SACD

Gloria Estefan – Alma Caribena (2000) [SACD / Epic – ES 62163]

admin 99 Views

Gloria Estefan - Alma Caribena (2000)

Title: Gloria Estefan – Alma Caribena (2000)
Genre: Latin Pop
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Alma Caribeña (Caribbean Soul), Gloria Estefan’s third Spanish-language album, is another assured, varied effort in the tradition of its predecessors, Mi Tierra (1993) and Abriendo Puertas (1995), both of which were popular successes. The album is a virtual tour of the Caribbean Islands, not only presenting styles from the singer’s native Cuba but also from other Latin American countries. Much of the record has a traditional feel with acoustic instruments prominent, but that doesn’t prevent a wide range of rhythms and musical approaches from being used. Salsa, son, murga, bolero, bachata, and Afro-Cuban styles are mixed, sometimes several in one song. Estefan sings with assurance and is joined for one song each by Latin music forbears Celia Cruz and José Feliciano. Though the album is intensely rhythmic, there is little for the singer’s dance audience until the end, when a remix of the first single, “No Me Dejes de Querer (Don’t Stop Loving Me),” provides the requisite dancefloor entry.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
1 min read
SACD

Glenn Gould – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, 1955 Performance (2007) [SACD / Sony Classical – 88697033502]

admin 148 Views

Glenn Gould - Bach: The Goldberg Variations, 1955 Performance (2007)

Title: Glenn Gould – Bach: The Goldberg Variations, 1955 Performance (2007)
Genre: Classical
Format: DSF DSD64

Imagine sitting in Glenn Gould Studio and hearing Gould’s brilliant 1955 performance of the GOLDBERG VARIATIONS in person. This Zenph “re-performance” release features new recordings of that experience specifically designed for surround-sound, stereo or headphone listening. Zenph Studios has created a note-perfect re-performance of Glenn Gould’s iconic 1955 recording of Bach’s GOLDBERG VARIATIONS exactly as he played it more than 50 years ago, by combining mathematics, technology and musical artistry. This new recording sounds as fresh, vibrant and intelligent as it was the day Glenn Gould originally played it – with one enormous difference – it is no longer trapped in the monaural sound of 1955.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
1 min read
SACD

Glenn Gould – J.S. Bach: The Six Partitas (2012) [SACD / Sony Classical – SICC 10166~7]

admin 94 Views

Glenn Gould - J.S. Bach: The Six Partitas (2012)

Title: Glenn Gould – J.S. Bach: The Six Partitas (2012)
Genre:
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

This recording featuring Bach’s complete Partitas for keyboard are probably one of Glenn Gould’s most accessible and easy to digest interpretations, so it’s no surprise that Sony has chosen it for re-mastering on SA-CD. Canadian pianist Glenn Gould first became famous for his daring interpretation of Bach’s Goldberg Variations on his debut album with Columbia. Featuring unusual tempis for some of the variations, crystal clear playing, and a dazzling technical virtuosity (especially in the way he played some variations lightning fast), the overall performance made many people see the work with completely new eyes. Even jaded connoisseurs found fresh insights in a seemingly rigid and formal piece of music and a performance that seemed to go against convention for piano interpretations of Bach keyboard works.

Gould plays the piano more like a harpsichord, deliberately avoiding extreme dynamics and maintaining fairly strict rhythm. The result are melodies that soar in spite of the rigid performance, and the phrasing is so clear all the individual polyphonic parts come through with perfect clarity. The fast passages (particularly Third Movement (Presto) of the Italian Concerto are as breathtaking as ever, and Glenn’s annoying vocalisations (very prominent in some of his later albums) are kept to a minimum. The performance on SACD version seems to flow. Glenn Gould fans of course need no encouragement to buy on SACD, but it is an excellent introduction to Bach and also to the talent of Glenn Gould if you are unfamiliar with either. Exceptionally remastered hi-res sound! I bought this SACD to replace much earlier Columbia/CBS/Sony red book CDs, and this is worth every penny! I have already listened to it 6 times. Gould was arguably most at home with Bach and it shows here on this album, the remastering to SACD status is stunning. For Gould fans and Bach fanatics and especially both, this is a must to add to the collection

hraudio | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Gloria Estefan – Greatest Hits (1992) [Reissue 2002] [SACD / Epic – EPC 472332 6]

admin 104 Views

Gloria Estefan - Greatest Hits (1992) [Reissue 2002]

Title: Gloria Estefan – Greatest Hits (1992) [Reissue 2002]
Genre: Latin Pop
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

In 1984, Gloria Estefan started off as the lead singer of Miami Sound Machine. By 1987, after scoring four big hits from their first major U.S. album, they became Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine, and by 1989, after even bigger success, it was simply Gloria Estefan. This greatest-hits collection covers the years 1985 to 1992, featuring most of the pop confections that propelled her to the top of the charts and to international stardom. Among the hits included are her three number ones: “Anything for You,” “Coming Out of the Dark,” and “Don’t Wanna Lose You,” as well as other Top Ten hits including “Conga,” “Words Get in the Way,” “Rhythm Is Gonna Get You,” “Can’t Stay Away from You,” “Here We Are,” and the single mix of “1-2-3.” There are a few glaring omissions, however. “Bad Boy,” her second Top Ten hit, was left off, and that is unfortunate because the hit version was a remix of the original album version and is extremely difficult to find on CD. Other omissions include “Dr. Beat,” “Falling in Love (Uh-Oh),” “Oye Mi Canto,” “Live for Loving You,” and “Can’t Forget You.” To round off the set are four new recordings, including the album’s first single, “Always Tomorrow,” the Jon Secada-penned “I See Your Smile,” the irresistible Latin-flavored dance track “Go Away,” and the semi-tepid holiday tune “Christmas Through Your Eyes.” This is a good collection from a great artist that could have been a great collection had they included all the hits.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Giuliano Carmignola, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea Marcon – Concerto Veneziano (2005) [SACD / Archiv Produktion – 00289 474 8952]

admin 106 Views

Giuliano Carmignola, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea Marcon - Concerto Veneziano (2005)

Title: Giuliano Carmignola, Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea Marcon – Concerto Veneziano (2005)
Genre: Classical
Format: MCH SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

The Venice Baroque Orchestra’s first Archiv collaboration with their regular guest soloist Giuliano Carmignola could almost be a retrospective sampler of the kind of distinguished recordings they previously made for Sony Classical. Here are two Vivaldi concertos of the relaxed and warmly lyrical kind that he wrote in later life, alongside a concerto from Locatelli’s L’arte del violino, complete with stratospheric cadenzas. The disc rounds off by taking a promising new direction in the form of an elegant concerto by Tartini.

Recent years have brought a steady stream of recordings of Vivaldi concertos beyond the dozen or so famous ones, and it has became clear that his corpus of work remains a land of mostly unexplored riches. Consider the pair of Vivaldi works included on this Concerto veneziano, performed by violinist Giuliano Carmignola and the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Neither work sounds remotely like the Four Seasons and the other Vivaldi concertos most people are familiar with. The first movement of the Violin Concerto in E minor, RV 278, is the sort of piece Vivaldi’s successor Tartini had in mind when he complained in reference to the elder master’s music that “a throat isn’t the neck of a violin”; it is a wordless but highly evocative little operatic scene, complete with mounting grimness and sudden chromatic shocks. The Concerto for Violin and Strings (“in due cori”) in B flat major, RV 583, is a grand work with a highly virtuosic (and scordatura) violin part set against two small orchestras; annotator Roger-Claude Travers speculates that it was written for some special occasion. The slow movements of both of these works are of the unbearably beautiful sort that Vivaldi seemed to write with miraculous ease; the B flat concerto’s central movement is a chaconne that begins almost minimalistically and expands into a cascade of pure ornament in the violin. Concertos by Pietro Locatelli and Giuseppe Tartini are also included. They show how the next generation of Italian virtuosi dealt with Vivaldi’s example. One learns from the liner notes that Vivaldi was the first to suggest the idea of a cadenza. A massive cadenza in the Locatelli work challenges the violinist to the same degree as did Bach’s sonatas for unaccompanied violin, but it has all the musical interest of a 1970s rock drum solo. Still and all, this is a must-have disc for lovers of the Baroque concerto. Carmignola and the Venice Baroque Orchestra achieve an ideal new Italian sound in the historical-performance arena, with a warmth that stands in contrast to the glittering surfaces wrought by northern European groups. One attractive feature of this release is the set of liner notes; in the U.S. version they are in English only, which allows room for enthusiastic discourse on the music itself along with detailed and entertaining performer biographies. Presumably other countries get the notes in their own languages. This approach is preferable to the packed-in small print one usually finds when translations in three or more languages are included. True, the label has to split up the production run this way, but in these days of digital graphics files, that really shouldn’t be much of a problem.

hraudio | discogs

(more…)

Read More
3 min read
SACD

Ginuwine – The Life (2001) [SACD / Epic – ES 69622]

admin 82 Views

Ginuwine - The Life (2001)

Title: Ginuwine – The Life (2001)
Genre: R&B
Format: MCH SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

The Life is the third studio album from American R&B singer Ginuwine, released on Epic Records in 2001. The album debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 152,000 copies sold in the U.S. and was certified Platinum by the RIAA.

On his third album, Ginuwine is even more of a practiced R&B loverman than he was on his first two releases. Big Dog Productions, Inc. and the team of Troy Oliver and Cory Rooney produce the bulk of the beats here, which, as usual, mostly range from slow to very slow tempos with such trendy touches as acoustic guitar passages. But all that just serves as a bed for Ginuwine’s elastic tenor and his message to the women in his audience. The singer sounds like he’s been reading women’s magazines and tried to construct a persona that’s as appealing as possible. “Baby,” he croons in “Why Did You Go,” “I’m sorry for whatever I’ve done and I want you to be my wife.” In “Differences,” he talks about how much he has improved since meeting the woman he’s addressing, concluding, “I’m so responsible.” Even when he’s criticizing a woman, as he does in the album’s first single, “There It Is,” it’s because she’s not contributing to the relationship, while he’s holding down a steady job and paying the bills. It’s only in the album’s eighth cut, “How Deep Is Your Love” (an original, not the Bee Gees song), that he begins to apply pressure for sex, ungallantly suggesting that if the woman doesn’t come across he’ll start cheating on her. “Show After the Show” is a come-on to a post-concert groupie, which seems to negate what’s gone before, and “Role Play” moves on to kinky sex, but in the album-closing “Just Because,” Ginuwine acknowledges the temptations of his occupation and pleads, “I’m trying to learn to be committed.” It’s hard to believe that anyone who’s swallowed his line before is going to become skeptical now, so The Life looks like another winner for him.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
3 min read
SACD

Gil Evans – Out Of The Cool (1960) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2010] [SACD / Analogue Productions – CIPJ 4 SA]

admin 117 Views

Gil Evans - Out Of The Cool (1960) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2010]

Title: Gil Evans – Out Of The Cool (1960) [Analogue Productions Remaster 2010]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Out of the Cool, released in 1960, was the first recording Gil Evans issued after three straight albums with Miles Davis — Sketches of Spain being the final one before this. Evans had learned much from Davis about improvisation, instinct, and space (the trumpeter learned plenty, too, especially about color, texture, and dynamic tension). Evans orchestrates less here, instead concentrating on the rhythm section built around Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip, bassist Ron Carter, and guitarist Ray Crawford. The maestro in the piano chair also assembled a crack horn section for this date, with Ray Beckinstein, Budd Johnson, and Eddie Caine on saxophones, trombonists Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson, and bass trombonist Tony Studd, with Johnny Coles and Phil Sunkel on trumpet, Bill Barber on tuba, and Bob Tricarico on flute, bassoon, and piccolo. The music here is of a wondrous variety, bookended by two stellar Evans compositions in “La Nevada,” and “Sunken Treasure.” The middle of the record is filled out by the lovely standard “Where Flamingos Fly,” Kurt Weill-Bertolt Brecht’s “Bilbao Song,” and George Russell’s classic “Stratusphunk.” The sonics are alternately warm, breezy, and nocturnal, especially on the 15-plus-minute opener which captures the laid-back West Coast cool jazz feel juxtaposed by the percolating, even bubbling hot rhythmic pulse of the tough streets of Las Vegas. The horns are held back for long periods in the mix and the drums pop right up front, Crawford’s solo — drenched in funky blues — is smoking. When the trombones re-enter, they are slow and moaning, and the piccolo digs in for an in the pocket, pulsing break.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read
SACD

Gil Evans – Gil Evans & Ten (1957) [Reissue 2003] [SACD / Prestige – PRSA 7120-6]

admin 82 Views

Gil Evans - Gil Evans & Ten (1957) [Reissue 2003]

Title: Gil Evans – Gil Evans & Ten (1957) [Reissue 2003]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + Hi-Res FLAC

Although arranger Gil Evans had been active in the major leagues of jazz ever since the mid-’40s and had participated in Miles Davis’ famous Birth of the Cool recordings, Gil Evans & Ten was his first opportunity to record as a leader. The set features a typically unusual 11-piece unit consisting of two trumpets, trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, Bart Varsalona on bass trombone, French horn player Willie Ruff, Steve Lacy on soprano, altoist Lee Konitz, Dave Kurtzer on bassoon, bassist Paul Chambers, and either Nick Stabulas or Jo Jones on drums, plus the leader’s sparse piano. As good an introduction to his work as any, this program includes diverse works ranging from Leadbelly to Leonard Bernstein, plus Evans’ own “Jambangle.” The arranger’s inventive use of the voices of his rather unique sidemen make this a memorable set.

hraudio | allmusic | discogs

(more…)

Read More
1 min read
SACD

Gianni Basso and Renato Sellani – Body and Soul (2008) [Japan 2017] [SACD / Venus Records – VHGD-227]

admin 103 Views

Gianni Basso and Renato Sellani - Body and Soul (2008) [Japan 2017]

Title: Gianni Basso and Renato Sellani – Body and Soul (2008) [Japan 2017]
Genre: Jazz
Format: SACD ISO + DSF DSD64 + Hi-Res FLAC

According to Eugene Chadbourne of AllMusic, “Gianni Basso was one of the lights who began shining on the European jazz scene following the end of World War II”. He began as a clarinetist before switching to saxophone, and became a renowned Italian jazz tenor saxophonist influenced by Stan Getz. A native of Italy, Renato Sellani has fast become one of the most popular jazz pianists in Europe. Japanese producer Tetsuo Hara discovered him and has recorded him regularly for his Venus label.

After World War II’s wave of adulation and imitation, it’s clear that many Italian musicians have branded jazz with individual characteristics. To jazz, they bring a poetic sense of eternal cantabile, drama, film, classical and folk influences. Saxophonist Gianni Basso and pianist Renato Sellani, Piemontese octogenarians, pay retrospective homage on Body and Soul, caressing Swing Era favorites with devotion and delight, grace and poetry. Basso models his brimming, avuncular style on Coleman Hawkins, complete with gruff, burly tone, nowhere more in evidence than on the pace-setting title track. Sellani approaches Teddy Wilson with a conservatory touch, discreetly tasteful and tidy, bubbling over but occasionally, as on ‘Watch What Happens’. This Legrand tune, along with ‘Beyond The Sea’ and Latin classics, give away their European bent.

hraudio | discogs

(more…)

Read More
2 min read