PICKS OF THE MONTH
Antoine de Févin
Missa Ave Maria & Salve sancte parens
Brabant Ensemble / Stephen Rice
Hyperion (dist. PIAS)
CDA68265
Various Composers
In a Strange Land: Elizabethan Composers in Exile
Stile Antico
Harmonia Mundi (dist. PIAS)
HMM 902266
For this issue I’ve selected two new releases as Picks of the Month. At first glance they may not seem to have much in common: the first offers what I believe to be world-premiere recordings of two Masses and several motets by the criminally under-recognized late-15th-century composer Antoine de Févin, including his magisterial parody Mass on Josquin’s motet Ave Maria… virgo serena; the second is a program of music composed during the following century by Catholic English composers in exile during the English Counter-reformation in the mid-to-late 1500s–gorgeous music by the likes of John Dowland, William Byrd, and Richard Dering, treating predictable themes of anguish (Dowland’s “Flow, My Tears” opens the program), displacement (Philippe de Monte’s setting of “Super flumina Babylonis”) and defiant Marian devotion (Peter Philips’ “Gaude Maria virgo”). It ends with Robert White’s heartbreakingly beautiful setting of Jeremiah’s Lamentations. These two albums could hardly be more different, so why put them together? Because of the singers. Stile Antico and the Brabant Ensemble are, in my view, the two finest ensembles currently working in the Oxbridge choral tradition (better to my ears than the Sixteen, and even edging out the Tallis Scholars, though not by much). And part of their secret is an actual overlap in personnel: both groups feature the sopranos Helen and Kate Ashby, and alto Emma Ashby, all of whom are sisters and whose voices contribute significantly to the rich, creamy blend that characterizes the sound of both groups. Both of these albums should be considered must-haves for any classical collection.
CLASSICAL
Various Composers
À portuguesa: Iberian Concertos & Sonatas
Orquestra barocca Casa da Música / Andreas Staier
Harmonia Mundi (dist. PIAS)
HMM 902337
Looking at the program of this disc, an eagle-eyed observer may notice that of the five composers represented on this disc, only one has either a Spanish or a Portuguese name. (Of the other four, two are British and two are Italian.) So what makes these concertos and sonatas “Iberian” (and, more specifically, portuguesa)? Well, Domenico Scarlatti (represented here by three harpsichord sonatas) worked extensively for Spanish and Portuguese royalty, as did Luigi Boccherini (whose string quintettino is presented here in a modern transcription for strings and harpsichord). And the British composers Charles Avison and William Corbett were markedly influenced by Spanish and Portuguese musical styles, as is particularly evidenced in the concerti grossi offered here. That leaves the two concerti grossi by José António Carlos de Seixas, the sole Portuguese composer on the program, whose work is delightful but doesn’t catch the attention nearly as forcefully as the strikingly modern-sounding opening movement of Boccherini’s quintettino, or the slightly less startling dissonances of Corbett’s Concerto “Alla portuguesa”. This disc is as much a musicological treasure as it is a listening pleasure.
Kaija Saariaho
Saariaho X Koh
Jennifer Koh with various accompanists
Cedille (dist. Naxos)
CDR 90000 183
Rick’s Pick
For this album, violinist Jennifer Koh teams up with a shifting array of collaborators to perform chamber works by the celebrated Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. These works tread a careful line between the invitingly lyrical and the forbiddingly academic, offering plenty of structural complexity but also lots of accessible sonic beauty. Some pieces are spikier than others–the one-movement trio Light and Matter is particularly knotty–but all of them make powerful melodic as well as textural statements and coherently convey strong emotion as well as structural complexity. Light and Matter is presented here in its world-premiere recording, as is the violin/cello version of a brief piece titled Aure. Strongly recommended to all classical collections.
Various Composers
Resilience
Calidore String Quartet
Signum Classics (dist. Naxos)
SIGCD551
The overarching theme of the latest from the Calidore String Quartet is that of creating beauty in the midst of turmoil and despair. Opening with Prokofiev’s second string quartet (composed while he was in exile during WWII), then proceeding to Leoš Janáček’s “Kreutzer Sonata” quartet (written in anguish over his romantic troubles), then to Osvaldo Golijov’s one-movement Tenebrae (informed by his experiences of the Middle East conflict), and then concluding with Felix Mendelssohn’s wrenching sixth string quartet (written in the wake of his sister Fanny’s death), this album is both a meditation on human suffering and a celebration of what humans can produce in the midst of it–whether because or in spite of that suffering. The playing is magnificent, and is particularly impressive in the forbiddingly virtuosic final movement of the Mendelssohn.
Georg Philipp Telemann
The Concerti-en-suite
Tempesta di Mare
Chandos (dist. Naxos)
CHAN 0821
Rick’s Pick
Jean-Féry Rebel; Georg Philipp Telemann
Terpsichore: Apothéose de la danse baroque
Le Concert des Nations / Jordi Savall
AliaVox (dist. PIAS)
AVSA9929
German music of the late baroque period was characterized by what came to be called vermischter goût (itself a linguistically mixed term, amusingly enough)–meaning that elements of German, Italian, and French styles were intermixed to create a new and pleasing blend. Telemann took that concept further, into structural territory, by pioneering the “concerto-suite”: a format in which a soloist is featured in the opening movement, and subsequent movements follow the traditional format of a series of French-style dance movements. Three of his works in this vein are currently known to survive, and Tempesta di Mare (on period instruments) perform them with joyful panache on this wonderful disc. The natural-horn players are especially impressive here, delivering difficult lines with none of the watery tremulousness that so often mars performances on that fiendishly challenging instrument. The Concert des Nations disc alternates dance suites by the great French composer Jean-Féry Rebel with similarly-configured works by Telemann, one of them from his monumental Tafelmusik collection. As always, Jordi Savall leads the Concert des Nations in performances characterized by exuberance and infectious rhythmic vitality, and the sumptuousness of the recorded sound is particularly noteworthy on this deeply enjoyable disc. Both would make outstanding selections for any collection of baroque music, but the Telemann disc may be particularly noteworthy from a pedagogical point of view.
François Devienne
6 Trios for Flute, Viola and Cello
Sara Ligas; Salvatore Rea; Vladimiro Atzeni
Brilliant Classics (dist. Naxos)
95686
Discovering the flute music of François Devienne has been one of my great pleasures over the past few years. Up until now I’ve mostly heard the concertos, and this set of trios is something of a revelation. Playing on modern instruments, Sara Ligas, Salvatore Rea and Vladimiro Atzeni beautifully convey Devienne’s very French late-classical style, and do so without condescending to the relative simplicity of Devienne’s work. Instead, they showcase its melodic sumptuousness, reveling in the moments of counterpoint and development when they do arise. This music may not be terribly important in the grand scheme of things, but it’s tremendously enjoyable.
Various Composers
Clarinet Concertos (14 discs)
Various Performers
Brilliant Classics (dist. Naxos)
95787
Generally speaking, I’m a big fan of the Brilliant Classics label’s box sets–true, some of them may seem a bit thrown-together, but some of them are… er… brilliant, and the price is always right. (And yes, that does matter. This one lists at just over $50, or roughly $3.50 per disc.) But when there are problems, they can be serious. In the case of my review copy of the new Clarinet Concertos box, some kind of encoding error created a strange clicking sound that seems to come and go depending on the volume of the music on discs 2 and 3 (dedicated to the Louis Spohr concerti)–a glitch that, incidentally, is not present in the digital versions of the same tracks on Amazon, where the whole box can be downloaded for $8.99. Another problem, endemic to this kind of super-budget-line set, is the extremely schematic liner notes, which total seven pages. Otherwise, this set is a solid winner. It covers the history of clarinet concertos starting with Molter and Spohr in the classical period up through Stanford, Hindemith, and Nielsen in the 20th century, with predictable inclusions from Krommer, Stamitz, Crusell, and others in between. As best I can tell, the performances are all on modern instruments, and although Henk de Graaf’s clarinet is distractingly bright, even shrill, on the Molter concerti, for the most part everything sounds very good. The original recordings were made between 1982 and 2017.
Morten Lauridsen
Light Eternal
Chamber Choir of Europe; I Virtuosi Italiani / Nicol Matt
Deutsche Grammophon
483 5058
Rick’s Pick
Morten Lauridsen’s shimmeringly gorgeous Lux aeterna (or at least its middle movement, O nata lux) has become one of the most ubiquitous pieces of American choral music of the past 25 years, so it might be tempting to dismiss this album with a yawn. That would be a mistake, though, partly because of the unbelievably lovely performance of that work offered on this recording by the Chamber Choir of Europe, and partly because there’s so much else on offer here–notably world-premiere recordings of two recent works, Prayer and Ya eres mía. The program is rounded out by Lauridsen’s settings of poems by Rilke, Neruda, and Agee, an extract from his Madrigali, and his setting of the O magnum mysterium text. The singing, playing, and production are exquisite throughout, and I strongly recommend this release to all libraries.
JAZZ
Kristen Strom
Moving Day: The Music of John Shifflett
OA2
22161
Rick’s Pick
John Shifflett, who died prematurely in 2017, was one of the more in-demand bass players on the Bay Area jazz scene, very well-known to the cognoscenti there. What was less well-known was his tremendous gift as a composer. On this album, a shifting combo of his friends have gathered under the leadership of saxophonist/clarinetist/flutist Kristen Strom to pay tribute to Shifflett with a program of arrangements of his tunes, plus his setting of a pair of–get this–Stan Rogers songs. The album ends up being a revelation, not only due to the quality of the original compositions (which achieve that magical and always elusive balance between complexity and accessibility) but also due to the depth, warmth, and brilliance of the arrangements. All of the soloists are marvelous, but the album’s finest moments come during the ensemble passages, which are organized with palpable love and constantly-impressive harmonic insight. This is one of the sweetest and loveliest jazz albums I’ve heard all year.
Ted Piltzecker
Brindica
Zoho (dist. MVD)
ZM201810
Jazz is a dish for which there are a thousand recipes, and some of the most delicious ones include both a dash of humor and a broad range of stylistic influences. That’s the thought that has kept occurring to me while listening to the latest album from vibraphonist and composer Ted Piltzecker. Taking the listener on a “worldwide musical journey” while avoiding the twin pitfalls of either stylistic imperialism or shallow multi-culti piety, Piltzecker writes and arranges tunes that draw on tango, second-line, Afro-Cuban, South African, and even carnatic influences, always in an organic, fun, and respectful way. The result is a stylistic kaleidoscope of an album that reveals new combinations of rhythm and harmony at every turn and always sparkes with wit and good humor. Highly recommended.
Jeanne Lee with Ran Blake
The Newest Sound You Never Heard: European Recordings 1966/1967 (2 discs)
A-Side
0005
I’m not going to lie: I approached this album with trepidation. Two hours of otherwise unaccompanied vocal-piano jazz is not usually my idea of a good time. But I admire Ran Blake and had never heard of Jeanne Lee, and the program includes both bop standards and 1960s pop hits, so I was intrigued enough to cue it up–and I remained intrigued as I listened. Lee has a magnificent voice; not overpowering, but strong and supple, and she wields it with a rare combination of adventurousness and restraint, always doing interesting things but never doing weird things for the sake of weirdness. Blake’s playing gives her lots of space, while doing plenty of inventive stuff in the background, some of which you’ll have to listen for to catch. These tapes were made during studio and live performances in Belgium and have never been released prior to this. For all jazz collections.
Michael Dease
Bonafide
Posi-Tone
PR8188
Rick’s Pick
And I’ll be honest again: I knew I was going to love this one before I even opened it, and I was right. Michael Dease is one of the most gifted trombonists and composers working in jazz right now, and on his latest album as a leader he sweetens the pot by adding three more trombonists: Marshall Gilkes, Conrad Herwig, and Gina Benalcazar (the latter on bass trombone). Supported by tenor saxophonist Sam Dillon and a crack piano trio, this quartet of ‘bones delivers a joyful set of originals and standards, heavy on the originals. There are plenty of great charts here–note in particular the very fine ensemble writing on the long out-chorus of Phineas Newborn’s “Theme for Basie”–and it’s tons of fun to hear the unusual timbral textures created by massed trombones. Best of all, the whole group swings like nobody’s business. Highly recommended to all libraries.
Thomas Marriott
Romance Language
Origin
82765
Trumpeter Thomas Marriot delivers a lovely ballad program on this album, but it’s a ballad program with something of a twist. Although the focus is on romantic and contemplative slow and mid-tempo numbers (one of the loveliest of which is Marriott’s arrangement of Pat Metheny’s “Always and Forever”), there are also some surprising moments. Most obvious is “Piggyback,” with its rockish backbeat and synthesized beat-boxy percussion, which flirts with the dreaded epithet “smooth jazz”–but escapes it (or perhaps makes it irrelevant) by virtue of Marriott’s sweet muted trumpet sound. More subtle are the quietly percolating groove and slyly sidewinding chord changes of “Alibi Room.” Prettiest of all is the album-closing arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” which proves that you can create new recipes out of even the oldest chestnuts.
FOLK/COUNTRY
SUSS
Ghost Box (expanded reissue)
Northern Spy
NS105
Rick’s Pick
This entry may ring a bell for the regular readers, since the original release of this album was covered in the May 2018 issue. At the time I wasn’t able to tell you much about it, since the disc had come in the mail with no accompanying information and the packaging included no information beyond the names of the musicians involved. Now comes an expanded reissue (with four additional tracks) on the Northern Spy label, in a package that includes a band photo that allows us to divine more about the instrumentation: in the photo we see five guys, two with guitars, one with a mandolin, one playing a pedal steel, and one sitting behind a laptop computer. Not your typical country/Americana lineup, certainly, and indeed this music is a strange, entrancing, and utterly unique blend of country elements and ambient electronica–imagine early Freedy Johnston as produced and radically remixed by Brian Eno and you might get a good idea of what to expect. No singing, no grooves, rarely even anything like a beat–and yet it’s completely compelling. Strongly recommended to all libraries.
Ebony Hillbillies
5 Miles from Town (digital only)
EH Music
No cat. no.
Billed as “the premier African-American String Band in America,” the Ebony Hillbillies demonstrate the deep debt that white Appalachian old-time music owes to African-American blues and gospel. This debt has always been acknowledged with words, but bands like Ebony Hillbillies and the Carolina Chocolate Drops make those words flesh with musical demonstration, and create a tremendous amount of excitement in doing so. Consider, in this case, how the band segues from a rollicking rendition of the classic fiddle tune “Hog Eyed Man” into a powerful, stomping performance of the blues party classic “Wang Dang Doodle”–or how they manage to make a Bonnie Raitt cover lead in perfectly naturally to a sashaying version of “Carroll County Blues.” Also notice how some of these old-sounding songs are actually brand-new protest numbers. Listen carefully; it’s worth it, and this album is more than merely fun.
Tom Brumley and the Buckaroos
Steelin’ the Show (compilation)
Omnivore
OVCD-318
In recent years the outstanding Omnivore label has, among other triumphs, brought a bunch of classic Buck Owens and the Buckaroos material back to market. In so doing, it has also brought new attention to some of Owens’ less-celebrated sidemen–notably Don Rich, and now the Buckaroos’ brilliant steel player Tom Brumley. Unlike the Don Rich titles, though, Steelin’ the Show isn’t actually a reissue; it’s a collection of instrumental tracks featuring Brumley, gathered from various Owens albums; Owens regularly recorded such instrumentals as a way of drawing audiences’ attention to the talents of his sidemen. The album closes with its only vocal number, the Owens classic “Together Again,” which features a solo by Brumley that has become famous for its taste and lyricism. Brumley was not a stunt musician; his playing is always tasteful rather than flashy, and this is a tremendously enjoyable album.
Nobody’s Girl
Waterline (EP)
Lucky Hound
No cat. no.
Rebecca Loebe, Grace Pettis, and BettySoo are all veterans of the Austin singer-songwriter scene, and each of them has been a winner of the “New Folk” award at the Kerrville Folk Festival. The music they make as a trio has little to do with folk, however; it’s country-pop with a rockish edge and a gentle lyrical bite, characterized by sweet and exceedingly tight harmonies and blockbuster melodic hooks. And there’s a great cover of Blondie’s “Call Me.” Give this one a listen and you’ll find yourself wishing it was more than six songs long (the seventh song on the program being a live acoustic version of the lead track). Especially given the $13 list price (only $6.99 if you buy it on Amazon instead).
ROCK/POP
Scuba
A Mutual Antipathy Revisited (digital-only reissue)
Hotflush
No cat. no.
OK, it’s important to pay attention here. Scuba, one of the pioneering producers/DJs of the early dubstep scene, is reissuing his 2008 debut album in remastered form with the addition of both a new bonus track and a handful vintage remixes by the likes of Surgeon and Marcel Dettmann. This is dark, grumbling EDM of the finest kind, with lots of off-kilter beats and a wealth of microscopically-detailed effects–exactly the kind of thing we’ve come to expect from this world-class artist. At roughly the same time, Scuba has also released a large collection of previously-unreleased tracks taken from the sessions that produced both A Mutual Antipathy and his second album, Triangulation. This collection is called SUB:STANCE in Retrograde (the title celebrating the five-year run of Scuba’s SUB:STANCE party at the Berghain club) and is also only available in digital form. Neither of these releases should be confused with Sounds of SUB:STANCE, which is a huge compilation of previously-unreleased and previously vinyl-only tracks from artists like Shackleton, Vex’d, and Sepalcure (plus Scuba himself, of course), now being made available in a single digital package. Do you want all three? Well, I do. But I have a seemingly limitless appetite for dark, grumbling EDM with off-kilter beats and a wealth of microscopically-detailed effects. My recommendation is that you start with the Mutual Antipathy reissue and see what you think–then delve further as deeply as you like.
Various Artists
Harmony in My Head: UK Power Pop & New Wave 1977-81 (3 discs)
Cherry Red (dist. MVD)
CRCDBOX62
Rick’s Pick
In which we ponder the musical question: what are the parameters of “power pop,” anyway, and where do they intersect with those of “new wave”? And its corollary: are power pop and new wave defined differently in the UK than in the US? That the answer to the latter question might be “yes” is suggested by the title of this magnificent three-disc compilation, which is taken from a Buzzcocks song–one that I would be more likely to call “punk” than “new wave,” and certainly not “power pop.” It’s also suggested by the fact that the second song on the first disc is “You Belong to Me” by Elvis Costello — one that this Yank would consider to be neither power pop nor new wave, nor, certainly, punk. So if nothing else, this set provides a highly instructive window into the different ways cultures have thought about these happily under-defined and generally under-appreciated subgenres of pop music since the 1970s. And also a highly instructive window into bands that many of us (especially the Yanks) will never have heard of before, some of which contribute songs that are among the sharpest and most enjoyable power-pop/new-wave/whatever tracks I’ve ever heard. Highlights include the admirably crunchy “Howard Hughes” by the Tights, “Common Truth” by Amazorblades, and the joyfully driving “No Money” by The Freshies. Awesome.
Quanta
Dream Before You Sleep (2014; digital only)
Dubmission
CDDUBM039
Misled Convoy
Sixteen Sunsets
Dubmission
CDDUBM081
The musical genre known as “dub” got its start as a subgenre of reggae; back in the early 1970s, it emerged as a precursor to modern remix culture. The dub version of a song typically dropped all but occasional snippets of the vocal, while instruments fell unpredictably out of and back into the mix, augmented by generous dollops of echo and delay. Today, dub is a fully-developed genre all its own, though still deeply rooted in reggae tradition. Two releases from the outstanding Dubmission label illustrate how richly developed dub has become. Quanta’s Dream Before You Sleep (which I thought was a new release, but apparently actually dates from 2014 and is only available as a download; make sure you get the seven-track version here rather than the shorter version available on Amazon) is nowhere near as somnolent or meditative as its title would suggest; its instrumental textures are rich and deep, with bone-shuddering basslines underpinning occasional found-sound vocal samples and highly detailed chord changes and accents in the upper registers. The latest from Misled Convoy is operating in a more abstract, spacey realm: fewer heavyweight rhythms, more expansive soundscapes–but still plenty of groove. The term “avant-dub” was coined to describe music like this, though it’s by no means as “avant” as some; it’s just consistently interesting, subtly subverting expectations even as it pays respect to the old-school verities. Both of these albums are outstanding, as is virtually everything on the Dubmission label.
The Claudettes
Dance Scandal at the Gymnasium!
Yellow Dog
YDR 2465
Over the course of several albums, the Claudettes have forged a synthesis of blues, R&B, rockabilly and punk that succeeds at sounding simultaneously old and new. On their latest release the originality of their sound is deepened by the adoption of a truly strange instrumentation: pianos, drums, and a “bass VI” guitar–a bass guitar with six strings and a relatively short scale length that can function simultaneously as a bass and as a uniquely-voiced guitar. I explain this as a way of explaining the uniquely dark, muddy sound on the Claudettes’ new album; it reflects the seriousness that lurks beneath the party-ready mood on the surface of many of their songs. The best thing here is singer Berit Ulseth’s voice, which never seems to rise above a conversational level yet cuts effortlessly through the murk of the mix. This album really does sound unlike anything else you’ll hear this year.
Various Artists
3X4: The Bangles/The Three O’Clock/The Dream Syndicate/Rain Parade
Yep Roc (dist. Redeye)
YEP-2596
Almost 40 years later, it’s easy to forget how remarkable the Paisley Underground movement was back in the early 1980s. In the immediate wake of punk’s inchoate rage and post-punk’s cold cynicism, a turn to the chiming guitars and heart-on-sleeve idealism of 1960s pop wasn’t something obviously to be expected at the time, but when the Bangs (later the Bangles), the Three O’Clock, and the Dream Syndicate emerged on the Los Angeles scene they got a strong response–and the Bangles, at least, went on to achieve major mainstream success. On this album, four bands from that scene take turns covering each other’s songs, and while for me personally one outcome is a reminder of why I was never able to warm up to the Dream Syndicate, others will surely enjoy this album more consistently than I did. And yes, there’s a tambura on one song.
WORLD/ETHNIC
Minor Empire
Uprooted
World Trip
WTR002
It’s always interesting to listen to politically-charged music written and sung in a language you don’t understand, and to try to see how much of the message you can intuit just from the music and the singing itself. In the case of this album by Turkish-Canadian duo Minor Empire, it was the emergence and then the brutal suppression of a youth movement back home that served as the catalyst for a set of songs and instrumental pieces that express their anger and disappointment with Turkey’s government. The melodies that Ozgu Ozman sings are sinuous and modal, while Ozan Boz’s guitar playing is as informed by psych-rock as it is by traditional Turkish music. The album’s title refers to Ozman’s feeling of despair that she no longer belongs in her home country–but her singing is restrained and carefully controlled, and without the lyric sheet one might never guess at the anger that simmers below the beautiful surface of her performance. All of it is exceptionally beautiful.
Black Uhuru
As the World Turns
Self-released
No cat. no.
Although technically a harmony trio in the same mold as the Meditations and the Mighty Diamonds, the classic lineup of Black Uhuru was different from their peers in at least two ways: first, a deeply dread lyrical worldview that wasted no time on love songs or nice-up-the-dance rhetoric; second, the presence of a woman in the group. Although the band began recording in the 1970s, it really made its mark beginning in 1980, with three blockbuster albums released in quick succession: Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (previously issued as Showcase), Sinsemilla and Red. Lead singer Michael Rose left shortly thereafter to pursue a solo career, and Puma Jones was diagnosed with breast cancer and had to leave the group as well. Three decades and lots of changes later, baritone vocalist Duckie Simpson is the only remaining original member, but he continues to carry the torch and to do so quite capably. As the World Turns is the first Black Uhuru album in 15 years, and it’s solid if not world-changing. Backing vocalist Nikki Hurt provides an echo of the band’s sound from the Puma Jones days, but Duckie is wise enough to embrace his own unique voice rather than trying to channel Michael Rose (as Junior Reid did when he took over the lead-vocalist chair in 1986). The songs remain strictly conscious and are finely crafted–though Simpson’s decision to base his arrangement of “Police and Thieves” more on the Clash’s version than the Junior Murvin original is kind of curious. Recommended.
Te’Amir
Abyssinia & Abyssinia Rise (vinyl & digital only)
Tru Thoughts (dist. Redeye)
TRULP363
The title of this release and its cover art will lead the listener to expect Ethiopian music of some kind, and that expectation will be met–more or less. Te’Amir is actually a Los Angeles-based beatmaker, drummer, and producer whose father is Ethiopian and exposed him to the traditional and popular music of his home country throughout his childhood. On the two EPs that are brought together for this (at 29 minutes, still EP-length) vinyl/digital release, Te’Amir blends the influences of that music with contemporary and Western beats and styles–the jazzy, saxophone-centered “Randal in Addis,” the soulful “The Quest” and “All That You Need” (both featuring singer Dustin Warren), the glitchy and sampladelic “Back to Abyssinia.” This is a fascinating example of multicultural musical emulsion rather than fusion, and it’s lots of fun to listen to.
Minyeshu
Daa Dee
ARC Productions
EUCD2782
Rick’s Pick
Minyeshu Kifle Tedla is an Ethiopian singer and songwriter who has made her home in the Netherlands for the past 20 years or so. On her latest album, she celebrates coming to terms with her longstanding feelings of both personal and geographical displacement, writing a program of songs that draw deeply on both traditional Ethiopian styles and the “Ethio-jazz” she loved as a teenager growing up in Addis Ababa. The arrangements of these songs are complex and the rhythms are often knotty and difficult, but her soaring voice and joyful melodies make everything instantly accessible and fun. This is one of the most enjoyable albums I’ve heard in recent months.
Dhafer Youssef
Sounds of Mirrors
Ante Prima (dist. Bendo Music/Naxos)
No cat. no.
Dhafer Youssef is an oud player, singer, and composer from Tunisia who is descended from a long line of muezzins–the guys who sing the call to prayer at a mosque. His latest album evolved from his longstanding desire to incorporate Indian elements into his work, which led to a series of live collaborations with tabla player Zakir Hussain. This project in turn led to the addition of clarinetist Hüsnü Sęnlendirici and guitarist Eivind Aarset to the ensemble, and then to the recording of this wonderful album. Quiet, spacious songs alternate with jazzy and rhythmically complex instrumental explorations in which the combination of a north African lute and South Asian percussion seems to make perfect sense. The clarinet weaves modally in and out of the mix, while Aarset’s guitar mostly creates lush but subtle tapestries of chordal texture in the background. Highly recommended to all libraries.
CD HotList 