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| Standouts 2010 |
The
best of AIM's recent musical
wanderings -
"One-stop shopping meets instant
gratification" - Santa Cruz, California
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Listener Safari 2010
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Standouts 2009
September 2010
 |
Janiva Magness
The Devil Is An Angel Too - Magness is an R&B singer who won the
Blues Music Awards for B.B. King Entertainer of the Year in 2009 and Female
Artist Of The Year in 2006 and 2007. Her music is gritty and ragged, as if
from the
pre-electronic era before synthesizers sanded down all the rough edges. Check out the
title song |
| Robert Een's
Hiroshima Maiden (on the Innova label) proves once again that
contemporary classical music does not have to be like a trip to the dentist.
It was written for a theater/puppet work about 25 women survivors of the
Hiroshima bombing who were invited to the United States 10 years later for
reconstructive surgery. The music and play are mostly light-hearted, dealing
with these later events in the survivors' lives and their celebrity status,
not the bombing per se. Check out the Overture,
Plane Over the City, Kimono Dance, and
Broken Waltz in the player below. |
| Pat Metheny's
Orchestrion is a solo project in which he controls custom-made acoustic
and acoustoelectric instruments (piano, marimba, percussion, bottles, etc.)
with a guitar, pen, or keyboard. He says in the liner notes that this project,
which has been germinating for a lifetime, was a great adventure for him and
helped him find notes he didn't know he had. The project could easily have degenerated into
sewing machine music, but Metheny uses ritards and other techniques to
keep the music from sounding mechanical. Try 'Orchestrion'
in the player below and let the multi-layered sound wash over you CD |
|
Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic - If you like big showpieces, the music of
this Serbian-born composer and performer might be for you. Some of it sounds
like a movie chase scene where the only chance of escape is to go over the
waterfall. You can hear that quality in the first selection in the player below and in
several of the pieces on his website (zivkovic.de). The other selections below
showcase his writing for marimba and percussion |
|
Classical Gem - Chopin's
Nocturne Op. 55 No. 1 in F-minor.
Exquisite!
|
| Old Favorite -
David Arkenstone's The Rug Merchant.
New Age music from the 1980s and '90s was one of the high points of pop music.
This is from Arkenstone's In the Wake of the Wind, a very
strong album well worth obtaining (Amazon
has it used from just 89 cents) |
August 2010
Twice a year, AIM asks its network for the best new music heard in the previous 6 months. Thanks to one and all who participated in this twice-yearly review. Here are the latest responses. Three out of 4 are ambient, minimalist, or otherwise non-lyrical. Ambient and minimalist have been around for awhile, but it's interesting that they are now turning up in people's favorites -
|
| "I just heard something yesterday that knocked me out. It was on youtube -- Nicolas Crosse's performance of
Berio's Sequenza 14b, arranged for double
bass. The performance is really amazing, especially considering that the
piece wasn't originally written for double bass. Crosse has a wonderful
touch." Here's
a link to
part one. Berio's original version is on Amazon
- CD MP3 | |
|
|
Ambient -
"Really liking K. Leimer's release
Degraded Certainties on the Palace of Lights label"
|
|
|
| Minimalism -
Circuit for piano and orchestra by British
composer Graham Fitkin SACD | |
|
|
Guitar Transcriptions
- "The best music I've heard in the
past half-year--by far, was the concert performed by classical guitarists Miroslav Lončar and his wife, Natasha Klasinc (the Klasinc & Lončar Guitar Duo). They performed music that Miroslav transcribed for guitar duets, and also original compositions. Their web site is http://mysite.verizon.net/mloncar1/ where you can listen/buy their music. Not only are they both virtuoso guitarists, they are very friendly!" CD |
Also, enjoy AIM's own selections this month -
|
Classical Gem - Claude Debussy
flute solo Syrinx
|
| Old Favorite - Led Zeppelin's
Stairway to Heaven, a monster hit and deservedly
so, a peak experience |
July 2010
| Nickel Creek
- why this is considered youth music is
beyond fathoming, it's just good music. First introduced to AIM by a
14-year old and later found in the youth section of the local library, this
album starts from bluegrass roots but runneth over with lyricism. Features
AIM Discovery
Chris Thile Try The Lighthouse's Tale, Reasons Why, The Hand Song, and Robin and Marian in the player below CD MP3 |
| Hungarian guitarist
Ferenc
Snétberger Obsession -
from the fertile fields of Eurojazz |
| Old Favorite - The Doobie Brothers always seemed pretty ordinary until they released Black Water. That was something different, something special, a cut above ("I'd like to hear some funky Dixieland, pretty mama come and take me by the hand") |
| Classical Gem - Dvořák was an incomparable melodist. Enjoy his Tempo di valse from Serenade Op. 22 |
June 2010
| Thomas Newman
- Route 12 from the soundtrack to
Revolutionary Road |
| Regina Carter - Un Aguinaldo pa Regina from the Afro-inspired album Reverse Thread |
| Day Dream
by Duke Ellington and
Billy Strayhorn a bluesy-woozy rendition by Allen Toussaint - the jazz chords are just delicious |
| Old Favorite - Birds of Fire by the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The cornerstone of Jazz-rock fusion. Stunning and revolutionary when it came out in the early 1970s |
| Classical Gem - Grieg's Wedding Day at Troldhaugen |
May 2010
| Pretty Good Pop - Imogen Heap Ellipse album. Inventive, melodies with twists and turns, sonically a treat |
| Bleeps and squiggles and outstanding
electronica from Ratatat - try Falcon
Jab, Shempi, and
Mirando from the LP3 album in the player
below |
| Fireflies
by Owl City - it's the spirit of the thing |
| Old Favorite -
Polly Von by Peter, Paul, & Mary (they
were great!) |
| Classical Gem -
Intermezzo from
Zoltán Kodály's musical play
Háry
János
about an old soldier who tells tall tales from the Napoleonic wars.
Intermezzo is written in the Hungarian
verbunkos style that captivated many classical composers including Haydn,
Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms
|
April 2010
|
Marisa Monte
Universo ao Meu Redor
- all the complex harmonics and rhythms you'd expect from Brazilian
samba music. The multi-talented Monte not only has a
a very pleasing
voice but shares writing credits on several cuts
|
|
Playing for Change: Peace Through Music (DVD
and CD) - |
| Old Favorite -
Lara's Theme from the classic film Dr. Zhivago |
| Classical Gem -
The Banjo by
Louis Moreau Gottschalk |
March 2010
| Thomas Hewitt
Jones Under Milk Wood (Piano Suite -
Fantasy - String Music) Anyone interested in the future of classical music in Britain should pay attention to the Hewitt Jones clan - concert violinist Simon, his brother Thomas the composer, and now Timothy the cellist - producing some of the most imaginative music projects in the U.K. today under their banner Court Lane Music. In this offering, Thomas shows his impressive compositional skills ranging from folk-like melody reminiscent of Ralph Vaughan Williams, to sprightly ballet music evoking the days of ice cream socials and bicycles built for two, to serious works laced with delicious counterpoint, and beyond. Thomas also writes film music, his fine cinematic sense on display on this CD. For people who still think that contemporary classical music is as much fun as a trip to the dentist, this enjoyable disc will dispel that notion once and for all. |
| Armenian-born
Tigran Hamasyan - Love Song |
| Norah Jones
is back with The Fall,
an album with the same sensibility as
2004's country-oriented
Feels Like Home - no hard edges here CD |
| Note by Note: The Making of Steinway
L1037 Exacting craftsmanship is an understatement. On this DVD, meet the surprisingly down-to-earth folks who guard and pass on the Steinway know-how and tradition. Oh, and before any enfant terrible concert pianist gets to bang on one, every Steinway must pass through the dreaded... POUNDING ROOM! Quite a funny scene, actually. DVD |
| Old Favorite -
Walkin' One and Only by
Dan
Hicks and the Hot Licks |
| Classical Gems -
NEW! AIM's sampler of classical
favorites starts with Gabriel Fauré's
delicious miniature, Pavane. More on Fauré
here.
|
February 2010
| Venture Bros. (soundtrack) - The Venture Bros. is a comedic action series with mature themes on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. The cartoon draws inspiration in part from the Johnny Quest animated action series for kids in the 1960s. For the soundtrack, Australian composer JG Thirlwell has crafted inventive and satisfying music spanning an impressive range of moods and styles but, importantly, music that can stand on its own. Some tracks are zany (Warped Carousel in the player below), others faux-serious (Tenssacts), action-packed (X1 Krash / Woozzy), or poking gentle fun (In a Spaceage Mood). All evince Thirlwell's sense of humor and will bring a smile to your face. Terrific! |
| Speaking of zany,
Hiromi
is a jazz composer and pianist who
sometimes veers toward the experimental |
| Classical -
Samuel Barber
hated being known just for his
Adagio for Strings.
His Sonata for Piano,
Op. 26 opens with a
movement that alternates between dissonance and consonant melody. The
second movement contains passages evoking an off-kilter carnival, while the
fourth movement is a virtuosic showpiece. CD MP3 |
| Old Favorite -
Pat Metheny's
'Greatest Hit' Last
Train Home |