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Music Societies and Organizations
Record Companies
A list of
some of the music companies with websites whose music I enjoy. This is by no
means a comprehensive list, as there is a greater number of companies whose CDs
appear regularly on my show and on my home stereo which do not have websites.
There are also many companies who do have websites I could have included, but
only release the odd title I enjoy. So the ones that do appear are ones who
interest me on a regular basis.
Alula
Independent world and folk music. Fairly new, and
growing with great potential as their releases improve with every new title.
Amiata
An independent company out of
Arbiter
An independent out of
BIS
A Swedish classical music label. They have a large
catalogue and are particularly good at contemporary music. With such ambitious
projects as the complete recordings of Alfred Schnittke's music.
Biswas
An independent label which specializes in Indian
classical and Bengali music, a fairly large catalogue with first-rate
virtuosos.
Buda
Includes one of my favourites, Musique du Monde, as
well as other series of high-quality recordings.
Caltex
A company in the US which specializes in various
Persian music, classical, folk and pop, a large catalogue with many great
recordings by Shahram Nazeri, Sima Bina, Hossein Oumayoun. Wonderful classical
and folk, but I would stay clear of the Westernized pop CD's though!.
Celestial Harmonies
A company which releases maybe too much new-age music,
however they also release multi-volume series such as the Music of Islam, music
of
Chandos
One of my favourite independent Western classical
labels. Particularly great is their recordings of contemporary music by
Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Part and others.
Crammed
Their Crammworld division has some wonderful
recordings by Taraf de Haidouks, Kocani Orkestar and others.
Deutsche Grammophon
One of the grand old men of classical recordings.
All the big German conductors, soloists and composers as well as a large range
of other music. Some standard stars in their stable are among my favourites
like Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Claudio Abbado etc. They are also
responsible for Archiv. Though their new recordings in the past few years have
been sparse, still a few of the most perfect recordings in my entire collection
have been made by them.
ECM
Though you can easily grow tired with the number of
times the Hilliard Ensemble, Jan Garabek, and Kim Kashkashian appear in their
catalogue, they do have many extraordinary recordings, such as Keith Jarrett's
Koln Concert and Jean Baraque’s Sonata.
EMI Classics
EMI classics is not producing very many good new
recordings these days, but they still have a great back-catalogue, which they
continue (like all the big labels) to mine for new cheap reissues.
Golden
Horn
An independent label specializing in Turkish folk,
classical and jazz music out of
Green Linnet
Green Linnet specializes in Celtic music, and have a
very good catalogue for it, they also have a world division
"Xenophile", which features the Klezmatic's albums and other good
stuff.
Haenssler
A German classical music label with a strong
emphasis on choral music. They have also
released one of the best complete Bach editions.
Hemisphere
EMI's world music division. Some very good albums do
get released by them.
Hungaroton
Hungaroton has a great catalogue of classical and
hungarian folk music, but they can be very hard to find.
Hyperion
They are possibly my favourite western classical
label with their large number of new recordings made every year, all with the
highest standard of production and recording quality. They have some wonderful
series like the complete Liszt solo piano music, the Romantic Piano Concerto
series, the Romantic Violin Concerto series. They cover a lot of very obscure
repertoire and many first-recordings. They also have Marc-Andre Hamelin in
their artist roster.
Ivory Classics
A small label which specializes in piano
repertoire. They have some interesting
and unusual recordings and many with pianist Earl Wild.
Kereshmeh
An small label specializing in Persian music out of
Label
Bleu-Indigo
A French label which has some great releases in the
past couple of years, including Djelimousso Sissoko, Wendo Kolosoy, Boubacar
Traore and others.
Lyrichord
An old world music label, with many great titles.
Moment Records
Tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain’s own label. It releases exclusively unedited live concert
recordings of great Hindusthani and Karnatic musicians. This site is also hosted by a larger site specializing
in the Tabla.
Music & Arts
A small independent classical label based in the
Music of the World
A now defunct world music company, with some
indispensable Indian titles as well as high-quality recordings from
Naxos
A Hong Kong based label which produces a
tremendous amount of budget classical releases.
Their main interest would be for people new to classical music who want
to familiarize themselves with large groups of works (Beethoven sonatas for
example) and for people exploring lesser-known repertoire or areas which they
are not sure of. The performances are
rarely more than adequate in most cases with a few rare finds. I find their approach best for 18th
music (e.g. Haydn), but a listener would be missing a lot if Naxos recordings
of pieces like Beethoven’s Appassionata sonatas or Chopin’s Etudes were their
first and last recording.
Network
A German label which releases some of the most
beautiful recordings every year.
Including recordings by Shahram Nazeri, Mohammad Reza Shajarian,
Bratsch, Djivan Gasparyan, Alim Qasimov and terrific compilations such as
Hommage A Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and range of excellent compilations of Gypsy
music.
New
Albion
A small label which specializes in experimental,
avant-garde and contemporary classical music. With composers like John Cage,
Frederic Rzewski, Somei Satoh, and others.
Nimbus
A great label out of the
Nonesuch
A Warner label which releases a lot of Uk-based World Circuit recordings in
Ocora
The mother of all world music labels, the Ocora
catalogue makes for good drooling. It's unfortunate that they haven't got
around to hosting a proper and fully interactive website. I want everything
they have.
Playasound
An old French label with many releases and licensed
older recordings. Often lower production
values and obscure artists, but suprisingly good music nonetheless.
Philip Classics
Probably the best of the big labels in classical
music these days. They still release many serious recordings, and not just the
"Yo-Yo-Ma-plays-fluff" cd's like Sony Classics or EMI classics. They
have the wonderful Great Pianists of the 20th Century series, and the Complete
Mozart Edition. They also have great mid-price series with their Philips Duos.
Piranha
A small label out of
Realworld
Home to Peter Gabriel's Realworld and Womad.
They have done a lot for world music, and there are many superb albums on
Realworld. Unfortunately, they don't release very many, particularly not
recently, and they rarely release more than one album per artist. How can they
not release another with Doudou N'Daiye Rose? Fatalla?
Rounder
Rounder has a very large catalogue, even once all
the American folk and roots music is taken out. They have many new recordings
and many great reissues like the ongoing reissue of UNESCO's Anthology of World
Music. They also distribute many other labels such as GlobeStyle, Flying Fish,
Rykodisc
Though their catalogue has huge chunks of American
music which does not interest me, their other stuff does tend to interest me.
Historical recodings like the Secret Museum of Mankind series, and many new
recordings--both location and studio.
SevenEighths
Probably the smallest label listed here, but growing
in the right direction. The owner and executive producer Kutay Derin Kugay has
a keen interest and ear for many of my favourite areas of music. Some stellar recordings include the solo Persian
Barbat (Arabic Oud) album “Midnight Sun” with Hossein Behroozi-nia, one of my
favourite instrumental recordings of Persian classical music.
Shanachie
Shanachie is similar to Rounder and Ryko as the bulk
of its catalogue is dedicated to American music. But their new recordings of
international music are among the very best, with artists like Ghazal.
Sounds
True
A company which specializes in a lot of New-Age
self-help, audio cassettes and books, but they also release music. Particularly
with Joel Davis in charge of their music division, everything they release I
know is guaranteed to be excellent. They have released some of my absolute
favourite recordings in the past couple of years. The best album by Shahram
Nazeri, the best album by Hamza el Din, the best album by Musafir etc. No small
feat! Every album released in 1999 has been near the top of my list. They have
also released two volumes of music recorded at the Fez Festival of Sacred Music
in Morocco. Two amazing compilations.
Traditional Crossroads
The site for Traditional Crossroads hosted by
rootsworld, an on-line resource for world and folk music. Traditional
Crossroads has a small, but slowly growing catalogue. With some utter
masterpieces like Kayhan Kalhor's solo "Scattering Stars Like Dust",
the Flying Bulgar Band's albums and many historic recordings by masters like Tamburi
Cemil Bay, and more recent recordings by masters like Djivan Gasparyan it is an
essential catalogue.
Tumi Records
A company which specializes in Latin music. I’ve only encountered them recently, but the first
four releases I have, all Cuban, have piqued my interest in their large and
growing catalogue.
Warner Classics
Probably the biggest music conglomerate in this list.
In their classical division, they have Teldec and Erato, both capable of
releasing interesting and good recordings.
Water Lily Acoustics
A small label that specializes in natural unedited
recordings. They’ve made some excellent
recordings such as Visha Mohann Bhatt’s and Simon Shaheen’s collaboration.
Zuta
Music
A new label out of Isreal with some great recordings
of Algerian Andalusian music, Palestinian Bedouin and Arab classical music.
Music Societies
and Organizations
Harbourfront
Toronto’s main location for summer festivals,
including their annual Rhythms of the World, which has featured concerts by the
Kamkars, Taraf de Haidouks, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and others.
Klezmershack
The most comprehensive source of all things loosely
associated with Klezmer. Discographies,
artists links and bios, news and reviews, concert and radio listings across
North America etc.
Liszt Sonata
A one-page site which is the most comprehensive
discography of the monumental Sonata in b minor by Franz Liszt (over 150
recordings!). It is surprising the
number of times I have visited this site for this one (long) page.
Montreal Jazz Fest
Canada’s largest festival of jazz. Though it’s much more than that. It often features many far-flung traditions
outside of jazz music, many of which are free outdoor concerts.
Montreal
Symphony Orchestra
Canada’s best symphony orchestra lead by one of the
world’s greatest conductors, Charles Dutoit.
Their repertoire and guests soloists tend to be more interesting and of
higher calibre than other Canadian orchestras.
NAC
Home to the National Arts Centre and the NAC
Orchestra. An orchestra with an
unfortunately limited repertoire, but they do have the occassional worthy
concert.
Ottawa Choral Society
Ottawa’s largest choir, responsible for most of the
best choral performances in the region.
They perform their own concerts as well as joining forces with the NAC
Orchestra and Ottawa Symphony Orchestra for their choral performances. Their 1997 performance of Bach’s St. Mathew
Passion with the NACO and Trevor Pinnock still remains the finest concert I
have ever attended.
Rootsworld
An on-line folk and world music magazine with links,
articles and reviews. I occassionally contribute
reviews.
Strings of the Future
A festival of string quartets which takes place
every two years in Ottawa. They tend to have
very interesting programming with an emphasis on 20th century and
contemporary works without ignoring tradition.
There are lectures and dicussions along with the many concerts.
World Music Institute
A New York based organization which promotes and
produces world music. They are always
sponsoring some of the best touring groups in North America in any given
year. They also host enough concerts in
New York to make one drool.
Music Societies
and Organizations
This is
a short list of where to find rare CD’s on-line or by phone. I have purchased CD’s online or by phone at
all these places with 100% reliability and have also visited them in
person. They are all located in Canada
(exchange rates being what they are, it is always much cheaper to buy CD’s in
Canada).
A&B Sound (Vancouver)
They
have the best prices for regular distributed CD’s online, for example the
Philip’s Great Pianists of the 20th Century series is $7 less than
what I have seen in-store and at least $3 less than anywhere else on-line. However their website is rudimentary and it
can be a pain to search for albums and even worse for browsing. It can also take a while to ship the order,
but you will get them (of course, I am not buying Brittany Spears’s latest when
I order from them).
Greek City Village (452 Danforth Ave.
Toronto)
The only
source of Greek CD’s in Canada to my knowledge.
They have a huge selection and an easy to use website. Greece has a very large music industry with
many recordings made of traditional and folk (as well as popular) music.
Pegah Books
(5521A Yonge St. Toronto)
(416)
223-0850
(416)
223-3706 Fax
Probably
the best source of Iranian music, they have a good selection of Persian
classical and folk music. The only
Canadian source for Kereshmeh cd’s. They
do not have a website yet, but they have very reliable mail-order by
phone. However, you should know what
titles you want when you call. Visit Kereshmeh or Caltex records first to give you some
guide what to ask for. If you’re in
Toronto, it would be worth checking out in person. Their prices are very good.
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