Jordi Savall & Montserrat Figueras - Cançons de la Catalunya mil·lenària (2011) {Alia Vox AVSA 9881}
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© 2011 Alia Vox | AVSA 9881
Classical / Chamber Music / Vocal / Sacred / World Music

This reissue in the Heritage Series - the original album was released in 1988 - enables us to hear the unique Montserrat Figueras singing a repertoire she embodies like nobody else : the traditional songs of Catalonia. This performance is the natural continuation of her exploration of the great works connected to Catalogne,eg: the Song of the Sybille or the Red Book of Montserrat (Gregorian manuscript): on this shore of Mediterranean Sea, traditional and "classical" repertoires are connected in a very intimate way. This album is a landmark of in the career of Montserrat Figueras: her innovative style of interpretation, characterised by great fidelity to the historical sources combined with an extraordinary creative and expressive power, sounds at its best.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band certainly knew how to have a good time while playing their music. Their spirited blending of New Orleans jazz parade rhythms with R&B-ish horn riffs made them flexible enough to welcome guests Dr. John (who sings and play piano on "It's All Over Now"), Dizzy Gillespie ("Ooh-Pop-A-Dah"), and Branford Marsalis ("Moose the Mooche") to their Columbia debut without altering their music at all. With Gregory Davis and Efrem Towns playing strong trumpet in the ensembles and occasional solos, and with sousaphonist Kirk Joseph not letting up for a moment, this is a typically spirited set by the unique DDBB.

In New Orleans in 1977, the Original Sixth Ward Dirty Dozen band was born in the city's Treme neighborhood. Coming out of the 100-plus-year tradition of the local social club scene – in this case, the Dirty Dozen Social and Pleasure Club – they started rehearsing with no other goal than playing in the club. Eventually renaming themselves the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, they played for years before they began performing steady gigs at a Seventh Ward night spot and later at another uptown club. The DDBB built an enormous repertoire, and in the process innovated on the brass brand tradition, which was flagging very badly at the time. They incorporated funk, bebop, and more into their sound. The DDBB started a renaissance; they influenced every brass band that came after them. Twenty Dozen, produced by Scott Billington, is their twelfth album.

Trumpet and flügelhorn player Frank Walton led a fine sextet through a program of mostly hard bop originals with some standards and soul-jazz on this late-'70s date newly issued on CD. Besides Walton's straight-ahead, hard-edged trumpet and more lyrical flügelhorn solos, the contrast between alto saxophonist Henry Threadgill and soprano/tenor saxophonist Ari Brown is both interesting and exciting. Threadgill, one of the '70s greatest composers and bandleaders, played a mix of ripping blues, soaring soul, and spiraling solos, while Brown was a bit more restrained, but no less intense. While this date should have gotten widespread exposure a long time ago, hopefully its reissue on CD will correct the oversight.