Debussy - Clair De Lune 'Piano Favourites' [Jones]

Here's a mixed anthology of Debussy's piano music, delving into all areas of his solo works, highlighting on the best / famous bits i suppose, taken from Martin Jones complete survey on 5 separate discs, this disc can be used as a satisfying recital in itself [which is what i use it for], or a sampler to see if you want to go further with the other discs, i find Jones a safe interpreter of Debussy's music, not in the league of the most astounding Pianists, but i like this set because there's areas of Debussy's solo piano music that i seem to have skipped over, especially the Etudes, and maybe it's time to re-listen to certain areas of his oeuvre. 

Martin Jones is English, now 71 years of age, he has recorded extensively for Nimbus, recording whole cycles of Composers works, he recorded this disc in 1988, the front cover is a painting by Claude Monet entitled Twilight, Venice, a silhouette full of gorgeous colours, mainly yellow and orange, i like paintings, but seem to find too many duds as artwork for disc covers [Naxos anyone?], but this is a lovely one. 

I was surprised how much of this recital i enjoyed that i didn't know quite so well, it's very generous [over 76 minutes], and nicely varied too, the tracks i liked the most were 1-3, 5 & 17,   

Brahms - Clarinet Quintet [Meyer/Vienna String Sextet]

This is the first time that Brahms's Clarinet Quintet makes a show in my Blog, i prefer his Clarinet Sonatas actually, this must be one of his last works, and there's definitely an autumn glow in this work, usually it's coupled with Mozart's Quintet, or Brahms's Piano Quintet, so here's an interesting coupling in Yun's Clarinet Quintet, a nice disc, a bit short on length [51 minutes], but it's quality. 

Sabine Meyer is German, born in 1959, now 52 years old, she made this recording back in 1990, the booklet front cover is excellent [by Franz Hamm], especially the picture of Meyer, a lovely autumnal portrait, full of oranges and browns, nice sunlight on the shoulder, and that glint and sparkle from the clarinet!, the small shot of the Wiener Striechsextett actually gets in the way, it would look even better if it was ditched. 

The movement that excited me the most was the first, a lovely serenade almost, Brahms seems to have left behind his more darker and angrier days, he was enchanted by the Clarinettist Richard Muhlfeld, and composed a number of works for him, it was in the summer of 1891 in Bad Ischl, a spa town in Austria that Brahms composed this work, you can feel the relaxation of the piece, 

Here's David Shifrin playing the first movement on YouTube with the Guarneri Quartet.

Various Artists [Boom Selection 'The Essential Urban Soundtrack']

Now here's something really different from the usual in my Blog, some nice R n B / Hip Hop / Rap, yes i admit that there's a fair bit of these two discs that didn't hit the spot with me, but... i so much believe in delving into every genre of music, that i force myself to listen to even the fringes of my musical loves, there's great music everywhere in every genre of music if you so open your ears and crumble down the walls of prejudice, that's what i'm trying to do, to get away from becoming ever deeper entrenched in Classical music as an entity with the exclusion of all else, music is best listened to with the cross fertilization of all its genres. 

I once referred to Rap music as CRap music!, hahaha, well it's still not really my thing, and yet, someone who's creative, and has good music for the lyrics, can still amazingly make it work, yes there's a lot of crap Rap music out there, but don't discard it all, there's actually some gems lurking, this compilation was released in 2002, the front cover caught my eye [photo by Phil Silcock], a picture of a guy facing away from the camera, headphones over the ears, and that shaved head at the back, all couched in a blue tinge, and the gold lettering over the top, it really is a good visual product. 

Most of the tracks didn't do much for me, but even here i notice that a number have possibilities, and with some more listening they could really catch on, here's where i'm excited by music, the breaking down of hard fixed ideas, and realizing after all this time i've probably been wrong, it's like hating foreign food, but then one day you eat something, and suddenly your exploring Indian and Chinese etc, the three tracks that i really thought were excellent were 5-6 & 25, and here's a short synopsis of each of them,
5 Tweet - Oops Oh My, 
6 Missy Elliott - 4 My People, 
25 Mary J Blige - Family Affair, 

Wessell Anderson [Warmdaddy In The Garden Of Swing]

I remember when i first got into this record, it was early in my love of Jazz, when things were first blossoming, i took it to this camping event, and as i snuck down to sleep that night in my car, i played this over and over again, the first track made a real impression on me, those were great times when i was wowed by the newness of Jazz, and excited by this new genre in my life, this was another disc i played early in my Blog [12th February 2010], this disc still moves me, it's still a great record, one of the very best Jazz discs i own. 

Wessell Anderson is an American Saxophonist, specialising in the Alto Sax, but also plays the Sopranini Sax on this disc, he released this disc in 1994, i bought the follow up disc made a year later, the 'Ways Of Warmdaddy', but i wasn't impressed, his next record is a live date at the Village Vanguard in 1998, and that's where the discs have dried up, i don't know the reason for this, he grew up as a prodigy from the Marsalis Brothers, and did a stint in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, i actually bought this disc on the strength of the cover [photo by Katrin Thomas], but now that seems a strange reason, i guess it's not all that inspiring, the guy in the foreground is his son [now a Jazz Trombonist i believe], now Wessell Anderson is more of a Sidesman.