Ten Recordings You Should Listen To - #1

Here's the idea: Each PMAC faculty member will be making a guest appearance on my blog in the coming weeks. What I'll be asking each instructor to do is write a blog entry about ten recordings they believe you (dedicated blog reader) should listen to. I'll go first.

My ten recordings are in no particular order. And there is no specific criteria to my choosing them other than I really enjoy each recording in its own way. They follow no specific style or genre, and if I were to make the list again a week from now, it might be different. But I really think that they are important recordings to listen to if you are a music lover.

1) The Complete Bartok String Quartets - The Emerson String Quartet

This is one of my all time favorite CD sets. Bartok's quartets are the early twentieth-century Masterworks of the genre. Listen and enjoy the expanded colors and textures Bartok creates - these are nothing like the quartets of Haydn or Beethoven, but are just as important in every way. There is an all pizzacato (plucked strings) movement that is remarkable. A must own for any classical music lover.

2) Saxophone Colossus - Sonny Rollins

Quite possibly the best jazz tenor sax recording ever made. From the classic opening of St. Thomas to organic improvisation of the closing Blue Seven, I never tire of this album. A VERY IMPORTANT CD TO LISTEN TO IF YOU PLAY SAXOPHONE! People often ask me where to start when listening to jazz and, in my opinion, this is as good a place as any. Again, a must own for any jazz lover.

3) Melodies (Songs of Claude Debussy) - Elly Ameling, Dalton Baldwin, Gerard Souzay, Frederica von Stade, Mady Mesple, Michelle Command

At the University of Chicago I spent many an hour discovering the complexities of Debussy's harmonic language listening to and studying the songs on this recording. The three Bilitis Songs are my personal favorites, but the entire collection is wonderful. Beautiful, powerful performances. The small form of songs beautifully captures Debussy's take on formal structure and harmony in a concise format. Great listening for any lover of art songs.

4) Hunky Dory - David Bowie

Just about everyone I know has a love for some rock star that shaped their music tastes in their youth. For me, that rock star is David Bowie. And Hunky Dory is in many ways one of the greatest collections of songs by a rock artist. From the classic Changes to the often covered Life on Mars, this is young Bowie at his best.

5) Time Out - The Dave Brubeck Quartet

While Take Five is the classic track, Blue Rondo a la Turk is my personal favorite. This album rocketed the quartet into world fame, and rightfully so. They followed it up with four more albums dedicated to the examination of time in music. From unusual time signatures to complex forms, this one is a true masterpiece and deserves a spot at the top of any jazz lovers "most important recordings" list.

6) Nixon in China - John Adams

While I wouldn't recommend this as an introduction to Minimalism (a category that Adams himself does not like to be placed in), this opera is one of the great Minimalist masterpieces (another term Adams would be uncomforable with). This is a remarkable work, much more approachable than many of the Philip Glass operas, and the performances are stellar. This is one I bet you'd be facinated with.

7) Symphony No. 5 and Symphony No. 9, Dmitri Shotakovich - Leonard Bernstein Conducts the New York Philharmonic

While many young classical musicians talk of being awed at a young age by Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms or Bach, for me it was Shostakovich's amazing Fifth Symphony. I still get chills every time I hear the haunting French horn solo in the middle of the final movement. Everyone should know this piece.

8) Kid A - Radiohead

A modern rock masterpiece. Haunting, mysterious, epic, atmospheric, beautiful. Enough said. Now listen.

9) The Complete Works of Anton Webern - Pierre Boulez, Heather Harper, Charles Rosen, and Isaac Stern

His pieces are often miniatures. His understanding of twelve-tone structures and the organic manner in which his rows dictate form is unparalleled. And as that sentence means little to those who have not studied the music of the Second Vienese School (of which Webern was a part), I can just say that this is good music, important music, and music that far too few ever hear. Join the club of those who have experienced the genius of Webern.

10) Bag's Groove - The Miles Davis Quintet

The line-up of Davis, Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Percy Heath and Kenny Clarke is enough to give any jazz lover goosebumps. Add to it the first recordings of such venerable standards as Oleo, Doxy, and Airegin and you find yourself in jazz heaven. And the title track is amazing as well.