Piano Music By Black Composers

Monica Gaylord (Artist, Conductor, Performer), Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (Composer), R. Nathaniel Dett (Composer), Edward "Duke" Ellington (Composer), Ulysses Kay (Composer), Oscar Peterson (Composer), William Grant Still (Composer), Howard Swanson (Composer), John W. II Work (Composer) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Monica Gaylord
• Conductor: Monica Gaylord
• Composer: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, R. Nathaniel Dett, Edward "Duke" Ellington, Ulysses Kay, Oscar Peterson, et al.
• Audio CD (September 28, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Music & Arts Program
• ASIN: B000006KFE
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #434,627 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Visions (3), for piano: Dark Horsemen

2. Visions (3), for piano: Summerland

3. Visions (3), for piano: Radiant Pinnacle

4. The Cuckoo

5. In the Bottoms, pieces for piano: Prelude: Night

6. In the Bottoms, pieces for piano: His Song

7. In the Bottoms, pieces for piano: Honey

8. In the Bottoms, pieces for piano: Barcarolle: Morning

9. In the Bottoms, pieces for piano: Juba Dance

10. Invention for piano in G minor

11. Invention for piano in A minor

12. Invention for piano in C major

13. Big Bunch of Roses, for piano (from Appalachia)

14. Seven Traceries, for piano: Cloud Cradles

15. Seven Traceries, for piano: Mystic Pool

16. Seven Traceries, for piano: Muted Laughter

17. Seven Traceries, for piano: Out of the Silence

18. Seven Traceries, for piano: Woven Silver

19. Seven Traceries, for piano: Wailing Dawn

20. Seven Traceries, for piano: A Bit of Wit

See all 25 tracks on this disc

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, February 17, 2001

By 

AfroAmericanHeritage (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Piano Music By Black Composers (Audio CD)

Wonderful! There is something on this CD for every taste, and it provides an excellent introduction to a broad cross-section of musical styles: nineteenth-century romanticism, impressionism, jazz, Negro folk tunes, and contemporary clissicism. Pianist Gaylord is equally at ease in any of these musical languages.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive (mostly) European-style piano music, April 20, 2006

By 

Bryan Moore (Jonesboro, AR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Piano Music By Black Composers (Audio CD)

What a treat this collection is. I've been listening to it for the past two days straight and am thoroughly hooked. As the previous reviewer writes, there are a lot of styles represented here: W.G. Still's rather Debussy-like Three Visitors, Swanson's playful "The Cuckoo," Dett's serene "Prelude: The Night," Peterson's and Ellington's jazzy pieces, and the Chopinesque romanticism of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Valse Suite. I have long been a fan of jazz pianists from Jelly Roll Morton to McCoy Tyner, but, to be clear, these are much more so European-style *classical* pieces than jazz or anything else, though there are jazz influences in many of the pieces (Peterson and Ellington, obviously). I don't think anyone would place any of these compositions on the level of Beethoven or Chopin, but they are delightful in their own right and well worth hearing (repeatedly in my case). I am especially fond of all the Still pieces; they have persuaded me to seek out more of his compositions. The performances by Monica Gaylord are first rate, and the total playing time of 77 minutes makes for a great bargain.