I am launching this as an addendum to my “Music of Outstanding Merit” thread. It is intended to be about expanding listening horizons while still showcasing music of merit. It is more about individualistic artists than genres. If you only like to listen to regular “songs” this might be slim pickings. These initial posts feature very well recorded CDs, worth mentioning even though this thread is about music, not recording.
Feel free to add your own horizon expanding or genre busting favorites.
Colin Towns is the man behind Provocateur Records in the UK. Their online store seems to be extinct but I presume the titles are still available through outlets like CD Baby and Import CDs. I personally own a ton of titles from this label. He is a very good musician himself ands uses other top shelf talent to flesh out his compositions. His catalog includes several genres but his take on each is unique or close to it. They range from trios and quartets to a Jazz orchestra of nearly seventy pieces. Almost anything from Provocateur will be unusual but here is a title or two.
One is Still Life (1998), Colin Towns’ Mask Quintet with Maria Pia De Vito. Since the mentioned singer is one of the most accomplished alive, these are indeed songs. The music is hard to pin down as like this or like that, but all are easy to relate to. They just come from a different place or three. It is not the lyrics so much as the music and the way each piece flows. In my opinion they are superior to the usual product. Almost all Provocateur CDs with Colin Towns as a leader have this in common.
Another I have mentioned before, Verso - DeVito/Taylor/Towner (2000). That trio would be Maria Pia DeVito again with the alternative spelling, Ralph Towner and the late, great pianist John Taylor. This came together when the musicians' mutual admiration society became irresistible. The styles mashed up here are Jazz, World and Towner’s unique music DNA. The music might seem almost familiar until you realize no one else sounds quite like this combo.
These both have De Vito and she is herself a very different animal. The source of her tremendous vocal range (more like six than five octaves) is mysterious until you hear her deep speaking voice. She came from operatic training if memory serves, but her combo of Jazz, World, experimental and Art music is given free reign on all of her titles on this label, and resembles no one else’s work. You will hear far less use of vibrato and much more acrobatic pitch changing than other singers employ, all to very musical effect. When she skat sings it is not from the Ella Fitzgerald end of the Jazz universe.
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