Heiner Stadler / Brains on Fire
Street Date February 28 12
Brains On Fire Reintroduces Jazz Listeners To One Of The Visionaries Of The 1970s
With Two Discs Of Exciting Jazz Composition.
HEINER STADLER'S MASTERWORK FEATURES PERFORMANCES BY SOME OF THE GREATEST PLAYERS FROM AMERICA AND EUROPE, INCLUDING DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER, REGGIE WORKMAN, JIMMY OWENS, TYRONE WASHINGTON, JOE FARRELL, LENNY WHITE, MANFRED SCHOOF, WOLFGANG DAUNER AND ALBERT MANGELSDORFF
Brains On Fire presents, for the very first time on two compact discs, some of the innovative early works of pianist/composer Heiner Stadler. These works, written and conceived over 40 years ago, are examples of what are arguably some of the most creatively and unjustly neglected amalgamations of the jazz and contemporary classical traditions. The follow-up release to the critically acclaimed Tribute To Bird And Monk (LAB 7074), Brains On Fire features groundbreaking compositions recorded between 1966 and 1974 that still sound as fresh and stimulating today as when they were first performed. The eight original compositions comprising this remarkable set reveal the mindset of the highly innovative Stadler in his utilization of the instrumental and improvisatory skills of some of the day’s most accomplished players from both the United States and Europe. In bringing together artists of distinctly varied backgrounds and reputations, Stadler defied the separatist system of the time that divided performers into virtually warring camps: classical versus jazz, mainstream versus avant-garde. Composition and improvisation come together, in a confluence that realizes some truly amazing music
Noted author Howard Mandel contributes the illuminating liner notes
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Michael Sahl and Eric Salzman / Civilization & Its Discontents
Street Date January 31 12
Civilization & Its Discontents is a lively and biting satire in the form of a music-theater work with words and music created jointly by Michael Sahl and Eric Salzman. It was originally a prize-winning off-off-Broadway music theater piece, a music-theater recording for National Public Radio that had one of the largest air plays of any work of its kind, and a Prix Italia winner. Carlos Arachnid invites us to join him and his friends in Club Bide-a-wee whose motto is "If it feels good, do it!". Dancing alternates with 'freeze-frame' moments of high anxiety, angry words and sexual come-ons. Scene II is in Jill Goodheart's bedroom where a seduction scene is interrupted by a constant string of phone calls, the arrival of Jill's boyfriend and the deus ex machina appearance of Arachnid who brings us back to Club Bide-a-wee for a deconstructed dance orgy and an ironic morality.
“…a brilliant amalgam of jazz, pop, blues and classical forms, cleverly developed and timed to make the satiric points stand out in the most vivid musical and theatrical terms.”
–Peter G. Davis, New York Times
“…a work that builds up its own undulating momentum and sustains it so thoroughly that the audience boogies long after the music stops. A skillful, rhythmic integration of words, music and movement is responsible for the compelling power of this stunning show.”
Show Business.
“…jazz and pop elements in an understandable idiom, in addition to avantgarde traits originating in the NY experimental scene…swinging melodies that seem to stem from Gershwin, combined with strong, somewhat abrupt but exciting harmonies and surprising rhythmical accents that are reminiscent of Thelonious Monk…Kurt Weill for our time.”
–Doron Nagan, Algemeen Dagblad (The Netherlands).
“…a delightful, tuneful satire…not everything is funny (as) the underlying subject is something very real…This is a wonderful work.”
–Rita H. Mead, Newsletter of the Institute for Studies in American Music.
Javor Bračić / Music of Tribute Vol 7 - Haydn
Street Date Oktober 25 11
In 1909, six great French composers—including Ravel, Debussy, Dukas, Vincent d’Indy and Reynaldo Hahn—created new works based on a musical spelling of Haydn’s name in celebration of the hundredth anniversary of the death of the great Viennese master; eighty-nine years later, the English composer George Benjamin added his own homage based on the same theme. All these tributes plus a Sonatina “Homage à Haydn” by the Croatian composer Davorin Kempf and a rollicking Capriccietto after a rough Viennese folk song (that had been previously treated by Haydn) by the German composer Wolfgang Hochstein have been wrapped around three sparkling piano sonatas by the master himself, including the late, great C major Sonata, all brilliantly recorded by the young Croatian pianist Javor Bračić.
This is the seventh in the Music of Tribute series from Labor; music by and in homage to Heitor Villa-Lobos, Claude Debussy, Gabriel Fauré, Domenico Scarlatti, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Alban Berg were the earlier releases in this much-lauded ongoing series.
Heiner Stadler / Tribute to Bird and Monk
Street Date April 26 11
LABOR RECORDS REISSUES A PIONEERING CLASSIC
Heiner Stadler's Tribute to Bird and Monk, featuring a sextet of cornetist Thad Jones, tenor saxophonist George Adams, trombonist George Lewis, pianist Stanley Cowell, bassist Reggie Workman, and drummer Lenny White, takes six compositions by Charlie Parker and Thelonius Monk as reimagined by Stadler with out-of-the-box improvisations by some of New York's greatest instrumentalists of the 1970s and remixes them to modern standards by the brilliant engineer Malcom Addey. The result is a critically acclaimed tribute that sounds as fresh and daring today as when it was originally released.
“Tribute is a brilliant mixture of arranged and free jazz, with the strength of the compositions providing a firm foundation.”
DOWN BEAT ***** Five-Stars (top rating)
“The result is a giant step bridging the avant-garde of the ‘forties, bebop, with the avant-garde of today.”
JAZZ MAGAZINE
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Troy Collins Best releases of 2011
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