Hermine Deurloo & Zapp4 - Welling

Styles: Jazz Contemporary
Year: 2015
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 42:15
Size: 97,2 MB
Art: Front

(2:53) 1. Varden
(5:28) 2. Het Gouden Wagentje
(5:59) 3. Yer Mali Gakoyoya
(3:15) 4. Una Volta
(5:12) 5. Ericerias
(4:33) 6. Portrait of Tracy
(4:11) 7. Musique Au Fond
(4:15) 8. Walking in the Desert
(6:26) 9. Welling

“It is a sure bet that very few recordings feature the instrumentation of chromatic harmonica and a string quartet, but few harmonica players are on the level of Hermine Deurloo. Based in Amsterdam, Ms. Deurloo studied saxophone at the Amsterdam Conservatory while teaching herself to play the harmonica. She has performed with the Willem Breuker Kollektief, the Metropole Orchestra and other European groups. Like the great Toots Thielemans, she has worked in the studios and appeared on soundtracks. And like Larry Adler, Thielemans’ predecessor, she is capable of playing a wide variety of music.” By Scott Yanow, LA Jazz Scene, September 2015

“Hailing from the jazz rich scene of Amsterdam, Hermine Deurloo brings a modernistic sense and sensibility to her instrument of choice The Harmonica. Her musical canvases are flush with rich coloring and texturing, with brush strokes of chamber and classical adding to the fullness of her modern jazz soundscapes, as the title track from her new album demonstrates.” By West Side of Jazz, July 2015

“For music that’s got a folksy charm and affable personality, there’s an engrossing introspective side to this album, too. Deurloo’s chromatic harmonica dances around the slashing lines of a string quartet, and the crosshatch of furtive motions, deep melodicism and warm harmonies is pretty addictive. Lively music that’s likely inspire all kinds of daydream imagery.” By Bird is the Worm, July 2015

“Hermine Deurloo’s collaboration with Zapp4 is an especially interesting experiment that works out surprisingly well. Over the past weeks, I have appreciated ‘Welling’ more and more each time I listened to it anew, as an exciting musical journey. An absolute recommendation for music lovers who are open to experimental yet really accessible jazz music!” By Fred Pach, MuziekWereld, July 2015

“Welling is a surprising adventure in the jazz world, led by Hermine Deurloo (chromatic harmonica), with the Zapp4 string quartet. You don’t often hear a string quartet together with a chromatic harmonica. The listener is treated to a musical journey with diverse styles in which there is place for swing, improvisation, interaction, and By grooves.” Stefan Koer, Concerto, July 2015

“Welling swings, loose and relaxed, while sometimes you hear chamber music and free improvised jazz. All in all, Welling is a laid back album with 9 top notch pieces of innovative collaboration.” By Hanz Invernizzi, JazzFlits, July 2015

“Hermine Deurloo is not just another harmonica player, and Zapp4 is not just another string quartet, because they each have a solid grounding in jazz idioms. The music is of an enjoyable lightness and elegance. The sounds work together very well and add value to each other.” By Jan Jasper Tamboer, Parool, July 2015 Each composition has a unique and persuasive feel to it. From light and sunny to fascinating and intense, and everything in between.”
By Mischa Andriessen, Trouw, September 2015 https://www.herminedeurloo.com/js_albums/welling/

Personnel: Harmonica, Producer – Hermine Deurloo; Cello – Emile Visser; Viola – Oene van Geel; Violin – Jasper Le Clercq, Jeffrey Bruinsma

Welling

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Jacques Loussier - The Best of Play Bach

Styles: Piano Jazz
Year: 2020
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 70:00
Size: 65,2 MB
Art: Front

(3:35) 1. Air on the G String
(4:34) 2. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring
(4:19) 3. Chorale No. 1
(3:26) 4. Chromatic Fantasy
(3:56) 5. D Minor Concerto (Adagio)
(4:24) 6. D Minor Concerto (Allegro Moderato)
(9:48) 7. D Minor Concerto (Allegro Risoluto)
(4:54) 8. Italian Concerto (Adagio)
(4:57) 9. Italian Concerto (Allegro)
(3:02) 10. Italian Concerto (Presto)
(4:38) 11. Prelude No. 2
(3:34) 12. Siciliano in G Minor
(9:23) 13. Toccata & Fugue in D Minor
(5:25) 14. Prelude No. 1

Jacques Loussier was born in Angers, in northwestern France, October 26, 1934. He started playing piano at the age of ten and quickly demonstrated tremendous ability. When Loussier was just sixteen, he entered the Conservatoire Nationale de Musique in Paris where he studied with Professor Yves Nat whose youthful compositions were praised by Faure and Saint-Saëns, and whose prodigious gifts as a pianist were encouraged by Debussy. Continuing this distinguished lineage, Loussier was to become one of Nat’s most accomplished pupils, heading the conservatory’s piano class of over five hundred students before leaving to commence a freelance career that included travels to South America and the Middle East as well as work as accompanist for Catherine Sauvage and Charles Aznavour.

In 1959, Loussier hit upon the idea that was to make his international reputation, combining his interest in jazz with his love of J.S. Bach. Only a pianist with such an exceptional classical technique and deft improvisatory skill could have nurtured such a vision. He founded the Play Bach Trio, which used Bach’s compositions as the basis for jazz improvisation. The trio immediately caught the public imagination. In their live appearances, tours and concerts, plus a succession of recordings built on the cornerstone of four albums made for Decca between 1960 and 1963, Loussier’s group achieved a breakthrough to popular commercial success enjoyed by only a select few jazz musicians. In fifteen years, the trio sold over six million albums.

During its heyday, the trio broadened the range of its experiments with Loussier double tracking some pieces on organ and piano and, later, recording some of his arrangements of Bach’s concerti with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. However, after years on the road, like many popular commercial groups, the original trio reached the end of its natural life in 1978. In 1980, Loussier retired to his home in Provence to compose, research and record. He had already dabbled in film and ballet composition, and had established his own recording studio at Miraval, not far from Nice, where in addition to composing his own pieces for acoustic and electronic instruments, he played host to many recording stars of the rock world including Pink Floyd, Elton John, Sting and Yes. In fact, segments of Pink Floyd’s The Wall were recorded at Loussier’s studio.

Loussier’s own music in the 1980s explored the integration of new technology with conventional instruments, just as his 1950s experiments explored the ground between jazz and classics. He produced suites for piano, synthesizers, percussion and bass, and some rock-jazz-classical fusion works including Pulsions, Pagan Moon and Fusions Sous La Mer.

The tercentenary of Bach’s birth in 1985 coaxed Loussier back to the trio format, and he re-formed the Play Bach Trio with two new partners. He feels his new trio has far more stylistic range than its predecessor, and whereas that was a pioneer group, the latter-day trio combines jazz, rock and contemporary classical ideas with a mix of jazz and Bach.

The trio keeps up a busy touring schedule, traveling annually in Japan and the U.K. as well as in Loussier’s native France. It also appears regularly in Germany, Spain and Italy. Loussier leaves plenty of room in his schedule to write his own compositions. In 1986, he produced a mass entitled Lumières, his first full-scale work for symphony orchestra, which continues his exploration of the synthesis of musical genres. In its Paris premiere, classical countertenor James Bowman and soprano Deborah Rees found themselves singing alongside a rock drummer. Loussier has subsequently written a trumpet and violin concerto (both in 1988), a suite for string, Tableaux Venetiens, and a ballet, Trois Couleurs (1989), to celebrate the bi-centenary of the French Revolution.

His first Telarc release, Jacques Loussier Plays Bach, debuted in 1996. His next recording, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, unlocked a new vein of creativity and self-discovery, in which Loussier searched for a deeper level of exploration altogether. He followed up this excursion into the Italian baroque with Jacques Loussier Plays Satie, a look at the founding father of French minimalism. His exceptional 1999 release, Ravel’s Bolero, explored Loussier’s very personal connection to the work of the French impressionists. The Bach Book/40th Anniversary Album, a new recording of Loussier’s best-selling works from the ‘60s was also released in 1999. In 2000, for the first time ever, Loussier tackled the monumental Goldberg Variations, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the death of J.S. Bach. Recent releases from Jacques Loussier include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 (2003) and The Best of Play Bach (SACD only) in February 2004.

Impressions of Chopin’s Nocturnes, Loussier’s first solo piano recording and an intimate exploration of the works of Frederic Chopin, was released on Loussier’s 70th birthday in October 2004. He returned to the trio setting a year later with the October 25, 2005, release of Mozart Piano Concertos 20/23.

Loussier returned to his roots in the Bach canon with the 2006 release of Bach: The Brandenburgs, a jazz interpretation of Bach’s six Brandenburg Concertos.

In October 2007, Telarc released Encore! Jacques Loussier Plays Bach, a two-disc set that includes recordings from the early 1990s " the period immediately following a lengthy hiatus when Loussier disbanded his original Play Bach Trio and took time off from the rigors of recording and performing to focus on his own compositions. The set spotlights Loussier’s numerous strengths as both a jazz innovator and a classical composer. Disc 1, recorded in 1991, features the new Loussier Trio assembled in the late ’80s after the hiatus. Disc 2, recorded in 1992, features original classical compositions by Loussier, in which he stays true to the sound of a chamber orchestra, using the string textures familiar from his immersion in the music of the baroque era, but also brings in contemporary resonances, both in the solo parts and in the percussion contributions.https://www.allaboutjazz.com/musicians/jacques-loussier

The Best of Play Bach

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Jill Barber - Homemaker

Styles: Vocal
Year: 2023
File: MP3@320K/s
Time: 35:00
Size: 80,9 MB
Art: Front

(3:07) 1. Instant Cash For Gold
(3:21) 2. Beautiful Life
(4:13) 3. Homemaker
(3:06) 4. Joint Account (Feat. Slow Leaves)
(3:40) 5. Woman Of My Own Dreams
(3:27) 6. Hell No
(3:40) 7. My Mother's Hand
(3:11) 8. Big Eyes
(3:49) 9. Helium
(3:19) 10. Still In Love

Jill Barber returns to her folk roots with her new album, "Homemaker", delivering ten quietly profound songs about the complexities of motherhood, marriage, and the struggle to feel at home in one’s own identity. Having spent the last 20 years playing nearly every folk and jazz festival in Canada and captivating audiences across the globe, touring Japan, Europe, Australia, Mexico, South America, the USA and the Middle East, It was over the past few years that Jill began to feel an increasing disparity between her public image and the reality of her domestic life as an exhausted wife and mother.

Whereas her most recent albums have been bathed in lush string arrangements,"Homemaker" sees emotions laid bare, with a stripped-down production style reminiscent of her acclaimed debut Oh Heart and double Juno Award nominated follow-up For All Time. Written and recorded in her adopted hometown of Vancouver where she lives with her husband and two children, Homemaker is the first record that sees Jill in the role of a producer, co-producing with Erik Neilsen, and features some of Vancouver’s top session players. “"Homemaker" is an intentional push-back against the worn-out notion of what it means to be ‘just a homemaker’.

It is a statement about the humility and strength that it takes to do the meaningful work of creating a home for others, while still holding space for your own dreams." 1 Instant Cash for Gold 2 Beautiful Life 3 Homemaker 4 Joint Account (feat. Slow Leaves) 5 Woman of My Own Dreams 6 Hell No 7 My Mother's Hand 8 Big Eyes 9 Helium 10 Still in Love. Editorial Reviews https://www.amazon.com/Homemaker-Jill-Barber

Homemaker

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