Author: jerobear
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Meadowlark: Postcards
We’ve loved Meadowlark’s advance tracks (a couple of EPs, maybe a download) beyond logic. You know when you just love a band for no real reason and play a track over and over? That. They are good, mind, but we are most definitely fans. So, they’re not getting a moderate review, let alone bad. We…
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Prince: Purple Rain
Is this deluxe reissue of Prince’s classic album worth getting? Doh. Of course it is. The album contains classics such as When Doves Cry and Let’s Go Crazy, and this remastered version comes with recordings “from the vaults”, single versions of the album tracks and a live DVD. Fans of Prince who bought the album…
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Gilbert Rowland: Mattheson, 12 Suites for Harpsichord
This is one of those CDs that’s hard to write about: a triple CD of music for harpsichord in a nice presentation case and well played. Fans of keyboards need know no more. Rowland is one of Europe’s most accomplished players of the harpsichord and has previously released a six-album series of the harpsichord suites…
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Dan Walsh: Verging on the Perpendicular
Walsh hails from Staffordshire and specialises in the clawhammer style of banjo playing (we only know this as we have some of Steve Martin’s fine albums). He’s a good player and we dare say he gets work as a backing/ studio musician for his skills. This album is a live beast, a man playing songs…
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EPs: Brooke Bentham, Modern Sky UK, AyOwA
Brooke Bentham: The Room Swayed We thought she was a cool new singer from Nashville but she’s from South Shields. The music has a dreamy vibe to it, with a slight country tint (hence our erroneous Nashville attribution) and she’s got a voice to match. Opener Nowhere Near Sense is good, a kind of The…
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Maria Luisa Baldassari: Andrea Antico, Frottole Intabulate Libro Primo, (Roma 1517).
Andrea Antico sounds like one of those frightful over-achievers: he was a fine printer of the early Renaissance and his ability as an engraver allowed him to compete with Ottaviano Petrucci, the prince of musical printing. Petrucci is often talked about wherever newspaper printers gather:* one of his publications is commonly but wrongly said to…
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Marius Neset: Circle of Chimes
This is muscular and modern jazz that skirts round the edges of jazz, prog, improv and classical, with added tubular bells. There’s some fearsome sax playing, too. Writing on his website, Neset says tubular bells were the idea for the album, and it opens with them sounding like distant church bells. It’s not so much…
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Chris Gekker: Ghost Dialogues, Music for Trumpet
Gekker is professor of trumpet at the University of Maryland School of Music. He has appeared as a soloist throughout the United States, Asia, and Europe, and can be heard as such on more than 30 recordings. He’s also played with Sting. He’s good. This CD features modern trumpet music, with work from composers Carson…
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China Horn Ensemble: Horn Fusion
The China Horn Ensemble was conceived in Beijing in 2015 by Yi Man, horn professor at the Central Conservatory of Music, with the aim of developing and popularising horn music in China. The idea attracted support from leading Chinese horn players all over the world. The ensemble was founded in late 2015 and has since…
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Little Barrie: Death Express
This is an enjoyable low-fi/garage psychedelic rock album from a band we’ve never much taken to. We were going to wax lyrical about the sterling guitar and fine drums, but Googling for information, we find that drummer Virgil Howe, (41), died last week. He was the son of Yes guitarist Steve and had a young…
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