Modern Reflections

Editorial Reviews
The Oregonian, Jan. 26, 2001
"This collection of sweetly swinging standards could reasonably be described as timeless..."

Dr Chuck Berg, writer, JazzTimes
"This is music that smiles, that dances, that delights."

Album Description
This concept album by Portland, OR jazz pianist Randy Porter is a collection of warmly individuated standards that swings from start to finish. All tracks are succinct treatments of beautiful old melodies with no eccesive extended solos. Song form is the bottom line on this recording.

Modern Reflections

Modern Reflections, Music, Randy Porter, A collection of warmly individuated standards that swings from start to finish. Features Leroy Vinnegar and Nancy King., Contemporary Jazz, Jazz, Jazz Music, Pop, Standards

Average customer rating:
Reflections
B.B. King
Manufacturer: Mca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Chicago Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
Contemporary Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
General | Blues | Styles | Music
Electric Blues Guitar | Blues | Styles | Music
Modern Blues | Blues | Styles | Music
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Toto IV

ASIN: B00009VTYJ
Release Date: 2003-06-24

Tracks:

Exactly Like You
On My Word of Honor
I Want a Little Girl
I'll String Along With You
I Need You
Mother's Love
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
Neighborhood Affair
Tomorrow Night
There I've Said It Again
Always on My Mind
Cross My Heart
What a Wonderful World

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Fun to listen to!
An interesting concept not quite realized

Piano Dance: A 20th-Century Portrait

Manufacturer: Telarc
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Dances | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Mazurkas | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

Tangos | Ballets & Dances | Classical | Styles | Music

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Piano Music of John Adams & Terry Riley
Letter to a Christian Nation

ASIN: B00004UEKB
Release Date: 2000-07-25

Tracks:

Red Ribbon Dance
Sleepwalker's Shuffle
Golliwog's Cakewalk
Like A Tarantelle
Shimmy
Polka
Hungarian Rock
Rumanian Dance
Tango
Hesitation-Tango
A Tortoise's Tango
Waltz
Mazurka
Valse-Improvisation Sur Le Nom De Bach
Waltz IV
Percussion Dance
Modern Love Waltz
Lilt of the Reel
Rigaudon
Cancion Y Danza
Danzas Criollas
Illicit Felicity
Conga

Amazon.com

For sheer entertainment value, it's hard to find a classical CD that will beat this one. Gloria Cheng has chosen an astonishing variety of 20th-century piano music with nothing in common except brevity and dance origins. The disc is full of familiar pieces (Debussy, Scriabin, Ravel, Prokofiev) and entertaining novelties (Albright, Martinu, Poulenc, Ginastera). Donald R. Davis's exercise in creative plagiarism, "Illicit Felicity," rates a special mention for its ingenuity. But really, unless you're allergic to Philip Glass, there isn't a loser on the entire program. Cheng plays brilliantly, with appropriate special emphasis on the dance rhythms of the music, and Telarc's sound engineering is typically realistic. It ain't profound, but this is still a marvelous program. --Leslie Gerber

Customer Reviews:

Fun to listen to!.......2000-09-18

Listening to this CD is fun. The CD has a diverse selection of contemporary dances for solo piano, ranging from familiar favorites, such as Gollywog's Cakewalk by Debussy, to lesser known and unconventional but charming works, such as del Aguila's Conga. The dances are varied and well-interpreted by Ms. Cheng, who brings poignancy to each one while maintaining throughout the CD a fun and energetic mood.

Ms. Cheng's playing is phenomenal, and I also enjoy her earlier CD of works by John Adams and Terry Riley. Both CD's show off her rich tone and appealing style, but the dance collection is the most entertaining. If you buy this CD, you'll probably find yourself listening to it frequently.

An interesting concept not quite realized.......2000-07-25

A very good concept. Take a noted pianist, in this case Gloria Cheng, and work with her on a program of 23 short works or short sections of larger works, all of which are one form or another of Dance--and you might come up with something good or possibly just a mixed bag. The Telarc release (CD-80549) is such a program. The playing is wonderful, the results what you might expect, alas: a mixed bag.

A very definite positive about this program is that almost every selection was new to me. After all, how many of us are familiar with works like Miguel del Aguila's "Conga," Philip Glass's "Modern Love Reel," or Paul Hindemith's "Shimmy"? I mean, really! So there is much Joy of Discovery afforded by this CD; but with all but one piece running under 5 minutes (and that one at 9:26), a certain cloying factor creeps in after a while, and perhaps I should recommend this be played in small sections.

Tracks:

Night and Day
Come Rain Or Come Shine
I Love You
Re: Person I Knew
Almost There
California Here I Come / Some Other Time
White Line * (Bonus Track)

Album Description

Recorded live in the Guildhall at the Bath International Music Festival in Bath, England on the 24th of May, 1997.

Gordon pays tribute to Jazz pianist and composer Bill Evans on this superbly recorded, 67 minute, live solo piano concert recording. Gordon performs two compositions by Cole Porter entitled, "Night And Day" and "I Love You" as well as the Bill Evans composition, "Re: Person I Knew". Other songs performed by Gordon include "Come Rain Or Come Shine" by Mercer & Arlen as well as "California Here I Come" by Jolson, DeSylva and Meyer and "Some Other Time" by Comden, Green, and Bernstein. There is also one Gordon Beck original, "Almost There", and a bonus track of Gordon playing his own arrangement of the song "White Line" written by his long-time friend, musician/guitarist Allan Holdsworth.

Customer Reviews:

From Julian Derry - The John McLaughlin Archives.......2004-01-06

For this solo performance recorded by the BBC at the 1997 Bath International Music Festival, Gordon Beck rattled off some classic standards in his crisp, clean and soulful style that sits somewhere between Monk and Peterson, with a cursory sprinkling of Jarrett. Two Cole Porter songs, another from his primary influence Bill Evans, the self-penned "Almost There" and a bonus piece by Allan Holdsworth contribute towards the 68 minutes from 7 tracks on this attractively packaged and, most importantly for solo piano, perfectly mastered album of beguiling personal ragtime / bebop / ballad-leaning interpretations. Another excellent release from Art Of Life Records.

Average customer rating:

Hardcore Fans only
b.b. king???
woooooooo hoooooooooooooooo
A beautifully done album of bluesy ballads and standards
MAGNIFICENT AND SHEER BRILLIANCE!!!

Reflections
B.B. King
Manufacturer: Mca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Blues Summit

ASIN: B00009P1MK
Release Date: 2003-06-10

Tracks:

Exactly Like You
On My Word Of Honor
I Want A Little Girl
I'll String Along With You
I Need You
A Mother's Love
(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
Neighborhood Affair
Tomorrow Night
There I've Said It Again
Always On My Mind
Cross My Heart
What A Wonderful World

Amazon.com

B.B. King unleashes his inner crooner on this collection of 13 of his sentimental favorites. With a five-piece studio band rather than his usual orchestra, the arrangements stay spare throughout, allowing King to exercise his classic vocal chops--although some fans may be disappointed by his low-key guitar playing, as King's beloved axe Lucille plays second fiddle to Texas guitarist Doyle Bramhall II's six-string. Still, King's in excellent voice, whether revisiting early inspiration Lonnie Johnson's romantic "Tomorrow Night," embracing buddy Willie Nelson's golden "Always on My Mind," or tackling numbers recorded by Sam Cooke and Nat "King" Cole ("(I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons"), Louis Armstrong ("What a Wonderful World"), and Frank Sinatra ("I'll String Along with You"). Fans will recognize "On My Word of Honor" and the King original "Neighborhood Affair" from previous recordings and "I Want a Little Girl" from his live performances. Although King does justice to all these numbers, his most heartfelt selection may be "A Mother's Love," a performance that seems to draw on the heartache he still carries from the loss of his own mother when he was a child, nearly 70 years ago. --Ted Drozdowski

Customer Reviews:

Hardcore Fans only.......2007-03-23

"Reflection" is another good release for this legendary artist; more R&B, less bluesy; in general this is a relaxing album, not overly memorable but quite pleasing for the hardcore fans like me.
If you are a new fan for this great artist, try instead:
B.B. King. Live and well
B.B. King. Completely Well
B.B. King. Take it home
B.B. King. Six silver strings

b.b. king???.......2004-05-25

I should have know better than to buy any album where the artist is recording "standards". The only thing worse would be an album of Christmas music by b.b. I listened to the first song and thought I was listening to show tunes and then fast forwarded through the rest. B.B.'s voice sounds as good as ever but the concept is a waste.

woooooooo hoooooooooooooooo.......2004-05-14

who cut the cheese, oh that was me oops(lol). this is a great cd, by a blues legend... you guessed it bobby bland, nah just kidding, this cd features John Lee Hooker singing a duet with BB on Exactly Like you(naaahh just kidding). However the rolling stones do make a guest appearance on For Sentimantel reasons(got you!!! another fib). Buth the honest truth of teh matter is, that this cd isn't BB singin' da blues, it's bb's bluesy interps. of jazz standards with big band and string, with very few guitar solos, but TONS of great voclas, and although Eric Clapton, and other rock bozos don't show up here, thsi cd is one MIGHTY FINE BB cd, go ahaed make my day, by the cd, please, pretty please with ice cream on top, with whipped cream and a cherry, and peanut butter, with cranberry juice and hot sdalso and chips, with carna sada, and chilic sauce with redhots, and onions, fried, not stirred!!!! HAHAHAHA!!!

A beautifully done album of bluesy ballads and standards.......2004-05-07

BB King is 1st and formost a blues singer and jazz based blues guitarist. On this cd his is heard more as a singer, then a guitarist, although he does play a few licks here and there. This cd is proof that King as as much a crooner as Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby or Tony Bennett.

The opening number Exactly Like You(which has been recorded by Little Jimmy Rushing and frank Sinatra), is a perfect example of King acting as an urban blues singer, turning a swing standard into a blues romper much the way Big Joe Turner might have done it on one of his OJC sessions. BB also handles blues ballads with sensitivity and firmness at the same time creating a bluesy intamacy, for instance on On My Word Of Honor, he'll bring you to tears with his ematioanl performance. There are aslo great standards which BB makes hsi own like I Love You For Sentimanetal Reasons, making you forget even Nat KING Cole's version, which was sappier, as where BB made it a Reflection! Also BB stands out on Satchmo's great Waht A Wonderful World. a trutly great and touching cd, and the best release from the king in a decade.

MAGNIFICENT AND SHEER BRILLIANCE!!!.......2004-05-06

Sheer brillaince is teh only way to describe this highly enjoyable set of standards and blues treasuries. This cd is on a par with his classic lp's from the 50's. As a matter of fact, BB sounds so inspired and youthful taht one might think this was recorded in 1954!!! WOW!!! I love BB's smooth crooning voice, on tunes from the great American songbook, such as I Love You For Senimental Reasons. And for sentimental reasons I love this cd, and I'm sure you will too. For thsi cd casts a light on the shadowy truth that BB is more than a blues singer, but a singer who can sing standards with a blues feeling as alberta Hunter, Helen Humes, Jimmy Witherspoon and Jimmy Rushing all had once done. BB continues to be the finest male singer today, and he's still goin' strong. this is timeless music, with subtle guitar spots for BB, but again this is a showcase for hsi warm baritone rather then his guitar genious. This cd and concept for BB is sheer genious!!!

Average customer rating:

Reflections
ED NEUMEISTER
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B000RRIE0Y

Product Description

8 cuts like Osmosis & Yanagumi

Average customer rating:

Get this Bobo Stenson gem before it vanishes
More Brilliant Scandinavian Design

Reflections
Bobo Stenson
Manufacturer: Ecm Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

Avant Garde & Free Jazz | Jazz | Styles | Music

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ECM Classical | ECM Records | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music

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ASIN: B000024KJK
Release Date: 2000-06-06

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The Enlightener
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NOT
Dorrmattan
Q
Reflections In D
12 Tones Old
Mindiatyr

Customer Reviews:

Get this Bobo Stenson gem before it vanishes.......2001-03-08

Having first heard Bobo Stensen's "Serenity" I got this one, too, and it's even better!Well, more coherent, at least.

The trio seems to read each other's minds like Bill Evans, Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian decades earlier.

More Nordic frozen impressionist jazz, "Reflections" is more melodic and less minimalist than "Serenity".

The group simmers and cooks but never boils over.

Quiet, calm music which seems pleasant at first (except cut 4) and I find myself returning to again and again to find deeper levels within. It's...,ummm,... reflective!

It would be nice to hear some samples of this underplayed gem!

More Brilliant Scandinavian Design.......2000-07-02

How long has Bobo Stenson been creating and performing this brilliant music? I can think back to the wonderful Witch-Tai-To LP of 1973 and others. So, shall we say 30 years or so? Bobo Stenson has been a significant part of the Scandinavian Wave of jazz players that includes Jan Garbarek, Jon Christensen, Palle Danielsson, Arild Anderson, and Terje Rypdal, brought to our shores primarily by ECM Records. What an invasion! The music that has come over, has regularly over the years, been thoughtful and prolific. Bobo Stenson's Reflection is a trio date featuring Bobo with bassist Anders Jormin and drummer Jon Christensen. The ethereal sound is all ECM. The trio interplay is filled with post Evans undercurrents and ruminations. These guys and their countrymen swing! I've listened to just about everything they've created. You should too.