Pierre Villette (1926-1998), Motets (Hyperion, 2006)
A cappella sacred music of exquisite harmonic clarity and indescribable beauty. Gotta hand it to those Catholics. Villette’s influences include Fauré and Messiaen.
Nightingale: Japanese Art Songs (BIS, 1997)
Featuring counter-tenor Yoshikazu Mera and pianist Kikuko Ogura. Individual songs, as well as suites, by 20th-century Japanese composers. Mera, in voice and appearance, is an androgynous marvel.
Cantus Borealis: Wind Music from the Faroe Islands (BIS, 1999)
Featuring the Reykjavik Wind Quintet. Also 20th-century music, by Faroese composers. The Faroes are in the North Atlantic, part of the Danish kingdom but governed autonomously.
Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996), Orchestral Works (Sony Classical, 1998)
The percussion ensemble Nexus with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, Carl St. Clair conducting. Featuring the 36-minute percussion concerto “From me flows what you call time,” premiered in 1990. Also the 15-minute “Twill By Twilight” (1988), dedicated to the memory of Morton Feldman, and the much earlier, 11-minute “Requiem (for String Orchestra)” (1957).
Clifford Jordan (1931-1993), These Are My Roots: Clifford Jordan Plays Leadbelly (Koch Jazz, 1998 reissue)
I came to this via the Fredrik Lundin Overdrive’s Belly-Up album, which I referenced here. Lundin pays homage not just to Leadbelly, but also Jordan, the great and underappreciated post-bop tenor saxophonist, who in February 1965 recorded this remarkable concept album with the help of bassist Richard Davis, drummer Al (“Tootie”) Heath, trumpeter Roy Burrowes, trombonist Julian Priester, guitarist/banjoist Chuck Wayne, pianist Cedar Walton and guest vocalist Sandra Douglass.
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