Emil Viklicky Trio – Sinfonietta: The Janacek Of Jazz (2009) [Japan 2018] [SACD / Venus Records – VHGD-287]

Emil Viklicky Trio - Sinfonietta: The Janacek Of Jazz (2009) [Japan 2018]

Title: Emil Viklicky Trio – Sinfonietta: The Janacek Of Jazz (2009) [Japan 2018]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Leos Janácek (1854-1928) is considered to rank with Antonin Dvorak and Bedrich Smetana as one of the most important Czech composers. Janácek was inspired by Moravian and Slavic folk music, which he incorporated in a modern, highly original synthesis. His work attained its mature form first in the 1904 opera Jenufa (often called the ‘Moravian national opera’), and later with the symphonic poem Sinfonietta, and other chamber works and operas. A century later, Chech pianist Emil Viklicky, like Janácek, has taken the music of his native Moravia and melded it into a larger mainstream, in this case American-style jazz. In fact, Emil has written jazz arrangements of several Janácek compositions, three of which are heard in this collection: the two previously mentioned and a third, ‘In the Mists.’ The other tracks are a combination of traditional Moravian folksong (re-worked into a jazz context) and Emil’s own compositions.
Emil Vicklický is the acknowledged “Patriarch of Czech Jazz Piano.” Known for combining the melodism and tonalities of Moravian folk music with modern jazz harmonies and classical orchestration in a distinctly individual style, Vicklický grew up in the former Czechoslovakia, where his father was a university art professor. He graduated in 1971 from Palacky University with a degree in mathematics. He composes straight-ahead jazz as well as chamber and orchestral works, often utilizing a combination of classical and jazz performers. As a pianist, Viklicky has performed in numerous international ensembles alongside musicians from the U.S. and other European countries, including the Lou Blackburn International Quartet, the Benny Bailey Quintet, and multi-instrumentalist Scott Robinson. He has also worked with fellow Czech, saxophonist Jaroslav Jakubovic, and often accompanied Czech jazz singer Eva Olmerová, during the last years of her career. As a composer, Viklicky has attracted attention abroad primarily for having created a synthesis of the expressive elements of modern jazz with the melodicism and tonalities of Moravian folk song that is distinctly individual in contemporary jazz. Besides this, however, he also composes “straight-ahead” modern jazz as well as chamber and orchestral works that utilize certain elements of the New Music, and at times his music requires a combination of classical and jazz performers. He also composes incidental and film music and has produced scores for several full-length feature films and television series. Throughout the 1990s he devoted an increasing amount of time to the composition of contemporary classical music for a great variety of instrumental combinations ranging from small chamber ensembles and electronic instruments to symphony orchestras and choruses.

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3 min read

Emil Viklicky Trio – Kafka On The Shore (2016) [SACD / Venus Records – VHGD-135]

Emil Viklicky Trio - Kafka On The Shore (2016)

Title: Emil Viklicky Trio – Kafka On The Shore (2016)
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO

Emil Viklicky, the Czech jazz pianist who gave birth to Kafka, has created a wonderful modern jazz album inspired by Haruki Murakami’s novels! Featuring an original piece by Haruki Murakami, ‘The City of Prague, Its Pale Darkness’, inspired by Prague! Kafka on the Shore – Tribute to Haruki Murakami – EMIL VIKLICKY TRIO 1. Afterdark 《 E. Viklicky 》 2. Dolphine Dance 《 H. Hancock 》 3. Eleanor Rigby 《 Lennon, McCartney 》 Eleanor Rigby 4. Peacocks 《 J. Rowles 》 Peacocks 5. Solitude 《 D. Ellington 》 Solitude 6. Windmills Of Your Mind 《 M. Legrand 》 Windmills Of Your Mind 7. 1Q84 《 E. Viklicky 》 ( 5 : 52 ) 8. Double Moon 《 E. Viklicky 》 9. The Boy Named Crow 《 E. Viklicky 》 10. Kafka On The Shore 《 E. Viklicky 》 Kafka on the Shore 11. Entering Stone 《 E. Viklicky 》 The Stone at the Entrance 12. Miss Saeki Theme 《 E. Viklicky 》 Miss Saeki’s Theme 13. Windows 《 C. Corea 》 Windows (P) (C) 2016 Venus Records, Inc. Manufactured by Venus Records, Inc., Tokyo, Japan.

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1 min read

Emilia Amper – Trollfageln: The Magic Bird (2012) [SACD / BIS – BIS-2013 SACD]

Emilia Amper - Trollfageln: The Magic Bird (2012)

Title: Emilia Amper – Trollfageln: The Magic Bird (2012)
Genre: Classical, Folk
Format: MCH SACD ISO

Emilia Amper, one of Swedens most exciting young folk musicians, is also one of the finest nyckelharpa players in the world today. (Winner of the nyckelharpa World Championships in 2010.) In Trollfågeln, Emilia has devised a programme which demonstrates the numerous facets of her own musical personality, and of her instrument. The nyckelharpa almost died out in the middle of the twentieth century, but has made a remarkable comeback and is attracting an increasing number of performers in Sweden and around the world.

‘Avian fiddle wizardry from Swedish virtuoso…From the earthy stamping of ‘Kapad’ to the fleet and supple melodic invention in ‘Galatea Creek’, there is an individual voice at work here, deeply rooted in Swedish folk forms but untrammelled by them.’ –Songlines, June 2013

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1 min read

Emil Gilels, Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell – Beethoven: 5 Piano Concertos (1968) [Japan 2015] [SACD / Tower Records – TDSA-8/10]

Emil Gilels, Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell - Beethoven: 5 Piano Concertos (1968) [Japan 2015]

Title: Emil Gilels, Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell – Beethoven: 5 Piano Concertos (1968) [Japan 2015]
Genre: Classical
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

“Emil Gilels stands out as giant among giants”, wrote Gramophone when the Odessa-born pianist died in 1985. “In terms of virtuosity he was second to none, yet his leonine power was tempered by a delicacy and poetry that few have matched and none has surpassed”. Ludwig van Beethoven was at the heart of Gilels’ repertoire and in 1968 he recorded this complete cycle of the composer’s piano concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra and its long-standing maestro, another musical titan of the era, George Szell.

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1 min read

Emi Fujita – Camomile: Best Audio (2007) [SACD / Ponycanyon Korea – PCKD-00193]

Emi Fujita - Camomile: Best Audio (2007)

Title: Emi Fujita – Camomile: Best Audio (2007)
Genre: J-Pop
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Emi Fujita (藤田恵美) is a Japanese singer. She debuted as a singer with her husband Ryuji Fujita as the duo Le Couple. Their 1st album was released in 1994. Fujita made her solo debut in 2001. Her series of “Camomile” albums are covers of popular western songs. Several of her solo albums have charted in Japan, including Camomile Best Audio, which reached #27 on the Oricon chart and is a ‘best of’ her Camomile series. She has also found some success in Southeast Asia.

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1 min read

Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery (1973) [Reissue 2008] [SACD / Sanctuary – 5308195]

Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (1973) [Reissue 2008]

Title: Emerson, Lake & Palmer – Brain Salad Surgery (1973) [Reissue 2008]
Genre: Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s most successful and well-realized album (after their first), and their most ambitious as a group, as well as their loudest, Brain Salad Surgery was also the most steeped in electronic sounds of any of their records. The main focus, thanks to the three-part “Karn Evil 9,” is sci-fi rock, approached with a volume and vengeance that stretched the art rock audience’s tolerance to its outer limit, but also managed to appeal to the metal audience in ways that little of Trilogy did. Indeed, “Karn Evil 9” is the piece and the place where Keith Emerson and his keyboards finally matched in both music and flamboyance the larger-than-life guitar sound of Jimi Hendrix. This also marked the point in the group’s history in which they brought in their first outside creative hand, in the guise of ex-King Crimson lyricist Pete Sinfield. He’d been shopping around his first solo album and was invited onto the trio’s new Manticore label, and also asked in to this project as Lake’s abilities as a lyricist didn’t seem quite up to the 20-minute “Karn Evil 9” epic that Emerson had created as an instrumental. Sinfield’s resulting lyrics for “Karn Evil 9: First Impression” and “Karn Evil 9: Third Impression,” while not up to the standard of his best Crimson work, were better than anything the group had to work with previously — he was also responsible for Emerson’s choice of title, persuading the keyboardist that the music he’d come up with was more evocative of a carnival and fantasy than the pure science fiction concept that Emerson had started with. And Greg Lake pulled out all the stops with his heaviest singing voice in handling them, coming off a bit like Peter Gabriel in the process. And amid Carl Palmer’s prodigious drumming, it was all a showcase for Emerson, who employed more keyboards and more sounds here — including electronic voices — than had previously been heard on one of their records. The songs (except for the light-hearted throwaway “Benny the Bouncer”) are also among their best work — the group’s arrangement of Sir Charles Hubert Parry’s setting of William Blake’s “Jerusalem” manages to be reverent yet rocking (a combination that got it banned by the BBC for potential “blasphemy”), while Emerson’s adaptation of Alberto Ginastera’s music in “Tocatta” outstrips even “The Barbarian” and “Knife Edge” from the first album as a distinctive and rewarding reinterpretation of a piece of serious music. Lake’s “Still…You Turn Me On,” the album’s obligatory acoustic number, was his last great ballad with the group, possessing a melody and arrangement sufficiently pretty to forgive the presence of the rhyming triplet “everyday a little sadder/a little madder/someone get me a ladder.” And the sound quality was stunning, and the whole album represented a high point that the trio would never again achieve, or even aspire to — after this, each member started to go his own way in terms of creativity and music.

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3 min read

Elvis Presley – Essential Elvis Volume 2: Stereo ’57 (1988) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2013] [SACD / Analogue Productions – CAPP 057 SA]

Elvis Presley - Essential Elvis Volume 2: Stereo '57 (1988) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2013]

Title: Elvis Presley – Essential Elvis Volume 2: Stereo ’57 (1988) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2013]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The second volume of Essential Elvis offers Elvis in binaural stereo from the January 1957 sessions that produced several hits. (RCA Victor generously filled the disc out with mono masters of the remaining songs to give the consumer a complete version of the sessions.) This is a lot of fun; the gaffes are numerous, obvious, and hilarious, and for ears raised on multi-track recording, it must be amazing to hear an entire record recorded live in the studio!

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1 min read

Elvis Presley – 24 Karat Hits! (1997) [Analogue Productions’ Remaster 2012] [SACD / Analogue Productions – CAPP 2040 SA]

Elvis Presley - 24 Karat Hits! (1997) [Analogue Productions’ Remaster 2012]

Title: Elvis Presley – 24 Karat Hits! (1997) [Analogue Productions’ Remaster 2012]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Had Elvis Presley done nothing else but record “That’s Alright, Mama,” his place in pop music history would be secure. With his first regional hit, Presley fused rhythm and blues with country, put a handsome white face out front for audiences to see, and in so doing legitimized beat music for white audiences. It is no understatement to call Presley the chief catalyst of the rock-and-roll era. During the 1950s, Presley’s records spent a collective 53 weeks in the number one chart position. Only the Beatles can boast similar sales success. spectacular television special and several great albums. During the last decade of his career, Presley’s live show was the hottest ticket in America. A great singer first and last, Presley was equally adept at raunchy blues, lilting boogie, operatic pop, and country tear-jerkers.

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1 min read

Elvis Presley – Elvis Is Back (1960) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2012] [SACD / Analogue Productions – CAPP 2231 SA]

Elvis Presley - Elvis Is Back (1960) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2012]

Title: Elvis Presley – Elvis Is Back (1960) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2012]
Genre: Rock
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

“Elvis Is Back” was Presley’s first album to be released in true stereo. It peaked at number two on the Top Pop Albums chart and is listed, along with his debut and From Elvis in Memphis, in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was certified Gold on July 15, 1999, by the RIAA.

Although they have common recording origins, two of the three singles, “It’s Now or Never” and “Are You Lonesome Tonight,” were very quirky by the standards of Elvis songs at the time — the former inspired by Elvis’s admiration for Tony Martin’s 1949 hit “There’s No Tomorrow,” while the latter was recorded at the request of Col. Parker as a favor to his wife. They add to the diversity of sounds on this record, which shows a mature Elvis Presley. “Dirty, Dirty Feeling” and “It Feels So Right” showed he could still rock out and challenge authority and propriety, while “Reconsider Baby” and “Like a Baby” offer some of his best blues performances; but “The Thrill of Your Love” (a very gospel-tinged number), “Soldier Boy,” “Girl of My Best Friend,” and “Girl Next Door Went a’ Walking,” also displayed the rich, deep vocalizing that would challenge critics’ expectations of Elvis Presley playing rhythm guitar throughout. He also comes off better than on any of his other albums since arriving at RCA, as a musician as much as a “star” (he’d always had a lot more to say about running his sessions than the critics who loathed his RCA years indicated). [The 1999 remastering of this classic album features the complete contents of the March 20, 1960, RCA Hollywood session plus the dawn-to-dusk April 2 Nashville session that rounded out the album, for a total of 18 songs, including the three singles and their B-sides from those sessions. The sound is extraordinarily close yet natural, giving the listener full value for the presence of Scotty Moore, Hank Garland (who also plays bass on a few tracks), D.J. Fontana, Boots Randolph, and Floyd Cramer.]

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2 min read

Elvis Costello – North (2003) [SACD / Deutsche Grammophon – B0001580-36]

Elvis Costello - North (2003)

Title: Elvis Costello – North (2003)
Genre: Jazz, Rock
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

North, Elvis Costello’s 20th album of new material, follows the deliberately classicist When I Was Cruel by a mere year, but it feels more the sequel to 1998’s Burt Bacharach collaboration, Painted From Memory, or even 1993’s roundly ignored classical pop experiment, The Juliet Letters. Costello has abandoned clanging guitars and drums of Cruel — abandoned rock & roll, really — to return to a set of classically influenced songs, all “composed, arranged and conducted” by the man himself (on The Juliet Letters, he was merely the composer and voice). The songs on North are pitched halfway between traditional torch ballads and arty contemporary Broadway writers such as Stephen Sondheim. This isn’t so much a shift in direction after When I Was Cruel as much as it is an extension of the Bacharach album (in this context, Cruel seems like the aberration), but it’s also a reflection of Costello’s new love for Canadian jazz singer Diana Krall. It’s not just that North is somewhat of a song cycle, starting with the despair of a failed relationship and ending with the hope of a new love, but that it’s somewhat written in the style of Krall’s music: self-consciously sophisticated and slightly jazzy. Ultimately, North is not jazz-pop; it’s classical pop, with Costello more interested in the structure, arrangement, and words of the song rather than mere catchiness. It’s a very writerly album, in regards to both the music and lyrics. Consequently, it takes a bit of effort to get into the album, since it purposefully lacks hooks and songs as immediate or tuneful as those on Painted From Memory or “Jacksons, Monk and Rowe” from The Juliet Letters. This is not a flaw, per se — it’s simply what the album is, a collection of subtle songs performed with an elegant understatement. Unlike The Juliet Letters, North never feels like an exercise, nor does it feel like Costello has something to prove. It’s a specific, personal album with serious ambitions that it fulfills. If the album ultimately winds up being something to listen to on occasion rather than a record to spin repeatedly, that doesn’t make Costello’s achievement with this song cycle any less admirable.

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3 min read