| Kaleidoscope | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | August 31, 2018 | |||
| Recorded | April 29, 2018 | |||
| Studio | Sear Sound Studio C, New York City | |||
| Genre | Jazz | |||
| Length | 66:47 | |||
| Label | HighNote HCD 7317 | |||
| Producer | Cyrus Chestnut | |||
| Cyrus Chestnut chronology | ||||
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Kaleidoscope is an album by pianist Cyrus Chestnut that was recorded in 2018 and released on the HighNote label the following year. [1] [2]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
The AllMusic review by Matt Collar said: "Pianist Cyrus Chestnut is a virtuoso player with deep roots in both spiritual gospel music and harmonically sophisticated jazz. That said, he's also a classically trained artist with a wide-ranging and eclectic taste in music. He brings all of these influences to bear on his nuanced and enveloping 2018 trio date, Kaleidoscope ... Here, Chestnut has chosen a handful of his favorite classical compositions, including tracks by Erik Satie, Claude Debussy, and Maurice Ravel, which he reworks in his own inimitable jazz style, alongside other standards and his own originals. What's particularly compelling about his choices is just how well the classical songs fit into the jazz trio concept". [3]
In JazzTimes , David Whiteis stated: "This is serious play at its most elegant and satisfying. Cyrus Chestnut takes on fare ranging from original compositions through the works of Mozart, Ravel, and Satie, along with a hymn, a classic from the Great American Songbook, and most audaciously, a scrap from the heavy metal slag heap, enriching it all with zest, good humor, and unflagging craftsmanship. Chestnut is that rare artist whose work is as welcoming, even reassuring, as it is bold". [4]
Eric Alfred Leslie Satie, who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an undistinguished student and obtained no diploma. In the 1880s he worked as a pianist in café-cabaret in Montmartre, Paris, and began composing works, mostly for solo piano, such as his Gymnopédies and Gnossiennes. He also wrote music for a Rosicrucian sect to which he was briefly attached.
Joseph Maurice Ravel was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In the 1920s and 1930s Ravel was internationally regarded as France's greatest living composer.
Jacques Loussier was a French pianist and composer. He arranged jazz interpretations of many of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, such as the Goldberg Variations. The Jacques Loussier Trio, founded in 1959, played more than 3,000 concerts and sold more than 7 million recordings—mostly in the Bach series. Loussier composed film scores and a number of classical pieces, including a Mass, a ballet, and violin concertos. His style is described as third stream, a synthesis of jazz and classical music, with an emphasis on improvisation.
The Gymnopédies, or Trois Gymnopédies, are three piano compositions written by French composer and pianist Erik Satie. He completed the whole set by 2 April 1888, but they were at first published individually: the first and the third in 1888, the second in 1895.
Pascal Rogé is a French pianist.
Anne Queffélec is a French classical pianist, born in Paris.
Pour le piano, L. 95, is a suite for solo piano by Claude Debussy. It consists of three individually composed movements, Prélude, Sarabande and Toccata. The suite was completed and published in 1901. It was premiered on 11 January 1902 at the Salle Érard, played by Ricardo Viñes. Maurice Ravel orchestrated the middle movement.
Breaking New Ground is an album by American jazz pianist Mal Waldron recorded in 1983 and released by the Japanese Baybridge label.
The Victoires de la musique classique are an annual French classical music award event founded in 1986. The awards are the classical equivalent of the popular music awards Victoires de la Musique and the Victoires du Jazz. Most of the awards are for actual performers, orchestras, composers, etc. as opposed to the Diapason d'Or given to recordings, though there is an Enregistrement français de musique classique de l'année.
The Premier Menuet is a Neoclassical piano piece by Erik Satie. Written in June 1920, it was his last composition for solo piano. It was published by Les Éditions de La Sirène in 1921.
The Sarabandes are three dances for solo piano composed in 1887 by Erik Satie. Along with the famous Gymnopédies (1888) they are regarded as his first important works, and the ones upon which his reputation as a harmonic innovator and precursor of modern French music, beginning with Debussy, principally rests. The Sarabandes also played a key role in Satie's belated "discovery" by his country's musical establishment in the 1910s, setting the stage for his international notoriety.
Le Fils des étoiles is an incidental music score composed in December 1891 by Erik Satie to accompany a three-act poetic drama of the same name by Joséphin Péladan. It is a key work of Satie's "Rosicrucian" period (1891–1895) and played a role in his belated "discovery" by the French musical establishment in the 1910s.
Billy Eidi is a French classical pianist of Lebanese background.
The Quatre petites mélodies is a 1920 song cycle for voice and piano by French composer Erik Satie. It is most notable for its opening lament, Élégie, which Satie composed in memory of his friend Claude Debussy. A typical performance lasts under 4 minutes.
Paolo Fradiani is an Italian classical composer and professor.
There's a Sweet Sweet Spirit is an album by pianist Cyrus Chestnut. Recorded in 2017, it was released on the HighNote label the following year.
Natural Essence is an album by pianist Cyrus Chestnut that was recorded in 2015 and released on the HighNote label the following year.
The Abegg Trio was a German piano trio. Since its foundation in 1976, it played in the original line-up.
Colette Maze was a French classical pianist who studied with Alfred Cortot and Nadia Boulanger. She began recording in her 90s, with a preference for the music by Claude Debussy who was still alive when she was born. She released her seventh album in 2023, as possibly the oldest recording pianist. When she turned a centenarian, she became a favourite of social media.
Les trois valses distinguées du précieux dégoûté (The Three Distinguished Waltzes of a Jaded Dandy) is a 1914 piano composition by Erik Satie. The shortest of his humoristic keyboard suites of the 1910s, it features what author James Harding called "the most baroque verbal scaffolding Satie ever erected around his music". A performance lasts around 3 minutes.