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SACD

Enzo Pietropaoli, Julian Mazzariello, Alessandro Paternesi – The Princess (2018) [SACD / Fonè Jazz – 189]

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Enzo Pietropaoli, Julian Mazzariello, Alessandro Paternesi - The Princess (2018)

Title: Enzo Pietropaoli, Julian Mazzariello, Alessandro Paternesi – The Princess (2018)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Enzo Pietropaoli premieres his album The Princess in DSD from Fonè. A crescendo of songs that testify to the wide range of musical passions throughout a lifetime: from John Lennon to Bob Dylan, Cole Porter to Peter Gabriel, from Neil Young to Pearl Jam, topped off with The Beach Boys — all brought together and punctuated by Pietropaoli’s original compositions.

The Princess is among these — a metaphor for a dream pursued with determination and fully realized. Pietropaoli’s deeply-felt love for the piano-trio is made evident by the creation of a solemn yet ethereal atmosphere, oscillating between ancient and young in a place beyond space and time, underscored by the choice of the song’s title. Enzo Pietropaoli, at the double bass, is flanked by two extraordinary musicians: Julian Oliver Mazzariello on the piano and Alessandro Paternesi on drums, both of which contribute to an atmosphere which is simultaneously penetrating, delicate and lush.

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SACD

Enrico Rava – Renaissance (2002) [Japan 2016] [SACD / Venus Records – VHGD-142]

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Enrico Rava - Renaissance (2002) [Japan 2016]

Title: Enrico Rava – Renaissance (2002) [Japan 2016]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Enrico Rava is a jazz trumpeter and arguably one of the best known Italian jazz musicians. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked with Pat Metheny, Michel Petrucciani, John Abercrombie, Joe Henderson, Richard Galliano, Miroslav Vitouš, Andrea Centazzo, Joe Lovano, Gil Evans and Cecil Taylor. He has also worked with Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, Jeanne Lee, Paul Motian, and Roswell Rudd. Chiefly an exponent of bebop jazz, Rava has also played in avant-garde jazz settings.

Enrico Rava is an Italian jazz trumpeter. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. With trumpeter Paolo Fresu, Rava recorded four albums on the influence of Bix Beiderbecke, Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, and Miles Davis. Also of note are his albums Rava, L’Opera Va’ and Carmen, which are his interpretations of operatic arias and overtures. In 2001, he founded a quintet with pianist Stefano Bollani and toured with Gato Barbieri and Aldo Romano. In the trio Europeans, he worked with Eberhard Weber and Swiss percussionist Reto Weber. In June 2005, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music at the twentieth anniversary of jazz education at the Umbria Jazz Festival, in Perugia, Italy.

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SACD

Enrico Rava – Italian Ballads (1996) [Japan 2017] [SACD / Venus Records – VHGD-226]

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Enrico Rava - Italian Ballads (1996) [Japan 2017]

Title: Enrico Rava – Italian Ballads (1996) [Japan 2017]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

Enrico Rava is a jazz trumpeter and arguably one of the best known Italian jazz musicians. He started on trombone, then changed to the trumpet after hearing Miles Davis. In the 1970s and 1980s he worked with Pat Metheny, Michel Petrucciani, John Abercrombie, Joe Henderson, Richard Galliano, Miroslav Vitouš, Andrea Centazzo, Joe Lovano, Gil Evans and Cecil Taylor. Chiefly an exponent of bebop jazz, Rava has also played in avant-garde jazz settings.
On this album, the lyrical trumpeter Enrico Rava performs themes from Fellini movies, operas and classical music, along with three originals by band members. Despite its title, not all of the selections are taken at slower tempos, but there is an emphasis on memorable and haunting melodies. The results, which do not quite fit in as avant-garde or world music, are certainly jazz. Rava, guitarists Domenico Carliri and Roberto Cecchetto, and guest Richard Galliano on accordion get some individual improvisations, generally remaining within the mood of each piece while stretching its boundaries a bit. Barbara Casini’s occasional vocals in Italian are a strong asset, and she comes across much closer to a bossa nova singer than to an opera star. Definitely an intriguing set.

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SACD

Ennio Morricone – The Very Best Of Ennio Morricone (2000) [Reissue 2015] [SACD / Universal Music Hong Kong – 5366546]

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Ennio Morricone - The Very Best Of Ennio Morricone (2000) [Reissue 2015]

Title: Ennio Morricone – The Very Best Of Ennio Morricone (2000) [Reissue 2015]
Genre: Classical, Soundtrack
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Ennio Morricone anthologies come and go, and there are always several to choose from. But as so many recycle the same tracks, one might be forgiven for thinking Morricone had only scored a dozen or so movies rather than something over 300. This makes picking a collection difficult, but this disc can be recommended for particularly polished remastered sound. Eight cues come from the Sergio Leone movies with which Morricone is indelibly associated, including the movies with Clint Eastwood and Once Upon a Time in the West. With their eclectic orchestrations and infectious melodies these landmark scores set film music in an entirely new direction. The more recent music concentrates on the hauntingly romantic side of Morricone’s talent, ranging from the fatalistic “Chi Mai” to two cues from the lushly exotic The Mission and the lovely theme from Cinema Paradiso. Leone’s final film, Once Upon a Time in America enabled Morricone to pen some of the most heartbreakingly nostalgic music in all cinema, while a selection from Mission to Mars reveals that after four decades the Italian master is still writing some of Hollywood’s most imaginative and heartfelt music.

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SACD

Enigma – MCMXC A.D. (1990) [Reissue 2016] [SACD / Universal Music Hong Kong – 5367192]

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Enigma - MCMXC A.D. (1990) [Reissue 2016]

Title: Enigma – MCMXC A.D. (1990) [Reissue 2016]
Genre: New Age
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

MCMXC a.D. is the first studio album by the German music project Enigma, headed by Romanian-German musician Michael Cretu. It was released on 10 December 1990 by Virgin Records in the United Kingdom, and on 28 January 1991 by Charisma Records in the United States. Before he founded Enigma, Cretu had released several solo records, collaborated with various artists, and produced albums for his then wife, German pop singer Sandra. Following their marriage in 1988, Cretu developed an idea for a New-age music project and recorded MCMXC a.D. in eight months at A.R.T. Studios, his home studio in Ibiza, Spain. It is one of the first albums recorded onto a hard disk. Cretu makes extensive use of Gregorian chants, dance beats, and flute sounds.
Michael Crétu’s attempt at fusing everything from easy listening sex music and hip-hop rhythms to centuries-old Gregorian chants couldn’t have been more designed to tweak the nose of high art, a joyously crass stab straight at a mainstream, do not pass go, do not collect 200 dollars. The result is something that shouldn’t exist, but in its own way results in as much of a cultural scramble and explosion as anything Public Enemy were doing around the same time, crossing over the Euro-disco and new age spheres with style. Credit Crétu for an open ear for whatever works, which is precisely why “Sadeness,” the first part of a longer track called “Principles of Lust,” turned into a fluke worldwide hit. Snippets of monks invoking the Almighty effortlessly glide in and out of a polite but still strong breakbeat, shimmering, atmospheric synth and flute lines and a Frenchwoman whispering in a way that sounds distinctly more carnal than spiritual (as her gasps for breath elsewhere make clear). Guitar and male vocals add to the album version’s try-anything-that-works approach, as do attempts at shuffling jazz beats and horns. If nothing quite equals that prime moment elsewhere on the album, MCMXC A.D. still trips out on the possibilities as it can, right from the opening “Voice of Enigma,” inviting all listeners to sit back, relax, and take a gentle trip. Crétu certainly isn’t trying to hide anything – “Callas Went Away” goes right ahead and adds a sample of Maria Callas herself to the chirping birds and soft beats, while elsewhere the flutes, beats, monks, and French voices merrily go about their glossy business. About the only thing missing is the kitchen sink, making the entire album the “MacArthur Park” of its day.

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SACD

E Nomine – Die Prophezeiung (2003) [SACD / Polydor – 076 231-2]

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E Nomine - Die Prophezeiung (2003)

Title: E Nomine – Die Prophezeiung (2003)
Genre: Electronic, Modern Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

E Nomine (from the Latin In Nomine, “In The Name Of”) is a German musical project, formed in 1999, by producers Christian Weller and Friedrich “Fritz” Graner. Their music, which they call monumental dance, is an unusual combination of trance, techno, and vocals which closely resemble Gregorian singing and chanting. Other vocals are performed by German voice actors such as long-time collaborators Christian Brückner and Rolf Schult. The primary languages in the songs are German and Latin.

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SACD

Enoch Light – Persuasive Percussion (2011) [SACD / Top Music International Ltd. – TM-SACD9013.2]

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Enoch Light - Persuasive Percussion (2011)

Title: Enoch Light – Persuasive Percussion (2011)
Genre: Pop, Instrumental
Format: SACD ISO

Enoch Light was a classical violinist, bandleader, and recording engineer. He is credited with being one of the first musicians to go to extreme lengths to create high-quality recordings that took full advantage of the technical capabilities of home audio equipment of the late 1950s and early 1960s, particularly stereo effects that bounced the sounds between the right and left channels (often described as “ping-pong”). He arranged his musicians in ways to produce the kinds of recorded sounds he wished to achieve, the first to do so. The first of the albums produced on his record label, Command Records, Persuasive Percussion, became the first huge hit based solely on retail sales. His songs received little or no airplay on the radio, because AM radio, the standard of the day, was monaural.

“What sets … Persuasive Percussion (1959)… apart from the plethora of other easy listening combos was Light’s innovative use of technology. Most notably, experiments in extreme stereo mixing that took advantage of what was then considered an audiophile-only novelty. He also became one of the pioneers to document audio on 35 millimeter film rather than magnetic-based audio tape. Not only did this allow for a broader range of frequencies to be captured, it greatly increased the stability of the playback. Undoubtedly, that is one reason the fidelity of his analog masters sound better and more animated than those made nearly a half-century later. This title, Persuasive Percussion (1959), was the first in the series and is often cited with helping usher in the ultra-cool space-age pop genre.” – Lindsay Planer, allmusic.com

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SACD

Emi Fujita – Kokoro no Shokutaku ~Okaeri Itoshiki Utatachi~ (2008) [SACD / Pony Canyon – PCCA-60022]

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Emi Fujita - Kokoro no Shokutaku ~Okaeri Itoshiki Utatachi~ (2008)

Title: Emi Fujita – Kokoro no Shokutaku ~Okaeri Itoshiki Utatachi~ (2008)
Genre: J-Pop
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Emi Fujita is a big star in Asia with several of her albums, especially the Camomile series, reaching #1. This is a collection of old songs, many her mother & father loved. Kokoro (in the title) means ‘heart’ or ‘feelings’ or ‘the heart of things’. Her voice was always warm, soft, reassuring, just listening to her songs, you seem to be able to forget all the pain.

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SACD

Elvis Presley – King Creole (1958) [Audio Fidelity 2013] [SACD / Audio Fidelity – AFZ 160]

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Elvis Presley - King Creole (1958) [Audio Fidelity 2013]

Title: Elvis Presley – King Creole (1958) [Audio Fidelity 2013]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

King Creole was the last movie that Elvis Presley made before he entered the army in the spring of 1958 — it was also his last film in black-and-white, as well as his final effort directed by a serious old-time filmmaker (Michael Curtiz); and, apart from a few isolated, quirky efforts like Flaming Star, Change of Habit, and Charro, this was the last of his serious movies, in which Presley was trying hard, pushing himself as an actor and, really, all through the score, as a musician. This is reflected in the soundtrack, which is one of the stronger film-related releases of his career. The original 11 songs included a hot title track by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that was a dazzling showcase for Scotty Moore’s and Tiny Timbrell’s guitars as well as Elvis’ intense, exciting lead vocal. Leiber and Stoller’s “Trouble” and Claude Demetrius’ “Hard Headed Woman” have Moore’s and Timbrell’s electric guitars competing successfully with a five-man brass and reed section. Even “Dixieland Rock,” if not up to the level of those other two numbers, features good playing and a strong performance by Presley, and “Young Dreams” is a decent midtempo number. The slow ballads are where the soundtrack falls flat, “As Long As I Have You” coming up to standard but “Lover Doll” and “Don’t Ask Me Why” failing to excite or maintain interest; “Crawfish” can only have been included to bring the album up to the minimum acceptable length for an LP.

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