Level 7

Track Listings

1. Escher

2. What She Saw There

3. For Mallets and Strings

4. Thirty-Five

5. Quickly Casual

6. Volt

Editorial Reviews
Sequenza 21 Magazine March 2003
"combines violin, cello, percussion...to create vivid performances of new music. ...including on this, the marvelous Evan Ziporyn."

NewMusicBox, June 2003
" …a nicely taut performance …showcases the surprisingly homogeneous qualities shared by the disparate instrumentation … [an] enjoyable collection."

Album Description
The second release from this unique new music group committed to the performance and recording of percussion and string works by contemporary composers. These tracks are a reflection of the ensemble’s truly unique sound as well as the provocative individuality of the classical, avant-garde, and jazz influenced works the group regularly performs live in concert. The CD includes first recordings by Cox (Escher, Volt), Joseph Koykkar (For Mallets and Strings), Leslie Hogan (Thirty-Five), HyeKyung Lee (Quickly Casual), and a recording of Evan Ziporyn's What She Saw There in its original instrumentation of cello and two marimbas. With violin, cello, vibraphone, marimba, and various other percussion, this is a truly one of a kind CD.

Level 7

Tracks:

Rio Dreams
My Love
Jamaica Jam
The Man
Bells Of Venice
The Way To Love
Infinite Love
Esperan
Love Song
Feelings
Nows the Time
Jamaica Jam (Rasta Mix

Album Description

MAKING HISTORY--- "HARMONICA DREAMS"- HARMONICA DREAMS is the world's first smooth jazz harmonica CD. It is radio friendly and contains many commercial songs that have HIT potential while retaining artistic integrity. For those seeking an original voice and concept, this is it. There has never been a harmonica that has captured the sound of "Today" as this CD does Imagine if you could combine the harmonica magic of Stevie Wonder with the production/songwriting skills of Boney James, Dave Koz, Pat Metheny, or Spyro Gyra. This original mix results in a unique sound that instantly identifies the artist and his instrument- a quality surely helpful in today's market of confusing sound-alikes. It is co-produced by Claudio Spiewak, the brilliant Brazilian guitarist/producer who has performed with some of the top Latin acts and currently performs with Nestor Torres

Customer Reviews:

need to pick up some harp chops.......2007-02-17

hear of larry adler,toots theilman,bon figlio,nice harmonica chops in the easy or non-traditional listening mode.yes the harmonica can be more than blues and country.sit back and relax maybe add some chops to your repretair.i did

"the world's first smooth jazz harmonica CD".......2005-09-09

Review by Jonathan Widran
In listening to the veteran harmonica player's stylistically eclectic, dreamy and joyous debut--billed on the packaging as "the world's first smooth jazz harmonica CD"--a quote from Clifford Brown about the legendary Toots Thielemans comes to mind: "Toots, the way you play the harmonica, they should not call it a miscellaneous instrument!" While certainly not the household name Thielemans is, Singer has amassed an equally impressive sideman resume working with the best pop, country, Latin and Brazilian singers--from Blondie to Garth Brooks and Djavan! Only time will tell if this winning indie effort can break through the sax/piano/guitar domination of his chosen genre, but catchy, melodic tracks like the zesty samba "Rio Dreams," the reggae-tinged "Jamaica Jam" and soulful, laid back "Bells of Venice" would fit into the format perfectly. Singer shows his romantic side both instrumentally on the lush, moody "My Love" and later on a series of vocals, which are pleasant enough but limit his beautiful instrument to a quieter, supporting role. Although it's not the track most listeners will gravitate to, his best vocal is an eloquent, classically tinged revisit of Lesley Duncan's "Love Song,", first popularized by Elton John on 1971's classic Tumbleweed Connection. Perhaps Singer's biggest dream is that he can bring his instrument into a center stage role for both himself and others who, like him, master the beauty of it. This collection is an impressive first step.

Average customer rating:

Red Hot
Crowded House , Level 42 , Rick Astley , Sheriff , Billy Ocean , Pat Benatar , Eddie Money & Ronnie Spector , Robert Palmer , Sheena Easton , and The Power Station
Manufacturer: Mystic Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000MZSVMC

Product Description

MYSTIC MUSIC Presents RED HOT. AS SEEN ON T.V. Disc 1 1. SOMETHING SO STRONG CROWDED HOUSE 2. OBSESSION ANIMOTION 3. SOMETHING ABOUT YOU LEVEL 42 4. IS THIS LOVE WHITESNAKE 5. EVERY ROSE HAS ITS THORN POISON 6. ALL I NEED JACK WAGNER 7. MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY ALIAS 8. SOME LIKE IT HOT THE POWER STATION 9. TOUCH ME (I WANT YOUR BODY) SAMANTHA FOX 10. NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP RICK ASTLEY 11. TOUCH ME CATHY DENNIS 12. NEED YOU TONIGHT INXS 13. THE FLAME CHEAP TRICK 14. BLACK VELVET ALLANAH MYLES 15. SAVE YOUR LOVE GREAT WHITE 16. WHEN I'M WITH YOU SHERIFF 17. CAN'T STOP AFTER 7 18. ADDICTED TO LOVE ROBERT PALMER DISC 2 1. FEEL LIKE MAKIN' LOVE BAD COMPANY 2. I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS FOREIGNER 3. SUDDENLY LAST SUMMER THE MOTELS 4. TOO SHY KAJAGOOGOO 5. SHATTERED DREAMS JOHNNY HATES JAZZ 6. WE BELONG PAT BENATAR 7. CARIBBEAN QUEEN (NO MORE LOVE ON THE RUN) BILLY OCEAN 8. I GET WEAK BELINDA CARLISLE 9. TAKE ME HOME TONIGHT / BE MY BABY EDDIE MONEY WITH RONNIE SPECTOR 10. HOLD ON TO THE NIGHT RICHARD MARX 11. LISTEN TO YOUR HEART ROXETTE 12. MISSING YOU JOHN WAITE 13. I TOUCH MYSELF DIVINYLS 14. SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE ROBERT PALMER 15. SUGAR WALLS SHEENA EASTON 16. I CAN DREAM ABOUT YOU DAN HARTMAN 17. FREEWAY OF LOVE ARETHA FRANKLIN

Average customer rating:

A nice concept, not always consistently carried out, but an enjoyable survey nonetheless
Tasty little survey

The American Innovator

Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Tangos | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Etudes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Preludes | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

Suites | Forms & Genres | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00000E55N
Release Date: 1993-10-12

Customer Reviews:

A nice concept, not always consistently carried out, but an enjoyable survey nonetheless.......2007-06-07

"The American Innovator", mind you, and not "innovators", as if, beyond a haphazard and motley collection of individuals, there was a particularly American compositional strain in favor of innovation - and maybe there is. The sheer geographical distance from Europe possibly made it easier for American composers (such as Cowell and Cage) to reject the weight of European tradition, and the widespread sentiment, arising after World War I, that the United States was a new major power that stood on its own and owed nothing to its European ancestors, worked in the same direction.

Of course one is always tempted to discuss the contents of such a collection, both for what it includes and for what it leaves aside. Young George Antheil and George Crumb - two essential American innovators, I think - are absent. But then to include Griffes' Debussysms is far-fetched - unless you consider that anything that strayed from the Salon romanticism of an Amy Beach or a Horatio Parker is "innovative". What then is an "American innovator"? Is it, as the notes put it, one of those "outsiders who consciously shun the dominant European-oriented culture" and are "isolated from the mainstream"? But Ives, the unquestionable epitome of the American Innovator, could dynamite the European traditional only because he was so deeply steeped in it, through the teachings of his professor Horatio Parker at Yale. And the American serialists, such as Babbitt, far from shuning the European model, took on the compositional "system" invented by Schoenberg and applied by Webern and pushed it to its limits. So maybe an American Innovator is just an innovator that happens to be American, or just an American that happens to be featured on this disc (part of a tryptich that includes American Virtuoso and The American Romantic), offering an enjoyable selection of rarely performed and recorded 20th century piano pieces.

It is an amusing test to try and forget the track listing and even the composers' names, and try and recognize them from their compositions. Ornstein is easy; once you've heard his "A la Chinoise" from circa 1918 (for instance by Marthanne Verbit on Valentines or by Marc-André Hamelin on Piano Music: Suicide on an Airplane / La Chinoise), you can hardly forget it. Feinberg plays it excellently, with dynamism and kaleidoscopic colors.

2. Clockwork repetitive chime-like piano over child-like, dreamy harmonies? No other than John Adams (China Gates, 1977). From Ornstein to Adams, apparently the American Innovator is inspired by China.

3. Muscular and angry short etude with strong off-beat accents, rising from the depths to the heights of the keyboard and back? Ruth Crawford's Piano Study in Mixed Accents (1930).

4. Mesmerisingly nostalgic and dreamy strummed strings: Cowell evidently (Aeolian Harp, circa 1923).

5. Pointillistic serial piano with pointillistic tape sounds spaced-out stereophonically, sounding like a cliché of contemporary music from the sixties (but quite fascinating nonetheless). Would that be Babbitt? Ooops! Sorry, it was already 1970, it was Davidovsky (a Babbitt pupil, nonetheless), it was his Synchronisms No. 6, and it would possibly make a good sonic counterpoint to some Jackson Pollocks drips (or do you prefer Mondrian's abstract canvasses?).

6. A tango. I know Astor Piazzola is not on this disc. Ah, yes, Harbison, "Tango Seen from Ground Level" (1991). Not very significant, I must say, and so much the liner notes admit, but reveal that it was written for the birth of Alan Feinberg's son - "and birth is always an innovation".

7. Debussy dreaminess? Sure, Griffes: "White Peacock" from the Three Roman Sketches (1915). There is more American and more innovative, I should think - even in Griffes' own Piano Sonata.

8. Another pointillistic serial post-Webern "clonk-clonk", without tape this time: is it now Babbitt? Well, yes it is (Playing for Time, quite remarkable for its serial radicalism, as it was written as early as 1938, when the composer was 22).

9. A Simple folk-like tune of Celtic tinge over sweet-sounding clustered chords: here's another Cowell (Exultation - 1919).

10. Jagged rhythms and frenetic counterpoint, sounding like a boogie-woogie on cocaine or a player piano gone berserk? Unmistakably Nancarrow (his Prelude from 1935).

11. And again another pointillistic serial "clonk-clonk" - you'd think someone was trying to monkey the animated variation from Webern's Opus 27. Now who other than Babbitt among the American serialists was represented on the disc? Ah ah, good ear! It is another Babbitt, and a Serial Tango to boot (It Takes Twelve to Tango, 1984).

12. Now comes something like "dissonant counterpoint" in stern mood. Is Ruggles represented on the disc? Nope, a check indicates that it is "Vestiges", one of Cowell's "non-celtic" compositions, from 1920 - but I wasn't so far out: as Carol Oja indicates in her seminal book on the American modernists in the 1920s (Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s), there were strong stylistic as well as personal ties between Cowell; Ruggles and Dane Rudhyard, another American Innovator not represented here.

13. Machinistic rhythms, prepared piano sounding like a mixture between Balinese ritual music and a crazy array of struck boxes, cans, metal rods, and a possible sonic accompaniment to a sculpture of Jean Tinguely? Cage's prepared piano of course (Bachanale, his first composition for prepared piano, from 1940).

14. Massive chordal writing in polyrhythms and polytonality, leading to zany ragtimes and demented take offs from American popular tunes (including Dixie)? Ives naturally (Etude # 20 probably from 1908).

15. More Debussy watery ripples: Griffes' "The Fountain of Acqua Paola" (1916), another Roman Sketch.

16. Brutal onslaught in jagged rhythms. Nancarrow without the playfulness. I pass on this one. No wonder, it was Ralph Shapey's "Seven" (1963), hardly a staple of the piano literature, even for modernist aficionados such as myself. By the way, it is supposed to be for piano four hands, but we are not told whose are the two additional hands playing on the disc: presumably Feinberg's own in re-recording.

17. Cool Jazz in a smoked-up Club around 11 pm. Thelonious Monk, "an odd bedfellow with Babbitt and Davidovsky" indeed, to quote again the notes. But for Jazz, it is somewhat innovative, I guess.

Tasty little survey.......2004-12-19

Alan Feinberg is one of the finest pianists interpreting contemporary music today. Anything he does deserves a listen. This album is a little survey of mostly mid to late 20th Century piano music. And it is a delight. It covers a variety of styles from jazz age through serialism and even a little minimalism. Many pieces recorded here are not to be found elsewhere. It is a shame that this has gone out of print. Get a used copy if you can you will not regret it. Perhaps some visionary record company can re-release it. Do you hear me New World Records, Naxos?

Average customer rating:

Level 7
Robin Cox Ensemble
Manufacturer: Robin Cox Ensemble
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Classical | Indie Music | Stores | Music

General | Classical | Styles | Music
ASIN: B00008KWU0
Release Date: 2003-02-14

Tracks:

Escher
What She Saw There
For Mallets and Strings
Thirty-Five
Quickly Casual
Volt

Album Description

The second release from this unique new music group committed to the performance and recording of percussion and string works by contemporary composers. These tracks are a reflection of the ensemble's truly unique sound as well as the provocative individuality of the classical, avant-garde, and jazz influenced works the group regularly performs live in concert. The CD includes first recordings by Cox (Escher, Volt), Joseph Koykkar (For Mallets and Strings), Leslie Hogan (Thirty-Five), HyeKyung Lee (Quickly Casual), and a recording of Evan Ziporyn's What She Saw There in its original instrumentation of cello and two marimbas. With violin, cello, vibraphone, marimba, and various other percussion, this is a truly one of a kind CD.

Average customer rating:

Dance Zone Level 7
Various
Manufacturer: Phantom Sound & Vision
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Album Description

2CD set w/ 40 new slammin' dance hits, including2 Pac 'California Love', Coolio '1-2-3-4', Donna Summer'State Of Independence', M People 'Itchycoo Park', Pulp'Disco 2000', Blackbox 'I Got The Vibration', Incognito'Everyday', Dubstar 'Stars', plus Baby D,

Track Listings: