MUNGO (Splitrec) 8/10 Can human-made music become part of the natural soundscape? That is the essential question being asked by the 21-piece Splinter Orchestra on this three-album set, and to these ears they come up with an emphatic affirmative, especially on the first disc. En route to Adelaide from Sydney…
Category: Album Reviews – Archive
ELLA 100 (Verve) 9/10 Ella Fitzgerald was homeless when in 1934 she entered a talent quest at New York’s Apollo Theatre, intending to dance. Changing to singing at the last moment, she won. Her reputation as a queen among jazz singers, however, is predicated on her work from her mid-thirties…
THE CHILD BALLADS (Lamplight) 9/10 It took an American to systematically compile hundreds of English and Scottish ballads from across the centuries. In so doing Francis James Child (1825-1896) performed not only a massively important task in preserving the cultural heritage of the British Isles, he provided composer Andrew Robson…