JAZZ
JOHN TAYLOR
Angel of the Presence CamJazz
Taylor is, by any standards, such a remarkable pianist that the quality of anything he does is virtually a given. Here he has the stimulating and sympathetic support of two equally distinguished players in Palle Danielsson (bass) and Martin France (drums). On a programme of superior material - two pieces each by Steve Swallow and Kenny Wheeler, six by Taylor - they delve deeply into its possibilities. Amid the expected intuitive responses to the linear and harmonic implications of the material and each soloist's work, and the inspired juggling with time, with the pulse as often implied as explicit, the trio reveals an uncanny awareness of the dramatic shape of each performance. Lyrical, driving, constantly imaginative, they revel in each other's company. Their shared joy in performing is palpable. http://uk.hmboutique.com
Ray Comiskey
KEN HATFIELD
String Theory Arthur Circle Music
Composer and guitarist Ken Hatfield serves up a remarkable demonstration of his gifts on solo classical guitar, with overdubbed dobro and mandolin. If the inspirations are part literary (Thomas Mann, Jorge Luis Borges and, in a way, Hatfield's father) and part scientific (the album's title), the musical results are a delightful amalgam of classical, jazz and Appalachian folk strains. His 13-part Snowhill Variations for solo guitar is a beautifully sustained baroque excursion, full of light and shade, and the seven-part Borges & I, inspired by the master's short "fictions", is brilliant. Guitar is married to dobro on The Gospel According to Sam and to mandolin for String Theory, both three-piece "suites" of surprising diversity. Most remarkable of all, apart from Hatfield's virtuosity and sheer musicality, is the unity he has managed to impose on all this without doing violence to the music's many hues - or its beauty and wit. www.kenhatfield.com
Ray Comiskey
WOODSTORE QUINTET
41st Parallel Nagel Heyer
American trumpeter Tim Hagans is in towering form as the featured guest with a quartet of Sardinian jazzmen who, with him, comprise the Woodstore Quintet. It's a good group, with echoes of the post-bop Herbie Hancock ensembles. Massimo Carboni's soft, round tenor blends beautifully with Hagans in ensemble, and his adept use of space offers a contrast to the trumpeter as a soloist. Mariano Tedde, a capable pianist, wrote almost all the material and, with Paolo Spanu (bass) and Gianni Filindeu (drums), forms a sympathetic rhythm section. No surprises here (and no soloist to test the limits of boredom), just a fine, tight, well-focused band, and Hagans and Carboni players who would grace any ensemble.
www.musicconection.org.uk
Ray Comiskey
ROOTS
VAN MORRISON
Pay the Devil Exile/Polydor
Van dons the cowboy hat for the sleeve, so that's the clue: we're in country territory. And true to recent form, it is both very good and very ordinary. Morrison trawls the country heyday of the 1950s for 12 of the 15 tracks and comes up trumps with a couple of Webb Pierce honky tonk classics, the whiskey-stained There Stands the Glass and the squinting windows epic of Back Street Affair (which John Prine covered so well recently). Hank Williams's Your Cheatin' Heart also gets a run, as does the more bluesy Don't You Make Me High, which sounds odd in Morrison's gruff tone compared to the seductive Maria Muldaur version lodged in my memory. As usual he has a great band, with Welsh wizard Geraint Watkins outstanding on limpid honky tonk piano. www.vamorrison.com Joe Breen
SEÁN KEANE
You Got Gold Circin Rua
Eight albums on and Sean Keane continues to deliver the finest songs in his inimitable emotionless style. His repertoire reveals a slew of inventive choices, from the title track, written by John Prine and Keith Sykes, to the Maybelle Carter gem Troublesome Waters. There's no faulting the accompaniment either, intricately and lovingly honed by Arty McGlynn, Liam Bradley, John McLoughlin, Máirtín O'Connor and many more. But Keane chooses to flatline his way through the lot, as passionately engaged in his material as a corpse. His cover of Eric Bibb's Shingle by Shingle is entirely bereft of the secretive insight of the original, and River of Yesterday merely reinforces Keane's detachment from the music. Solely for the faint-hearted. www.seankeane.com Siobhán Long
TRADITIONAL
EOIN DILLON
The Third Twin Kila Records
Eoin Dillon's solo debut is a thing of rare beauty. Dillon has unpicked himself from the complexities of his usual home in Kila; his piping is structured and highly disciplined, yet still manages to lope into the undergrowth without sacrificing the integrity of the tune. He penned all the tunes bar one, and sits as comfortably beneath the Joycean expansiveness of Paddy's Perambulation as he does the airy whistle lines of the suantraí, Codladh sámh. Desmond Cahalan's intuitive guitar accompaniment is reminiscent of the empathy that Steve Cooney brought to Seamus Begley's accordion on their seminal Meitheal. This is a slow grower of a collection which insinuates itself past the hairs on the back of your neck and into your subconscious, where it'll bask indefinitely. www.kila.ie
Siobhán Long
CLASSICAL
MOZART: PIANO TRIOS IN C K548, IN E K542, IN B FLAT K502
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin), Daniel Müller-Schott (cello), André Previn (piano) Deutsche Grammophon 477 6114
Anne-Sophie Mutter has already recorded the Mozart violin concertos especially for this year's 250th anniversary celebrations, and the sonatas will come later this year. And here, in performances taped live at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden last May, is a selection of piano trios. Mutter and her pianist, André Previn, are husband and wife, and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott is a talent Mutter has long been promoting. Their approach is mixed. Previn is at times almost casual, Müller-Schott altogether more earnest, and Mutter her usual sophisticated and sometimes wilful self. Yet there's a sense of occasion about the music-making which helps the playing gel much more successfully than the disparities of character might lead you to expect. www.dgclassics.com Michael Dervan
SHOSTAKOVICH: CELLO CONCERTO NO 1; CELLO SONATA
Han-Na Chang (cello), London Symphony Orchestra/Antonio Pappano (piano) EMI Classics 332 4222
Does lightning strike twice? Korean cellist Han-Na Chang and British conductor Antonio Pappano have already appeared successfully on disc together in Russian repertoire, pairing Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante and Cello Sonata. This new Shostakovich disc finds Chang on similarly focused form, forcing a raspy edge onto the sound when she presses too hard for tone, but also showing the will to explore the music's inwardness and moments of ambivalence. Pappano captures even more varied shades of atmosphere, is highly alert to Shostakovich's fondness for grotesquerie, and reveals great depths of colouristic insight, both as conductor and pianist. www.emiclassics.com
Michael Dervan
SCHUBERT: SONATAS IN A MINOR D784, IN C D840, IN G D894, IN A D959, IN B FLAT D960
Alfred Brendel (piano) Philips 457 9191
(2 CDs)
Alfred Brendel has turned 75 and Philips are marking the occasion with a series of two-disc sets carrying the great pianist's stamp of approval under the banner Artist's Choice. The first batch mostly recirculates familiar studio recordings, but the Schubert set includes concert tapings of sonatas made between 1984 and 1999. Three of these, D894, D959, and D960, were recorded in Aldeburgh and London by the BBC, and were first issued five years ago. The others, D784 and D840, both new to me, were recorded by Austrian Radio at the 1984 Salzburg Festival. Brendel's risk-taking is different in front of an audience, and his playing usually sounds significantly less premeditated than in the studio. The emotional charge is more volatile, the impish humour flashes more freely, the tone is less self-consciously moulded. Audience intrusions notwithstanding, these recordings are well worth investigating, especially at their current low price. www.deccaclassics.com Michael Dervan
WILLIAM BOLCOM: VIOLIN SONATAS
Solomia Soroka (violin), Arthur Greene (piano) Naxos American Classics 8.559150
US composer William Bolcom is doing well by Naxos and Naxos by him - the company's recording of his Songs of Innocence and Experience won a number of Grammy Awards this year. The four violin sonatas were written between 1956 (when Bolcom was just 18) and 1994, and reflect the eclecticism for which the composer is renowned. The Second Sonata was inspired by the playing of jazz violinist Joe Venuti. The Third was written for the 75th birthday of violin teacher Dorothy DeLay. Other influences which turn up include Piazzolla tangos and Arabic music. Bolcom gives his sanction to the performances by Solomia Soroka and Arthur Greene, for "emphasising the traditional qualities which I have always insisted were at the core of all four". And he's right: In this duo's sure hands, even the music's strangest moments sound persuasively like expressions of the musical mainstream, reaching out through unusual channels. www.naxos.com
Michael Dervan
CD reviews compiled by Tony Clayton-Lea
