T.D.

Good list. I'll definitely try to hear more Kissin. I've listened to his Bach-Busoni Chaconne on youtube a few times and think it's the best I've heard. When I lived in/near NYC and attended a lot of concerts, Kissin was one of the biggest star soloists at Carnegie Hall.

Peter, I also prefer Bach on piano. I do own a handful of harpsichord recordings, incl. Hantai's Goldberg Variations and Suzuki's Kunst der Fuge (the latter of which I really enjoy). Don't have any Bach by Kempff, but his Beethoven sonata cycle is my favorite. I have a bunch of Bach piano recordings. Listen to Sergey Schepkin the most. Other pianists include Feltsman, Schiff, Feinberg, Gould, Tipo and Martins, the latter two of whom are known for idiosyncratic interpretations (maybe Gould is in that category too, but he's much more respected 🙂).

Indicative of my bad taste (Bach purists would recoil in horror - for instance https://www.classicstoday.com/review/review-11709/ )

I guess I can deal with the 1 track with Hod's wife on vocals.

One of my best recording buys of 2025

I am a fan of Grumiaux, and he's especially good in Mozart.

Thanks, that's good to know. I saw him live once in a relatively small club (circa 2017 iirc) and he seemed like an extremely nice guy.

The Takayanagi trio/duo disc on No Business (w. Kikuchi on the trios and Ino throughout) is something I've considered buying, but so far have just listened on the bandcamp site. Hoping that Lonely Woman turns out to be one of those recordings that belatedly clicks.

Looking at the album art on discogs, it seems to be a pendant on a necklace.

DG recently had a few including that one, but they sold out. I have several Takayanagi recordings on my DG watch list, but I held off on the recent batch. I've bought several of his recordings and experience has been mixed. Favorite so far by far is the Angry Waves 850113 on Aketa's Disk. Like the Tristano-ish Cool Jojo, most of Ginparis Session and one tune on Axis/Another Revolvable Thing. Free Form Suite and Lonely Woman were misfires that I may sell. I've been cutting down on purchases and the most likely would include Kaoru Abe, but I'm sceptical about adding more in the "noise" genre. BTW, "coming soon" (Jan. 21 ETA) to DG are a whole boatload of Japanese import J-jazz reissues, straight-ahead through avant-garde. Including a bunch of Aketa's Disk and even one Johnny's Disk. Good chance to pick up some you might have missed.

Yes. To be honest, I'd never heard of her until noticing the upcoming listing. There's a definite physical resemblance.

Carla Bley's daughter has a show in this area next month. https://dice.fm/event/3o38g8-karen-mantler-trio-13th-feb-the-local-saugerties-tickets

Intriguing. But all the usual issues: Do tapes still exist? Who owns the rights? Etcetera. Better get "The Jazz Detective" on the case. 🤣

Barnes and Noble shows an e-book for US$14.99 I find that hard to believe, but you could try to order and see what happens. Even if available, I don't know offhand if you can read B&N "Nook" e-books without a special device. [Added: If it's in stock, looks like you can create a B&N account and read it on a computer or phone: https://help.barnesandnoble.com/hc/en-us/articles/5398798012571-Buying-eBooks-and-Other-Digital-Content ]