Another in an occasional series…
The Al Cohn Quintet Featuring Bob Brookmeyer (Verve)
Reissue of a 1956 date for Coral Records. Brookmeyer’s high-art arrangements of “The Lady Is a Tramp,” “Ill Wind,” originals, etc. With Mose Allison on piano, Teddy Kotick on bass, Nick Stabulas on drums. Keeping count of Brookmeyer’s priceless collaborations (Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Raney, etc.) is a challenge.
Xavier Cugat and His Orchestra, Cugi’s Cocktails (Verve)
A concept album about alcohol. Recorded for Mercury in New York, August 1963. Arrangements by Hal Mooney; personnel unknown. Not to be mistaken for kitsch, this is some of the hottest dance music ever.
James MacMillan, Seven Last Words from the Cross (Hyperion)
For orchestra and voices, performed by Polyphony with the Britten Sinfonia. MacMillan is 47 years old, from Scotland. His first movement, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” starts inaudibly and builds to harrowing shouts of “REX… REX… ISRA-EL…!” The fourth movement, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?), could send you running from your house.
Arcangelo Corelli (1653-1713), Twelve Violin Sonatas, Op. 5 (Hyperion)
Two discs, six sonatas each, plus a bonus “elaboration” of the Sonata No. 9 in A Major. The first six are for violin, cello and organ, the second six for violin, cello and harpsichord. Recorded by the Convivium ensemble in 1989.
Gene Krupa Plays Gerry Mulligan Arrangements (Verve)
Recorded 1958 in New York. The band includes Phil Woods, Doc Severinsen, Hank Jones, Kai Winding, Barry Galbraith and more. Mulligan conducts. Pure gold.
Blind Willie McTell, Pig ‘n Whistle Red (Biograph)
The blind bluesman sings and plays guitar in Atlanta, Georgia in 1950, accompanied by Curley Weaver on second guitar. From Don Kent’s liners: “Their last session together, presented here, shows an amazing range of material reflecting pop, ragtime, gospel, hard blues and hokum.” More than blues, it’s a ragged and raw kind of country music.
Don Edwards, Last of the Troubadours: Saddle Songs II (Dualtone/Western Jubilee)
Edwards is in his 60’s, a cowboy singer from New Jersey, captured here on two CDs with just a guitar and voice. The first song, the 16-bar “Gone to Texas,” sounds uncannily related to McTell’s first song, the 16-bar “Don’t Forget It.”
Guillaume de Chassy & Daniel Yvinec, Wonderful World (Sunnyside)
De Chassy (piano) and Yvinec (bass) in a little gem of a production, mostly duets on standards but with brief, random snippets of jazz vocals from Andy Bey, Ilya Lushtak, Michael Leonhart and others. (Lushtak and Leonhart, guitar and trumpet respectively, aren’t known as singers.) Milt Hoffman adds spoken-word segments that are artlessly haunting. “A testimonial to America’s music heritage,” writes Hoffman in the liners.
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