Ambergris, as it turned out, was a one-shot album from a band formed by Jerry Weiss, who’d played keyboards with the first version of Blood, Sweat and Tears. Leaving before the group recorded the second album, he formed Ambergris and got Steve Cropper of MG’s fame to produce it. It’s not groundbreaking in the way that the first BST album was or in the way that Chicago’s first two albums were. There are hints of Latin influences in some of the tracks, while some of them sound as if they could easily have been lifted from sessions by BST or Chicago.

Accompanied by Johnny Winter and his band, Muddy Waters turns in an enthusiastic performance on Muddy "Mississippi" Waters Live. The set list contains most of his biggest hits, and the sound quality and performances are mostly energetic. Still, there's something faintly repetitive about this record. For one thing, there's only one song here, "Deep Down in Florida," that comes from any of Waters' recent albums. All of the others are old standards, which makes this album rather superfluous, since there are equally forceful performances of these cuts elsewhere. It doesn't help any that "Deep Down in Florida" isn't an especially noteworthy song, sounding more like a rewrite of Waters' older, better cuts. Without much in the way of new material, or anything especially notable about the performances, it sometimes comes off as little more than a set of Muddy Waters' greatest hits, with applause as the sole new ingredient…

Arguably the UK’s leading independent electronic music maestro Ian Boddy has teamed up once again with German touch guitarist, Markus Reuter to create a stunning album called Pure.
Although Boddy and Reuter have collaborated in concert (at Jodrell Bank in 1999 & the E-Live Festival in Eindhoven 2000), Pure represents their second proper studio outing since their impressive 1999 debut, Distant Rituals.
Pure is radically different from the impressionistic prowl of its predecessor. Their collaboration earlier this year was based around a series of distinct musical ideas. Boddy and Reuter explored and expanded the pieces into a cycle of intricate, inter-connected compositions; delicate in expression and character, graceful in execution and richly harmonic…

The durable Brazilian musician Luiz Bonfá recorded this album for the Caju Music label in 1991 in Brazil, where it was much honored, but Americans weren't made aware of its riches until 1993. Throughout, Bonfá's acoustic guitar is treated to differing tone shadings and backgrounds - sometimes left all alone, sometimes fronting a samba band. Tracks like "Space Adventure," "Menina Flor," and "Fat Tuesday's Theme" employ unnervingly realistic orchestrations by Jota Moraes on some deftly handled synthesizers (yes, it can be done). Most of all, listeners are reminded of the remarkable vitality of Bonfá's civilized, wistful compositions, whether improvised on the spot like "Magic Passion," brought forth for the first time ("Smooth Dreams," "Samba Variations"), or resuscitated from his back catalog (like the tune for Elvis, "Almost in Love," now treated to a silky bossa nova groove)…

Produced by George Martin, The Man in the Bowler Hat continues Stackridge's brand of satiric rock marbled with elements of folk and to some extent, even country. The lyrics are just as witty as in their first two releases, and the poetry glistens with a jovial Englishness that became the band's most identifiable trademark. With Martin's help, though, the album became one of their better releases, as the music rises to the top before the words do, sounding fresher, livelier, and noticeably sharper than both their debut and 1972's Friendliness. Stackridge's best song, "Dangerous Bacon," was released as a single, and it's in this song as well as "The Galloping Gaucho" and "The Indifferent Hedgehog" in which their sound comes alive…

Melody Gardot's 2006 debut, Worrisome Heart, was greeted with warmly enthusiastic reviews that never failed to mention Gardot's musical similarities to Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux, or her sadly compelling story of surviving a severe hit-and-run accident at the age of 19. The tragedy gave critics an irresistible hook, and the musical similarities – which also include her vocal resemblance to Fiona Apple's smoky tones – gave new listeners a familiar touchstone, but both merely provided an entry into a fine, accomplished debut. Released three years later, Gardot's second album, My One and Only Thrill, proves that the first was no fluke; it doesn't build upon the debut so much as it sustains its quality.

With 2020’s Sunset in the Blue singer Melody Gardot sinks into a dusky and languorously produced album that builds upon her love of jazz standards, Brazilian music, and intimate balladry. The record finds Gardot surrounded by a production dream team, including longtime associate Larry Klein, who helmed 2009’s My One and Only Thrill and 2015’s Currency of Man, as well as equally acclaimed studio pros, arranger Vince Mendoza and engineer Al Schmitt. Together, they have crafted a showcase for Gardot’s delicately nuanced vocal style. The album is an interesting dichotomy, at once intimate as if Gardot is singing to you in a small club, yet also widescreen, framing her hushed vocals in sweeping orchestrations that reinforce the romantic drama at play in the songs.

In short, Pipelare’s striking personality becomes apparent through hearing and analysing his masses rather than from the meagre details of his life. It is as if he redefines polyphonic composition with each work, rather than reverting to the tried and tested as say Jakob Obrecht did. There is nothing immediately recognisable, nothing that sounds even vaguely familiar, nothing can be categorised, rather everything sounds new, fresh, lively – wilfully individual!

An amazing display of expressivity achieved through daring 'prolations' and 'colorations'! There are at least half a dozen parody masses based on the chanson Fortuna Desperata, but Obrecht's is by far the most likely to keep the most secular audiences riveted to the music.

If you want a representative sample of Igor Kipnis’ Bach, start with the introductory toccata to the E minor Partita (No. 6). You get little of the music’s introspective undertones, but Kipnis’ subtle registration changes, resourceful ornamentation, and rhythmic extroversion proves quite insidious. Some of Kipnis’ textual emendations will surprise you, such as his duple-meter reading of the Fifth Partita’s Allemanda. Only on the repeats does Kipnis reinstate the middle notes of the right hand triplet groupings.