CD Music

March 2013

Ben Sidran's Totally Hip 35th Solo Album

Unlimited Media 5638090383
Format: CD

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In his written notes for this upbeat retro CD, Ben Sidran reminds us that hipster was originally a term used during Prohibition to describe a dude who arrives at a club with a flask in his hip pocket. If you were "hip," it meant you had booze. Later on, other meanings started to define the word -- anti-establishment, cooler than cool, the height of "it." Cannonball Adderley is credited with saying, "Hipness is not a state of mind. It's a fact of life."

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March 2013

A Magnificently Recorded Tribute to Tino Rossi

RB Records RB 4302

Format: CD

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Raquel Bitton has spent a large portion of her professional life recreating the art of Edith Piaf. Bitton has performed her hit show, Raquel Bitton Sings Piaf -- Her Story, Her Songs, three times at Carnegie Hall and in music halls and theaters across North America. A PBS docu-concert film of the show, Piaf: Her Story, Her Songs, still continues to air on PBS stations. If you like Piaf (and who doesn't?), you'll enjoy Bitton's new CD, Rhythm of the Heart, though it is devoted to the memory of a different singer, Tino Rossi (1907-1983).

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February 2013

The Melody's the Thing in This Hot Club Collection

Azica AJD-72248
Format: CD

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I am generally opposed to juicing up classical music. Back in the late days of disco, there was a series of recordings called Hooked on Classics that took themes from classical compositions and set them to a drum machine with a disco beat. Though I was amazed at just how many different melodies could be set this way, I was appalled that anyone might really record these efforts. To top things off, a local movie theater (which I attended at least once a week) latched on to the first LP in the series to play between movie showings. Needless to say, I started being a little late to shows, and at the film's end I moved myself to the back door so that at the instant the last credit was shown I could flee before being aurally assaulted.

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February 2013

A Poetic Excursion into Insanity

Alectrona Records
Format: CD

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Anne Sexton (1928-1974) was the United States' most famous confessional poet, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1967. She had severe mental illness for most of her short life (which she ended by suicide), and she wrote of her suicidal tendencies, her battle against depression, and her efforts to come to grips with God. Her verses are so full of rich and vibrant impressions that it is no wonder to find that Elevator into the Sky is not the first time her poetry has been set to music.

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January 2013

Amiable Music from Minnesota

Self released
Format: CD

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This CD came to me in such plain guise that I assumed it was a first effort from some teen or college guy trying to get a foot in the door. The jacket is single-fold cardboard and lists just tracks, band members, and recording studio, along with a brief note of gratitude: "Thank you to all the fans and family and friends that keep me inspired to keep singing. I'll keep singing." Heartfelt, just as the album turned out to be.

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January 2013

Brassy Swagger from a Sophisticated New Band

Laureniac Song
Format: CD

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Ari Shagal has made my January zing, brushing away gray skies, chilly winds, and pitifully short days with her bold, brash, electrifying album, To Each! Shagal channels Laura Nyro, Donald Fagen, jazz in general, Broadway, and a lot more, and she proves to be a triple-threat performer, singer, and composer/arranger.

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December 2012

One of the Best Jazz Holiday Albums Ever

Self released
Format: CD

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Jazz albums of holiday music are usually an improvised mishmash of secular tunes, with one or two religious ones thrown in. Song of Simeon is something entirely different -- a cohesive album that tells the story of Christ's birth using familiar carols and songs while giving them new jazz rags to wear.

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December 2012

Reference Recordings Makes a Holiday CD for Audiophiles

Reference Recordings RR-126
Format: HDCD

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During the month of December, just about every high-school band in the land will play a holiday concert. Many college organizations will follow suit. But recordings of seasonal music by concert bands and wind ensembles are extremely rare. For the life of me, I can't even think of one off the top of my head.

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November 2012

Let Me Introduce You to Frontier Jazz

Toy Blue Typewriter TBTP002
Format: CD

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The beginning of Jacqui Sutton's second album starts with disjointed cello chords as other instruments join in with jagged attacks. What is this, the beginning of some newly discovered work by Béla Bartók? Then Jacqui's voice, rich as honey and smooth as silk, enters with the familiar tones of "Summertime," and suddenly we're in Gershwinland, even though the dissonant staccato notes persist underneath the familiar tune.

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October 2012

An Auspicious Debut Album from Scotland

Nimbus Alliance NI6206
Format: CD

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Barluath is a Scottish folk band composed largely of students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, located in Glasgow. Through an arrangement with Nimbus Records, the Conservatoire has been releasing recordings of its virtuoso wind ensemble and compositions by some of its student composers. This is the Conservatoire's first disc of a pop nature, and it's a total success.

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