Piano Originals

Piano Originals

ASIN: B00004TQYF

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Chick Corea has long favored unaccompanied piano performance and has recorded several solo albums, starting with Piano Improvisations (volumes I and II) and continuing through Expressions. Now we have two more: this one, devoted to originals, and a companion disc that explores a range of pop and jazz standards. Both albums were drawn from 1999 concerts recorded in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Japan. Originals contains music that is sweet and melodic, and music that is challenging and even a bit jarring. Corea employs his alternately sparkling-then-dusky touch, immaculate articulation, and limitless imagination as he delves into 13 of his own pieces, save two freely interpreted, lyrically stunning Preludes by Alexander Scriabin. Included are a couple of Corea standards: the jaunty "Armando's Rhumba," given a delightfully spirited reading; and the evergreen "Spain," distinguished by strands of enchanting ideas. Then there's the pastoral yet lively "Brasilia," where between paraphrases of the attractive theme, the pianist offers garlands of alternately serene and animated improvisations. The somewhat more intense "Yellow Nimbus" finds thickets of notes and hard-hit chords contrasted by songlike passages. There are four improvised on-the-spot numbers and three "Children's Songs." "No. 6" is playful yet deep, offering dancing chords and zesty lines, while the freely improvised "No. 12" finds Corea generally letting his fertile mind go where it will. --Zan Stewart

Tracks:

String Quartet No.1 'From The Salvation Army': I. Andante con moto
String Quartet No.1 'From The Salvation Army': II. Allegro - Allegro con spirito - Quasi andante
String Quartet No.1 'From The Salvation Army': III. Adagio cantabile - Allegretto- Andante con moto - Adagio cantabile
String Quartet No.1 'From The Salvation Army': IV. Allegro marziale - Poco andante con moto - Allegro marziale
Scherzo - 'Holding Your Own': Fast - Slow - Allegro
String Quartet Op.11: I. Molto allegro e appassionato
String Quartet Op.11: II. Molto adagio - attacca
String Quartet Op.11: Molto allegro (come prima) - Presto
String Quartet No.2: I. Discussions: Andantd moderato - Andante con spirito - Adagio molto
String Quartet No.2: II. ArgumentsL Allegro con spirito - Andante emasculata 0 Allegro con fisto 0 Presto - largo sweetota - Allegro con fisto - Largo - Allegro con fuoco - Andante con scratchy - Allegro con fistiswatto
String Quartet No.2: III. 'The Call Of The Mountains': Adagio Andante - Andante con spirito - Adagio primo - Adagio meatoso

Amazon.com

Barber's string quartet is the source of that famous Adagio for strings, popularized by the movie Platoon in its later arrangement for full string orchestra. It makes an even stronger impression in its original context, sandwiched between two thematically related quicker movements. Ives's two quartets represent the two opposing poles of his character: the early First Quartet is a lyrical work based on hymn tunes, while in the Second all hell breaks loose as the four players literally fling themselves at the music (and each other), until they finally decide--in the words of the composer--to shut up, go out, and view the firmament. The end is suitably cosmic, as are these stunning performances. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Great Barber.......2005-04-19

I really liked the performance of the Samuel Barber string quartet. If played well, this, and other of Barber's pieces assume their true position of great, great importance within the American and, most especially, Euro-American composers repertoires.

He is one of the most important composers.

We can hear this here though one could also leave this recording aside after listening to it not knowing the work's great importance as, greater than the identification of the work as such, there is a lovely and incredible personalness from the players in the identifying with this work which they realise is very great (and so do we). Then also what they do is they demonstrate or exhibit a very, very special uniqueness of this piece itself for which I would give the recording 98 or 99 out of 100. It doesn't claim to be definitive at all, the very opposite, and is joyous to listen to and much more. Indeed we seem to visit a vast and seemingly endless world of this.

Much of Charles Ives's music which I know, though I don't know much, I rate in a similar though more personal way though the music is more untouchable and remote to me and in terms of greatness and also, kind of importance, though sometimes I would state great importance.

I have to say that I don't find these performances very convincing or enlightening. I have tried for years to listen to these quartets by the Emmersons but have failed. I haven't heard any other recording of the quartets, which is my own fault. The first of the two pieces for four string instruments starts very well and is inducing and one assumes that the Emmersons are able in this territory, but I think they lose the piece entirely, without doubt, though at various points they convey fluency though this is even more irritating as one can't detatch oneself from the music then.

I have no idea what to make of the second quartet. After imagining, truly and not non-deeply that I was quite familiar and totally confluent with this piece, as it is challenging, for some time, over a year maybe, I realised after this that this was the very most disturbingly avante-garde piece that I had ever come across. And I can only describe it as such, it remains this, and without any extra favourable comments at all in support of the piece, after maybe eleven years.

I have to blame the Emmersons for this, and utterly so. It is the strangest occurrence in my complete familiarity with music.

Perhaps, though, the Barber performance is on a similar level of awe in the domain of a great "telling" for me in my experience, sometimes much more so and I think eternal wisdom is being expressed, and surely and with mature, great, masterly ease is in the expression.

I must get a new recording of the Ives quartets.

Come View the Firmament!!.......2004-01-30

I'm not sure if I could think of two American composers who have less in common than Charles Ives and Samuel Barber. One was the ultimate craggy individualist, completely American to his toes and a fascinating mix of the homespun amateur and the modernist. The other was the ultimate professional composer, possessed of a finely honed technique and a romantic sensibility that made him one of the most popular and beloved, and least "American" sounding composers of his generation. And yet, as this disc attests, the two can sit side by side on the same disc without shame. Especially in vigorous performances like the ones the Emerson quartet give here.

The String Quartet in b minor is Samuel Barber's only foray into the form, one that for him was probably not as congenial as other genres. Though possessed of a marvelous facility for harmony and counterpoint, Barber always seems better with the bigger tonal palette of the orchestra, or at least the presence of a piano in his music. His genius is less individual in this work, at least in the opening and closing movements. The Quartet begins with a brisk Allegro in a solid, conservative neo-classical style. This music returns again in the Finale, though much more briefly stated. In between, though is the gem of the piece; the Adagio which was immortalized by the composer in his arrangement for string orchestra. It is a masterpiece of long sustained melody and inspired contrapuntal writing. In this less familiar version, the work looses some of the passion present in the string orchestra version, but seems more personally tragic, more introspective. This is a lovely work and comes by it's immense popularity honestly.

The Ives works much different, though a careful listening to either string quartet gives the lie to the notion that Ives was an autodidact or basically unschooled. The First Quartet was written in 1896 while Ives was finishing up his studies with Horatio Parker at Yale. The musical idiom is late German Romanticism, with strong influences of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvorak. Yet the work is distinctive in a way that Ives' First Symphony is not. For one thing, Ives uses Protestant Revival hymns in this work, which he was careful to avoid in the Symphony, knowing it would incur the wrath of the Euro-centric Parker. This work also shows a greater sense of craft than the symphony, and a more individual sense of harmony, probably also derived from the homespun harmonies of the hymns. The work opens with a magnificent fugue based on the Missionary Hymn, which will eventually make up the third movement of his massive Fourth Symphony. Other movements are equally beautifully done. The over all impression left by this quartet is of a fresh and original Romantic voice, already outshining the more established American composers of his time. Had Ives continued in this style, he could well have been as beloved as Copland or other American composers of later generations.

While the First Quartet still has it's roots in the harmonic practice of the 19th century, the Second Quartet is a more modernist affair, though in program as Romantic as anything Ives ever did. The Quartet is constructed in three movements - Discussion - Argument - Contemplation. Ives provided a programme for the work which he believed showed the bond between four men who, "converse, discuss, argue (in re: Politick), fight, shake hands, shut up - then walk up the mountain side to view the firmament!" The work is a joyously democratic piece, even celebrating the messiness of democracy. The first movement is mostly slow and extremely dissonant. It gradually builds to a climax in which four tunes are quoted, representing political points of view. In the second movement, everything busts loose. The quartet can't seem to agree on anything, what music to play, what tempo to take. The second violinist, who takes on the character of "Rollo", the name Ives used for anyone who embodied overly refined society, tries to inject a sugary cadenza and is immediately shouted down by the rest of the quartet. The chaos reached a fevered and humorous pitch, with Rollo insistently scrapping away at double stops as if he's having a tantrum while snippets of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky fight for dominance, and finally the political themes reappear in full battle gear and the movement draws to a scratchy and furious conclusion.

But the final movement puts the entire piece into perspective. This is Ives at his most sublime. Otherworldly dissonances start the movement, which gradually builds to the viola's statement of the hymn Nearer My God To Thee, mixed with strains that recall the bells of Westminster Abbey. These themes are then slowly and majestically drawn into a shining D major coda, as if to say that after all the fighting and all the arguments, this alone is what matters, ascending the mountains to see the world in all it's glory and to walk ever closer with God. A more profound statement on the ultimate importance of politics I could not imagine.

The Barber Quartet has a number of competitors on disc, the Ives has fewer. For whatever reason, the Ives Quartets aren't as "sexy" as other Ives works like the Concord Sonata. But in any case the Emerson Quartet fairs well with the repertoire, equaling readings by Kronos and the Linsay Quartet and in the Ives I find them superior to the Lydian Quartet and the Mondrian Quartet. This is a fine release and worthy to be purchased for anyone interested in fine works by fine American composers!

Fine American Music.......2000-06-21

This is one of my favorite discs. The Ives Scherzo is played with precision and drive. The Ives 2d quartet is beautiful throughout. The first movement of the Barber is just flawless, so wonderfully played it's simply inspiring. The Adagio has been nicely integrated into the whole work, and doesn't assume a life of it's own. If you internalized the adagio and came across the first/third movement later, you may not like this adagio. Nonetheless, it is done correctly: Emerson maintains rhythmic consistency and doesn't indulge in unnecessary rubato, which indeed makes any rubato that much more dramatic. It's a very powerful performance of the quartet, and one of the warmer renditions of the secondary theme of the first movement and the adagio. Needless to say, Emerson also nails the first Ives quartet.

Average customer rating:

Lovely and Relaxing

Hopes, Dreams and Meditations
Margi Harrell
Manufacturer: LLERRAH
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | New Age | Styles | Music

Meditation | New Age | Styles | Music

Relaxation | New Age | Styles | Music
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Dreams of Love
Old Time Favorites
Old Time Gospel
America the Beautiful
Hymns for You

ASIN: B00020M0LA
Release Date: 2000-02-25

Tracks:

Hope
In the Garden
You Tell Me Your Dream
Dreams
It is Well with My Soul
Barbara Allen
Sugar Plum Fairy
Let Me Call you Sweetheart
The Swan
Memories
Mother
Ava Maria
Romance
La Goldrina
Margie
Aura Lee
Meditation from Thais
Solitude

Album Description

contains several originals, old favorites and piano tunes. Margi Harrell has created a set of musical compositions designed to be used as a tool for relaxation and meditation or as soft background music for entertaining guests, working, or spending time with a loved one.

Customer Reviews:

Lovely and Relaxing.......2007-05-24

I wanted some relaxing piano music like I hear when someone in the next flat is playing for their own enjoyment or when I go into Nordstrom and someone is playing on a grand piano that flows throughout the whole store.

If you can imagine a summer evening with piano music wafting in from your window, this is it -- comfortable, romantic and relaxing.

Chess Blues-Rock Songbook: The Classic Originals

Average customer rating:

DON'T BE A DUMMY!!!!!!
The best compilation of its kind
....and people get snooty over "classic" rock!

Chess Blues-Rock Songbook: The Classic Originals
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Chess
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Chess Blues Classics: 1957-1967
Chess Blues
The Sky Is Crying: The History of Elmore James
His Best: 1956 to 1964
His Best

ASIN: B000005KQZ
Release Date: 1997-08-26

Tracks:

I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man - Muddy Waters
Mother Earth - Memphis Slim
I Don't Know - Willie Mabon
Sugar Mama - John Lee Hooker
24 Hours - Eddie Boyd
Ice Cream Man - John Brim
Jock-A-Mo - Sugar Boy Crawford
Wang Dang Doodle - Willie Dixon
I Just Want To Make Love To You - Muddy Waters
Reconsider Baby - Lowell Fulson
Eisenhower Blues - J.B. Lenoir
My Babe - Little Walter
I'm A Man - Bo Diddley
The Seventh Son - Willie Mabon
See You Later Alligator - Bobby Charles
Trouble No More - Muddy Waters
Roll Over Beethoven - Chuck Berry
Who Do You Love? - Bo Diddley

Tracks:

Rock And Roll Music - Chuck Berry
Walking By Myself - Jimmy Rogers
Mona - Bo Diddley
Johnny B. Goode - Chuck Berry
Susie Q - Dale Hawkins
Memphis - Chuck Berry
Back In The U.S.A. - Chuck Berry
Back Door Man - Howlin' Wolf
Madison Blues - Elmore James
Spoonful - Howlin' Wolf
You Shook Me - Muddy Waters
The Red Rooster - Howlin' Wolf
Bring It On Home - Sonny Boy Williamson
Help Me - Sonny Boy Williamson
High Heeled Sneakers - Tommy Tucker
Killing Floor - Howlin' Wolf
More And More - Little Milton
Tell Mama - Etta James

Customer Reviews:

DON'T BE A DUMMY!!!!!!.......2004-07-14

Don't be a dummy. Any fool knows the brothers Chess, Leonard and what's his name virtually wrote the book when it comes to Chicago Blues. It's a no brainer. Now I ask you, where else do you find a more classic lineup of stars? From Muddy to Wolf, from Little Milton to Buddy Guy, John Lee to JB, (Lenoir that is) And let's not forget Willie Dixon and Bo Diddley and so many more.

And what about the songs from Hi Heel Sneekers to Mona, to Suzie Q to I Just Want To Make Love To You.......to Sweet Little Sixteen to Trouble No More..........Well you know the rest. Afterall the title of the record is Blues-Rock Songbook......That says it all....So don't be a dummy...All right?

The best compilation of its kind.......2003-11-11

This is no mere publishing sampler. "The Classic Originals" gathers 36 of the very best blues and early rock n' roll singles cut at the legendary Chess studios in Chicago, and it provides the perfect introduction to men like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and numerous other recording artists from the 50s and 60s.

And these are not just the obvious choices that any compiler with an ounce of insight could have made. There are numerous lesser-known songs here which are just as magnificent as "Hoochie Coochie Man" or "Johnny B. Goode", like Elmore James' gritty, slide guitar driven "Madison Blues", Willie Mabon's swinging "The Seventh Son", or pianist Eddie Boyd's slow blues "24 Hours".

Howlin' Wolf is represented by four of his best songs, including the thundering steam engine "Killing Floor", one of the very best blues singles ever issued, and other highlights include Memphis Slim's stately "Mother Earth", the classic "Walking By Myself" by Jimmy Rogers, and Chuck Berry's rollicking "Roll Over Beethoven".
But this is all highlights, really, and while this well-annotated double-disc retrospective doesn't deliver the definitive word on any of the artists included, it provides the very best place for newcomers or "mid-level" fans to get better acquainted with the best and most succesful blues label of the post-war years.
I really can't praise this compilation enough. Get it right away, and enrich your life!

....and people get snooty over "classic" rock!.......2000-07-28

Most fans of classic rock forget how very, very close it is and came from the blues and R & B. This is a great place to find that out if you don't really know. Chess records places songs from their collection on this 2 disk set that are used for the basis for rock tunes to come. It even lists which bands covered or used these songs in the booklet.

Tracks:

Forrest Gump Suite
Main Title from Out of Africa
The Wave
Watermark
Love Theme from Flashdance
Wherever You Are
Kiss the Girl
Blackbird
Charlie's Theme
Of Strange Lands and People
Piano Solo

Product Description

This collection of award-winning melodies plus 3 originals highlights the piano along with an accomplished ensemble of musicians.Mike Strickland first became recongnized for his marvelous albums of engaging, highly crafted original compositions. When asked by his fans if they might ever hear his sparkling talent applied to popular music, he recorded and released "My Favorite Things". So strong and positive was the reaction to that album that Mike felt compelled to produce a second. Here you'll find award-winning songs presented in Mike's unique and upbeat piano style, supported by an accomplished ensemble. Like the first, this is truly a delightful musical experience that stays fresh after numerous listenings.

Average customer rating:

"The original and best"
Nice Variety Blues Beats, Some Familiar Songs
Hear the Classics!

Blues Masters, Vol. 6: Blues Originals
Various Artists
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000032XB
Release Date: 1993-02-16

Tracks:

Bring It On Home - Sonny Boy Williamson
You Need Love - Muddy Waters
Texas Flood - Larry Davis & His Band
Got My Mojo Working (But It Just Won't Work On You) - Ann Cole, With The Suburbans & Orch
I Ain't Superstitious - Howlin' Wolf
Love In Vain - Robert Johnson
I Can't Quit You Baby - Otis Rush
Bulldoze Blues - Henry Thomas
Madison Blues - Elmore James
Someone To Love Me - Snooky Pryor
I Ain't Got You - Jimmy Reed
That's All Right - Arthue 'Big Boy' Crudup
I'm A Man - Bo Diddley
Boom, Boom Out Goes The Lights - Little Walter
Pack Fair And Square - Big Walter & His Thunderbirds
I'm A King Bee - Slim Harpo
It's A Man Down There - G.L. Crockett
Back Door Man - Howlin Wolf

Customer Reviews:

"The original and best".......2004-08-05

Most of the numerous entries in Rhino's "Blues Masters" series are very good, and this one is no exception.

This 1993 volume brings together 18 classic blues songs, all of which have been covered in one form or another by other blues, blues-rock or rock n' roll artists. Bo Diddley's "I'm A Man" is the basis for Muddy Waters' "Mannish Boy", Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right" was covered by Elvis Presley (as you may know!), Led Zeppelin have covered (or just stolen) several of these songs (the Muddy Waters-single "You Need Love" became "Whole Lotta Love"), and the Allman Brothers Band did a great rendition of G.L. Crockett's excellent, underexposed "It's a Man Down There".

There are some top-notch classics here, as well as a number of more obscure but equally enjoyable recordings which will look at home on any blues fan's shelf. Most Yardbirds fans are probably unaware that the prototype for their song "Lost Woman" was an obscure Snooky Pryor single, "Someone To Love Me". And the original version of "Got My Mojo Working" is here...not by Muddy Waters, though, but by little-known jump blues singer Ann Cole.

A fine collection, mixing together famous standards and obscure gems with thorough liner notes. Longtime blues fans will have most of this music, of course, but more casual fans will find a lot of great stuff here.
4 1/2 stars. Excellent.

Nice Variety Blues Beats, Some Familiar Songs.......2000-06-24

(How they sounded in the original)

Hear the Classics!.......1998-10-17

Hear the songs before they were covered by the stadium rockers. Led Zeppelin covered "Bring it on home", "You Need Love" and " I Can't Quit You Baby" Countless bands have done of a cover of Elmore James' "Madison Blues." And of course, the Rolling Stones did a cover of "Love in Vain" So, if you want hear what influenced famous rock rollers, this is the album for you.

Average customer rating:

Jazz is a funny creature . . .
A View From Within
Wide Open Window
Deanna Witkowski 's Wide Open Window

Wide Open Window
Deanna Witkowski
Manufacturer: Khaeon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Latin Pop | Latin Music | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Latin Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B00007MB30
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Customer Reviews:

Jazz is a funny creature . . ........2007-03-18

. . . seldom sticking to stereotypes, always branching out into new aesthetics, even as it annexes previously unknown musical vistas, and seeming to recreate itself every dozen or twenty years.

This disc, purveyed by a way-geeky looking redhead female pianist of heroic proportions, assaying super-sophisticated Afro/Cuban jazz, reeks of authenticity despite its unlikely genesis. But that's jazz for you. Wide Open Windows, her second outing of three as leader (neither the previous, Having to Ask, nor the subsequent, Length of Days, heard by me) is a stunner.

Witkowski, a player of great presence on piano, has absorbed, internalized, and reconfigured that venerable music, Afro-Cuban jazz, with complete ease and authority. With entirely sympathetic and deft bandmates (Jonathan Paul, bass, and Tom Hipskind, players never before heard by me, and, especially, rising saxman, Donny McCaslin on four numbers equaling about half the time), she establishes herself as a huge presence on the Latin/jazz scene.

My only gripe is her "Sanctus," arising, one supposes, out of her stint as musical director of All Angels Episcopal Church on Manhattan's Upper West Side. As a Catholic Christian, I applaud her desire to honor God with her jazz; unfortunately, this setting of the great liturgical hymn is just too mundane and "poppish" to make much of an impression. Couple that with her mediocre vocals, and you have the weakest number on the disc, despite some muscular sax from McCaslin.

But that's hardly worth complaining about, seeing as it comprises only 2:45 of disc time, so I'm not even going to subtract a half star. In any case, this is really fine Latin jazz, which, if you're at all a fan of, you won't want to miss.

A View From Within.......2003-03-23

At some point in time, a "Wide Open Window", of opportunity will unveil itself. Envision an atmosphere where one navigates the possibilities of merging ideas of the present and future then you'll discover a remarkable young pianist named Deanna Witkowski. "Wide Open Window" is Deanna's sophomore effort; I haven't heard her debut recording from 1998. Deanna hails from the Windy City, upon this riveting second outing, the wonderful talents that this lady processes informs that you're in for impeccable journey in jazz blended wrapped by the intriguing melodies of Afro-Cuban music that lures you into the grace and beauty of this exquisite collection of music.

Rob Young, Abstract Groove's

Wide Open Window.......2003-03-21

Rob Young, Smooth-Jazz.de/Abstract Groove's

Deanna Witkowski 's Wide Open Window.......2003-03-20

"All Through The Night" a Cole Porter tune opens the 10-song set. Ms. Witkowski with the support of a talented cast of sidemen travel without variables reframing this piece, romping this sassy samba with continuity. This is vintage trio jazz swinging at it's best.

Coming in at the second spot, Deanna gives us her self-penned composition titled "New August Tune" This track is influenced by her studies of Afro-Cuban Jazz with Cuban piano masters Chucho Valdés and Hilario Duran in the mid `90s, this cut grooves with a purpose. Mirroring the masters that came before him tenor saxman Donny McCaslin solos convincingly, commanding your attention every step of the way with this dynamic performance.

The title track penned by Witkowski "Wide Open Window" makes its appearance with a bop like sensibilities featuring not only the talents of Ms. Witkowski impressionistic piano stylings. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin reveals way he's not your average musician he assuredly breathes life into the cold steel as if Deanna wrote the tune with him in mind.

"From This Moment On" comes in at 4th spot. Deanna elegantly captures the essence of Cole Porter composition in an alluring yet in a seductive fashion adding texture with a touch of sultry backing vocals, which she also provides. Midway through this number Deanna illustrates way she's a serious player to recon with in the world of jazz.

Ms. Witkowski delivers another self-penned composition, this one's called "A Rare Appearance". The band shuffles the harmonic melodies like a rim-shot without hesitation, trading solos back and forth with endless array of energy displaying their talents as sideman that will indeed open doors for them.

"Speak My Name," penned by Deanna is another boppin' number highlights some seriously strong chops by the pianist. Her sideman at this vantage point negotiates with flawless interplay between one another probing and weaving with exceptional prowess.

By now it's obvious that Ms. Witkowski adores Cole Porter's compositions and arrangements. This time it's "Just One Of Those Things" the seventh track on the cd. Deanna tackles this swinging tune with fire in her hands, rumbling chords joyously trading solos with bassist Jonathan Paul and drummer Tom Hipskind in this trio setting without falter.

Deanna approaches the next tune with timbre yet reconstructing the imagery of this melodic masterpiece, she sustains this stellar moment by co-writers Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz titled "You and The Night and The Music" with good taste and harmonious phrasings while flirting with each note.

The distinctive yet swinging sounds of "A Wonderful Guy" by Rodgers and Hammerstein comes in at the nine spot. Sparked by fuel Deanna delivers again with support from her more than ample sidemen as they engage in the fundamentals of jazz in unison with complex rhythms that raises the bar of quality musicianship!

"Sanctus" the last selection on "Wide Open Window" is a tune written by Deanna. Ms. Witkowski lends her vocal talents too us in a subtle way, providing a nice touch for the conclusion of this mesmerizing collection of songs.

If you're looking to embrace jazz with a touch of Afro-Cuba flavored ingredients then this record comes highly-recommend. Keep all eyes upon Deanna Witkowski and her record label Khaeon Records, please follow this core of diversely talented jazz musicians that are on the horizon. ...

Solo Piano: Originals
Average customer rating:

Portrait of the Jazz Pianist as a Recitalist

Not that good

beautiful record

Sublime

Solo Piano: Originals
Chick Corea
Manufacturer: Stretch Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Piano Improvisations, Vol. 1

Children's Songs

Akoustic Band

ASIN: B00004TQYF
Release Date: 2000-06-06

Tracks:

Brasilia
Yellow Nimbus
Prelude #4, Opus 11
Prelude #2, Opus 11
Children's Song #6
Children's Song #10
Armando's Rhumba
April Snow
The Chase
The Falcon
Swedish Landscape
Spain
Children's Song #12

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Chick Corea has long favored unaccompanied piano performance and has recorded several solo albums, starting with Piano Improvisations (volumes I and II) and continuing through Expressions. Now we have two more: this one, devoted to originals, and a companion disc that explores a range of pop and jazz standards. Both albums were drawn from 1999 concerts recorded in Switzerland, Norway, Sweden, and Japan. Originals contains music that is sweet and melodic, and music that is challenging and even a bit jarring. Corea employs his alternately sparkling-then-dusky touch, immaculate articulation, and limitless imagination as he delves into 13 of his own pieces, save two freely interpreted, lyrically stunning Preludes by Alexander Scriabin. Included are a couple of Corea standards: the jaunty "Armando's Rhumba," given a delightfully spirited reading; and the evergreen "Spain," distinguished by strands of enchanting ideas. Then there's the pastoral yet lively "Brasilia," where between paraphrases of the attractive theme, the pianist offers garlands of alternately serene and animated improvisations. The somewhat more intense "Yellow Nimbus" finds thickets of notes and hard-hit chords contrasted by songlike passages. There are four improvised on-the-spot numbers and three "Children's Songs." "No. 6" is playful yet deep, offering dancing chords and zesty lines, while the freely improvised "No. 12" finds Corea generally letting his fertile mind go where it will. --Zan Stewart

Customer Reviews:

Portrait of the Jazz Pianist as a Recitalist.......2002-01-24

"Brasilia" is charmingly simple; Corea's playing moves with an easy grace, yet there is no "auto-pilot" to those passages which shed virtuosity. On this piece, especially, one notices (as another reviewer has observed) the variety of articulation of which Corea is capable.

"Yellow Nimbus" is a fiery, exhilirating dance. Like Albéniz' "Iberia," it is the sort of music written for the piano, by someone who believes it is really a kind of big, black Spanish guitar.

The Skryabin preludes are a curious matter. Skryabinists may find they don't especially recognize the composer here; and Corea's audience may come away with the impression that Skryabin was really a sort of Chick Corea, only a century ahead of time. That said, these tracks just sound like part of Corea's sound-world (a very different matter to the Duke Ellington `Nutcracker' arrangement, whose chief virtue [for me] is, that it is not so irredeemably bad as the recently-released Klezmer `version' of Tchaikovsky). I do not begrudge the pianist the liberties he takes with these preludes.

The three "Children's Songs" are playful without being child's play.

The four `improvisations after suggestions from the audience' are delightful, and a testimony to the agility, and inventiveness of Corea at the piano; this, true even while there are images (snow, a chase) at whose musical portrayal Corea is hardly a novice, and even where we hear affectionate musical bows to Debussy (in "the Falcon"), for example.

"Armando's Rhumba" and "Spain" are both signatures, and both are treated here with both affection and freshness. If Corea is at all tired of playing these after all these years, he wears the mask well: no tiredness HERE. There are, by turns, bursts of incisive energy, and reflections of the utmost delicacy.

Not that good.......2000-09-27

The value of a record is always something relative. It depends on individual taste and expectations. After listening to older records of Corea playing acoustic piano as "Now she sings now she sobs", and even more resent ones as the one recorded recently with Gary Burton and Pat meteney, this solo record of Corea lacks drama, unexpectedness and the drive I expect from a Jazz musician. With the exeption of "Spain" this record seems boring to me.

beautiful record.......2000-08-02

Is this a five-star record? I don't know. It's definitely close, though. The opening cut, "Brasilia," is my favorite--such a haunting, tender melody. A short version of "Spain" is very nice too, as are the Scriabin-inspired pieces, but the whole thing is fabulous, among Corea's best solo playing since PIANO IMPROVISATIONS of the early '70s.

I wish the public knew more about Corea, what a wonderful talent he is. If I were king, I would cancel the next Grammy Awards show and force those who would have tuned in to watch Corea play for two hours. This might be tyrannical of me, but my subjects would be better off and more enriched than they would by watching Garth Brooks groan oh-so-sensitively under his cowboy hat or by watching Britney Spears gyrate in her dangerous ... way. All this preaching is to say that Corea's music, ORIGINALS included, will be around for a long, long time. The same cannot be said for the great majority of the other stuff out there.

Sublime.......2000-06-30

Corea plays Corea (with some material adapted from Scriabin) and the result is a wonderful assortment of tracks covering a broad range of colours, moods and rhythms. Sometimes it is his inimitable lyrically seamless shower of notes against the assymtrical left hand rhythms of which he is a master, then it is the dissonant avant-gardish textures he weaves (echoing his "circle" days)or sometimes it is the ethereal and wistfully impressionistic pieces like "Yellow Nimbus". The four improptu tracks, inspired by images suggested by a live audience in Sweden, are cliche-free and gives you an idea of the rich musical ideas Corea has at his disposal. Recording (and the sound of his Yamaha) is top-notch too. Highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

tepid attempt at a Clark Terry sound
Frankie V Sounds Amazing!
Really nice CD, Frankie V is GREAT!!...
Delicious

Smooth Ride feat. Arturo Sandoval
Frankie V
Manufacturer: Vee Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000063TMV
Release Date: 2001-03-06

Tracks:

Another Star
Kool Katz
Mi Amiga Mi Amore Intro
Mi Amiga Mi Amore
Smooth Ride
The Way To Love
New Life Latino
Talker
Southwestern Sunset
Chuggin' Along
Island Connection
A.S.

Album Description

This exciting new album highlights Frankie V's original compositions, as well as a refreshing new arrangement of Stevie Wonder's "Another Star." The album runs the gamut: Smooth Jazz, Jazz Funk, and Latin Jazz; showing many sides of Frankie's playing. It combines a smokin' rhythm section led by Sandoval on piano, with Ernesto Simpson on drums, Dennis Marks on bass, and Samuel Torres on percussion. Throughout this album, you will hear Frankie V's warm, lush flugelhorn sound, contrasted by his screaming doubled trumpet tracks on "A.S" -- a tune that he wrote and dedicated to his hero Arturo Sandoval. Frankie V pairs up with saxophone great Ed Calle so beautifully on the track "New Life Latino," a gorgeous cha cha / bolero, it sounds like they have been playing together for years. The icing on the cake is the teaming of Frankie and Arturo on flugelhorns on Frankie's "Mi Amiga Mi Amore." It's a guarantee you'll be humming this one for days.

Customer Reviews:

tepid attempt at a Clark Terry sound.......2006-05-24

I purchased this CD hoping that Sandoval and Calle would play a greater role in the expressive, driving melodic lines for which they are so justly famous......their names are, after all, on the album cover. Instead, a smooth and warm(yes, Frankie V does have that Flugel sound alright)horn player attempting to create unique ad lib lines, comes across merely staying in the harmonic structure but never saying anything, musically. I was hoping for the inventiveness of a Clark Terry on the Flugelhorn....after all the hype about this player. I couldn't even finish the album....started nodding-off, unable to find the least bit of inspiration nor creativity in the melodic lines.
The back-up team is sensational, laying down a rock-solid sense of time for the soloist. I wish the creativity were there. Look for Clark Terry CD's if you're anticipating liquid, honey-like phasing and creative melodic lines.

Frankie V Sounds Amazing!.......2002-05-27

What a wonderful album, my wife and I listen to it all the time.
Frankie V is a wonderful trumpet player. Buy This Album!

Really nice CD, Frankie V is GREAT!!..........2002-04-16

Really nice CD, Frankie V is GREAT!!!!
I was really surprised to hear this Cd and find out what a wonderful trumpet player Frankie V is. Arturo is amazing on the piano, and also on the tune Mi Amiga Mi Amore where he and Frankie play together. Frankie is very smooth!... Last but not least Ed Calle and that band, amazing...!! BUY THIS CD!...

Delicious.......2001-09-12

I recived my cd today and i love it!I orderd it because Arturo Sandoval featured on it but he just play one song on flugelhorn and keys on the rest! Anyway,Frankie plays really great! He plays soft and smooth! And i love the track Mi Amigo mi Amore where he and Arturo plays flugelhorn! Ed Calle also do a great job here(like always)! Great record!!!!!

Average customer rating:

Phantoms
Virginia Mayhew
Manufacturer: Renma Recordings
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

Hard Bop | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

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Modern Postbebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

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No Walls
Sandan Shuffle
Nini Green

ASIN: B0000996IN
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Tracks:

Theme/Phantoms
I Love You
Monterey Blues
I'm a Fool to Want You
Babble On
Live Your Life
Facil
Fall
Dubai
Rhythm-A-Ning
Theme

Album Description

Fresh yet classic modern jazz. Beautiful melodies, great rhythms, interplay, unusual instrumentation (saxophone, trumpet, bass and drums), lots of odd meters that feel good. Some standards and some originals. Tunes range from beautiful to funky to sad to Latin to wild. Got lots of airplay and all great reviews.

Average customer rating:

Cheek to Cheek
Michael Harrison & Julianne R. Johnson
Manufacturer: Mah Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | New Age | Styles | Music

General | Easy Listening | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Vocal Pop | Pop | Styles | Music

General | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

Traditional & Vocal Pop | Pop | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Easy Listening | Pop | Indie Music | Stores | Music
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Inspired

ASIN: B00004RBYF
Release Date: 2000-08-01

Tracks:

Cheek To Cheek
Old Fashioned Love
God Bless The Child
First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
Rainbows
Standing Alone
Window Of Courage
Summertime
The Greatest Fall Of All

Jazz Music:

Jazz Music

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