Porta D'Oriente/ Various - Porta D'orienteA 17th century manuscript that was compiled by Albert Bobowski, a Polish musician and orientalist, contains songs of the Italian Renaissance and the Ottoman court. Bobowski, alias Ali Ufki, was born around 1610 in Poland and worked in Constantinople at the Ottoman court, where he related to many European diplomats, clerics and travelers as translator, language teacher, mediator and advisor. Thanks to his diverse skills and profound knowledge of the

The arias of three or four stanzas each with partly choral refrain point both textually and musically to a representative occasion of origin

King Size Taylor was known in the early sixties as a regular guest in Hamburg's Star-Club

the singer again tries his hand at popular material

all of whom are younger than thirty

being "Heroes of the Empire" is their true identity

" a heart-bending love letter to his daughter

And the choice of music is also comforting: baroque concertos - mostly in major key - by Telemann

These practices went on into the early 1980s until the IRS caught wind of the scheme and the party was over

she has released a string of albums that have earned her critical acclaim and commercial success

Eric Von Herzen

as well as Steve Ellis solo albums and recordings with Paul Weller

including Natalie Hemby