20526. (Ray Brad­bury) Fahren­heit 451: The Author Reads Key Episodes with Per­son­al Commentary
20527. (Healey Willan) Postlude at East­er Vigil
20528. (Healey Willan) Hymn: “Jesus Christ is risen today” [East­er Hymn] Read more »

Some­how an Appalachi­an style sounds per­fect­ly nat­ur­al for the Yukon. White­horse songstress Kim Beg­gs writes mov­ing, poet­ic lyrics to very tra­di­tion­al folk/county tunes and arrange­ments. Wan­der­er’s Paean (Cari­bou Records 2006) has plen­ty of what was once called “sweet and dark” music, firm­ly ground­ed in emo­tion­al real­i­ty. Out­stand­ing songs include “Lips Stained Red With Wine”, “Ship­yard Song” and “Walk­ing Down to the Sta­tion”, but my favourite is the per­fect­ly craft­ed “Banks of the Yukon.”

20418. (Black Horse) Mon­go­lian Tra­di­tion­al Clas­si­cal Music Art
20419. (Lester Young) Lester Young [Verve Jazz Mas­ters vol.30]
20420. (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) From Her to Eter­ni­ty [1984] Read more »

On a snowy evening in Toron­to, in 1953, five of the great­est jazz musi­cians of all time played togeth­er for the one and only time. Dizzy Gille­spie, Char­lie Park­er, Hal Roach, Charles Min­gus, and Bud Pow­ell, all at the cre­ative acme of their careers. A rag­ing bliz­zard and a cru­cial hock­ey game reduced the audi­ence to a hand­ful — a pho­to shows most­ly emp­ty seats. The checks to pay the per­form­ers bounced. But this is con­sid­ered by many to be the great­est jazz con­cert of all time, and I’m in no mood to doubt that con­sen­sus. Gille­spie’s trum­pet blazes like the archangel Gabriel took pos­ses­sion of him. If you are going to own only one jazz album, this should be it.

Roach, Gille­spie & Park­er play­ing at Massey Hall, 1953

Massey hall was built in 1894. This was, for­tu­nate­ly, where I first heard for­mal con­cert music played. It’s ugly on the out­side, but when I first set foot in it, the inte­ri­or was still a late Vic­to­ri­an, pseu­do-ori­en­tal fan­ta­sy of mel­low wood­work. It’s acoustics ranked it among the best halls in the world. A lat­er ren­o­va­tion, unfor­tu­nate­ly, removed most of its charms. The Toron­to Sym­pho­ny long ago moved to mod­ern quar­ters, but Massey still hosts impor­tant rock, folk and cham­ber concerts.

20373. (Valery Gore) Avalanche To Wan­der­ing Bear
20374. (Giuseppe Ver­di) Un Bal­lo in Maschera [com­plete opera; d. von Kara­jan; Domingo,
. . . . . Barstow, Nuc­ci, Quivar]
20375. (Antonín Dvořák) Husit­ská, dra­mat­ická ouver­tu­ra [Hus­site Over­ture], Op.67, B.132 Read more »

Cape Bre­ton Island is for Canada’s folk music what the Mis­sis­sip­pi Delta is for Amer­i­ca’s. Dur­ing the infa­mous High­land Clear­ances, the impov­er­ished High­landers of Scot­land were dri­ven off their land. Many of those who did not die of star­va­tion or expo­sure (the clear­ances were often done in the dead of win­ter), were shipped off to Cana­da in the “cof­fin boats”, a cross­ing that many did not sur­vive. Read more »

20347. (Somat­ic Respons­es) Dig­i­tal Darkness
20348. (Franz Josef Haydn) Sym­pho­ny #79 in F
20349. (Franz Josef Haydn) Sym­pho­ny #80 in D Minor
20350. (Franz Josef Haydn) Sym­pho­ny #81 in G
20351. (Yous­sou N’Dour) Noth­ing’s In Vein
20352. (Doves) King­dom of Rust Read more »

Somat­ic Respons­es is the tag for two Welsh broth­ers, John and Paul Healy. Dig­i­tal Dark­ness is break­beat, rhyth­mic noise, or sound­scape, or some­thing like that. I like it. It has inter­est­ing rhyth­mic intri­ca­cies, with­in a rel­a­tive­ly slow-paced frame­work. I par­tic­u­lar­ly liked the strings in “Strand­ed” and the grim bass line in “Human Bass”. Not some­thing you would play as back­ground or to make your­self feel hap­py, but stimulating.

20178. (Arcan­ge­lo Corel­li) Sonata da chiesa in A, Op.3 #12,
20179. (Arcan­ge­lo Corel­li) Sonata da chiesa in F Minor, Op.3 #9
20180. (Arcan­ge­lo Corel­li) Sonata da chiesa in B‑flat, Op.3 #3
20181. (Arcan­ge­lo Corel­li) Sonata da chiesa in G Minor, Op.3 #11
20182. (Arcan­ge­lo Corel­li) Sonata da chiesa in F, Op.3 #1 Read more »