Gregory Porter, James Ehnes, Trombone Shorty, Stewart Goodyear and Peter Togni

I just looked at my last entry.  I was tripping over myself to explain my lack of entries.  I'm glad to be here.

In September I did head to France to visit family and had a wonderful time, not knowing the terrible events that were to happen a few weeks later.  The road ahead is not entirely clear even now, other than the clear national resolve to stand up to violence.

To my own surprise I picked up a compendium of Charles Aznevour music, a remastering of early Johnny Cash recordings and a rather experimental recording by a French artist, Daniel Lavoie, "La licorne captive".

Later in the fall I picked up two popular Gregory Porter discs and a recent recording by Trombone Shorty.  Of all these, I've given the Gregory Porter discs, "Be Good", and "Liquid Spirit" the most ear time.  I like his lyrics.  He sings about living an honourable life quite a bit of the time.  The musicianship is strong, the sound production gives an immediacy without feeling you're inside the instruments and he has a wonderfully resonant voice with nuanced emotional communication, i.e., he is not maudlin.  He comes across as very real. 

At Christmas I made my usual trek to downtown Toronto to the Grigorian to troll the aisles.  I picked up some gifts but couldn't resist a few deals for the collection.  I bought a compilation of Brahms, a composer I have not exposed myself to very much.  I also bought a recording of music composed by Peter Togni, a Canadian who has provided an inventive Mass setting on the Atma label.

Another lesson learned was the changing face of labels.  I picked up a recording by James Ehnes the masterful Canadian violinist with the Sydney Symphony in Vivaldi's Four Seasons.  This is on the Onyx label.  Onyx is a niche label that looks for successful musicians who want wider range in the recording of their material.  By being adventurous in a bit of a studied way, the label is supporting new recordings that might not otherwise fit the specs of the major labels. 

Michael Kaeshammer is a pianist I like very much who usually dwells in the stride piano world.  This time on his disc, "The Pianist", he shows himself more versatile, restrained while displaying the same incarnate musicality that I've enjoyed in the concerts I've been to.

I couldn't resist picking up a recording put out by Steinway & Sons of Stewart Goodyear, another Canadian - and a graduate of St. Michael's Choir School in Toronto.  It is the entire Nutcracker transcribed for piano.  Enjoyable and a disc whose tracks fit nicely onto a playlist that goes with hospitality and lunch or dinner. 

With Christmas involving demanding weekends and then Lent following just over a month later the leisure to listen as closely as I would like to some of these new acquisitions has not arrived.