Paquito D’Rivera: Portraits of Cuba
Chesky SACD298
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Portraits of Cuba is a long-overdue SACD release. It first appeared on CD in 1996 and has been one of Chesky’s best-known titles ever since. It puts Cuban sax-man/clarinetist Paquito D’Rivera together with more than a dozen other musicians to play music arranged and conducted by Argentinean composer Carlos Franzetti, who wrote some of the wonderful music for the film The Mambo Kings and won a Grammy for his work on Portraits of Cuba. Like the CD, the hybrid SACD will sound distant and blurry on a boom box or car stereo, but about as good as reproduced music gets on a high-resolution audio system. There is tremendous dynamic range -- if you turn the volume up beyond your normal listening level, you may be diving for the volume control by the end of any given track. The CD is no slouch sonically and very close to the SACD, which wins out for its superior inner detailing. Each instrument seems to occupy space that is distinct. This is ambitious Latin jazz reminiscent of Miles Davis’s Sketches of Spain in state-of-the-art sound....Marc Mickelson

Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto, Sérénade mélancolique
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy
Arthur Grumiaux, violin; New Philharmonia Orchestra; Jan Krenz and Heinz Wallberg, conductors.
Pentatone 5186 117
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

This generously filled disc presents two popular works for violin and orchestra that are seldom paired, plus an encore. Arthur Grumiaux brings poetry, lyricism, and elegance to every passage of all three while never stinting on virtuoso technique. His dark, rich tone is especially welcome in the Bruch. Both conductors support him hand in glove, and the New Philharmonia musicians are all first-rate. The sound, preserved in its original 4.0-channel configuration, is singularly well balanced. Grumiaux and the orchestra are ideally captured, the soloist has presence but never sounds unnaturally spotlighted, and the all-important softly clashed cymbals and harp that add color to the opening of the Bruch are realistically recorded. The rear channels add just the right amount of ambience to make the front stage sound three-dimensional, and re-create the feeling of a rather large performing hall....Rad Bennett

Per Nørgård: Morgenmyte, Ut Rosa, Wie ein Kind, Two Nocturnes, Mystik Morgen, Morgen-Meditation
Jens Schou, bass clarinet; Ars Nova Copenhagen; Tamás Vetö, conductor.
Da Capo 6.220510
Format: Hybrid Multichannel SACD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Per Nørgård is regarded as one of Denmark’s most important contemporary composers of choral music. Wie ein Kind was written in 1980; all the other works on the disc were written between 2000 and 2003. It is hard to pin down Nørgård’s style, though in these compositions he seems most concerned with sonority and arriving at a particular "sound." Much of the music is avant-garde, using human voices as sound effects. Chorus members speak, whisper, and cry out, but these effects are always against a beautiful choral background. All of the works are unaccompanied save for the last two, which feature the bass clarinet. The way in which Nørgård plays the instrument with and against the voices is exceptionally imaginative and effective. Ars Nova Copenhagen, the virtuoso 12-member vocal ensemble, sings this difficult material as if it were child’s play. In the program notes, clarinet soloist Jens Schou speaks of being surrounded by the singers, but the recording makes use of the rear channels only for a generous ambience. The recording itself is singularly detailed while being rich and warm. If you’re looking for something new, different, and challenging in state-of-the-art sound, this SACD will fill the bill....Rad Bennett

Patricia Barber: Verse
Mobile Fidelity UDSACD 2027
Format: Hybrid SACD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Chicago-based Patricia Barber is a triple-threat artist: singer, pianist, and songwriter. Her previous albums have mixed in a few of her own compositions alongside tried-and-true tunes from the Great American Songbook; Verse is the first to resonate solely with her own original material. Its ten tracks explore, in a sultry and often abrasive manner, various aspects of relationships and love. Each listener is sure to relate to one text or another: perhaps the newness of love, as in "Lost in This Love"; the usually ignored hints that something might be wrong in a relationship, espoused in the aptly titled "Clues"; or the fragmentation a bumpy relationship can bring, as intoned in "Pieces." Barber’s honeyed copper voice is unique, her delivery and musical ability beyond reproach. Her backing band works with her hand in glove, with special kudos going to bassist Michael Arnopol, who seems so in tune with her as to be an extra set of fingers on her hand. They breathe together -- it is uncanny to hear. Her style is sort of avant-garde and freeform; I wish she would strive to write more singable, audience-friendly tunes, but then we might not pay attention to the words, which seem to be her main point. The recorded sound is intimate and warm, with great presence and singular focus -- sound that allows one to hear everything the performers did on the day they were recorded....Rad Bennett

The Kentucky Headhunters: Big Boss Man
CbuJ Entertainment CBUJ 90618
Format: CD

Musical Performance
Sound Quality
Overall Enjoyment

Although the Kentucky Headhunters released their first recording in 1989, they’ve been kicking around in music since the mid-1970s. On Big Boss Man they’ve brought those years of experience to songs from the extensive Sony/ATV Music Publishing catalog. The band’s unique blend of country, blues, and rock should qualify them for the task, but Big Boss Man never really jells. Too often, the Headhunters bring nothing new to these well-known songs. "Walkin’ After Midnight" begins promisingly but soon fizzles. "Like a Rolling Stone" is overfamiliar, and so fully owned by Bob Dylan that it seems foolish for anyone else to tackle it (only Hendrix ever succeeded). On the other hand, the Headhunters do an amusing version of Roger Miller’s "Chug A Lug," and their takes on Buck Owens’ "Made in Japan" and Joe South’s "Don’t It Want to Make You Go Home" suggest that a little more care could have made this a more consistent disc. No one plays badly on Big Boss Man, but the guitarists fall back on familiar riffs, and the lead singer, Doug Phelps, seems ill suited for many of the songs. On the plus side, drummer Fred Young is consistently sharp, but that’s enough to save this disc....Joseph Taylor