Northwest Passage

Northwest Passage

ASIN: B000002GSN

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
Oregon are a world/jazz-fusion group that have been performing together since 1970, when Paul McCandless, Ralph Towner, and Colin Wolcott left the Paul Winter Consort to form a band with bassist Glen Moore. Ralph Towner's 12-string guitar has always blended well with McCandless's stately oboe and English horn as the band combines Asian and Native American influences with jazzy improvisation. Oregon's percussionist Colin Wolcott was killed in an auto accident in the early '80s. Both Arto Tuncboyaciyan and Mark Walker fill the void left by Wolcott with sensitivity and skill while the three original members display a very special brand of musical maturity. Glen Moore's basslines underscore the gentle compositions of Towner and McCandless and Oregon's group improvisation is particularly intuitive. --Mitch Myers

Tracks:

Northwest Passage
The Field Behind The Plow
Night Guard
Working Joe
You Can't Stay Here
The Idiot
Lies
Canol Road
Free In The Harbour
California

Customer Reviews:

Proudly and Resolutely Canadian.......2007-01-28

First off, Stan Rogers has not been served well by the cover art for his recordings which misleadingly spin your mind into the direction of some 1950s time capsule. To have tradition in mind is not misplaced, and Roger's work certainly observes traditions. But he shouldn't be regarded as something unearthed from an archelogical site. This is definitely my favourite from the Rogers' catalogue, and I remember the pangs of sadness at the news of his early death. 'Northwest Passage' is a perennial winner; that big voice in premium fettle. There's a healthy choice of Roger's writing on show, the ballads, the shanty feel, the domestic observations of,'Lies' a very beautiful and tender thing. It seems the baritone register finds it harder to crack the pop idiom, and I can think of other fine voices(David Wiffen and Joe South spring to mind) that don't get the reach they deserve.'California' is another song I find on my lips when the spirit(Rogers') moves me. All in all, a great disc. If machismo writer of mid-western sagas, Jim Harrison, were singer/songwriter, he'd be of the Stan Rogers cut. Try that for size!

Song Excellent/Album not really my thing.......2007-01-10

To be honest I bought this for the song Northwest Passage only. I had heard it around 12 years ago played in a bar whilst I was in Canada. Finally managed to find it and bought it from the Amazon US site which turned out to be cheaper than Amazon UK even taking account of postage to UK! Anyway, my family may have connections with John Franklin the explorer who is mentioned in the song hence the reason I bought it.

I like the song Northwest Passage a lot and I'd give it 5 out 5. The other notable song is The Field Behind The Plow but to be honest, the rest of the album is a bit too Country and Western for me.

What can I say.......2007-01-10

What can I say - Stan Rogers is the best, and this is a terrific album. A definite must for any Stan junkie.

Stan Rogers Rocks.......2006-07-10

I first heard the song "The Northwest Passage" back in the early nineties on public radio, but I missed out on the artist and album identification. After over a decade of searching, I finally tracked down the source of that song on Amazon. I bought this album for that one song, but was pleasantly surprised to find the other songs on the album were excellent folk songs too. Most heartily recommended for any folk music afficionado.

Right on.......2006-03-05

This is an awesome CD. Stan Rogers has a great voice, I love the Celtic-inflected instrumentals, and his ballads speak authentically to working-class Canadian life.

Average customer rating:

Sadly overlooked gem
if you like this
My first CD by the group Oregon
This band has matured beautifully

Northwest Passage
Oregon
Manufacturer: Intuition
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion | Jazz | Styles | Music

Modern Postbebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

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Fusion & World Fusion | Compilations | Jazz | Styles | Music

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Live at Yoshi's
45th Parallel
Prime
Out of the Woods/Roots in the Sky
Oregon in Moscow

ASIN: B000002GSN
Release Date: 1997-09-23

Tracks:

Take Heart
Don't Knock On My Door
Lost In The Hours
Over Your Shoulder
Claridade
Joyful Departure
Nightfall
Under A Dorian Sky
Fortune Cookie
Under The Mountain
L'Assassino Che Suona
Intro
Yet To Be
Northwest Passage

Amazon.com

Oregon are a world/jazz-fusion group that have been performing together since 1970, when Paul McCandless, Ralph Towner, and Colin Wolcott left the Paul Winter Consort to form a band with bassist Glen Moore. Ralph Towner's 12-string guitar has always blended well with McCandless's stately oboe and English horn as the band combines Asian and Native American influences with jazzy improvisation. Oregon's percussionist Colin Wolcott was killed in an auto accident in the early '80s. Both Arto Tuncboyaciyan and Mark Walker fill the void left by Wolcott with sensitivity and skill while the three original members display a very special brand of musical maturity. Glen Moore's basslines underscore the gentle compositions of Towner and McCandless and Oregon's group improvisation is particularly intuitive. --Mitch Myers

Customer Reviews:

Sadly overlooked gem.......2007-05-10

Only four reviews at the time of this writing... Not popular music for sure. Music from the heart, and you can be sure it speaks to the heart. Complex - yes, sophisticated - yes. But music that one can understand instantly. I have owned all Oregon records in one form or another, and I can confidently say that this particular record is one of their top 5. It has the lyricism, feeling, chops and something else that is hard to define. Also it is more melodic than previous efforts, with less atonal harmony. It seems as if they have set the expirementation aside, and decided to create beautiful, searching music.

if you like this.......2005-03-03

A great CD, I bought this in an attempt to recall the experience of having just seen Oregon live for the first time. If you enjoy this then do what you have to in order to catch them while percussionist Mark Walker is still with the band. No recording can do justice to Mark's and leader Ralph's live sound. Not to ignore the other musicians but genius is the only term sufficient to convey the captivating and hypnotic spell that Mark and Ralph creates on stage in combination or solo.

My first CD by the group Oregon.......2001-09-08

I had not heard of this particular group except for an ad in a double reed journal. As an amatuer oboe player, I was curious enough to order the CD and was pleasantly surprised when I listened to it. This is a serious jazz album, with harmonic, melodic and rhythmic complexities to delight any jazz lover looking for something unusual. I was most curious about Paul Mccandless' oboe playing, which was great, as was his soprano saxophone work. But the string bass and percussion were also impressive. I also liked the HUGE variety of styles on this CD; all were played with great finesse, sensitivity, and enthusiasm. This is a great addition to my CD library.

This band has matured beautifully.......2000-02-10

My Dad had a couple early Oregon discs around the house because he had been at the University of Oregon school of music at the same time as guitarist/pianist Ralph Towner and acoustic bass player Glen Moore, who both sat in on his pickup dance band once or twice. Moore remained a friend of the family over the years.

I didn't much like the albums. Too many of the cuts were just too spacey, they didn't go much of anywhere. I liked a little more beat and melody to most of my music, which is why I went for Shadowfax for a while. Oregon's terrific _Ecotopia_ album answered these requirements, however, and this one does even better.

There are so many different ways for music to be beautiful, and a lot of them are here. "Claridade" is delicately regretful, "Under a Dorian Sky" airily menacing (best use of the band's free-form style I've heard), "Fortune Cookie" a quirky bop, "Intro" expansive and introspective, "L'Assassino Che Suona" a typical sample of Moore's oddities (for those who remember "Leather Cats" from _Ecotopia_ or "Cream of Bartok Soup" from his solo disc; the title of this one comes from an Italian female acquaintance who saw the bassist slinking along in his trench coat and took him for an assassin).

"Take Heart," "Joyful Departure" and "Yet to Be" are all upbeat, optimistic, and inspiring. (I've noticed that my local public radio station often uses snatches of these tunes for its incidental music.) For a change of pace, "Don't Knock On My Door" is a sort of East Indian rave-up, with percussionist Arto Tuncboyaciyan burbling vocally.

But my favorite cut is "Nightfall" -- moody and apprehensive, cool yet jittery, eerie and rich. Towner's shifting chords under the main theme send shivers up your spine, McCandless's soprano sax wails over stinging notes from the guitar and aggressive thumps from the bass. It's even better live.

One other thing I don't usually note: The packaging of this CD is gorgeous, too.

I love this album. Progressive jazz at its very best. Buy it!

Canadian Safari / Chor Leoni Men's Choir, Diane Loomer (Director)
Average customer rating:

Great recording of great performances of great arrangements

Canadian Safari

Canadian Safari / Chor Leoni Men's Choir, Diane Loomer (Director)

Manufacturer: Skylark
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music
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Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music
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Chor Leoni Men's Choir

Goin' Home

Yuletide Fires

ASIN: B00000K2WI
Release Date: 1998-06-01

Tracks:

Fogarty's Cove
The Water is Wide
Vive l'Amour
Away from the Roll of the Sea
Ave Maris Stella
Chi Mi Na Mor Bheanna
Song for the Mira
She's Like the Swallow
Red River Valley
The Carrion Crow
Potlatch Fair
Northwest Passage
Four Strong Winds
Dondaine La Ridaine
Wood River
Oh Mary, Come Home
Grand Hotel
Drunken Sailor
Barrett's Privateers
Make and Break Harbour

Album Description

Well known for its imaginative programming, Vancouver based Chor Leoni Men's Choir has done it again with a new recording entitled Canadian Safari. Director Diane Loomer leads her “choir of lions” on a musical ride across the Canadian landscape in these innovative arrangements of some of Canada's best loved folk music. Virtually every style of traditional music is represented here: Stan Rogers' Fogarty's Cove, Barrett's Privateers, Northwest Passage and Make and Break Harbour ; Dondaine la Ridaine from Quebec; Connie Kaldor's Wood River and selections of the best mariner's songs from both coasts.

Chor Leoni's entertaining delivery and adventurous approach to choral music has made it one of Canada's most recognized vocal ensembles. The choir has commissioned, performed and recorded numerous works by Canadian composers and consistently won prizes in the CBC national choral competitions. It has performed with the CBC Vancouver Orchestra, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver New Music Society, and its Remembrance Day and Summer Solstice concerts are highlights of the Vancouver choral calendar.

Customer Reviews:

Great recording of great performances of great arrangements.......2004-10-31

The Chor (Greek for Choir) Leoni (Italian for Lion) have voices and arrangements that are not superficial. While the soloists are not Pavarotti, they are also not Michael Bolton or Justin Timberlake, and when the entire chorus comes in with harmonies as hearty and robust as prime rib, yet as feathery fine as angels wings well.... the effect is musical magic.

I'm interested in all types of music, but there's a special place in my heart for talented musicians who commit themselves to mastery of musical artforms that they KNOW are not going to get them a triple-platinum CD. A capella men's chorus's are a special breed - dating back before sea chanty's all the way to Gregorian chants.

The music here is as varied as music sung by about 25 men without instrumental accompaniment could be. Sometimes it soars. Sometimes it is robust and up-tempo. The old ballads "The Water is Wide" and "Red River Valley" sound like a heavenly host. Robert Shaw's arrangement of "Vive L'Amour" sounds like the musical equivalent of Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day speech from "Henvy V": full of life and shared accomplishment.

While I don't expect to see Chor Leoni on "The Tonight Show", the listening pleasure I get from this CD tops that of any 10 "Special Musical Guests" on "Tonight" or "Saturday Night Live".

Admittedly, this is music for those with a taste for it - but I get the same kind of thrill hearing a great Mariachi band, or Ray Charles or a great Bluegrass Band like Alison Krauss and Union Station. This is music that is as far removed from the lip-synced techno-pop of today as it can be.

Enjoy.

Canadian Safari.......2002-02-24

Beautiful choral arrangements of songs displaying the rich cultural diversity of music from across Canada. A must for all lovers of choral music. TWO THUMBS UP.

Average customer rating:

Northwest Passage, Vol. 2
Woody Herman & The First Herd
Manufacturer: Jass Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000008B8E
Release Date: 1993-01-25

Tracks:

Theme: Blue Flame & Opening Announcements
Red Top
Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night of the Week)
Chubby's Blues
Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe - Woody Herman, Woody Herman & the First Herd
I Didn't Know About You
Northwest Passage, No. 2
Kiss Goodnight
Goosey Gander
I Don't Care Who Knows It
There! I've Said It Again
Northwest Passage, No. 2
Katuscha
And There You Are
Bijou
June Comes Around Every Year
Apple Honey
Don't Worry 'Bout That Mule
Good, Good, Good
There's No You
Out of This World
Black Orchid
End Theme: Blue Flame

Average customer rating:

Northwest Passage
Cinnamon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000562HF

Average customer rating:

Northwest Passage
Midnight Skye
Manufacturer: Sda
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | New Age | Styles | Music
ASIN: B0000061NK
Release Date: 1998-04-17

Tracks:

Highlands
A Kiss In The Rain
Turning Point
Feast Of The King
Window Of Light
Indian Summer
Dream Waltz
Maiden's Dance
After The Storm
Reflection
Spring Pastorale
Deception Pass

Average customer rating:

Northwest Passage
Cinnamon
Manufacturer: Soap
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000F4MJJQ
Release Date: 2006-03-22

Average customer rating:

Northwest Passage
Oregon
Manufacturer: Intuition
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | International | Styles | Music

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

General | Jazz | Styles | Music

Jazz Fusion | Jazz | Styles | Music

Modern Postbebop | Jazz | Styles | Music
ASIN: B000A1S3YO
Release Date: 1997-09-23

Tracks:

Take Heart
Don't Knock on My Door
Lost in the Horns
Over Your Shoulder
Claridade
Joyful Departure
Nightfall
Under a Dorian Sky
Fortune Cookie
Under the Mountain
Assassino Che Suona (The Musical Assassin)
Intro
Yet to Be
Northwest Passage

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