Ten Recordings You Should Listen To - #7

Voice and piano instructor Judy McCann has been with PMAC from nearly the beginning. Her list is wonderfully diverse, and includes one of my favorite Stravinsky works (see #5). And make sure you note her clever choice for #6. I'm not sure she realized she cheated by including 11 albums, but I couldn't imagine which one to cut, so here are all of them:

1) Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks - Striking It Rich

A San Francisco band that broke up in 1974, Dan Hicks' style was to combine jazz, swing, folk, and a little bit of country, producing snappy and cleverly original music like no other. Each song has a distinctly different flavor, and his lyrics are filled with humor. Behind the entertainment value of this recording lay some outstanding musicianship.

2) Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass - Take Love Easy

Intimate, elegant, and simple. Just Joe on acoustic guitar, and Ella singing in her natural, fluid style, jazz standards such as "Lush Life," "You're Blase," and "A Foggy Day."

3) Aretha Franklin - Lady Soul

Enough said.

4) The Black Eyed Peas - Monkey Business

Present day, double espresso, James Brown kind of funk. Well produced and beautifully arranged, the rap lyrics are honest and socially conscious.

5) London Symphony Orchestra, Michael Tilson Thomas - Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms

Dynamically diverse, exuberant, haunting, this piece is a demonstration of Stravinsky's Neo-classical phase, around 1930. The orchestra is made up of largely wind instruments, two pianos, and a choir. No strings and no clarinets. He selected various texts from David's Psalms in the Old Testament, sung in Latin. Highest mastery of composition, in my opinion.

6) Take 6 - So Much 2 Say (1990)

No instruments, except for the human voice, these six men beautifully and poignantly interweave multiple levels of harmony with mind blowing precision and accuracy. I L-O-V-E U and Come Unto Me are memorable.

7) Renee Fleming - Renee Fleming

Not since Joan Sutherland have I heard a voice as remarkable as Renee Fleming's. She possesses a combination of agility, power, and range with a roundness and beauty of tone. And, she has pathos. This recording is made up of exquisite arias by Puccini, Verdi, Bellini, Massenet and Bizet. Listen, and sing along!

8) St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin - Ralph Vaughn Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

A fantasia is a musical composition with its roots in improvization, so it seldom resembles textbook rules of musical form. This piece contains recurring motives, and then travels seamlessly through variations on that motive. This particular recording is played by a string quartet, and sounds haunting, mystical, and folk-like. Very lovely.

9) Pascal Roge, piano - After the Rain...The Soft Sounds of Erik Satie

Although the title sounds a bit cheesey, it accurately fits the whole feel of this recording.

10) Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark

11) Julia Faulkner, Soprano, Anna Gonda, Alto, Camerata Budapest, Michael Halasz - Giovanni Pergolesi's Stabat Mater

Stabat Mater means steadfast mother, and the twelve solos/duets take the listener on the journey with Mary as she watches her son die on the cross. Heart wrenchingly beautiful, the composition paints the tears and pain of the moment using suspended dissonances and overlapping voicing. Perfect for Lent.