Paul Sanders

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you know those tufty little bushes that go blowing through deserted towns in old western movies? well my mind is a bit like that. an occasional sagebrush will tumble through here, maybe followed by a stray dog. then a few desperate itinerants seeking shelter under the leaky shingles... you get the picture.
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re: Munich Machine

[ text about: Munich Machine by Hell (CD Album) | Munich Machine ]

Munich Machine was the name of Frank Farian's studio band as far as I remember - notable on the Donna Summer 'Live and More' album backing MacArthur Park, as well as being to all intents and purposes, Boney M.

Posted by Paul Sanders at 12:42, 16 Aug 2002

Live At The It Club - Complete

[ review of: Live At The It Club - Complete by Thelonious Monk (CD Album) ]

In an exotic age it is easy to forget how potent syncopation can be, compared with anodyne Latin shuffle. Channel Four in the UK ran a TV programme this spring (1998) about Thelonious Monk as part of a series on Jazz Masters. It was the worst TV about the best music, and it got me into a record shop to get some Monk on CD (I once owned a selection on vinyl). The opening 12 bar cycle of Blue Monk (CD1 Track 1) is a reminder that Monk was not a 'difficult' pianist, and the next 12 that a well directed quartet is much more powerful than a flabby midsize band. In short, the more Monk extended traditional structures, rhythms and motifs, the stronger those structures appeared and the more exciting his playing became. This happens as a song develops, and within a solo. Playing with the quartet Charlie Rouse sounds like an entire brass section; as a soloist he is pedestrian (this is a positive judgement), hiking with vigour up the hills, not soaring straight to their summits. For historians, this selection was recorded over two nights at the It Club, LA, in 1964. Larry Gales plays bass, Ben Riley drums. It was released in 1982 on 2 LPs, now remastered and extended in this 2 CD version. I suspect that this is as much as most music lovers would want to hear from those original tapes, however Sony have retained enough for a 'really complete, honest' DVD version.

Posted by Paul Sanders at 00:00, 03 Dec 1998

Lassus

[ review of: Lassus by Hilliard Ensemble (CD Album) ]

It's far less dangerous to be a European radical now than it has been for the last two thousand years. This CD contains two works, radical in their time, by 16th Century composer Orlandus Lassus, sung with aesthetic precision by vocal quartet The Hilliard Ensemble. Today we listen to Lassus for an impression of the perfection of spiritual beauty, powerfully communicated by this recording. It also leaves a window open for those who wish to appreciate music as radical and intellectually challenging as any created these last two millennia. The Church and aristocratic courts of Lassus' time have their modern counterparts of patronage in public arts bodies and record companies, emasculated organisations with the power neither to imprison nor burn at stake. Is this CD an argument for extending the power of the Arts Council and the music industry? Perhaps.

Posted by Paul Sanders at 00:00, 03 Dec 1998