What Are You Listening To? August 2021

[axolotl]

You must be having un día malo, mi amigo.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet - Debussy: Complete Piano Works (2006)

The protege of Georg Solti and Pierre Boulez handles this beautiful but challenging repertoire with panache and aplomb. I'm supposed to be working but his sparking performance of the wildly inventive first book of Preludes is way too enticing to ignore.

"With panache and aplomb?"

Shouldn't he use eight fingers and two thumbs?

Btw, how many CDs is that?

 

[Ojai Sam]

"With panache and aplomb?"

Shouldn't he use eight fingers and two thumbs?

Btw, how many CDs is that?

5, arranged by composition type rather than chronologically. For me, that makes for a more pleasant listening experience.

 

[Ojai Sam]

June Christy & Stan Kenton - Duet (1956)

BHT clued me in to this wonderful album. June Christy cut a bakers dozen classic songs with just her former boss on piano to celebrate the tenth anniversary of their working relationship. Apparently she was not entirely thrilled with the barebones results, perhaps feeling more comfortable with large orchestras. She needn't have worried. These songs are brilliant, showing to full advantage her breathtaking emotional range. The original vinyl LP had 11 tracks. Two more songs from the final session on May 19, 1955 surfaced years later during Capitol's extensive CD reissue program.

Buying hint: the original 11 song Duet album is very easy to find cheaply on CD. However, the two unreleased songs ("Body and Soul" and "You're Blase") are trickier. They do appear on two super rare Japanese releases of the Duet album. But don't mortgage your house. Just buy Day Dreams, a June Christy comp, worthwhile on its own merits and readily available a bargain price. It's really worth the effort, trust me on this.