Anna Vinnitskaya – Piano Dances (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:02:18 minutes | 971 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Alpha Classics
Anna Vinnitskaya celebrates dance, or rather the dances of composers from very different periods and styles: Ravel, Shostakovich and Widmann. ‘In all these works, you can feel in some way transported to the world of childhood. Because I believe the childhoods of each of these three composers are reflected there’, says the pianist. In his Valses nobles et sentimentales , Ravel paid tribute to Schubert. A few years later, he transcribed for solo piano his ballet score La Valse , in which ‘billowing clouds part from time to time, allowing us to glimpse waltzing couples’. Shostakovich’s Dances of the Dolls make me think of the Soviet cartoons of my childhood’, says Anna Vinnitskaya. ‘They also remind me of Mozart: they are as bright as diamonds, sincere and beautiful.’ The Zirkustänze (Circus Dances) composed by Jörg Widmann in 2012, a brilliant kaleidoscope of emotions and parodies, round off the programme.
Read more
Aki Takase – Aki Takase Japanic: Forte (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 56:15 minutes | 944 MB | Genre: Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © BMC Records
Aki Takase releases the second album with her commanding band, Japanic. On Forte, the leading figure of European improvisational jazz once again demonstrates her energetic, radiating nature, joined by her distinguished bandmates – Daniel Erdmann, Dag Magnus Narvesen, Carlos Bica and DJ Illvibe –, and two guest artists, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Nils Wogram.
Her music not only sounds strong and powerful, but also conveys strength and power. And this presence, this power, also marks her as a person: she radiates positive energy – and this is needed today perhaps more than ever. For Aki Takase, the word “forte” contains something of a message: “Overcoming harsh reality and moving forward with music during this time – we wanted to give expression to a strong will”.
The Japanese-born pianist, who has been living in Berlin for more than three decades, has won the German Record Critics’ Prize nine times in her long career, among many other awards. In five years, she has released three albums on BMC Records: Carmen Rhapsody, composed for Daniel Erdmann, Vincent Courtois and Mayumi Nakamura, the duo album Isn’t It Romantic with Daniel Erdmann, which won them both the German Jazz Award, and her debut album with Japanic, Thema Prima, hailed by the critics of Jazzwise, Citizenjazz and All About Jazz.
Read more
Adam King – Feels Like Home (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 45:08 minutes | 505 MB | Genre: Contemporary Jazz, Jazz
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Ubuntu Music
Leading British jazz label Ubuntu Music’s latest upcoming offering is a celebration of the multi-cultural melting pot that is London’s vibrant jazz scene. With a history spanning Greece, the USA, and the UK, saxophonist Vasilis Xenopoulos and pianist Paul Edis’ upcoming record is a musical reflection of the paths and relationships their lives in music have led them on.
Vasilis and Paul began playing together 20 years ago when both relocated to West London to study. Originally from Greece, Xenopoulos had just finished studying at Berklee College in the US, while Edis had moved South from the Northeast of England.
In the intervening years, they’ve played numerous shows together, releasing their debut album ‘A Narrow Escape’ in 2016 to critical acclaim. With Joel Barford (drums) and Adam King (double bass), their latest recording features original music inspired by the theme of ‘home’… home in this sense not only represents the many places they’ve both lived, but also the people they’ve known along the way.
The duo describe the music on Feels Like Home: “Rooted in the jazz tradition, this is music that’s eclectic, groove based and fundamentally melodic. Including elements of hard bop, latin jazz, gospel and even folk, there are nods to Dexter Gordon, Stanley Turrentine, John Coltrane, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Bill Evans, Brad Mehldau, McCoy Tyner and more besides. This is honest music full of emotions, inspired and unified around the central theme of ‘home’.”
Read more
