Rejoice music lovers, for Sony Classical has released a new recording of Leon Fleisher performing three piano concerti by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The CD was made just before Fleisher's 80th birthday in July 2008 and shows his ability to project his singular insights is undimmed. His career was interrupted in 1965 when focal distonia cost him the use of his right hand, but Botox injections permit him to play two-hand repertoire once again. All three Mozart pieces are new to Fleisher's discography, most importantly, the sublime Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major. As conductor, Fleisher leads the orchestra with uncommonly thorough insight, creating a seamless continuity with his own playing. This pianist became legendary at a very early age for his combination of sensitivity, warmth, intellectual power and virtuosity. Fleisher also brings the less familiar Piano Concerto No. 12, also in A major, to life with enlivening nuances that make its neglect seem an injustice. So too, the Piano Concerto No. 7 performed with his wife, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, has remarkable dimension. After hearing this disc, you'll be looking for excuses to make it a gift for friends.
— Mark Kanny
'Sky & Country' is a study in equality. The trio Fly, made up of saxophonist Mark Turner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard, cruises through nine original pieces of post-modern jazz in a manner that never bespeaks a leader, never casts anyone as a sideman. On the mid-tempo title track, for instance, Turner seems to be in a dominant role carrying what seems the melodic line. At the same time, though, Grenadier and Ballard offer statements that are richer than simple support. Such is the case throughout the album. "Dharma Days" has the same feeling, but the bass line that opens it and continues through it is not to be overlooked. Turner is a strong voice on this album with a clean sound and great sense of melody, but his two bandmates are striking equals. Even the writing of the songs is shared nicely with four by Turner, three by Ballard and two by Grenadier. This group started out as the Jeff Ballard Trio, but it's only fair it bears no ones name as a title.
— Bob Karlovits
Ann Hampton Callaway is a cabaret singer with a good sense of jazz. Callaway is no musical adventurer, but on "At Last," she gives good treatments to a repertoire of mostly standards such as "Comes Love," "Lazy Afternoon" and the title track. She also does Joni Mitchell's "Carey" and a Chick Corea's "Spain," to give the album more life. The key to the recording is not presentation so much as the quality of her voice, which is never less than superb. That is at its clearest on "Over the Rainbow," which has little jazz inflection, but is a remarkable presentation simply in terms of quality. Callaway gets a big hand from a good backup crew including Victor Lewis (drums), Jay Leonhart (bass), Rodney Jones (guitar) and Marvin Stamm (flugelhorn).
— Bob Karlovits
In a month of dazzling various-artist projects on behalf of charity efforts (Red Hot's "Dark is the Night"; War Child's "Heroes"), this in-house celebration of Warner's golden anniversary gives its money to no one and suffers for its selfishness. Truth be told, "Covered" isn't bad. It's good. It just isn't as revolutionary as it could have been when you consider who has been at the WB (the label, not the lame tween network) in its 50 years. The ZZ Top tune "Just Got Paid," captured in all its Texan raunch-rawk glory by Mastodon and Top's Billy Gibbons, is marvelously mean. So is the Black Keys' panicky rip on Captain Beefheart's angular classic "Her Eyes Are a Blue Million Miles," and Flaming Lips does a wonderful death-disco take on Madonna's peppy "Borderline." But it was evidently hard to find 12 good artists currently on the roster to perform one fave each from Warner's past. That's why the bland (The Used) take on the bold (Talking Heads); and the milquetoast (Michelle Branch), the milestones (Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You"). With that lame context weighing heavily on the proceedings, even Adam Sandler -- approximating Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" -- isn't funny anymore.
— The Philadelphia Inquirer
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