| Su | Mo | Tu | We | Th | Fr | Sa |
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
This collection of Schumann’s “complete works for piano and orchestra” is more complete than usual, with the inclusion of two conjectural reconstructions: one from sketches, the other from a combination of sketches and a reworking of an existing solo piano piece. Excluded is the piano arrangement of the Konzertstück for four horns, which Joachim Draheim’s excellent booklet notes are adamant has no connection with Schumann, either Robert or Clara.
This is the companion to Disco 3000, made on the same classic Italian quartet tour with John Gilmore, Michael Ray (trumpet) and the minimal but perfect Luqman Ali (drums). Ra himself plays piano and electronic keyboards, including the mysterious Crumar Mainman, which Ra describes as like a piano, organ, clavichord, cello, violin and brass instruments and which also, importantly, has a facility for pre-programmed bass-lines and electronic percussion, which Ra uses constantly and to great effect in this small ensemble setting and seldom, if ever, elsewhere. The best of this collection (most of CD1) is luminous: very electronic, often rhythmical and melodic, always economical and making every sound count.
There have been others to match the bustle and brilliance of Argerich's Prokofiev, her coloristic range, her drive, her flashiness, her straining at the leash. But I'm not sure I could name anyone who has so satisfyingly combined all those qualities, who has given us such a rocket-launched recapitulation in the first movement, such circus-routine vividness in the following variations (Prokofiev grew up in a Russia where `circusization of the arts' was one of the 'in' concepts), or such monstrous, hyperbolic fairy-tale imagery in the finale, and all done with the most engaging reckless abandon.
The boy Mendelssohn's precocity never ceases to amaze: not even Mozart as a teenager was so complete a master of the craft. These quartets contain some of the finest music he wrote during those extraordinary years, dating as they do from 1822 (when he was 13) to 1825. There are many of the characteristics that were always to mark his music: the instinct, shared among nineteenth-century composers virtually only with Weber and Berlioz, for the fleeting scherzo, including the somewhat elliptical, quasi-nocturnal scherzo; the gift for tender, expressive melody, not yet tinged with the sentimentality that could afflict him when the manner overcame the matter; and, which is less often emphasized, the extraordinary instinct for structure.
![Pepper Adams - Conjuration: Fat Tuesday's Session (1984) [Reissue 1990]](https://pixhost.icu/avaxhome/88/d6/006cd688_medium.jpg)
The great baritonist Pepper Adams is teamed up with the adventurous trumpeter Kenny Wheeler and veteran pianist Hank Jones for this live quintet date. Wheeler, although often associated with the avant-garde, has never had any difficulty playing changes and his strong style clearly inspired Adams. Together they perform three of the baritonist's originals, Thad Jones "Tis," Wheeler's "Old Ballad," and the standard "Alone Together."
Illuminate was composed during the fall of 2017 in Denver, Poland, Latvia, and Kentucky. The songs were later polished and finalized in Denver during the winter/spring of 2019. Offthesky is experimental sound artist Michael Jason Corder from Denver, Colorado who has put out around 70 releases over the past 15 years.
FIRST TIME ON COMPACT DISC. After being held for ransom by merciless record collectors for decades, the Holy Modal Rounders rarest album Good Taste Is Timeless can now breathe the sweet air of freedom! Rounders founders Peter Stampfel and Steve Weber the godfathers of anti-folk fire every cap pistol in their satchel for this clat-tering, jugband-on-acid classic, cut in Nashville in 1971 with guest artists Tracy Nelson (Mother Earth), D.J. Fontana, and pedal steel legend Pete Drake. Featuring the definitive version of Rounders gonzo ditty "Boobs A Lot," Good Taste Is Timeless now sports fascinating new liner notes by Stampfel, and remains the pinnacle of the Holy Modal Rounders art.