JACQUES LOUSSIER TRIO - Bach : The Brandenburgs (2006) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Depending on who you talk to, the third stream movement of the '50s was either an absolute blessing or an absolute curse. There are racial separatists who claim that third stream was an assault on African-American culture because it tried to "whiten" jazz, and there are equally silly individuals who insist that Beethoven and Mozart were jazz musicians but that Chick Corea, Michael Brecker and Pat Metheny are not. Discussions of third stream tend to inspire moronic comments from both pro-third stream and anti-third stream people, but the bottom line is that third stream has had both its ups and downs creatively (more ups than downs). Not everything that French pianist Jacques Loussier (one of Europe's leading third stream proponents) has recorded is great -- some of his jazz/Euro-classical experiments have worked well, some not so well -- but his risk-taking spirit clearly serves him well on Bach: The Brandenburgs. This 2006 recording finds Loussier's trio (which also includes bassist Benoit Dunoyer de Segonzac and drummer André Arpino) interpreting the six Brandenburg concertos that Johann Sebastian Bach (b. 1685, d. 1750) composed between 1708 and 1720, and interpret is definitely the operative word. Unlike a musician who plays Euro-classical music exclusively, Loussier does not play Bach's material note for note; he improvises, offering personal and introspective performances. Loussier is quite tasteful, and he makes Bach's compositions sound perfectly natural in a jazz setting. Bach: The Brandenburgs is not recommended to classical purists; this is an album for jazz piano enthusiasts who also happen to appreciate Bach's legacy, and those who fit that description will find Bach: The Brandenburgs to be one of Loussier's more lucid and artistically successful offerings. by Alex Henderson 
Tracklist:
Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 in F major, BWV 1046   
Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major, BWV 1047   
Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 in G major, BWV 1048   
Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, BWV 1049   
Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 in D major, BWV 1050   
Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 in B flat major, BWV 1051
Credits:
Bass – Benoit Dunoyer De Segonzac
Drums – Andre Arpino
Piano – Jacques Loussier

FRANK ZAPPA - Hot Rats (1969-1995) RM / FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

Aside from the experimental side project Lumpy Gravy, Hot Rats was the first album Frank Zappa recorded as a solo artist sans the Mothers, though he continued to employ previous musical collaborators, most notably multi-instrumentalist Ian Underwood. Other than another side project -- the doo wop tribute Cruising With Ruben and the Jets -- Hot Rats was also the first time Zappa focused his efforts in one general area, namely jazz-rock. The result is a classic of the genre. Hot Rats' genius lies in the way it fuses the compositional sophistication of jazz with rock's down-and-dirty attitude -- there's a real looseness and grit to the three lengthy jams, and a surprising, wry elegance to the three shorter, tightly arranged numbers (particularly the sumptuous "Peaches en Regalia"). Perhaps the biggest revelation isn't the straightforward presentation, or the intricately shifting instrumental voices in Zappa's arrangements -- it's his own virtuosity on the electric guitar, recorded during extended improvisational workouts for the first time here. His wonderfully scuzzy, distorted tone is an especially good fit on "Willie the Pimp," with its greasy blues riffs and guest vocalist Captain Beefheart's Howlin' Wolf theatrics. Elsewhere, his skill as a melodist was in full flower, whether dominating an entire piece or providing a memorable theme as a jumping-off point. In addition to Underwood, the backing band featured contributions from Jean-Luc Ponty, Lowell George, and Don "Sugarcane" Harris, among others; still, Zappa is unquestionably the star of the show. Hot Rats still sizzles; few albums originating on the rock side of jazz-rock fusion flowed so freely between both sides of the equation, or achieved such unwavering excitement and energy. by Steve Huey  

This is probably the first FZ album that Most-Folks-Who-Don't-Even-Like-Frank Zappa ever bought, and the one that began to establish him as a virtuoso musician and composer. Mostly instrumental with Captain Beefheart providing off-color commentary on Willie The Pimp's "twenny dollah bill."

After dropping a few hints on UNCLE MEAT, this was where FZ began to pursue jazz/rock composition in earnest; and "Peaches En Regalia" remains a strong contender for the catchiest tune in his whole catalogue. Backed by the impressive likes of Sugarcane Harris and Jean-Luc Ponty, he delivers the first full-scale demonstrations of his guitar prowess. Of special interest: "The Gumbo Variations" originally had to be edited to fit on a vinyl record; and is now restored to its 17-minute entirety.

" 'Jazz isn't dead,' Zappa's famous aphorism goes, 'it just smells funny.' Indeed Hot Rats (some think of as a missing link between Miles and Steely Dan) waxes as deliciously pungent as a rare Stilton even during the immaculate strains of 'Peaches En Regalia' and 'Little Umbrellas.' Perhaps it's the Brian Wilson-on-acid orchestrations, or the precision with which the band negotiates FZ's square-peg-in-a-round-hole rhythms." – Ted Greenwald

Tracklist:

1. Peaches En Regalia 3:37

2. Willie The Pimp 9:16

3. Son Of Mr. Green Genes 8:58

4. Little Umbrellas 3:03

5. The Gumbo Variations 16:57

6. It Must Be A Camel 5:16

SUSANNE ABBUEHL - The Gift (2013) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

On her third offering for ECM, her first in six years, vocalist/composer Susanne Abbuehl utilizes the poetry of Emily Dickinson, Emily Bronte, Sara Teasdale, and Wallace Stevens to explore solitude as it embraces desire, and the mysteries of nature. Though she has employed poetry as source material before, it has never been to this extent. Here, she has written the music for all selections but one, Wolfgang Lackerschmid's "Soon (Five Years Ago)," for which she provided lyrics. Backed by her longstanding pianist Wolfert Brederode, flügelhornist Matthieu Michel, and drummer/percussionist Olavi Louhivuori, Abbuehl moves inside the natural and sometimes angular rhymes of her sources, inhabits their rhythms, and delivers them as tender yet authoritative songs. Her restrained, refined approach not only carries their more subtle meanings across, but reveals their considerable power. (Check the brooding, hungry tension in Teasdale's "The Cloud.") Abbuehl uses Dickinson's poems most of all. The writer may be regarded as a mysterious, solitary, even tragic being, but the singer also unmasks just how many worlds -- even observed from the confines of a room -- her poet's imagination reached. On both versions of "This and My Heart," the singer makes the firmament respond to her offering: "It's all I have to bring today...This, and my heart, and all the fields/And all the meadows wide...." Michel's horn emphasizes Abbuehl's delivery as his smoky lines travel, fluttering, skittering, and intoning through a labyrinth; Louhivuori dances around the kit as a conduit for them, and Brederode becomes the respondent universe. Desire is a motivational force in many of these poems; from the earthiness of discovery in Dickinson's "Forbidden Fruit" and its ethereal projection in her "Wild Nights," to its certain spiritual and carnal expression in Teasdale's "By Day, by Night," to the unfettered wildness in Bronte's "Shadows on Shadows." Even in Stevens' "In My Room," solitude is the place where desire not only wants inherently what it wants immediately, but where its language provides it form to observe and project: "From my balcony, I survey the yellow air/Reading where I have written/The spring is like a belle undressing...." (Abbuehl offers a ghostly trace of the Beach Boys' tune of the same name in her refrain, not as humor but as an empathic device.) Throughout The Gift, Abbuehl's music and phrasing are strikingly intuitive and wholly artful; they transcend genre barriers. Her band's articulation of these compositions and the illumination they provide her voice are nearly symbiotic in their support; they create dimension and layered textures that add shades of meaning under her delivery. The Gift offers delight, tension, longing, and an opportunity to hear where written and sung speech are mirror images in the heart of language itself.  by Thom Jurek
Tracklist:
1 The Cloud 5:10
Susanne Abbuehl / Sara Teasdale
2 This and My Heart  3:39
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
3 If Bees Are Few 1:39
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
4 My River Runs to You 5:21
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
5 Ashore at Least 7:36
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
6 Forbidden Fruit 2:04
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
7 By Day, by Night 4:03
Susanne Abbuehl / Sara Teasdale
8 A Slash of Blue 1:33
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
9 Wild Nights 6:40
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
10 In My Room 4:53
Susanne Abbuehl / Wallace Stevens
11 Bind Me 1:22
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
12 Soon (Five Years Ago) 3:15
Susanne Abbuehl / Wolfgang Lackerschmid
13 Fall, Leaves, Fall 4:04
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Brontë
14 Sepal 1:31
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
15 Shadows on Shadows 4:03
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Brontë
16 This and My Heart [Variation] 4:27
Susanne Abbuehl / Emily Dickinson
Credits
Drums, Percussion – Olavi Louhivuori
Flugelhorn – Matthieu Michel
Piano, Harmonium [Indian Harmonium] – Wolfert Brederode
Voice – Susanne Abbuehl