Music Treasures

[PNWAS]

Let us know about some of your most treasured music, that the rest of us might not know about.

[Kal Rubinson]

Biber: The Mystery Sonatas (aka Rosenkranz and Rosary Sonatas) . Some of the most gloriously intimate and passionate violin music. "In writing the sonatas Biber uses scordatura, tuning the strings to a different set of notes for each sonata. This achieves technical feats impossible with normal tuning and results in different sonorities resulting from the varying amounts of pressure from the strings and achieving the different desired mood for each sonata."

Lots of great recordings, too. I especially like the Manzi (HM) Minasi (Arts) and Holloway (Virgin) but I have not heard any I have disliked.

[fork]

Here are 3 of my favorites. If you want to get together to trade some music, send me a PM.

This first selection is a jazz CD with mostly percussion and a horn on quiet backgrounds (no vocals). Probably the best quality recording I've heard on an older CD. The nuance of the instruments is second to none and the music is pretty mind-blowing.



This is a recent album from Melody Gardot, also Jazz. More of you will already know about this one, but it was new to me. She's French-Canadian and has an unbelievable voice. The album has a retro, 1950's-Paris feel. Most of the songs are about affairs with married men. There isn't a bad song on the album.



The last one is a vocalist in Seattle and one of the most remarkable voices I've ever heard live. She teamed up with another Northwest musician, who specializes in ambient synthesizer sounds, to make these two albums. I can't pick a favorite, but Omen is a little more hard driving.

[FrantzM]

Hi

I might have made some of these recommendations but it is worth repeating ..

Elis and Tom .. Regina Elis had one of the greatest voice this planet might have known. Not only was her voice superb, she had an uncanny mastery of this voice.. Whether one is a fan of Brazilian Music or not this is must have album ...

Arvo Part, Tabula Rasa .. Arvo Part is an Estonian Classical composer. His output , mostly of sacred music is substantial and simply beautiful .. Not the kind of music one would listen on a commute, but Beautiful and soothing ...

75 Joe Zawinul ... A gathering and recording made on celebration of his 75th birthday, he died a few months later .. His duet with his Weather Report co-founder Wayne Shorter would have been worth the album price but the other compositions, some of these classic Whether Report are superb .. Jazz with a world flavor and the old master of the keyboard at his usual great ... and a slew of world artists of the greatest caliber ..

Trilok Gurtu Usfret ... Great Music and a superb recording .. Dynamic range is brutal ... Music is beautiful and recording to match .. Careful with volume settings ... A workout for your system from down low to up there ... I also have mentioned this recording on this forum or other ...

[Bruce B]

Hi
Elis and Tom .. Regina Elis had one of the greatest voice this planet might have known. Not only was her voice superb, she had an uncanny mastery of this voice.. Whether one is a fan of Brazilian Music or not this is must have album ... .

I just heard this album not 15 minutes ago. A friend of Mike's wanted to audition my system and he brought along this piece. I agree... solid performance.


Regards,

[RBFC]

Biber: The Mystery Sonatas (aka Rosenkranz and Rosary Sonatas) . Some of the most gloriously intimate and passionate violin music. "In writing the sonatas Biber uses scordatura, tuning the strings to a different set of notes for each sonata. This achieves technical feats impossible with normal tuning and results in different sonorities resulting from the varying amounts of pressure from the strings and achieving the different desired mood for each sonata."

Lots of great recordings, too. I especially like the Manzi (HM) Minasi (Arts) and Holloway (Virgin) but I have not heard any I have disliked.

I have the Holloway and enjoy it immensely. I heard the Manzi, but not through a great system. Absolutely great music... 100% agreement.

Lee

[Steve Williams]

Trilok Gurtu Usfret ... Great Music and a superb recording .. Dynamic range is brutal ... Music is beautiful and recording to match .. Careful with volume settings ... A workout for your system from down low to up there ... I also have mentioned this recording on this forum or other ...

Thanks to you Frantz I have several of his albums and you are right on in your evaluation and praise.

[jazdoc]

Frantz,

You have terrific taste in music. 'Elis and Tom' is one of my favorites. She had a spectacular voice. You might want to check out 'Como & Porque' and 'Elis in London'. I'm also a big fan of her daughter, Maria Rita. www.maria-rita.com. You can definitely hear the family resemblance on her latest release "Samba Meu".

You may like the Marisa Monte project "Tribalistas". This is one of my desert island discs.

Another favorite is Chano Dominguez "Con Alma"

For straight ahead jazz, the following are in heavy rotation:

Freddie Hubbard and Oscar Peterson, "Face To Face" on Pablo
Stan Getz "What Is There To Say", Columbia
Miles Davis "Round About Midnight", Columbia (Mono)
Shelly Manne/Barney Kessel/Ray Brown "Poll Winners 3", Contemporary (Mono)

I'm going to track down the Trilok Gurtu.

[FrantzM]

Hi

Thanks for the kudos guys .. doc, Usfret is currently available on Amazon as are all my recommendations .. Just click on the album name from the previous post ..

Another interesting album , a concert DVD no less but good sound and great Music ... I would say very difficult to find here in the USA .. I got it from a German friend.

Esbjoern Svensson Trio and Schleswig-Jolstein Chamber Orchestra with Pat Metheny ...

The DVD is PAL .. I have heard there is a region-free version .. however most if not all Oppo players takes good care of the conversion from PAL discs to NTSC output... A very interesting performance, Lively,frank, enthusiastic .. They were playing with abandon and you could tell that even the Chamber Orchestra had a ball .. Very difficult to find however ...

And I could add Ana Maria Jopek's Bosa album but I'll stop there ...

[fork]

Just bought the remastered version of Elis and Tom on Amazon. Looking forward to giving it a listen. From the sound clips, the female voice sounds a lot like the Girl from Ipanema voice.