Various - World Winds - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

An anthology collection recorded in 1978 featuring some of the finest acoustic finger style blues players in the idiom. Sam Mitchell recorded several solo albums and also recorded with Rod Stewart and Bert Jansch. Davey Graham is considered the father of English finger style blues guitar. Mike Cooper's slide playing can be heard on his solo albums as well as film soundtracks. Tom Paley was a founding member of the influential New Lost City Ramblers. Duck Baker has recorded albums that range in variety from blues to Celtic music to the compositions of Herbie Nichols.

As a successor to the previous World Winds album, this collection again brings together wind instruments from Asia and the West, played by performers from Asia, Europe, and the U.S. The pieces were composed and recorded over a span of forty years. Composer David Loeb has worked with traditional Asian music as a composer, scholar, and performer for over fifty years. David Loeb was born in 1939 in New York into a family which took music and painting very seriously. He studied composition with Peter Pindar Stearns at the Mannes College of Music in New York, and then completed a master's degree at Yale. 1964 became a critical year for his future. He began teaching at Mannes and has remained on the faculty there ever since, simultaneously teaching at the Curtis Institute from 1973 until 2000.

PARMA is proud to present THROUGH TIME AND PLACE, an ambitious cross-section of James Lentini's extensive catalog. The award-winning guitarist and composer impresses with massive tonal landscapes which can be considered exemplary in contemporary American serious music. THROUGH TIME AND PLACE's title is aptly chosen the album contains a collection of previously unreleased recordings made over the course of Lentini's long career. Almost all of them are commissioned works or competition winners, which is obvious at first listen. They are united by the same level of craftsmanship and recurring qualities for instance, there is a deceptive calm to Lentini's pieces - characteristic, one might even say. Expectations of tonality and form are often confirmed, only to be shattered in the very next measure. Then, of course, one finds the inevitable contrast of mood and expression energetic phrases juxtaposed with serene lyricism, sadness mixed with humor, the sacred next to the secular. The only exception to this rule may well be Three Sacred Meditations, which powerfully remains committed to simplicity and unity. Thanks to this, in combination with the gigantic orchestral and choir setup, these works may well be the hidden gem of the album. But it's not all ethereally objective. In fact, there are plenty of personal notes on THROUGH TIME AND PLACE, such as the intimate The Angel's Journey. Lentini wrote the piece in memory of his grandparents, utilizing the letters of their names to create the main motifs. With this level of creativity on display, it is easy to see why James Lentini is such a popular choice, not only for festivals and competition committees. After all, his compositions perfectly embody the spirit of which all American contemporary music is capable. There is the fittingly vast grandeur, a sheer endlessness of sound, a tremendous spaciousness and almost otherwo