Ben Folds - What Matters Most - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Double vinyl LP pressing including digital download. Ben Folds music has taken another turn, firmly embracing strings and chamber music yet still maintaining a passion for his love of pop. So There will consist of eight chamber pop songs with the very talented yMusic Ensemble, a critically acclaimed classical sextet from New York who helped Ben bridge his pop/chamber rock songs with the concerto. In 2013, he composed InchConcerto for Piano and OrchestraInch to critical acclaim. Since then, Ben has continued his global symphony performance quest , So There features that concerto along with a host of new songs that overlap pop and classical worlds with a fresh, exciting sound he has dubbed Inchchamber rock.Inch Album Tracks 1. Capable of Anything 3 50 2. Not a Fan 3 33 3. So There 4 19 4. Long Way to Go 4 43 5. Phone in a Pool 4 01 6. Yes Man 3 57 7. F10-D-A 1 59 8. I'm Not the Man 4 35 9. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Movement 1 10 29 10. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Movement 2 5 45 11. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Movement 3 4 31 12. So There [Instrumental] [Instrumental] 4 16 13. Capable of Anything [Instrumental] [Instrumental] 3 34 14. Yes Man [Instrumental] [Instrumental] 3 57 15. Not a Fan [Instrumental] [Instrumental] 3 33

Christmas is constant, says Ben Folds. InchAllowing you to take stock of what's different, to understand who you are and all the ways you've grown and changed.Inch That notion lies at the heart of Folds' brilliantly titled new holiday collection, Sleigher. Built on an eclectic mix of originals and reimagined classics, the album examines the passage of time through the lens of Christmas, reflecting on memory, loss, and longing as it explores the variety of ways the yuletide season marks the chapters of our lives. The songs are playful here, full of humor and cheer, but they're also laced with an inescapable sense of melancholy, a looming darkness that always seems to hover around the periphery of those late December nights. Folds' performances, meanwhile, flirt with the standards while stretching the boundaries of tradition, at times offering up flashes of Vince Guaraldi and Burt Bacharach while still remaining true to Folds' singularly virtuosic brand of off-kilter indie pop. The result is not so much a Ben Folds Christmas record as it is a Ben Folds record set at Christmas, a meditation on the inexorable turning of the calendar and our ever changing selves as observed at the most wonderful-and challenging-time of the year. Album Tracks 1. Little Drummer Bolero 2. Sleepwalking Through Christmas 3. Me and Maurice 4. Christmas Time Rhyme 5. Waiting for Snow 6. We Could Have This (Feat Lindsey Kraft) 7. The Christmas Song 8. The Bell That Couldn't Jingle 9. Xmas Aye Eye 10. You Don't Have to Be a Santa Claus

For a decade, the trio of Ben Allison, Steve Cardenas, and Ted Nash has coalesced into a singular ensemble highlighting impressive group interplay and creative interpretations of the music of their favorite composers. After years of focusing on the music of others, the drummer-less trio found it the right time to take on the compositions of it's members on the new recording, Triological.The relationships between Allison, Cardenas, and Nash have spanned decades. Woodwind master Nash enlisted Allison for the bassist's first professional gig in 1990. Their bond deepened later in the decade as they became members of the Jazz Composers Collective. Guitarist Steve Cardenas was brought into Allison's orbit in 2004, the two discovering a deep connection evidenced on the many projects they have worked on together. The trio came together when Cardenas and Allison were approached with a gig in Upstate New York. For the performance, they decided to focus on the music of guitar legend Jim Hall. After a first rehearsal, Cardenas and Allison decided to add a horn to the mix in homage to the revolutionary trio of Jimmy Giuffre, which had featured Hall and bassist Ralph Pena. Their choice of Nash as the woodwind voice was inspired and the trio has been impressing listeners ever since.The configuration of the trio may owe much to the model of that Giuffre group. They reference, but do not intend to duplicate, that trio's example, as the instrumentation has allowed for an openness to explore any musical direction, from free to folk, all in the most conversational of manners. Naturally, the group's first recording, Quiet Revolution (Newvelle and Sonic Camera Records, 2016/2018), featured their arrangements of Hall and Giuffre. Their next recording, Somewhere Else West Side Story Songs (Plastic Sax Records, 2019) presented the trio's takes on the music of Leonard Bernstein's beloved musi