Bertrand Chamayou - Ravel: Fragments - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2020 . Some artists need smoke and mirrors. All Jeremiah Johnson needs are songs. In the age of manufactured pop, the acclaimed St. Louis bandleader is a beacon of time-honored songcraft, writing on acoustic guitar, digging deep for raw lyrics and insisting on studio production that bottles the sweat of his shows. The approach might sound old-school, but on Heavens To Betsy, the result is some of the most vital music of the new decade. Heavens To Betsy is another bold creative leap for an artist on fire. It's been just two years since Straitjacket hit #6 on the Billboard Blues Album chart and scored rave reviews across the board (Blues Blast InchThis is grade-A primo stuffInch). It was the cherry on top of Johnson's triumphant early career, following up 2014's Grind, 2016's varied Blues Heart Attack, and the confessional Ride The Blues documentary. But while Johnson is rightly proud of that early catalogue - and still serves up house-rocking takes on the Straitjacket material each night - he's always kept one eye on the horizon.

Marking the centenary of Debussy's death on 25th March 1918, this album of chamber music is centred on the three sonatas the composer wrote during World War I, patriotically asserting himself as 'Claude Debussy, musicien français.' Six leading French musicians of today are the performers pianist Bertrand Chamayou, flautist Emmanuel Pahud, violinist Renaud Capuçon, cellist Edgar Moreau, viola player Gerard Caussé and harpist Marie-Pierre Langlamet.

CAGE2 is the title of Bertrand Chamayou's new album - he calls it the twin brother of his most recent Letter(s) to Erik Satie - both recorded at the Miraval studios. CAGE² is also the title of a performance Bertrand Chamayou conceived with dancer and choreographer Élodie Sicard, featuring 12 pieces composed by John Cage for prepared piano, in the period between 1940 and 1945. John Cage wrote all the pieces of this album for dance solos for the American dancer Syvilla Fort, for dancers and choreographers such as Valérie Bettis, Wilson Williams, Pearl Primus, Jean Erdman, but also for the terrific Merce Cunningham. Bertrand has also delivered brilliant booklet notes on Cage, the genesis of the prepared piano and the pieces themselves.