Umbra Sumus [Import]

Umbra Sumus [Import]

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Reissue at a lower price. 1998 album on his own 30 Hertz label. Includes the single 'I Offer You Everything'. More commercial than his previous endeavors, an element of country & western pop with heavy, heavy bass & pedal steel guitar is present throughout. 16 tracks total.

Tracks:

Come Into My Life
Love Makes A Woman
It Wasn't Easy
All And All
Lifetime Love
A Change In You
Walk Away
The All And All U.K. Remix

Customer Reviews:

NIce !!.......2007-05-17

I bought this CD for the track "Come Into My Life" which has always been a favorite of mine. I didn't expect that the rest of the CD would be as good as it is! I am very happy with this purchase!

Greatest grooves from the 1980s.......2007-02-28

If this album contained only one song, "Come Into My Life", it would still be a classic. In fact, this song is so good, it really puts the rest of the album into the shade. "All and all" is a close second, however. Curtis Mantronik produced "Come Into My Life", "Lifetime Love", "A Change In You" and co-produced and mixed "All And All".

The song, "Come Into My Life" features a very sweet high A flat (the A one ledge line above the treble stave) near the start of song. Joyce Sims sustains it over several bars and sings it without force or drama. We could classify Ms Sims as a soprano.

There is a certain sense of Hip Hop in the drum patterns on this album. Of course, many will know that at the same time this album was released, Mantronik was involved in Mantronix, one of the most musically progressive and interesting Hip Hop outfits in the 1980s.

I can listen to "Come Into My Life" over and over and I think I will always love the title song. It is as great as the greatest slow jams of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, my other favourite producers of this period.

The album was released twenty years ago on the very interesting Sleeping Bag label in 1987.

JOYCE YOU ARE 10/10 THE 1 AND ONLY QUEEN OF MUSIC.......2006-10-07

I remeber this album so well and 1 thing i got to say is to me it was a 10/10 album back in the day and it is the same now i got it in my car cd changer and always have to turn it up when life time love comes on, but i like all the trax there are a very few albums i can rate as 10/10 and come into my life is 1 of them.

joyce simms holds her voice like non other. whitney??? sorry no comparison. i love you joyce pls make another album soon miss your music so much

Great 80's Music!!.......2006-01-27

"All & All' was the Jam!!!! Joyce came out with a unique voice and sounded like no other! and then she released 'Come Into My Life' one of my favorite songs! This was a great debut record from Joyce! It has that great 80's dance style..this cd also contains Joyce's strong cover of 'Love Makes A Woman'(Barbara Acklin, Phoebe Snow) & the big hit 'Lifetime Love', Joyce released a single back 1995 but we haven't got a full length CD since 1989's 'All About Love', Joyce make another CD!

We Miss Ya Joyce!.......2006-01-13

As a club DJ in the '80's "All and ALL" was popular but "Lifetime Love" was the bomb! Joyce has a silky voice that was not diminished by sometimes overly aggressive production.

This album is worth owning just for the above 2 trax.

"Some people listen to remember, some people listen to forget".

Average customer rating:

That Old Feeling
Zoot Sims Quartet
Manufacturer: Membran/Quadromania Jazz
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Quadromania
Quadromania
Quadromania
Quadromania
Quadromania

ASIN: B0007UPSIW
Release Date: 2006-05-03

Tracks:

9:20 Special
Man I Love
55th and State
Blue Room
Bohemia After Dark
Gus's Blues
That Old Feeling
Woody 'N You
Blinuet
Trouble With Me Is You
Zonkin'
Noshin'
Minor-Minor
Pegasus

Average customer rating:

Zoot Sims - The Swinger
One of Zoot's best
Energetic and Inspired
Passionate Expression and Headlong Swing!
One of Zoot's best.

Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers
Zoot Sims
Manufacturer: Ojc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Similar Items:

Blues for Two
If I'm Lucky
For Lady Day
Basie & Zoot
Lester Young with Oscar Peterson Trio

ASIN: B000000YOO
Release Date: 1991-07-01

Tracks:

The Man I Love
How Long Has This Been Going On
Lady Be Good
I've Got A Crush On You
I Got Rhythm
Embraceable You
'S Wonderful
Someone To Watch Over Me
Isn't It A Pity
Summertime
They Can't Take That Away From Me

Amazon.com

An energetic, exuberant player, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims is perhaps best known for his membership in the famous "four brothers" sax section of Woody Herman's late-forties Herd, and for his longstanding small-group collaborations with fellow tenorman Al Cohn. Yet neither of those pigeonholes do his abilities justice: Sims was a remarkably complete musician, comfortable playing everything from hard bop to swing to Dixieland. And though most clearly drawing his musical delineation from Lester Young, Sims was also capable of a raw, free-swinging style that hinted at the influence of the Texas tenor school and such boppers as Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray. His dynamism is evident on Zoot Sims and the Gershwin Brothers: the 10-song compilation, recorded in 1975, uses such jazz improvisation stalwarts as "The Man I Love," "I Got Rhythm," "Summertime," and "Embraceable You" to showcase his absolute command of the modern jazz vocabulary. If the record label, Norman Granz's Pablo, was overly reliant on a core group of technically breathtaking but somewhat predictable players, the presence of label stars pianist Oscar Peterson and guitarist Joe Pass as sidemen here proved a blessing. --Fred Goodman

Customer Reviews:

Zoot Sims - The Swinger.......2007-05-27

Recorded when Zoot Sims was 49 and obviously at the top of his form and feeling fine. Tasty piano licks and solid accompaniment are provided by Oscar Peterson. Joe Pass provides some nice guitar work, while solid rhythm is laid down by Grady Tate and George Mraz - who worked with Sims some in the 1950's, I believe. He contibutes a rare bowed solo on one of the cuts here.
Sims' inate sense of rhythm is why they called him a swinger. No matter the complexity or length of solo, Zoot would very rarely lose the beat or his "place". He had wonderful ideas of melodic composition in his improvisational work. And while he certainly can be said to have been strongly influenced by Lester Young, who was playing with Count Basie when Sims was growing up, Zoot was not a copy of anyone in his style. Most knowledgeable jazz buffs would count Zoot among the most accomplished tenor saxophonists of all time.
If you like small group jazz, this is some of the best to be had and will be enjoyed by most jazz fans.

One of Zoot's best.......2005-12-17

Recorded in 1975 and one of Zoot's finest CDs. His rich, warm tone is at the fore on every tune, whether it's an up-tempo swinger like THE MAN I LOVE or I GOT RHYTHM or a slow ballad like HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN GOING ON. All of these are familiar songs to Zoot, he's probably played most a thousand times, but he is still able to make them sound fresh. Pianist Oscar Peterson can be overpowering at times, but on this album he restrains himself and plays tasty accompaniment (his solos are excellent, too). Joe Pass is on guitar and solos nicely on what I consider the highlight track, 'S WONDERFUL. George Mraz (b) and Grady Tate (d) offer solid support throughout. This is straight ahead, solid mainstream jazz at its finest. Definitely worth checking out.

Energetic and Inspired.......2005-10-11

This is a very inspired and energetic interpretation by Zoot Sims of Gershwin classics. Zoot swings here with great excitement and attacks the famous tunes in a very inspired fashion. He is very well supported by Peterson, Pass, Mraz and Tate. This is without a doubt a classic recording date that takes you for a wonderful journey from track one to eleven. It is that good that after 50 minutes you wish there was more to come.

Passionate Expression and Headlong Swing!.......2002-04-09

Well, what more can be said...Sims, Peterson, Pass, Mraz and Tate playing Gershwin...the hardest part is deciding which track I like best. Truth be told, they can't take this CD away from me and it would be a pity if you didn't add it to your collection. 'S Wonderful indeed!

One of Zoot's best........2000-01-17

Zoot Sims never made a bad album, but he did make a great number that were merely very good. This one, however, is excellent. Sims, Peterson, and Pass all solo beautifully, and the bass and drum team of Mraz and Tate are behind them every step of the way. The two standout tracks are 'I Got Rhythm', where Sims follows an explosive Peterson solo with full-throated honks and excursions into his beautiful upper register; and 'Embraceable You', when Zoot proves that only Webster, Getz, and Hawkins can challenge him for beauty of tone. That said, there isn't a bad track on this CD, and it will give any Zoot fan -- any jazz fan -- a great deal of pleasure.

Complete Original Quintet/Sextet Studio Recordings

Average customer rating:

Phenomenal West Coast stuff

Complete Original Quintet/Sextet Studio Recordings
Al Cohn with Zoot Sims
Manufacturer: Lonehill Jazz
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Complete Studio Recordings: The Master Tapes
Al Cohn Quintet Featuring Bob Brookmeyer
Complete Recordings
Complete Live at the Hillcrest Club
Complete Jazz Guitar

ASIN: B000MV92NS
Release Date: 2007-02-12

Tracks:

Tangerine
Zoot Case
Red Door
Morning Flu
Mediolistic
Crimea River
New Moan
Moment's Notice
My Blues
Sandy's Swing
Somebody Loves Me
More Bread
Sherm's Terms
From a to Z
East of the Sun
Tenor for Two Please, Jack
My Blues [Alternate Take]
More Bread [Alternate Take]
Tenor for Two Please, Jack [Alternate Take]
Somebody Loves Me [Alternate Take]
You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To

Tracks:

Note
You 'N Me
On the Alamo
Opener
Angel Eyes
Awful Lonely
Love for Sale
Improvisation for Unaccompanied Saxophones
It's a Wonderful World - Al Cohn Quintet
Brandy and Beer - Al Cohn Quintet
Two Funky People - Al Cohn Quintet
Chasing the Blues - Al Cohn Quintet
Haley's Comet - Al Cohn Quintet
You're a Lucky Guy - Al Cohn Quintet
Wailing Boat - Al Cohn Quintet
Just You, Just Me - Al Cohn Quintet
Gone with the Wind - Al Cohn Quintet

Album Description

Two CDs. Al Cohn and Zoot Sims played and recorded together on many occasions. This collection contains all of the Al and Zoot quintet and sextet studio recordings with one exception (a previously released title). This 38 track collection features the complete original albums From A To Z (1956), You 'N' Me (1960) and Al And Zoot (1957) plus their first quintet/sextet collaboration from 1952. Lonehill Jazz. 2007.

Album Details

Al Cohn and Zoot Sims Played and Recorded Together on Many Occasions. This Collection Contains all of the Al and Zoot Quintet and Sextet Studio Recordings with One Exception which Lone-hill Fans Will Understand: A February 1961 New York Session Originally Issued as Either Way. The Date Featured the Two Saxophonists Joined by Mose Allison on Piano, Bill Crow on Bass, and Gus Johnson on Drums. Singer Cecil "kid Haffey" Collier was also Added on Three Tracks. That Complete Session, Consisting of More Than Half an Hour of Music, Already Appeared in Our Series on the CD Entitled Zoot Sims-al Cohn: The Hoagy Carmichael Sessions and More, Where it was Coupled with an Obscure Cohn-sims Septet Session Originally Issued under the Name of Pianist Elliot Lawrence.

Customer Reviews:

Phenomenal West Coast stuff.......2007-05-07

This cd is a very nice collector's dream from Lonehill. Even if this time they changed the original cover in this case I can forgive them. The new cover in my opinion is extremely nice so I can pass over this thing (even if generally the original cover is a must for me). This double cd collection comprehend some phenomenal fifties sessions from the guys. More or less 40 tunes from four sessions that were in the albums. Al&Zoot, You&Me, AtoZ and another earlier session. I can say this stuff is phenomenal West Coast music! The two altos create whirlwinds of sounds on tunes that are the epitome of West Coast sound! I can really suggests this collection because the music is great great stuff, no problem absolutly! You can buy the sessions separately because at least a coiuple of them are still available, but you are gonna spend a lot of money. Here they are well repackaged. But the main thing is the music. This double cd is a gem! Buy it without esitation.

Average customer rating:

A Duet Made in Heaven
Two of the Best
six stars!!!!
Great Jazz Duo

Blues for Two
Zoot Sims with Joe Pass
Manufacturer: Ojc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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The Big 3

ASIN: B000000YU2
Release Date: 1991-07-01

Tracks:

Blues For 2
Dindi
Pennies From Heaven
Poor Butterfly
(What Did I Do To Be So) Black And Blue
I Hadn't Anyone Till You
Takeoff
Remember

Customer Reviews:

A Duet Made in Heaven.......2007-03-01

By the time that Blues for Two had been recorded, Joe Pass had made a reputation as an outstanding solo guitarist (Virtuoso) and accompanist of Ella Fitzgerald. This is a rare opportunity for him to interact with the swinging, melodic and inventive Zoot Sims. While Pass indicates in the liner notes that he isn't much of a "four-to-the-bar" accompanist, in truth he is fantastic here, playing around, under and with Zoot as well as spinning his own stories when it's his turn to solo.

The slower-tempo'd songs (Dindi, Forgot to Remember, for example) are beautiful, sensuous examples that real jazz can be musical and inventive at the same time. This is a must-have.

Two of the Best.......2002-01-16

Did Joe Pass ever miss a note? Did Zoot Sims ever stop swinging?Zoot on the sax, Joe on the guitar--the result is one of those recordings that you just have to keep, even if you periodically go through your collection and weed out some of cd's that,well, don't get too much action, too much air time in your house. Some were constantly played when you got them, but, after a while, don't have the immediacy of new purchases or the timelessness of classic recordings.

Two for the Blues is a keeper. A simple concept--two artists feeding off one another's genius--yields wondrous results, and each new playing allows you to find something new to delight in. Pass, of course, with his Virtuoso recordings, made it clear that the guitar was as capable as any instrument of creating true jazz, so it isn't surprising to hear his solos on many of the cuts--Zoot sits down and turns the studio over to Pass.

At other times, they accompany each other, one moving to the background while the other takes the lead. Zoot swings,while Pass comps in the backseat; Pass plucks out some of those crystal lines of his, while Zoot meanders through the melody. Each is respectful of the other, generous with the other, but nothing here is formal or stilted. The tunes just flow.

Listen to Pennies from Heaven, all 7:39 of it. It doesn't seem that this melody would fit on a recording called Blues for Two, but these guys recreate this chestnut. The melody line is distinct in the first thirty or so seconds, and in the final thirty or so seconds. In between, you have about six minutes of improvising, staking out new territory, taking chances. Sims and Pass. Pass and Sims. As equals, or each taking the lead for a while--these guys turn Pennies From Heaven into a quietly swinging, sometimes meditative, but never predictable jazz piece.

Recently, tenorman Scott Hamilton and legendary guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli released a tribute cd to Zoot entitled The Red Door. The more one listens to it, the more it seems that this newer cd is actually a tribute to both Sims and Pass, and the yeoman-like work they do on Blues for Two.

Concord Records, in the eighties and nineties, launched a wonderful duo series, featuring artists such as Ed Bickert and Bill Mays, Dave McKenna and Gray Sargent, Bill Charlap and Michael Moore, Howard Alden and Ken Peplowski. Concord seemed aware of the intimacy and creativity that very special duos can create. Look into the series before all the recordings go out of print.

But...first, get the real deal--Zoot and Joe, endlessly and timelessly swinging in musical and spiritual harmony

six stars!!!!.......2001-10-02

The communication between these two performers is at the very highest level. Indeed, I usually play this for people and scream "this is what is meant by musical communication". Aside from the technical brilliance and flawless execution of the playing, this is flat-out one of the all time laid-back, mellow-swinging sessions ever produced. Every piece achieves an utterly smooth flow. Think of the hypnotic modal aura behind Kind of Blue, the singular brilliance behind Coltrane's My Favorite Things or the complex moody lyricism behind a Wayne Shorter arrangement -- this stuff gives us a comprehensive view of a particular kind of musical language and it creates whole new emotional environments. Similarly with Blues For Two, which provides an answer to the following question: just how far can a duo format go in terms of sheer rhythmic beauty?

Great Jazz Duo.......2000-02-04

If you like traditional jazz played in a small ensemble setting you'll probably like this recording. The quality on this CD is very good. It sounds as if it were recorded live in the studio, and the interaction between players seems to indicate this. Joe Pass provides first-class accompanying (as usual). Zoot Sims plays well here. His soprano work on "Pennies From Heaven" is some of his best recorded work. He has a melodic style of playing and swinging that speaks for itself. It's "real cool". Definately a great jazz master. One of my favorite recordings.

Average customer rating:

This chick can really belt one out
Keeping Chicago On The Map
Still good

Too Blind to See It
Kym Sims
Manufacturer: Atlantic / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Someone to Love Me
Energique
A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
AB Logic
Bold as Love

ASIN: B000008KQ1
Release Date: 1992-04-07

Tracks:

Too Blind To See It
Take My Advice
A Little Bit More
Take Me To The Groove
One Look
I Found Love
Shoulda Known Better
In My Eyes
Never Shoulda Let You Go
I Can't Stop
Too Blind To See It (Soul Mix)

Customer Reviews:

This chick can really belt one out.......2006-11-26

Possessing a great voice and a good ear for a catchy song, Kym Sims was best known for the hit title track of this album, and while it's certainly good, her best work here is the house-dance jam "A Little Bit More" and the tender ballad "I Can't Stop".

Keeping Chicago On The Map.......2005-08-29

This album was purchased as a casette; based on that this review will come in two parts.

Part One:
Side One of the cassette can be best described as the Dance Side. The album has the Chicago Sound all through it (particularly on the Dance Side) and is smokin' right from the start. The title song (Track One) was an immediate hit for the independent Chicago label ID Records. Small wonder it was picked up by a major label. The "house train" keeps moving with "Take My Advice" which is a good follow-up tune. The one that really grabbed me was the next track. "A Lttle Bit More" is a slower tempo but is still a House tune and the feel of the song is phat! The same can be said of the very next track "Take Me To The Groove". These two songs have awesome background vocals by Kym as well as a couple of artists from the ID Records camp -- Donell Rush and Chante Savage. "One Look" is the closer of Side One and is dynamic as well.

Part Two:
The R&B Side is the description of Side Two and what a way to showcase Ms Sims' versatility. "I Found Love" and "Should Have Known Better" are uptempo jams that would likely be heard at an outdoor barbecue. "In My Eyes" is a good ballad as is "I Can't Stop", which was probably thrown in for good measure (having 2 slow jams is a good way to showcase talent). "Never Shoulda Let You Go" is another hot party jam. But, the best way to close out the album is with the title song (again). This time the title track gets a different spin with the Soul Mix.

A few footnotes regarding the architect of this album, Steve "Silk" Hurley:

- pioneering Chicago DJ who, along with Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, helped shape the House Music scene in the 80's

- accomplished DJ, artist, producer, remixer and songwriter

- one of a few Chicago-based DJs to strike a deal with a major label

Don't sleep on this album -- get in any format possible!

Still good.......2003-12-07

I discovered this girl a bit late but this album really still works today. Chantay Savage wrote plenty of the songs on it and it has an R&B feeling. Kym sings pretty well. It includes all her early 90s hits and also nice slow songs. Kym is still around. Check her out if you can :) Kym wrote songs for Tene Williams and Jamie Loring as well.

Anne Sofie von Otter - Speak Low ~ Songs by Kurt Weill / Gardiner

Average customer rating:

Very Good
Excellent Weill Alternative to Lenya and Lemper
Everything is right but the style
Intelligent reading from both singer and conductor
Brilliant--The best of the 7 Deadly Sins recordings

Anne Sofie von Otter - Speak Low ~ Songs by Kurt Weill / Gardiner
Kurt Weill , John Eliot Gardiner , Anne Sofie von Otter , Bengt Forsberg , Hannover North German Radio Orchestra , Karl-Heinz Lampe , Frederick Martin , Christfried Biebrach , and James Sims
Manufacturer: Deutsche Grammophon
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Anne Sofie von Otter - La Bonne Chanson

ASIN: B000001GM3
Release Date: 1995-03-14

Tracks:

Die Sieben Tods Prologue
Die Sieben Tods No. 1 Faulheit (Sloth)
Die Sieben Tods No. 2 Stolz (Pride)
Die Sieben Tods No. 4 Zorn (Anger)
Die Sieben Tods No. 5 Vrei (Gluttony)
Die Sieben Tods No. 6 Unzucht (Lust)
Die Sieben Tods No. 6 Habsucht (Avarice)
Die Sieben Tods No. 7 Neid (Envy)
Die Sieben Tods No. 8 Epilog
My Ship
One Life To Live
Buddy On The Nightshift
Nannas Leid
Bilbao - Song
Surabaya - Johnny
Das Leid Von Der Harten Nuss
Je Ne T'amie Pas
Schickelgruber
Der Abscheidsbreief
Foolish Heart
Speak Low
I'm A Stranger Here Myself

Amazon.com

Kurt Weill's ballet with songs is one of this century's greatest theatrical works. It has all the wit and melodic appeal of The Threepenny Opera and social conscience of Mahagonny, but more warmth and musical sophistication than either. It's also all over with in about 40 minutes. Some critics believe the piece was intended as a sort of love poem to Weill's wife, Lotte Lenya; given the tenderness of much of the music, it's hard to disagree. Lenya herself recorded the piece in the 1950s (a recording recently reissued by Sony) and this very much newer performance is welcome particularly for Anne Sofie von Otter's highly intelligent and musical way with the text. The other songs, from both Weill's Berlin and Broadway periods, make the perfect filler. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

Very Good.......2006-01-03

This is a very nice selection of Weill pieces showing the full range of his output. These range from the ambitious Seven Deadly Sins to songs from Happy End to some of his Broadway work. All are very interesting. The performers, particularly Von Otter, are excellent. Recommended strongly.

Excellent Weill Alternative to Lenya and Lemper.......2005-09-29

`Speak Low Songs by Kurt Weill' is a great addition to the performances of Herr Weill's works by the prominent mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie Von Otter. I have listened to many performances by Weill specialists from the archetype, Weill's wife, Lotte Lenys, for whom many of the songs were originally written to Ute Lemper and Gisela May, who lean heavily toward Lotte Lenya's gravel-voiced interpretation of Weill's songs.

Anne Sofie Von Otter breaks with this tradition and gives us what are easily the sweetest interpretations of Weill's songs from both his German and English works, which I have heard anywhere.

The flagship performance on this disc is `Die Sieben Todsunden' (`The Seven Deadly Sins') which was a cycle of songs to be sung on the stage, accompanied by dances done by a second performer. This takes the first nine (9) tracks and is at least as good as what I have heard from Weill specialist, Lemper. This album is the first time I have noticed that there are two versions of this work, and that Ms. Von Otter is performing the version for soprano.

But, I think the most moving performances come later, especially in von Otter's performances of the three numbers from `Happy End', `Bilbao-Song', `Surabaya-Johnny', and `Das Lied von der harten Nuss' (Song of the Big Shot). I have heard these done by many people, but never so sweetly. These numbers are so lovingly performed that I insist that you ignore the fact that the lyrics are in German. The accompanying booklet gives English translations, which I simply ignore and enjoy the musical talent with no filter. My understanding German has nothing to do with this, as I do the same with French, which I can just barely make out.

Kurt Weill may not be the most important influence on American musical theatre in the 20th century, but he is easily in the top five, along with the Gershwins, Irving Berlin, Richard Rodgers and collaborators, and Cole Porter.

Ms. Von Otter is ably accompanied on this disk by her favorite pianist, Bengt Forsberg plus the Norddeutch Rundfunk orchestra directed by John Eliot Gardiner. While I really like her selection on this disk, the collection makes me wish Ms. Von Otter would do some more Weill and spend less time hanging out with Elvis Costello, but that's a different story.

Everything is right but the style.......2005-09-24

Weill and Brecht defined a nasty age with nasty art, writing some of the grittiest satire in the history of music. In this CD von Otter misses that edge, skirts all the dangerous, sleazy implications, and ultimately sounds too much the opera singer slumming it for an hour. Her earnestness is no subtitute for the right period style, a la Lotte Lenya.

Intelligent reading from both singer and conductor.......2005-01-27

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS is such a brilliant mini-masterpiece (and, to me, the pinnacle of the Brecht-Weill years) that it is hard to screw up. It is a testament to the staying power of this work (and to the brilliance of Weill's music in general) that it can be performed by the likes of Lotte Lenya, Julia Migenes, Ute Lemper, Judy Kaye, Marianne Faithfull, Teresa Stratas, and -- as here -- Anne Sofie von Otter, and STILL work... and EACH of these women are totally successful in the piece on their own terms.

Here, Anne Sofie von Otter gives us an intelligent (and highly musical) rendering of the text, keeping the musical line very much intact. She sings with vibrato at times, and then will turn around and use straight-tones at moments where it is dramatically appropriate to do so. She balances the performance well, shifting gears between cool detachment (which she is often criticized for) and impassioned outbursts (which her critics often fail to notice).

John Eliot Gardiner surprised me with how easily this music seemed to come to him, especially as he seems to be a man more at home with "Period-Instrument-Mozart" than highly charged 20th century works. However, his reading of "The Rake's Progress" by Stravinsky was totally staggering. For example, his choice beginning the climactic moment of the score ("Envy") as slowly as he does caught me very much off guard at first, and I didn't really care for it at all. However, with each successive listen, I find myself "getting" this choice more and more.

Finally, the "filler." As to be expected, she is more successful with the European material than she is with the songs from Weill's Broadway years. But this is the case with about 99.9% of all opera singers who try to sing Weill's Broadway scores. You will never hear any singer give "Je ne t'aime pas" a more hauntingly beautiful, passionately intense performance than Anne Sofie von Otter. Truly, the ultimate interpretation of one of my favorite Weill songs. "Nannas Lied," "Der Abschiedsbrief," and the HAPPY END selections. However, "My Ship" and "One Life to Live" seem to fail at catching fire -- the former because it is marred by an attempt to sound like a "pop singer," the latter because von Otter sings English better than native speakers (she knows where the ACTUAL emphasis in the phrase "nothing: the thing is to have fun" goes, as opposed to where Ira Gershwin placed it). I also -- surprisingly enough -- don't care for her performance of "Schickelgruber" -- she just seems totally lost to me. (I really think that this song is foreign territory to 'legit' sopranos and mezzos -- I don't even care for the Stratas rendition.) Just when I thought I would have to suffer through another bad batch of "opera-crossover," Anne Sofie turned around and surprised me by giving highly successful performances of the numbers from ONE TOUCH OF VENUS (especially on "I'm Stranger Here Myself").

All in all, a worthy purchase: highly recommended to all fans of THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS and Kurt Weill enthusiasts.

Brilliant--The best of the 7 Deadly Sins recordings.......2002-10-12

Weill, and particularly anything Brecht-Weill, has suffered for too long with interpertations based on tired ham theatrics, burlesques of Lenya's style, to the point where we have come to expect it as the only way to sing this music. Lenya herself is said, late in life, to have commented that a better singer (specifically Stratas at that time) would be more appropriate for properly interpreting Weill's music.

Here, after countless CD releases of the Seven Deadly Sins, is the first recording sung in the key the composer originally intended! The result is relevatory, sublime and magnificent.

Ms. Von Otter interprets the rest of the songs with mixed results--all are lovely, several are excellent, though several others have been handled better by singers with more "theatrical" talents. Nevertheless, this recording stands alone, head and shoulders above the others.

Average customer rating:

A classic
soulful
Classic mainstream jazz
Zoot and Jimmy never better
It does not get any better than this.

If I'm Lucky
Zoot Sims with Jimmy Rowles
Manufacturer: Ojc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Bebop General | Bebop | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000000YW9
Release Date: 1992-02-17

Tracks:

(I Wonder) Where Our Love Has Gone
Legs
If I'm Lucky
Shadow Waltz
You're My Everything
It's All Right With Me
Gypsy Sweetheart
I Hear A Rhapsody

Customer Reviews:

A classic.......2006-11-16

This is music that satisfies the ear, that takes you away (for awhile) from this bad news saturated world.

soulful.......2005-10-20

I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone is remarkable, for its restraint, and for its powerful emotional statement. Rowles on piano sets up the tune in a quiet and wistful way, and then Zoot enters building up to a climax of surprising force . . . all in an understated but irresistible manner. It's a tribute to the musicians, who can make such a brilliant performance seem so effortless. One of my favorite Zoot Sims tunes.

Classic mainstream jazz.......2001-02-11

Norman Granz, after founding Verve in the 1940s, later returned to the record-making business with his Pablo label; this was a smaller, less adventurous affair, as befitted a time (the 1970s) when the audience for conventional mainstream jazz had shrunk. Pablo was built around a small core of musicians who had often been with Granz during Verve's heyday--Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Joe Pass, &c. Unfortunately, most of the releases from the label tend to founder on Granz's unimaginative production, which usually involved putting the same handful of stars together in the studio in every possible combination; rarely were stars encouraged to experiment or try something fresh or risky.

But Zoot Sims' albums for the label provide a shining exception. This is partly because of the involvement of the great pianist Jimmy Rowles in many of them--he's a pro's pro, who like Roger Kellaway or Dave McKenna has a positive inability to take it easy. Rowles masterminded the band's repertoire, & his encyclopedic knowledge of tunes was a fine resource (as was his ability to intelligently arrange & reharmonize them). _If I'm Lucky_ is one of the best instances of their partnership, & one of my favourite mainstream jazz discs of recent decades. The essential drama of the music comes in the interplay between the eloquent but passionate tenor of Sims & the wily, unpredictable piano of Rowles. Sims's tone is greatly affecting--it might have the same Lestorian sources as Stan Getz, but it's less pretty & more plangent. The opening track, "I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone", is immensely moving. But Sims can also piledrive through "It's Alright With Me", a reading that rivals Sonny Rollins' brilliant dissertation on it on _Worktime_. Rowles is a very different kind of player--sometimes rumbustious, as when he drops in a little stride or rumbles away in the bass; sometimes hard-swinging; sometimes delicate.

There's little more to be said: this is great jazz playing, with an appealingly melancholic edge to it.

Zoot and Jimmy never better.......1999-12-20

As a lover of Zoots playing since I'm a kid I can only say that this is the man at his most comfortable and swinging best. Jimmy Rowles, Mousey Alexander and George Mraz are perfect cats for the masters voice at its most beautiful.Zoot never felt the need to keep up with trends or"what was happening" he just knew how to swing,and thats what he did. Boy, do we miss him. Alan Satz

It does not get any better than this........1998-12-30

We are lucky to have had these two beautiful musicians grace our lives. Jazz music does not get any better than this. Essential to any Jazz collection. 10 stars!

Average customer rating:

A Timely Performance
Outstanding; a soon to be classic
Uninspired tedium
Holocaust Cantata: A Five Star Work of Art
An excerpt from my liner notes...

Holocaust Cantata

Manufacturer: Albany Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Opera & Vocal | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
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Composers of the Holocaust: Ghetto Songs & Instrumental Works
MUSIC FROM THE HOLOCAUST
Rossini: Petite Messe solennelle
Music in the Holocaust: Confronting Life in the Nazi Ghettos and Camps (Oxford Historical Monographs)
Forbidden Music: Music from Theresienstadt

ASIN: B000031VRF
Release Date: 1999-11-23

Tracks:

The Prisoner Rises
Singing Saved My Life
Song Of The Polish Prisoners
The Execution Of The Twelve
In Buchenwald
A State Of Seperation
The Train
Singing From Birth To Death
The Striped Ones
There's No Life Like Life At Auschwitz
Tempo di Tango
Letter To Mom
Song Of Days Now Gone
Passacaille For Cello And Piano
Even When God Is Silent
A Child's Journey: An Accidental Meeting
A Child's Journey: I Once Had A Friend
A Child's Journey: There Are No Stars In The Sky
Is Not A Flower A Mystery?
We Remember Them

Album Description

The Holocaust Cantata uses the words and music of actual concentration camp inmates to create a wholly original and powerful work. Using material found within the archives of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Donald McCullough's Holocaust Cantata traverses one of the bleakest episodes in human history. Yet the piece also evokes a sense of music's life-affirming power, even in the face of absolute despair, to express what words alone cannot.

McCullough discovered the material within the vast Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection in the museum's archives. Kulisiewicz himself had performed as a kind of camp troubador during his own incarceration at Sachsenhausen, and, after the war, spent several years interviewing fellow survivors about music in the camps, gathering together the scattered remnants of this music.

As McCullough painstakingly sifted through this material-much of which was uncatalogued-the arresting melodies and compelling testimonies that make up the Holocaust Cantata gradually began to emerge. "I wanted the Cantata to speak with a sense of immediacy," says McCullough, explaining his decision to set the choral texts and spoken testimonies in English, and his hope is that the piece may "transform statistics into people in the minds of the Cantata's listeners, and perhaps be a part of making it more difficult for such a horror ever to occur again." The Washington Post, reviewing the world premiere in March 1998, called it "an experience that should linger long in the audience's memory and should be regularly revived."

Customer Reviews:

A Timely Performance.......2001-11-18

In August of 2001, the choral group I sing with began practicing this work for performance on Veteran's Day Nov 11. We rehearse on Tuesday nights. As we all know on Tuesday Sept 11 the world change forever. Of course rehearsal was cancelled. When we returned the next Tuesday - a piece that we all thought was so powerful became more so. The first song contains the words "the fires burning, the iron furnace..". The paralells to what happened were evident. As one of the reviewers noted " so this can never happen again", well it has, only much faster, in one single day. Hate caused both events. People need to hear this CD and really listen to the words of the songs and the narration, and maybe we can prevent this from happening again and again. A MUST HEAR FOR ALL THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD. The music and lyics came from the hearts and the lives of the prisoners.This is a beautiful tribute to them.

Outstanding; a soon to be classic.......2000-05-04

Beautifully written and performed! This recording and an encore live performance of this inspiring work were downright demanded by audiences after the premiere. I rate it a "strong buy."

Uninspired tedium.......2000-04-28

McCullough has appropriated other people's material, "choralized" it, and appears to be attempting to capitalize on a wave of political correctness to buy himself a Grammy nomination. There are a few nice tunes scattered throughout this tedious piece, but overall the interpretation is lifeless, unimaginative, and uninspired, almost clinical. Here's hoping that victims of the Shoah can find a more suitable expression of their music than McCullough has tried to give them. They deserve better than this.

Holocaust Cantata: A Five Star Work of Art.......2000-01-07

For me, the Holocaust Cantata is one of those artistic representations of that cataclysmic period that evokes an even stronger picture of the horrors of the Holocaust then do many pictures in newspapers and museum exhibits. I think this is because the Cantata is poetry-it's message sounds a spare and powerful truth. I am grateful to Mr. McCullough for his vision and energy in bringing about the Holocaust Cantata.

An excerpt from my liner notes..........1999-11-25

I was present at the March 1998 Kennedy Center premiere of this extraordinary work, and subsequently wrote the liner notes for the CD. Because of the unusual nature of this recording-which I think captures the haunting beauty of this work-I believe that others would be interested in reading an excerpt from my notes on the music. Please note that I am posting this material with the permission of the composer, Donald McCullough:

Notes on the Music

It is well-known that during the Holocaust inmates wrote music while incarcerated in concentration camps. Much of it has since been recorded. At Theresienstadt, for instance-the infamous "Paradise Ghetto"-the Nazis organized an orchestra made up of young musicians who had studied under such luminaries as Leos Janacek and Arnold Schoenberg. Most of these musicians, among them such promising students as Gideon Klein and Viktor Ullmann, perished during the Holocaust, leaving behind but a few pieces, composed under duress and co-opted by the Nazis for their own propaganda purposes. What might they have eventually accomplished had they survived? Such classical music-beautiful as it is-was the product of formally trained musicians. What about the music of the common man-music embraced by the whole community and passed secretly by aural transmission-music that carried with it powerful words revealing different aspects of camp life, or expressing the inmates' innermost feelings, of mourning, or resistance, or patriotism? Was there other Holocaust music, akin to the spirituals that sprang from slavery in America, that spoke with the same startling immediacy to express the agony of the victims of the Nazi regime?...

McCullough's [quest to answer this question] began with a call to Bret Werb, musicologist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, who revealed the existence of the Aleksander Kulisiewicz collection in the museum archives. Kulisiewicz had traveled about Europe during the postwar period collecting and preserving what he could of the music that had emerged from the Holocaust concentration camps, but little was known about the music itself.

McCullough's first task, then, was to immerse himself in the collection, playing through the hundreds of tunes. He was encouraged to find that they contained some compelling melodies, and for the first time he began to wonder whether a choral cantata-perhaps reflecting the role of music in the camps or evoking the daily lives of these people-might emerge from the material. But he still had no idea what lay within the accompanying text.

At some point, someone had added a rough, English-language index to the collection, but the materials themselves were mostly in Polish. Marcin Zmudzki, a young Pole, was engaged to sift through the mountain of texts. McCullough told the translator that he was interested in anything that had to do with camp life, especially as it related to music. As he recalls, "It was my good fortune that not only was Marcin an excellent translator, but also he had a sense for poetry and thus grasped, very quickly, the type of material I was seeking."

In addition to music, Kulisiewicz also collected interviews, articles, and letters that had anything to do with camp life. With this wealth of material, McCullough decided to place between each musical arrangement readings that also spoke of life in the camps. After considering and rejecting literally hundreds of documents, he finally decided that he had what he needed from the archives. But in a sense, the real work was just beginning. "Because I wanted the Cantata to speak with a sense of immediacy," says McCullough, "I thought it should be sung in English. But before I could arrange a single note of it, I needed to have singable translations. Here I employed the talents of lyricist Denny Clark, who at first worked with Marcin, getting a word by word translation. Knowing which words appear on which notes is important in keeping the overall impact of the song." A trained singer himself, Clark was able to make transliterations to ensure that the best vowels for singing fell on the proper notes, all while remaining faithful to the original text. It was an immensely complicated task....

A few words about the structure of the Cantata. As you listen you should not look for a plot, as such. Because each song and reading represents a different person, a different place, and a different time in the Holocaust experience, you should be wary about viewing the entire piece as a streaming narrative. Nonetheless, certain common truths will begin to emerge, and no doubt others will come to you with each successive hearing. Among these is the certainty that these are nakedly honest responses to the most unthinkable of acts. Sometimes the responses are jarring; who could find humor amid such horror? And yet humor-albeit dark in nature-undoubtedly exists within this work. Nevertheless the inmates' responses never sink to the level of triteness. For them, music functioned as something much more than just a light in the darkness; its very existence was a form of spiritual resistance in an environment where such resistance risked instant extermination.

McCullough's hope is that this work may "transform statistics into people in the minds of the Cantata's listeners, and perhaps be a part of making it more difficult for such a horror ever to occur again." In the end, for me, the work flows inexorably back to its source: it is the voice of humanity, crying out to be heard.

Hoagy Carmichael Sessions and More
Average customer rating:
Hoagy Carmichael Sessions and More
Zoot Sims , and Al Cohn
Manufacturer: Lonehill Jazz Spain
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0006B0YR2
Release Date: 2004-12-13

Tracks:

Nearness of You
I Get Along Without You Very Well
Skylark
Up a Lazy River
Stardust
Old Rockin' Chair
Georgia on My Mind
Two Sleepy People
P-Town [*]
Autumn Leaves [*]
Thing [*]
I'm Tellin' Ya [*]
Morning Fun [*]
I Like It Like That [*]
Sweet Lorraine [*]
Nagasaki [*]

Album Details

Shortly after Returning from their First Extended Road Trip as Co-leaders, Sims and Cohn Recorded a Session Together in New York Dedicated to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael. The Date Featured Eight Classic Standards by the Outstanding Composer and Broasted a Cast that Included Trumpeter Nick Travis, Trombonist Jimmy Cleveland, Pianist Elliot Lawrence, Bassist Milt Hinton, Drummer Osie Johnson and Arrangements by Bill Elton. With the Tasteful and Swinging Band to Support Them, Sims and Cohn Let Loose on Carmichael's Delicious Tunes. While Sims Spun his Silky and Supple Lines on the Tenor, Cohn Performed the Whole Date on the Baritone. His Powerful Tone and Quiet Fire on the Instrument Make this an Important Date for all Cohn Enthusiasts.

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