David Chesky: Violin Concerto, Flute Concerto, The Girl from Guatemala
Tom Chiu, violin; Jeffrey Khaner, flute; Wonjung Kim, soprano; Area 31 Orchestra; Anthony Aibel, conductor.
Chesky SACD288
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

As a jazz artist, record-label owner, and composer, David Chesky stands out as the decade’s musical Everyman. This scintillating hybrid SACD focuses on Chesky the composer, but Chesky the producer of great-sounding recordings is also present. The compositions mix Brazilian jazz with concert music, and harmonic with 12-tone compositional elements, into a very appealing whole. The Violin Concerto is the more energetic piece, the Flute Concerto the more lyrical work. Both bubble over with good spirits and positive energy and will be very appealing additions to the repertory. The soloists are first-rate, as is the Area 31 Orchestra. The 4.0-channel recording (Chesky doesn’t believe in a center channel) is bright and clean as the proverbial whistle -- had Chesky scored a cue for dropped pin, you’d be able to hear it. The rear channels contribute just the right amount of ambience. If you’re looking for some significant new concert music to add to your collection, try this disc. I cannot imagine it disappointing anyone….Rad Bennett

Chopin: Nocturnes; Impromptus
Angela Hewitt, piano.
Hyperion SACDA67371/2
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

It makes sense that Angela Hewitt, revered for her piano performances of the music of J.S. Bach, should play Chopin so well. Bach and Mozart were like gods to Chopin, who was primarily a classicist who overlaid clean-cut forms with lovely romantic melodies. Hewitt has the chops to play in any manner she chooses, so it is good to report that she lets her virtuoso technique serve the music. Her playing is lyrical, her control assured. The C-minor Nocturne moves so slowly as to seem suspended in space, yet has more tragic meaning than any other performance I have heard. Only a player with ultimate control could pull off this approach. Hewitt can and does. She can also fly like the wind. The Fantasie-Impromptu in C-sharp Minor is a case in point, the rapid right-hand figures fleet and evenly articulated. Yet the middle section, with its familiar tune, practically defines lyricism. This track is one of the best performances of anything by Chopin that I have heard. The 4.0-channel sound is wonderful in the way it never calls attention to itself, but just reproduces the piano faithfully. The recording is not quite as close-up as many, yet has ample presence….Rad Bennett

The Reverend Al Green: Everything’s OK
Blue Note 8 7584 2
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

The delightful surprise of Al Green’s first disc for Blue Note, 2003’s I Can’t Stop, was its neoclassicism -- its refusal to play by the rules of current pop music. Green had reunited with Willie Mitchell, his producer through his peak years in the 1970s with Hi Records, and they made the kind of deep-soul record that major labels don’t bother with anymore. Everything’s OK is even more confident. Green wrote or cowrote (with Mitchell) all the tunes but one, a beautifully effective cover of "You Are So Beautiful." Mitchell’s production is a little cleaner and more open than in the old Hi days, but the horn and string arrangements will sound warmly familiar to Green’s fans. Green sounds as if he’s working a bit harder to hit the high notes, but his voice has a lived-in quality that underscores the feeling in his singing. He’s kept his songwriting chops, too -- in a perfect world, a couple of these tunes would be hits. The Reverend Al Green doesn’t sing any gospel music on Everything’s OK, but it’ll feed your soul….Joseph Taylor

Cassandra Wilson: Traveling Miles
EMI/DTS 54123
Format: DVD-Audio

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Picture Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Cassandra Wilson’s sultry tribute to Miles Davis, first released in 1999, here receives the 5.1-channel treatment as the first disc in the DTS Signature Series. The series’ titles will be drawn from various EMI labels, then remastered, remixed, and augmented with extra video features. I like this disc’s totally immersive sound mix, which seems to suit Wilson’s laid-back singing. She is one of the few singers who can sound calculated and spontaneous in the same instant, and the sound exhibits those same qualities. I think the vocals could have been better served by being in the center channel, however, instead of in the left and right front and surround channels. To balance this complaint, there is good, well-focused bass on all tracks, and all of the instruments have presence without any audio glare. I have yet to see a DVD-A that has the visual quality of a good DVD-V disc, and the video featurette here is way below average, grainy and indistinct. The EMI/DTS partnership in multichannel DVD-Audio is to be applauded, but there are still some rough edges to smooth out….Rad Bennett

The Rolling Stones: The Singles, 1968-1971
ABKCO 12212
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

It is by no coincidence that ABKCO Records has saved the best collection of Rolling Stones singles for last. Like the preceding two sets, The Singles, 1963-1965 and The Singles, 1965-1967, this one duplicates Stones 45s on CDs, down to the vinyl look of the discs and the printing of the sleeves. Here you’ll find "Jumpin’ Jack Flash," "Honky Tonk Woman," "You Can’t Always Get What You Want," and "Brown Sugar," all staples of classic-rock radio. "Sympathy for the Devil" is also here, along with the three remixes that ABKCO released on a hybrid SACD in late 2003. Rounding out the package are a bonus DVD that includes a performance of "Time Is On My Side" from The Ed Sullivan Show, a booklet with an original essay by Stones authority Nigel Williamson, a poster, and three period photos -- extras that have more in common with a deluxe DVD collection than a normal music release. The sound crackles with detail but lacks richness, which is a fault of the source recordings. If you have the other collections of The Singles, you’ll definitely want this one; if you plan to buy only one, this should be it….Marc Mickelson