustin gets released on vinyl today. The album features the composer’s Variations, Op. 41; 8 Concert Etudes, Op. 40; Bagatelles, Op. 59: IX; Suite in the Old Styles; Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 62; Sonatina, Op. 100 and my personal favorite, 5 Etudes in Different Intervals, Op. 68.
The last piece is wonderfully eccentric and Hamelin plays this and all the works deftly and with all the with the right balance of jazz and classical. If you don’t know Kapustin’s work, this is a great introduction to his wildly original music.
That’s all for New in Music This Week: March 13th. How lucky can you get?
Enjoy the music!
Enjoy your weekend!
Main Photo: Part of the album art for Harlem Renaissance