You’ve only got a few days: Distributor Allegro Music has Winter & Winter discs on sale until April 12.
The CDs are 25% off, which puts them at about normal prices. (Being from Germany, Winter & Winter tends to go for import prices over here.) You can see the catalog at the link above.
This is your chance to stock up on the old JMT catalog — home to Tim Berne’s Bloodcount among other great artists. For those who arrive here by searching for Jim Black’s Alas No Axis and their album Houseplant, here’s a chance to pick it up.
Speaking of the JMT catalog… buried in there is an obscure rarity worth looking up. It’s from Stefan Winter, proprietor of both JMT and Winter & Winter, and it’s called The Little Trumpet.
It’s a kids’ story that reminds me of The Point, a ’70s animated TV special. The Point was sweet, unforgettable, and — by the standards of a wide-eyed 5-year-old — epic, drawn in sparse blank landscapes in a simplicity that made the story that much richer. For years, it was quested after by geeks and nerds on Usenet, back in the early ’90s when that meant something useful, and with good reason — The Point didn’t air that many times, yet it obviously touched the hearts of the kids who saw it.
Anyway — The Little Trumpet, about a land where the musical instruments are held captive, has the same kind of innocent charm and the same kind of hero’s journey. The story warms the heart, and the music is played by Stefan’s A-squad: Herb Robertson, Robin Eubanks, and Bill Frisell.
Back to Winter & Winter… It’s true that you can also get their output, for substantially cheaper, at eMusic. Nothing wrong with that. But if you like the physical form of a CD, and if you appreciate the thick packaging that Winter & Winter uses, here’s your chance to grab a couple of souvenirs.
(I don’t have any commercial ties to Winter & Winter. They don’t know I exist, and I’m getting no benefit from typing this other than the satisfaction of blathering into the ether.)
Memory Select: Journeys in Creative Music 