The jazz and classical shit:
Lol Coxhill ‘Ear Of Beholder’ - what happens when you give a liberally minded English improviser with a sense of humour free range in an early 70s studio (and on the street in places), this is an undisciplined, yet highly entertaining listen - the extremely un-PC final track excepted;
Pat Metheny Group ‘The Road To You’ - The PMG’s second live album is a livelier affair than their first (check out ‘Third Wind’) though nowhere near as well recorded;
Buddy Rich ‘Strike It Rich’ - fab Verve comp of Buddy’s mid-50s small group combos. The tracks featuring Harry ‘Sweets’ Edison on trumpet are particularly cool;
Paul Desmond ‘Glad To Be Unhappy’ - lounge jazz par excellence. Desmond is my all-time musician of any genre. Also features the mighty Jim Hall on guitar;
Gary Burton & Steve Swallow ‘Hotel Hello’ - one of those great early ECM titles I keep coming back to, but more upbeat than most. Burton’s clean vibes merge especially well with Swallow’s lyrical electric bass. Great electric piano on the title track too;
Kenny Burrell ‘Midnight Blue’ - as idiomatic of a classic Blue Note session as it’s possible to imagine. Nice...
Paul Bley ‘With Gary Peacock’ - very early ECM LP featuring recordings from as far back as ‘63 showcases Bley’s rarely heard swinging technique, compromised by a wildly out of tune piano. I’m reminded of Mrs Mills in places;
Diana Krall ‘Live At Paris’ - this does things for me I’d best keep to myself but... just check out her rendition of Joni’s ‘A Case Of You’;
Dexter Gordon ‘Settin’ the Pace’ (selections) - groovy Proper box set of a superb tenor sax player at his peak in the mid-40s;
Dave Brubeck Quartet ‘Brubeck and Rushing’ - one-off collaboration with Jimmy Rushing which is too sheerly entertaining for meaningful criticism. This is just... fun;
Miles Davis ‘Cookin’ With The Miles Davis Quintet’ - Miles’ technique was more assured in the Prestige days before hard drugs took hold. Okay, the real innovation was yet to come, but here is as good a place as any to hear just how good a trumpeter he was;
Miles Davis ‘Bitches Brew’ - as influential as this is, I think its followers (including the sidemen on this very album) did the fusion thing better afterwards. It just sounds dated to me. I dig Miles - muchly - but for me better records under his name came before and after this;
Steve Lacy with Don Cherry ‘Evidence’ - on which the young Don C out-Miles’s his greatest influence with aplomb. Lacy is also well on form, notably on Monk’s ‘Let’s Cool One’, which throws in a mean drum solo from Billy Higgins for good measure;
Maynard Ferguson ‘Alive & Well In London’ - the nearest my dear old dad ever got to buying a rock album, this ‘71 release features some great big band arrangements of contemporary pop tunes by Keith Mansfield and Kenny Wheeler. Needless to say, subtlety is rare with Maynard but my, THIS is trumpet technique!
Elgar: Organ Sonata (John Scott) - big, big work played for all it’s worth on the great St Paul’s Cathedral organ. Scott was a superb player who died prematurely;
William Mathias: Organ Music (John Scott) more Scott St Paul’s magic, this time of the music of one of Wales’ finest composers;
Haydn: Piano Trio Hob.XV:10 & and Schubert: Piano Trio no.2 (Stern/Istomin/Rose) - two absorbing E flat trios immaculately rendered by three great 20th century US musicians;
Mozart: Concerto in F for 3 pianos & orch, K 242 (Kocsis/Rankl/Schiff/Hungarian State O/Janos Ferencsik) - a delightfully twee yet tuneful early concerto played with poise and charm;
Mozart: Sonata for bassoon & cello, K 292 (Klaus Thunemann & Stephen Orton) - another of my sad ‘play the right K on the right day’ choices revealed this obscure chamber delight. I’ll probably never play it again but it was a pleasant enough way to see off ten semi-locked down minutes;
Dvorak: Symphony no.8 (Philadelphia/Wolfgang Sawallisch) - typically thick sounding Philadelphia recording but a fine, if slightly over-Germanic, interpretation by an underrated conductor;
Strauss: Metamorphosen (BPO/ Karajan) - the second of Karajan’s three recordings of this heartfelt masterpiece really shows off the rich, burnished glow of the Berlin strings;
Veress: String Trio & Bartok: Piano Quintet (Nicolas Alstaedt etc) - Gramophone’s Chamber album of the year is a justified winner, combining an early (and unusually Brahmsian) piece by Bartok with a little known string trio by his pupil. Enjoyable as the quintet is, it’s the later work that is the most individual and packs the greater emotional punch, especially in this idiomatic performance. Serialism without tears, and worth a punt for the curious;
Bruckner: Motets (Choir of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh/Duncan Ferguson) - lovely choral music deserving of greater recognition, especially when rendered as exquisitely as here;
Ravel: Sheherazade (Suzanne Danco/OSR/Ernest Ansermet) - this soprano and conductor are as right for this music as anyone could wish. This is the earlier and best of the two recordings they made of this Klingsor-worded song cycle;
Suzanne Danco: Opera and oratorio arias - from Decca’s new box of her complete recitals (as is the last named), it’s enlightening to hear some familiar (and less so) extracts as a collection. Danco’s vibrato-rich soprano won’t appeal to all but I think she was without peer in French language repertoire like Faure, Honegger, Ravel and Debussy. Her Mozart was pretty respectable too;
Mahler: Symphony no.7 (Chicago SO/Solti) - no longueurs in this typically thrusting Solti recording, but this lacks the subtlety that Haitink provided in this work;
Weber: Der Freischuetz Overture & Beethoven: Symphony no.6 (Concertgebouw/Willem Mengelberg) - crumbly old recordings by a controversial Dutch conductor with a highly personal style. Not for everyday listening but, wow!
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas nos.4 & 21 ‘Waldstein’ (Daniel Barenboim) - powerful playing from Barenboim’s second (1984) cycle. I wonder what his imminent fifth (!) set will sound like;
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Cortot/Paris Cons/Munch) - another 78-era recording by a French master pianist. How anyone could play this with two hands - let alone one - is beyond me!
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