Scarlatti Fever

There were two Scarlattis of note and notes. Alessandro (1660-1725) and his son Domenico (1685-1757). Domenico was the harpsichord man, writing a whole lot of sonatas for harpsichord that gave him a reputation and a lot of famous fans later on, like Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, Shostakovich... They all had a touch of Scarlatti fever now and then.

I have loads of real classical harpsichord music. I once thought that was the new thing for me to explore. But I didn't get far down that road before I found that the distinctive harpsichord sound tended to become boring when standing alone. Rather like wallpaper music that doesn't know that it's wallpaper music. What I missed was of course drums and bass and other rhythmic elements. Something with a groove. So I turned to so-called baroque jazz to find the good stuff. Baroque jazz emerged in the early 60s with classically trained musicians who wanted to break into new markets with a combination of classical and jazz. Names like George Gruntz, Raymond Guiot and even Lalo Schifrin and Henry Mancini made notable music in that style. Some tunes can also be found in the library vaults, evident on this new comp I've assembled.

Later, we got Paul Mauriat as a great performer on the harpsichord (the French call it clavecin). Hereabouts we call it cembalo.

Whether the harpsichord-sounding instruments on these tunes are true harpsichords, spinetts or even
electric harpsichords here and there, I cannot say for sure.