Nutcracker, Jack!

The Sir Charles Mackerras/ London Symphony Orchestra version of the complete Nutcracker ballet, which was also the soundtrack for the Nutcracker film (featuring sets and costumes designed by Maurice Sendak -- and if I understand correctly, is the same design used by Pacific Northwest Ballet, and coincidentally is being retired after this season). Phew! Long enough sentence or what? Anyway, found this (yet again) in Value Village, and it's a fine version. I prefer the performance by my go-to guy lately for All Things Russian, Valery Gergiev, but his version (to fit on 1 CD) omits the repeat of "Grandfather's Dance", and that's a deal-breaker for me. It's one of my favorite parts of the score!

This double LP was the first (and best) version of the complete ballet that I heard when I was in high school. I knew the Nutcracker Suite, but had never heard the whole thing until I found it at the library. And once again, it's a Russian version, this time by the Bolshoi Theater Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. So it's my touchstone version that I compare with other versions. The LSO version mentioned at the beginning is good (with digital cannons!), but I'd snap up the analog-era Bolshoi version in a heartbeat if it ever got reissued (my poor cassette copy is pretty worn out.) And if you've never heard the complete score, you owe it to yourself -- it's jam-packed with great melodies and superb orchestration.

Beecham Conducts Handel and a Bit About Copyright

I'm listening to this CD as I write this, but my laptop has no idea what it is. My guess is a CD of recordings made between 1929 and 1940 hath slipped the surly bonds of copyright (and a lot of recordings from Europe have become public domain).

I first heard this on CBC, I think. The piece was "The Gods Go A-Begging", attributed to Handel, and I was totally unfamiliar with it. Turns out it's a medley of various Handel works stitched together by Beecham for a ballet performance. Due to the age of these performances, the recording quality leaves something to be desired, and this is certainly not how Handel is performed today, but it's these "flaws" that I enjoy so much. It sounds like the soundtrack to an old black & white film about kings, queens and palace intrigue.   

The photo above is from Christopher DeLaurenti's website, and it's a deconstruction of his CD "Favorite Intermissions" (due to unauthorized use of copyrighted material ?  Like maybe the graphic design that looks suspiciously like a real classical record label). Same with the CD content itself; it's the only classical "bootleg" I own. Why? Because it was recorded surreptitiously during --- you guessed it --- intermissions, as the orchestra tuned up and quickly practiced bits from the piece about to be performed (after the intermission). It's fascinating! Amongst the tuning up bits, you can hear a violinist run through part of a line from Beethoven as the trombone player practices another bit. I know it sounds like it'd be noise, but it's more like hearing fractured splinters of Beethoven, or Stravinsky, or Holst. Probably the most unique -- yet simplest CD I've heard.

Shaft! Can You Dig It?

I recently read an article about Isaac Hayes in some Brit music mag, and it of course mentioned in a big way, the soundtrack from "Shaft", which featured a 19 minute song called "Do Your Thing" -- 19 minutes!! Isaac Hayes!!! Three exclamation points!!!

Well, it's 19 minutes of stink-a-roni chika-chika wah-wah guitar. BUT...the rest of the soundtrack is really good! Our family listened to it recently on a drive, (well, that term dates me...)  and my son said "I can't believe we're actually not listening to this ironically!"

I haven't seen the movie, and I'm not likely to, based on some of the plot described in the liner notes. So I can't tell you how well the music fits the film, but Isaac Hayes managed to capture an urban vibe in an elegaic way. No, really. Even in the moments that are clearly cues for "man runs down the street", the background music rewards focused listening. The instrumentation is varied -- flutes! vibes! and there's a pronounced Burt Bacharach feel to some of the arrangements. "Blaxploitation" soundtracks get a bad rap because so much of them ARE derivative, and many use the "Theme from Shaft" as a template. But Haye's work in the full soundtrack is so much more accomplished than I certainly expected. Hey, I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft!

New Eno!

I've been listening to Brian Eno for years, so I'd pretty much figured he'd exhausted his bag of tricks; he's released so many ground-breaking and influential albums, he was bound to repeat himself. But lo and behold, here comes "High Life", the second album Eno's recorded with Underworld's Karl Hyde. This one's from April 2014, and while it's not a total departure for Eno, it's certainly different enough to be very entertaining -- and welcome. There are still jagged bits of melody that repeat over and over through a song, but many times they morph into something else by the end of the piece. Take the first song "Return": the repeated guitar phrase acts like a loop throughout the song, but by the end of its 9 minutes, it slowly has retreated to the background and sounds more like the German space guitar pieces of Manuel Gottsching. 

There are several vocals, but they don't always occupy center stage, and without a lyric sheet, well, good luck figuring out what they're supposed to be about. There is an identifiable African influence -- the second song "DBF" sounds like Conky the Robot from "Pee Wee's Playhouse" has been downloading some Fela Kuti albums. All in all, a very enjoyable release, even, dare I say it, FUN!  

Stars of the Apollo!

This could be considered a bait and switch. You might guess that these are historic live recordings from the stage of the famous Apollo Theatre, but instead, we have various (mainly unreleased) studio recordings of artists that did indeed perform at the Apollo through the years. Sounds like someone got to sift through the bottom of the barrel (and someone else discovered the italic key!)

I made a tape of my favorites from this 2 LP set from 1972 (CD version, 1993), my 45 minute 'best of', and wore that puppy out. So...eventually, I wondered, how the heck do I find this NOW. Catalog searches: zip. How could this amazing collection have gone out of print? (Oh, maybe the whole 'bait and switch' thing I mentioned earlier...)

I think this may have been the first used CD I purchased online. And I've found, that process is not too scary!

But the music: what a fantastic collection! Bessie Smith, the Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan -- but the lesser known artists are just as fine. Who knew Ida Cox or Mamie Smith or Bobby Brown? Not me. And this set is a keeper. Go online and find a used copy now!

Value Village Find: Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley

Looked like someone was cleaning out their Nancy Wilson collection at Value Village -- several of her albums were available.

I should probably make clear this is NOT Heart's Nancy Wilson, but I'm sure a quick glance at the album cover made that obvious. This Nancy Wilson had a career as a jazz/pop singer, though I'm afraid I'm not the least bit familiar with her. And I'm not even sure why I spent the $2.99 for this disc; somewhere in the dusty reaches of my brain, I must have recognized it from somewhere.

But praise be to the gods of first impressions, because this is a fine album. Nancy sounds a bit like Dinah Washington, with a tartness to her vocal delivery. Cannonball is great as always, and actually the bulk of the album is Cannonball and his band without Nancy Wilson. One of the delights of this album for me is the "traditional" piano style of Joe Zawinul, he of Weather Report fame. I knew his classic performance with Cannonball, the amazingly concise "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", but to hear him here sans Weather Report-era synthesizers is a revelation. Gives me a more complete picture, I guess.

Call of the Sea Witch

Nothing Halloweeny here; instead, "Ranarop: Call of the Sea Witch" is a Finnish album by Gjallarhorn. I first heard it when it was released on Finladia Records, and I think it eventually got released stateside.

It's very much in the vein of Steeleye Span, traditional (or traditionally inspired) music ramped up a bit. Gjallarhorn throws in the occasional didgeridoo (certainly not native to Finland!) as a background drone. The woman vocalist veers into keening once in a while, giving me shivers. There's something lonely and foggy and just plain unsettling about much of the music.

There's also a faint influence of Jefferson Airplane in the harmonies (and the icy pitch reminiscent of Grace Slick.) Fairport Convention initially thought of themselves as the British version of Jefferson Airplane, and I'd wager there are many other bands similarly influenced. I don't think the Airplane have received proper credit for their sound; maybe it's because most of us only know them from their '60s singles. And then there's the Starship thing to live down...  But the way the voices of Grace Slick, Marty Balin and Paul Kantner interweaved was really groundbreaking work at the time. And it seems the echoes still resound, even in Finland.