The Open Window

Trio Mediaeval, Ben Allison, Hillary Hahn, and James Keelaghan: Playlist for The Open Window for January 4 and 5, 2010

2010-01-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio in Nelson, B.C.) Mondays at 6:30 am and Tuesdays at 2pm, sponsored by Sidewinders Coffee

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Trio Mediaeval: Three pieces by Gavin Bryars and one Gregorian Chant from Soir, Dit-Elle (ECM)

These two Norwegians and a Swede sing everything from early music to contemporary compositions and folk songs a capella and they've gained an international following for their voices and harmonies and pure sound. This Cd reminds me of the music of Arvo Part because of its re-working of ancient forms to sound simultaneously both modern and medieval. You can watch them discussing their music and singing here.

Igor Stravinsky: Violin Concerto movements 1 and 2 performed by Hilary Hahn, violin and Neville Marriner conducting The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields from Brahms Stravinsky Violin Concertos (Sony Classical)

I have just recently begun looking into Stravinsky's music with the help of the music writer Alex Ross and I find this piece does present all the things he is famous for: colourful, dramatic rhythms and unusual use of instruments and general audacity. It's exciting....

James Keelaghan: McConnville's from House of Cards (Borealis)

Keelaghan is one of Canada's best and most moving story-tellers. He was a student of history at university and has carried that into his songwriting career. He is well known in certain circles but really, he should be more of a household name. Want to hear one of the best stories ever sung? It's Cold Missouri Waters on his A Recent Future CD. Want to watch him performing with the late and brilliant Oliver Schroer? Look here.

Ben Allison: Slap Happy, Peace Pipe, Goin Back, and Music is Music from Peace Pipe (Palmetto)

Ben Allison is an American jazz bassist and band-leader who on this 2002 CD and on several others included a kora player, Mamadou Diabate, in his band. The sound of that instrument transforms the jazz sound really delightfully. Michael Sarin drums, Frank Kimbrough piano, Michael Blake tenor saxophone. Goin' Back is a cover of a Neil Young song done beautifully.

Year-End Review: Brahem, Glass, Diabate, Hassell, Sutter, Part

2009-12-27T18:56:00.001-08:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, B.C.) at 6:30 am Mondays at 3pm Thursdays sponsored by Sidewinders Coffee

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In this year-end show I revisited several new CDs I have featured over the past few months. All of these are discussed in recent posts.

Anouar Brahem: The Astounding Eyes of Rita
Arvo Part: In Principio
Toumani Diabate: The Mande Variations
Jon Hassell: Last Night the Moon Came Dropping its Clothes in the Street
Wendy Sutter: Songs and Poems for Solo Cello by Philip Glass
Valentin Silvestrov: Misterioso

Anouar Brahem, The Gryphon Trio, and Lou Harrison: Playlist for The Open Window for December 14 and 17, 2009

2009-12-14T20:22:00.000-08:00

The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10 am Thursdays at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio in Nelson, B.C.), sponsored by Sidewinders Coffee.

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Lou Harrison: Bell Bowls from La Koro Sutro (New Albion)

Lou Harrison was a 20th century American composer with a passion for the gamelan music of Java and Bali, and he incorporated many of those sounds and textures into his music. I opened the show with this percussion piece played by William Wynant.

Anouar Brahem: The Lover of Beirut, Dance with Waves, Stopover at Djibouti, and The Astounding Eyes of Rita, from The Astounding Eyes of Rita (ECM )

Anouar Brahem is a celebrated player of Arabic classical music in his home country of Tunisia, and a tireless experimenter and collaborator to the point where it is often hard to say where North Africa leaves off and Europe begins in this spare, dignified, detailed music. For the past few decades he has divided his time between Tunisia and France and played, composed, taught... and worked with all manner of musicians as well as poets and dancers.

Think about the instruments in this quartet: oud, bass clarinet, bass, bendir and darbouka (those are North African hand drums). The result is elegant, exotic, low-toned, and full of feeling for deserts and cities.

The album is titled after a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, a revered poet of Palestine who died last year (photo to the right, just below). Here is the poem:

Between Rita and my eyes
There is a rifle
And whoever knows Rita
Kneels and plays
To the divinity in those honey-colored eyes

And I kissed Rita
When she was young
And I remember how she approached
And how my arm covered the loveliest of braids
And I remember Rita
The way a sparrow remembers its stream
Ah, Rita
Between us there are a million sparrows and images
And many rendevous
Fired at by a rifle

Rita's name was a feast in my mouth
Rita's body was a wedding in my blood
And I was lost in Rita for two years
And for two years she slept on my arm
And we made promises
Over the most beautiful of cups
And we burned in the wine of our lips
And we were born again

Ah, Rita!
What before this rifle could have turned my eyes from yours
Except a nap or two or honey-colored clouds?
Once upon a time
Oh, the silence of dusk
In the morning my moon migrated to a far place
Towards those honey-colored eyes
And the city swept away all the singers
And Rita

Between Rita and my eyes
A rifle

Mozart: Trio in G movements 1 and 2 (performed by the Gryphon 
Trio) from Mozart Trios (Analekta)

Toronto's Gryphon Trio is Annalee Patipatanakoon (violin), Roman Borys (cello), and Jamie Parker (piano).

Glen Velez, Paul Winter, Arvo Part, Mozart: Playlist for The Open Window for December 7, 2009

2009-12-06T19:56:00.000-08:00

The Open Window airs Monday mornings at 6:30 and Thursdays at 10 am at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio in Nelson, B.C.) sponsored by Sidewinders Coffee.

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Glen Velez: Webs from Rhythms of the Chakras (Sounds True)

Glen Velez is a Mexican-American percussionist who specializes in frame drums. On this album he plays the bodhran and the North African bendir, adding small percussion and the occasional voice and strings. I saw him live once and he related to the audience so beautifully-- he educated and inspired us. This CD has seven pieces, each corresponding with each chakra or centre of energy in the body. Glen Velez is one of the percussionists on the CD by Paul Winter, below.

Paul Winter: various tracks from Prayer for the Wild Things (Living Music)
I usually would not play Paul Winter on my show because he is too new age/ smooth jazz for me, but this CD is an exception. It features a 12-piece band (with interesting wind instruments like the heckelphone and contra-bass clarinet) along with the recorded sounds of 24 birds and animals from the Rocky Mountains. Also, Arlie Nesahi and the White Eagle Singers are on a couple of tracks.

Many of the songs are dedicated to, and evoke, specific animals. Grizzly Bear Cubs features the cello of Eugene Friesen, and Moose Walk is soloed by the contra-bass clarinet of Dennis Smylie.

There are bird sounds-- song birds and large migratory birds-- throughout the CD, within the music, and it does evoke the mountains for me, makes the air feel fresher.

Arvo Part: Spiegel Im Spiegel (Alexei Lubimov, piano and Kyrill Rybakov, clarinet) from Misterioso (ECM)

To continue with this CD introduced last week (see previous post), a duet piece for clarinet and piano-- stately, meditative, and perfect.

Mitsuko Uchida: Fantasia in D Minor from Mozart Sonatas (Philips)

This is one of my favourite records from the vinyl collection at the station. The longer sonatas are beautiful but this small piece fits in anywhere and enobles the whole show.

Silvestrov, Mingus, Autorickshaw: Playlist for The Open Window for November 30, 2009

2009-12-05T20:55:00.000-08:00

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The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10:00 am Thursdays at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio in Nelson, B.C.) sponsored by Sidewinders Coffee in Nelson.

Valentin Silvestrov: Post Scriptum (Alexei Lubimov, piano and Alexander Trostiansky, violin) from Misterioso (ECM)

This fascinating CD features the music of several composers from the former Soviet Union countries including the Ukrainian pianist and composer Valentin Silvestrov. He is one the many artists who suffered at the hands of the Soviet government. When he came under fire for his modernist style, he chose to withdraw from public performance of his work rather than change. He wrote a piece called Silent Songs, intended to be played in private. But that is not what we heard on this show. This piece, Post Scriptum, Silvestrov has referred to as "a postscript to Mozart, and in a broader sense, to the classical period."

Charles Mingus: Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, Stop Boogie Shuffle, Jelly Roll, Self-Portrait in Three Colours, Pussy-Cat Dues from Mingus Ah Um (Columbia)
Mingus, who died in 1979, was a big, mysterious, cantankerous task-master who was not interested in what other people, including his audiences, thought of him. When I was in the high school band at North Kamloops Secondary in the 1960's, there was a very good trumpet player named Dennis Mulligan. One day he brought this album to school and played it. It was exotically modern and mysterious. He loved it, the teacher hated it, and I was very intrigued. It may have been the first real jazz record I had ever heard. Recorded in 1959, Mingus Ah Um is considered one of Mingus' finest records, and it is also one of his most relatively sedate. In some ways it is a tribute to Ellington and other forbears. It has incredible musicians on it like Booker Ervin and Jimmy Knepper.

Autorickshaw: Purvi Tillana, Tigra Tani, and Ganamurthy from Four Higher (Tala-Wallah)

I also played this great band on October 26-- check out that post.

Omar Sosa, Cave Singers, Water Music, Joni Mitchell: Playlist for The Open Window for November 23, 2009

2009-11-28T17:31:00.000-08:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, B.C.) at 6:30 am Mondays and 10:00 am Thursdays, sponsored by Sidewinders Coffee in Nelson.

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Omar Sosa: Iyawo, La Tra, La Llamada, Dos Caminos, and El Consenso from Mulatos (OTA)

Omar Sosa is a Cuban pianist and band leader who has also lived in the U.S., Ecuador, and Spain. This band consists of two North Africans, four Europeans, and two Cubans. They play a mix of Cuban jazz, latin dance grooves, and North African and European folk. This CD is rather chamber-music-like, with a small group and subtle music. The Cuban reed player Paquito d'Rivera makes an appearance on clarinet, and the French musician Renaud Pion plays the astoundingly low-register contra-bass clarinet occasionally to great effect.

The Cave Singers: Summer Light and Leap from Welcome Joy (Matador)

Rich, interesting, dramatic, forlorn, spare folk music from Seattle.

Joni Mitchell: Love Puts on a New Face from Taming the Tiger (Warner)

An exquisite song from a beautiful and perhaps overlooked CD from 1998, by one of my favourite risk-takers.

Handel, Water Music Suite 3: The Hague Philharmonic conducted by Pierre Boulez from Water Music (Philips)

In 1741, an orchestra played this music on a barge on the Thames, near the King's barge, as a concert for him and his friends. A few years before that, Handel's Music for the Royal Fireworks was also heard by the general public. These may have been the first public performances of classical music . Before that, European music of the great composers was played only for royalty and the upper classes.

Kronos Quartet and Bon Iver: Playlist for The Open Window for November 16, 2009

2009-11-21T17:04:00.000-08:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) on Mondays at 6am and Thursdays at 10 am pst.

Listen to a podcast of this show here.

Like all my shows this one is an experiment in juxtaposition or in the denial of genre, and the neighbouring of directions in this one is particulary (I hope) striking. The show moves back and forth between these two CDs:

Kronos Quartet: various tracks from Early Music (Nonesuch)

"Early music" normally refers to European music from Medieval times, before Baroque etc. Some of that music is from that period-- for example there is a piece here by Hildegard von Bingen from the 11th century. But there is also music from modern composers like John Cage, Arvo Part, and Harry Partch. Despite this huge span of time and culture, the music somehow mysteriously works as a unified program. It's therefore the perfect CD for this show, as perfect as Kronos itself which has made a career of virtuosic and refreshing performance of music from everywhere (string quartet versions of Monk, Hendrix, Africa, Bollywood, tango, as well as lots of 20th century composers), and which may be the most often-played group on this show. So I decided to try to expand the range of Early Music even further by interspersing its music with:

Bon Hiver: For Emma, Stacks, Blindsided, Skinny Love, and Lump Sum from For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar)

It's hard to explain the beauty of this CD mainly because I don't know what to liken it to or compare it with. The songwriter-musician Justin Vernon decided to hibernate for a winter in his father's cabin the the Wisconsin forest and came out with this self-produced album of songs on which he plays and sings all parts, under the name Bon Iver. It has a gentle, raw feeling and some beautiful harmonies that are rough and elusive but that's their charm. I like to think it works with Kronos. What do you think?

Caetano Veloso, Kokopelli, Cannonball Adderley, Satomi Saeki, Bach: Playlist for The Open Window for November 2, 2009

2009-11-10T20:29:00.000-08:00

The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 8am Thursdays at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) in Nelson, B.C.

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Caetano Veloso: Livros, O Navio Negreiro, and How Beautiful from Livro (Nonesuch)

Brazilian artist, musician, singer, composer, political activist Caetano Veloso is sometimes likened to Bob Dylan for his impact on popular music. He is of the same generation as Dylan, but there is one big difference: the provocative music of Veloso (and Gal Costa and Gilberto Gil) was performed under a military dictatorship. All three spent time in jail for anti-government activity and had their lyrics censored. Their radical music, which was called Tropicalia, contained bossa nova, folk rock, art rock, jazz and poetic spoken word, and they felt the wrath of former fans, again like Dylan. Unlike Dylan though, he has remained relevant. He is now a world superstar without any of the usual trappings of pop stardom, making challenging music.

Kokopelli: Con Que la Lavare from Spirit (Independent)

This inspired and inspiring choir of young people from Edmonton contains four members from Nelson.

Cannonball Adderley: One for Daddy-O from Somethin' Else (Blue Note)

This 1958 album makes lots of greatest jazz album lists. Miles Davis is a sideman, and there is apparently some debate about who the leader actually was. With Cannonball on alto, Miles on trumpet, and Hank Jones and his brother Sam Jones along with Art Blakey on piano, bass and drums respectively, this is classic music that sums up the best of the late fifties. It's relaxed and fluid, but with that challenging Miles Davis directness . Cannonball's ecstatic break that opens his solo on this track is worth the price of the CD.

Satomi Saeki: Haru No Kyuku and Hakumei from Japanese Koto Music (Independent)
Satomi Saeki was classically trained in Japan and now lives in Victoria, B.C., travelling the continent (and sometimes back to Japan) teaching and performing. From the CD notes:
"Saeki's interest in performing koto music on the international stage was inspired by a concert in Hawaii in 1991. As she looked out into the audience, she noticed several Japanese American women were visibly moved while listening to traditional Japanese music. As a Japanese woman living in Canada and raising Japanese Canadian children it was an emotional state Saeki could easily identify with....."

This music in one word? Crystalline.

J.S. Bach: Sonata in G Minor for Flute, Harp and Cello-- Irena Grafenaur (flute), Maria Graf (harp), David Geringas (cello) from The Virtuoso's Bach Vol 4 (Philips)

The combination of harp, flute and cello, think about it. That's why I had to play it, and this piece added a lovely elegance to the show.

Autorickshaw, Gotan Project, Dave Brubeck, and Baroque Recorder: Playlist for The Open Window for October 26, 2009

2009-10-26T20:00:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs Mondays at 6:30 am and Thursdays at 10 am at www.cjly .net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio)

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Autorickshaw: Ragam and Saraswati from Four Higher (Tala-Wallah)

Vocalist Suba Sankaran leads this Toronto group that plays a mix of Indian classical, jazz, and funk. Always a big fan of Indian music and its cross-over with Western music, I find the funky electric bass lines really interesting here, and I like Suba Sankaran's vocals. In December Autorickshaw will perform a concert in Toronto to mark the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the worst industrial disaster in history. The concert is a benefit for the Sambhavna Clinic which treats the thousands of people still affected.

Gotan Project: Gotan Project Meets Chet Baker from Inspiracion-Espiracion (Pioneer)
This piece samples Chet Baker playing Round Midnight accompanied by accordion with a tango-like section as well. The Paris-based Gotan Project likes tango but they are into beats and samples too, and they throw them together every which way, with surprising results. This Chet Baker piece has the feel of a live performance in a relaxed club in some mysterious part of a big city-- somewhere like Rio or Buenos Aires.

Bernard Krainis and the London Strings directed by Neville Mariner: Concerto in A (Vivaldi) and Concerto in C (Handel) from Concertos for Recorder (Mercury)

It's such a treat to hear virtuoso recorder in the baroque style. That was the recorder's heyday before it was supplanted by the transverse flute. In the 1700's there were recorder virtuosos and composers writing for it. Bernard Krainis, who died in the late 1990s, once said that the recorder is harder to play than a reed or flute because you can't control the sound with your embouchure, it has to come from your diaphragm like a singer. This is a piece of vinyl from the 1960s, out of print now.

Dave Brubeck: Strange Meadowlark and Three to Get Ready from Take Five (Columbia)

When this record came out in the early 1960s, the Brubeck Quartet was popular with the masses but not with us really hip people, except that we had to admit a grudging respect for alto saxophonist Paul Desmond whose brand of dry, fluent lyricism is still unparalleled. Part of our problem was that tendency of youth to dismiss any artist once they are known to more than a dozen people. (I have a friend who wears a t-shirt that boasts: I listen to bands that don't even exist yet!) Anyway to me now Brubeck was an interesting and engaging experimenter but not one of the great jazz pianists, but Paul Desmond gets more wonderful with time (even though he's been gone a couple of decades now). And this is a much better record than I and my friends were prepared to admit back then.

Arvo Part, Dave Holland, Beyond the Pale: Playlist for The Open Window for October 19, 2009

2009-10-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

The open window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) at 6:30 am Mondays and 10 am Thursdays.

Arvo Pärt: Da Pacem Domine, Mein Weg, and Fur Lennart in Memoriam; Estonian National Chamber Choir and Talinn Chamber Orchestra conducted by Tonu Kaljuste from In Principio (ECM)

"I could compare my music to white light which contains all colours. Only a prism can divide the colours and make them appear. This prism could be the spirit of the listener."-- Arvo Pärt

Arvo Pärt (1935- ) has made ancient music relevant to modern times and has given certain 20th century minimalist sounds an ancient flavour and to that I say bravo. This is a new CD and beautiful.

Dave Holland: Candlelight Vigil, Jugglers Parade, and Down Time, from Prime Directive (ECM)

This is one of my favourite jazz albums. The ability of Dave Holland (bass), Chris Potter (saxophones), Robin Eubanks (trombone), Steve Nelson (vibes and marimba), and Billy Kilson (drums) to play separately yet together in inspiring and intricate and fresh ways seems infinite. When Dave Holland was a young man in the 1960's Miles Davis heard him in Ronny Scott's in London (Holland is British) and invited him to play with him immediately. So he is the bass player on groundbreaking work of Miles' including Bitches Brew and In a Silent Way. Now he's a respected elder and leader of a group of people half his age and they pretty much define jazz in the early part of this century.

Beyond the Pale: Split Decision, Doina, and Meditation from Postcards (Borealis)

Boundary-busting Euro-folk fusion someone called it—klezmer, Balkan, Romanian styles with North American influences. I like the meditative ones better than the burners, but it's all great.

Blake Parker, Bach, Bill Frisell, Archie Shepp: playlist for The Open Window for Oct 12 and 15, 2009

2009-10-15T20:28:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10:00 am Thursdays at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio)

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Blake Parker and Jude Davison: Shadow of the World and Fool from Terminal City Trilogy (Independent)

Blake was a Nelson poet and local cultural hero who died of cancer in 2007. When he was diagnosed, he and Jude Davison decided to put his poems to music, and the result is these three CDs.

Bill Frisell: Disfarmer Theme and Focus from Disfarmer (Nonesuch)

These pieces are impressions of the photographs of a man known as Disfarmer, who lived in Arkansas from 1884 to 1959. He was a portrait photographer whose work is now considered pioneering because of the start, piercing, artistic way he portrayed people in rural areas and small towns Arkansas in the 1930s and 1940s. Most of them were not discovered until the 1970's, and you will now find them on the web and in museums,

Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan: Motherless Child, Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, and My Lord What a Morning from Goin' Home (Steeplechase)

This 1976 album of spirituals surprised a lot of people when it came out because Shepp was usually a fire-breathing avant-gardist. Here, he's reverent and sensitive and subtle, especially when he plays soprano saxophone.

Jean-Jacques Kantarow: J.S. Bach: Sonata #1 in G Minor from J.S. Bach-- 3 Sonatas and 3 Partitas (Denon)

How many times could I listen to this without getting tired of it and thinking I am only scratching the surface of a new universe?

Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, Nuzrat Fateh Ali Khan, Luciano Sgrizzi, Leonard Cohen: Playlist for The Open Window for October 5 and 8, 2009

2009-10-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net, Kootenay Coop Radio, at 6:30 am Mondays and 10 am Thursdays

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Bela Fleck and Edgar Meyer: six tracks from Music for Two (Sony Classical)

The re-imaginer of the banjo and a genre-crossing classical bass player give us the unique sound of bass-banjo duets, sometimes in classical music (Bach) and otherwise with acoustic improvs of various kinds.

Nuzrat Fateh Ali Khan and Michael Brook: My Heart, My Life; Lament; and My Comfort Remains from Night Song (Real World)

This 1995 CD is a classic of world music, with the Canadian guitarist Michael Brook taking Nuzrat's music some distance into the west. Nuzrat (1948-1997) has been called both the Bob Marley of Pakistan and the Pavarotti of Pakistan, not surprising considering his revered status there. He has also been called the most popular singer in the world, some of his concert crowds rivaling most western cities in population. He sings a kind of Sufi devotional trance music, altered here somewhat for this experiment with Brook. The grooves and the improvizations and the quiet moments on this CD have grown on me very much over the years and it's one of my all-time favourites.

Luciano Sgrizzi: Suite in C by Domenico Zipoli, from 18th-Century Italian Harpsichord Music (Nonesuch )

This was requested by a beautiful Italian woman at a party-- the first actual request I've ever had. I've since discovered that Sgrizzi (1910-1994) was quite an eminent musician with dozens of recordings.

Leonard Co hen: Villanelle for Our Time from Dear Heather (Columbia)

These memorable lyrics are by Frank Scott (left) (1889-1985), the Canadian poet who was a professor of Cohen's in university in Montreal, and also a mentor. The words would have to be exquisite to stand up alongside any of Cohen's songs and they do, in fact they are quite Cohenesque. Or maybe all Cohen's songs were influenced by Frank Scott. Here's the poem, but you have to imagine it read by Cohen at his deepest and most resonant.

From bitter searching of the heart,
Quickened with passion and with pain
We rise to play a greater part.
This is the faith from which we start:
Men shall know commonwealth again
From bitter searching of the heart.
We loved the easy and the smart,
But now, with keener hand and brain,
We rise to play a greater part.
The lesser loyalties depart,
And neither race nor creed remain
From bitter searching of the heart.
Not steering by the venal chart
That tricked the mass for private gain,
We rise to play a greater part.
Reshaping narrow law and art
Whose symbols are the millions slain,
From bitter searching of the heart,
We rise to play a greater part.

Kala Ramnath, Eric Dolphy, Yo Yo Ma: playlist for The Open Window for September 28, 2009

2009-09-28T19:34:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs Mondays at 6:30 am and Thursdays at 10 am at www.cjly.net, Kootenay Co-op Radio.

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Kala Ramnath: Raga Bhatiyar from Kala (Sense Music)

A girl is born in India in 1967. She doesn't get to play or hang out much because her grandfather violinist Vidwan Shri Narayan Iyer took her as his student when she was very young and he was a real taskmaster. She was also taught by her aunt Dr. N. Rajam, who was
kinder. Her aunt introduced her to Pandit Jasraj who became her guru and main violin teacher. Now she is a renowned classical violinist in the south Indian tradition, sometimes collaborating with western musicians, and sometimes, as on this CD, playing classic ragas purely, with just tabla accompaniment. Check out her website. And you can watch her perform here.

Eric Dolphy: You Don't Know What Love Is from Last Date (Limelight)

I bought this piece of vinyl when it came out in 1965 and I have always loved Eric Dolphy's playing and loved who he was as a man: in an era of jazz musicians who were often drug-addicted or wildly eccentric or justifiably bitter, the friends Dolphy and Coltrane walked a path of integrity while remaining creatively innovative, and Dolphy was known as a kind and actively generous person. He was an extremely brilliant musician who died at age 36 from complications of diabetes. Dolphy was primarily an alto saxophonist and pioneered the use of the bass clarinet as a solo jazz instrument, but he was also a wonderful flute player and this piece is his real legacy on that instrument. This was his last recording before he died, hence the album title.

Kimi Djabate: Djalia and Fololon, from Karam (Kumbancha)

This young man is a griot from Guinnea-Bissau, who learned to play the Balafon (West African marimba when he was three. He's also a guitarist and singer and one of the charming things about this music is the occasional chorus of female voices.

Yo Yo Ma: Antonin Dvorak: Silent Woods, Humoresque in g-flat major ( both with Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa) and Songs My Mother Taught Me (with Patricia Zander, piano) from The Dvorak Album (Sony)

Most of this album is taken up with Dvorak's Cello concerto which I did not play but might one day. The rest has several short pieces or segments of larger pieces by Dvorak, all lovely, and they finished off this hour perfectly.

Maryem Tollar, Allen Toussaint, Vivaldi: Playlist for The Open Window for September 21, 2009

2009-09-22T20:38:00.000-07:00

The open window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10:00 Thursdays at www.cjly.net.

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Maryem and Ernie Tollar: Il Matar, Taksim Kamanga, Gigue, Longa Baladi, and Heartsoul, from CAIRO TO TORONTO (Independent)

A girl is born in Cairo in 1968 and her family moves to Halifax. When she is 12 they move back to Egypt for five years. Maryem rebels at the uprooting, rejecting Arabic music, language and culture. She begins to sing pop music. In 1994 she goes to work for her musician brother in a project that requires Arabic singing, and that changes everything. She embraces her roots, takes lessons with the Toronto-based Egyptian musician George Sawa, and goes to study in Syria and Egypt. She sings in a group called Ritual Party, where she meets the saxophonist and flute player Ernie Tollar. They get married and this CD has several pictures of them and their three young children.

This CD is a great example of the melding of Arabic, jazz, and western folk. I started this set with Il Matar, which of all the tracks I think best bridges east and west because of the assertive jazz harmonies. Maryem Tollar is a great singer and these musicians, mostly Arab-Canadians, are a band that sounds like it knows where it's going. The Cairo violinist who joins them for a few tracks, Alfred Gamil, is beautiful.

I just discovered that Maryem Tollar played at the Our Way Home Reunion in Castlegar in 2007. There's a YouTube video of one song from the Brilliant Cultural Centre.

Allen Toussaint: St. James Infirmary, Blue Drag, Solitude, and Winin' Boy Blues from THE BRIGHT MISSISSIPPI (Nonesuch)

Remember that song Workin in a Coal Mine by Lee Dorsey? Or another one by Dorsey: Everything I Do Gon be Funky From Now On……or Pain in my Heart recorded by Otis Redding, or Fortune Teller recorded by a bunch of people including the early Stones. The list all the people Allen Toussant has written for, produced, arranged, played piano for, is long.

Well Allen Toussaint may have made his living writing and producing music like that: rock, rhythm and blues, and soul, but something of old New Orleans is in his blood, and late in his career he has made an album celebrating that, and this is it, The Bright Mississippi, with a relaxed and sociable visit to tunes written by jazz greats like Sidney Bechet, Jelly Roll Morton, Django Reinhardt, Thelonious Monk, Duke Ellington, and Billy Strayhorn, backed by a great band including clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Nicholas Payton, guitarist Marc Ribot, and bassist David Pilch. It's friendly and authentic music.

Vivaldi: Autumn from The Four Seasons performed by Virtuosi di Roma conducted by Renato Fasano (EMI)

A tribute to the new season that's upon us-- I know because riding my bike down to the station to do the show in the early morning I regretted not wearing gloves.

Arve Hendriksen, Mitsuko Uchida, Ravi Shankar & Philip Glass, Leonard Cohen, Herbie Hancock: playlist for The Open Window September 14, 2009

2009-09-14T19:55:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10:00 am Thursdays at www.cjly.net.

You can download a podcast of this show here: http://cjlypodcast.net/openwindow/openwindow_sept14_2009.mp3

Arve Henriksen: From Birth and Before and Afterlife from Cartography (ECM)

This group consists of Arve Hendriksen's trumpet and a bunch of programmers and samplers plus the odd guitar or bass or drum kit. The trumpet often does not sound like a trumpet-- mostly it moves imperceptibly back and forth between the sounds of trumpet and Japanese flute. These pieces are moody shape-shifting tableaux led by a trumpet, reminiscent of but neither as funky as nor as transcendent (sorry) as Jon Hassell's music which I have played recently here.

Mozart, Sonata in A, Mitsuko Uchida, piano, from Mozart Sonatas (Philips)

A girl is born in Japan in 1948. She is fascinated by European classical music and especially Mozart, and she starts piano lessons. Her father is appointed Japanese ambassador to Austria, so the family moves to Vienna which just happens to be the place Mozart composed many of his masterworks. She studies, and performs her first concert at age 14. The family moves back to Japan after five years but she stays. Since then Mitsuko Uchida has become known as the "high priestess of Mozart." I felt honoured to bring this music to you.

Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar: Offering from Passages (Private Music)
This is a piece of orchestral music based on a Ravi Shankar raga, with no sitar in sight, from one of the most successful collaborations between unlikely musicians that I have ever heard.

Herbie Hancock and Leonard Cohen: The Jungle Line from River: The Joni Letters (Verve)

This Joni Mitchell song was on her album The Hissing of Summer Lawns from the 1970s.

So: Joni Mitchell, lyrics; Leonard Cohen, vocals; Herbie Hancock, piano. What a team!

Evelyn Glennie, Allen Toussaint, Mascato: Playlist for The Open Window for September 7 and 11, 2009

2009-09-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs Mondays at 6:30 am and Thursdays at 10 am on Kootenay Cooperative Radio www.cjly.net.
Listen to a podcast of this show here:
http://cjlypodcast.net/openwindow/openwindow_Sept10_2009.mp3

Evelyn Glennie with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra directed by Paul Daniel: Concerto for Marimba and String Orchestra by Ney Rosauro from Rebounds- Concertos for Percussion (RCA)

Evelyn Glennie is a world-renowned Scottish concert percussionist who has been deaf since she was a teenager. Yet she manages to play stage-fulls of marimbas, tympani, drums, chimes, gongs, etc., and she does it in her bare feet because that is apparently how she hears it. On a TED talk, Glennie talks and plays, telling us how her main mission in life is to help people learn to listen.

The piece I played on the show is a lovely thing by the Brazilian composer and percussionist Ney Rosauro. Evelyn Glennie will be appearing at the Charles Bailey Theatre in Trail, B.C. with the Winnipeg Chamber Orchestra on Sept 15 and I'm going to it with the awesome Rosie.

Allen Toussaint: Egyptian Fantasy, Dear Old Southland, Winin Boy Blues from The Bright Mississippi (Nonesuch)

This is one of those CDs with no weak tracks. It's the legendary producer, arranger, composer, pianist who influenced R&B so much especially in the 60s and 70s, this time delving into traditional New Orleans jazz sounds, accompanied by a bunch of much younger jazz musicians who are not normally associated with that music at all except trumpeter Nicholas Payton who is joined by Don Byron, clarinet, Marc Ribot, guitar, David Pilch, bass, and Jay Belarose, drums.
The formidable pianist Brad Mehldau comes in for one track and plays a two-piano duet with Toussaint. Joshus Redman guests one track. Marc Ribot plays old-timey, which I have never heard before-- fascinating. The real glory here is Allen Toussaint's piano playing and the happy blues sound this CD has.

Mascato Youth Choir: Likonelam, Dubula, and Ntyilo, from Namibian Rhythms in Spain (Independent)

I bought this CD a few years ago in Nelson when this wonderful group sang here. They came with Edmonton's Kokopelli with whom they have a sibling choir relationship, and Kokopelli in turn is a big city version, and a dear friend, of Nelson's Corazon.

Steve Dawson: 1000 Year Old Egg from Telescope (Black Hen)

Vancouver's Steve Dawson has been studying pedal steel with Greg Leisz, and he's good at slide guitar too, and I love both instruments.

Kronos, MJQ, Black Mambazo: playlist for The Open Window for August 17, 2009

2009-08-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) Mondays at 6:30 am and Thursdays at 10 am

The Modern Jazz Quartet: A Cold Wind is Blowing, Skating in Central Park, Cue #9, and No Happiness for Slater, from Patterns (United Artists)

There is no photo anywhere on the internet of the original cover for this wonderful album which first appeared in 1960 and opened up a whole new window on music for me. It was one of those musical revelations you only have when you are young. The music was much later re-released with the album cover pictured here and a different title-- the music was from the film Odds Against Tomorrow.

In the 1960's I knew this album by heart. Then after a few years I lost it and I believe it went out of print for a while and I spend decades haunted by the simple, elegant melodies until sometime in the 1990s I found a pristine-quality vinyl edition of it in a used bin in Vancouver, with the original simple black and white cover art. I paid a lot of money for it and have cherished it since.

The Modern Jazz Quartet were John Lewis, Piano; Milt Jackson, vibes; Connie Kay, drums and Perch Heath, bass. They recorded mostly from the 50s to the 70s. They wanted to bring jazz out of the smoky clubs and into the concert hall ( I prefer it in the clubs). They wore tuxedos and took on a sophisticated demeanor. But it was not phony, it was honest. They played elegant, stately music that still had the blues in it, but subtly.

Kronos Quartet: Hold Me Neighbor In This Storm from Floodplain (Nonesuch)

Alexandra Vrebalov, the composer of this piece, was born in the former Yugoslavia in 1970 and left Serbia to live in the U.S. in 2007.

From the program notes to a live performance of this piece at Carnegie Hall in 2008:

About hold me, neighbor, in this storm, Vrebalov writes:
“The Balkans, with its multitude of cultural and religious identities, has had a troubled history of ethnic intolerance. For my generation of Tito’s pioneers and children of communists, growing up in the former Yugoslavia meant learning about and carrying in our minds the battles and numberless ethnic and religious conflicts dating back half a millennium, and honoring ancestors who died in them. By then, that distant history had merged with the nearer past, so those we remember from World War II are our grandparents. Their stories we heard firsthand. After several devastating ethnic wars in the 1990s, we entered a new century, this time each of us knowing in person someone who perished. As I write this in November 2007, a new generation of Albanians and Serbs post their war-songs on YouTube, bracing for another conflict, claiming their separate entitlements to the land and history, rather than a different kind of future, together.

“Strangely, the cultural and religious differences that led to enmity in everyday life produced—after centuries of turbulently living together—most incredible fusions in music. It is almost as if what we weren’t able to achieve through words and deeds—to fuse, and mix, and become something better and richer together—was instead so famously accomplished in our music.

“ …hold me, neighbor, in this storm… is inspired by folk and religious music from the region, whose insistent rhythms and harmonies create a sense of inevitability, a ritual trance with an obsessive, dark energy. Peaceful passages of the work grew out of the delicately curved, elusive, often microtonal melodies of prayers, as well as escapist tavern songs from the region, as my grandmother remembers them.

“For me, …hold me, neighbor… is a way to bring together the sounds of the church bells of Serbian orthodox monasteries and the Islamic calls for prayer. It is a way to connect histories and places by unifying one of the most civilized sounds of Western classical music—that of the string quartet—with ethnic Balkan instruments, the gusle [a bowed string instrument] and tapan [large double-headed drum]. It is a way to piece together our identities fractured by centuries of intolerance, and to reach out and celebrate the land so rich in its diversity, the land that would be ashen, empty, sallow, if any one of us, all so different, weren’t there.”

Ladysmith Black Mambazo: Mercy of God and Get Ready from Journey of Dreams (Warner Bros)

This 1990 album took us further into the music of the group most of us discovered on Graceland in 1986.

Kronos, Isabel Bayrakdarian, Allison Girvan, Luciana Souza, Bach, Glenn Gould: Playlist for The Open Window for August 3 and 9, 2009

2009-08-08T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) Mondays at 6:30 am and Thursdays at 10 am

Kronos Quartet: Wa Habibi, Raga Mishra Bhairavi Alap, Mugyam Beyati Shiraz, and Tew Semagn Hagere from Floodplain (Nonesuch)

This is music from cultures that reside on floodplains
in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and Eastern Europe. People living on floodplains are used to violent upheaval, and they are often melting pots, formed from many societies from all over. But we in the west tend to see them as homogeneous.

This music is centuries old and refreshingly new, much of it commissioned from contemporary composers.

There is music from Egypt, Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Iraq, among other places. Some was written for the Kronos Quartet by such contemporary artists as the Palestinian electronic / hip hop collective Ramallah Underground and the Serbian composer Aleksandra Vrebalov whose Hold me Neighbour In This Storm is worth the price of this CD which is full of beauty, integrity, and wonderful surprises.

It's fascinating to hear Kronos playing in so many styles; even more so to hear individual members playing as if from another culture: violist Hank Dutt becomes an Indian musician on Raga Mishra, and David Harrington an Azerbaijani on Tew Semagn Hagere.

Isabel Bayrakdarian: Lullaby, from Gomidas Songs (Nonesuch)

The Armenian composer Gomidas Vertabed (1869-1935) is known as the father of Armenian classical music. He took songs and dances of the Armenian peasantry and recreated them in European classical format. He did this because, as a survivor of the Armenian genocide, he thought this the best way to preserve Armenian musical heritage.

Isabel Bayrakdarian is an Armenian-Canadian opera singer. There is a wonderful video on You Tube of her singing this song accompanied by a quartet of Armenian players of the duduk (a Turkish-Armenian wind instrument) in an ancient Armenian ruin, here: http://tinyurl.com/9q7s2w.

Lusiana Souza: Sonnet 49, from Neruda (Sunnyside)

This Brazilian singer has elegantly put some of Neruda's poems to music. I urge you to watch her perform this song, self-accompanied on the kalimba.

Allison Girvan: Bright Morning Star from Resonance (Independent)

Allison Girvan is the cheerfully creative leader of the Corazon Vocal Ensemble in Nelson, B.C. and the bar-raising musical director for the Capitol Theatre summer youth productions as well as being a solo performer and one of Nelson's musical movers, shakers, mentors, and elders even though she's not that old. This song is purity itself.

Bach: Invention # 5, 14, 11, and 10, Glenn Gould, piano, from Bach: The Two and Three Part Inventions (Columbia)

Menuhin plays Beethoven, Gould plays Bach: playlist for The Open Window for July 27, 2009

2009-07-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10:00 am Sundays at www.cjly.net, Kootenay Co-op Radio in Nelson, B.C.

Beethoven: Violin Concerto in D, Yehudi Menuhin, violin, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra directed by Wilhelm Furtwangler (Seraphim)

Bach: Invention # 2 and 5, Glenn Gould, piano, from Bach: The Two and Three Part Inventions (Columbia)

Abigail Washburn, Curtis Counce, Oistrach: Playlist for The Open Window for July 20 and 26, 2009

2009-07-21T19:35:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10 am Sundays at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio) in Nelson, B.C.

Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet: Great Big Wall, Overture, Fuller Wine, The Journay, Oh Me Oh My from The Sparrow Quartet (Nettwerk)

Abigail Washburn banjo and guitar; Bela Fleck, banjo; Casey Driessen, fiddle; Ben Sollee, cello. This music is a mix of Appalachian and Chinese influences because Abigail Washburn had lived in China and could speak some Chinese before she started her career as a bluegrass musician. She's a beautiful singer, and, if you care to go to her website you will find her to be a charming and intelligent talker about music. Also on the net you will find a couple of fascinating videos of the group travelling in China and jamming with Chinese musicians. This band's music is lovely and original.

Bach: Concerto for Two Violins; Igor and David Oistrach with the London Philharmonic directed by Eugene Goosens, from Bach Violin Concertos (Deutsche Grammophon)

For a touch of the sublime, the slow movement of this one can't be beat.

Curtis Counce: Sarah, from Landslide (Contemporary)

This is plain-spoken, unadorned, simple-but-sophisticated, honest, late-night west coast blues from 1957. The bassist Curtis Counce was the leader, with Jack Sheldon (trumpet), Harold Land (tenor saxophone), Frank Butler (drums) and the sweet piano of Carl Perkins (no, not that one).

Abdullah Ibrahim, Jon Hassell, Stephen Fearing, Bach: Playlist for The Open Window for July 6, 2009

2009-07-08T20:31:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio in Nelson, B.C.) on Sundays at 10am and Mondays at 6:30am.

Abdullah Ibrahim: Water From An Ancient Well, Soweto, The Mountain, The Wedding, and The Blessing from Capetown Revisited (Enja)

Abdullah Ibrahim: The Mountain and The Blessing from Water From An Ancient Well (Enja)

The first of these recordings by the venerable South African pianist and bandleader is mostly a trio date, live, with the occasional appearance by trumpeter Faya Faku, recorded in 2000. The second is a studio recording from 1987 with a sextet. The Mountain and The Wedding are great examples of Abdullah's stately intermingling of South African folk forms and Duke Ellington-like jazz.

But his jazz was not always Duke Ellington: check out some of his CD's from the 1970s and 80s and you will find collaborations with avant-garde types like trumpeter Donald Cherry. Abdullah has covered a lot of ground and styles in the last few decades, always with a soulful beauty and integrity that is all his own and which I have always loved. He played at Nelson Mandela's presidential inauguration ceremony.

Jon Hassell: Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street from Last Night the Moon Came Dropping Its Clothes in the Street (ECM)

From Jon Hassell's website:
"A childhood in Memphis, a classical conservatory education, composition and electronic music study with Stockhausen in Cologne; a passage through the New York minimalist sphere with Terry Riley, Reich, Glass; having a window opened onto the world's music and a new approach to the trumpet via vocal master Pandit Pran Nath; a questioning and deconstruction of the European dichotomy between classical and popular, sacred and sensual; a pioneer of digital transformation and sampling—all of this led to Fourth World—the unique blend described as "worldly music" to underline a more subtle equation at work and discourage the simplistic labeling of "world," "jazz," "classical," "minimal," or "ambient.""

Bach: Partita for Solo Flute in A Minor; Jean-Pierre Rampal, flute, from Johann Sebastian Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Flute

"For me, the flute is really the sound of humanity, the sound of man flowing, completely free from his body almost without an intermediary. . . . Playing the flute is not as direct as singing, but it's nearly the same."-- Jean-Pierre Rampal

Stephen Fearing: Goodnight Moon from Yellowjacket (Northern Blues)

Stephen Fearing is coming to the Keep the Beat event at Lakeside Park in Nelson this summer, much to the delight of my daughters Rosie and Laura who are among the organizers of the event and also his nieces (he's their Mom's brother).
He can sing in a very high range and this lovely song is proof of that.

Catherine Potter, Hilliard Ensemble and Garbarek, Zakir Hussain, Mitsuko Uchida: Playlist for The Open Window for June 29, 2009

2009-07-04T18:02:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) on Sundays at 10 am and Mondays at 6:30 am.

Catherine Potter: Gori, Kutila and Vol Blanc from Duniya Project

Catherine Potter is a Canadian player of the bansuri, or Indian bamboo flute. She has studied under Hariprasad Chaurasia, who is perhaps the most celebrated Indian player of that instrument. This music is somewhere between jazz and Indian classical bansuri music, and is true enough to both to probably please non-purist fans of either (like me). Subir Debv, tabla; Lubo Alexandrov, guitars; Nicolas Caloia, bass; Thom Gossage, drums; Anjana Srinivasan, violin.

Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek: O Salutaris Hosta, Procedenem Sponsem, and Pulcherrima Rosa from Officium (ECM)

Released in 1994, this gets my vote for one of the most innovative recordings ever. Take a British quartet of singers of early music, combine them with an improvising jazz saxophonist, record them in Austria's Monastery of St. Gerold known for its otherwordly acoustics, ask them to perform music from the 12th to the 16th century much of it so old the author is listed as anonymous, and you get this stunning work of art.

But it is not just any jazz saxophonist. Jan Garbarek of Norway has built a career out of daring collaborations all over the world.

Zakir Hussain: Making Music from Making Music (ECM)

On this piece, Hariprasad Chaurasia on bansuri (see Catherine Potter above) and Jan Garbarek play together, along with Zakir Hussain on tablas and John McLaughlin on guitar. Hussain and McLaughlin were central to the celebrated Indian-jazz crossover group Shakti 25 or more years ago: these guys have been crossing west-east borders for a long time now, wonderfully. Garbarek's soprano saxophone fits the music perfectly, but the tenor does not, in my opinion, because it is recorded too loudly and played too bluntly. The Indian flute of Chaurasia is sublime.

Mozart: Fantasy in D Minor; Mitsuko Uchida-- Mozart: Two Sonatas (Philips)

A celebrated performer of Mozart with a short piece as lovely as the sunny summer early morning on which I played it....

Bartok, Toumani Diabate, Amir Koushkani, Sal Ferreras, Francois Houle: Playlist for The Open Window for June 22, 2009

2009-06-28T11:15:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) Sundays at 10 am and Mondays at 6:30 am

Safa: Chahar Mezrab from Alight (Songlines)

This 2002 recording is the only one ever made by this wonderful group consisting of Amir Koushkani, the Iranian-Canadian player of the stringed instruments the tar and the setar, Vancouver percussionist Sal Ferreras and Vancouver classical/jazz/other clarinetist Francois Houle.

I played this for the people of Iran.

Francois Houle is a brilliant musician who has made a career of bringing classical training and sound to free jazz and to world music. It is really a revelation to hear classical clarinet tone quality applied to other kinds of music-- in this CD it lifts everything to a new realm of openness and clarity. Combine that with the performance of Amir Koushkani which "exudes a passionate air that reaches deeply into our souls. His voice speaks a musical language of longing, ecstasy and joy." (Sal Ferreras from the CD notes.)

And Sal Ferreras is world music percussion itself.

Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra; Seiji Ozawa and the Chicago Symphony from Bartok Concerto for Orchestra and Kodaly Dances of Galanta (Angel)

No photo of the album because it is so entirely out of print. This is one of the most colorful and dramatic orchestral pieces anywhere: interesting combinations of instruments combined with harmonies and melodies from the folk life of Bartok's native Hungary create one of Bartok's most "accessible" works. It was written in the U.S. in 1943 shortly before Bartok's death.

Toumani Diabate: El Nabiyouna and Canatelowes from The Mande Variations (Nonesuch)

More sophisticated harp from the desert. See previous post.

Vivaldi, Toumani Diabate, Rachmaninoff: Playlist for The Open Window for June 15, 2009

2009-06-24T20:51:00.001-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Co-op Radio) Sundays at 10 am and Mondays at 6:30 am

Toumani Diabate: Elyne Road, Ali Farka Toure, Ismael Drame, Cantalowes, from The Mande Variations (Nonesuch)

Toumani Diabate has picked up influences from the music of other countries without making his music sound more like pop or electronica or a world music mashup. It's purely a solo kora CD, and lovely. It's new.

"The Mande Variations breaks new ground for the kora in many ways, establishing this West African harp as one of the world's great solo instruments. It reflects Toumani's extraordinary personal and musical journey over the past two decades, taking on ideas and approaches from styles as diverse as western pop, Indian classical, flamenco, and blues, but all ultimately remaining firmly rooted in the Malian griot music that is his heritage." -- from the CD notes

Antonio Vivaldi, Summer, from the Four Seasons; the English Chamber Orchestra, Nigel Kennedy conductor and solo violinist (EMI)

Well, it's almost summer. Vivaldi's summer has both calm and storms.

Sergei Rachmaninoff: Andante from Sonata for Violoncello Op.19, Serenade in B-flat minor Op.3-5, and Romance in F minor Op.10-6; Arkady Volodos, piano, from Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto #3 and Solo Piano Works (Sony)

Some nice short solo piano pieces, skirting around the entirely other planet of the Concerto #3 which is also on this CD-- some other time.

Erik Friedlander, Marjan Mozetich, Grandpa Elliott, Playing for Change: Playlist for The Open Window, June 1, 2009

2009-06-02T19:34:00.000-07:00

The Open Window Airs at 6:30 am Mondays and 10am Sundays at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio)

Erik Friedlander: King Rig, Dream Song, Airstream Envy, Rushmore, and Valley of Fire from Block Ice and Propane: Compositions and Improvisations for Solo Cello (Skipstone)

I have played this CD a few times on my music shows and it always elicits someone calling and saying "Who was that?" Cellist Erik Friedlander has played with John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Courtney Love and he has also recorded 9 CDs as a leader. He's best known as an avant-garde jazz etc. player, but this one is a stunning solo synthesis of various kinds of American roots music, whatever that means, played with friendly virtuosity on bowed and plucked cello plus a bit of electronics occasionally. Just a few notes in to the CD you'll know that this is the real thing and you will have to buy it.

Marjan Mozetich: Affairs of the Heart: Concerto for Violin and Strings Orchestra performed by Juliette Kang, violin, with Mario Bernardi and the CBC Vancouver Orchestra from Affairs of the Heart (CBC)

Bob Olsen, who knows a lot more about classical music than I, hosts Classical Corner on Kootenay Co-op Radio and he loaned me this CD after I heard it on his show. Marjan Mozetich is a Canadian composer who started out as a committed creator and teacher of very avant-garde music. He then underwent a serious about-face in the 1970s, when he started writing music that is part post-modernism (Glass, Reich, Reilly) and part 19th-century Romanticism. It's a fascinating combination. He made this change, he is quoted in the CD notes as saying, because "that world had become sterile: composers were supposed to create a hypothesis and then realize it musically, like a research paper. I thought it was ridiculous."

Playing for Change: Stand by Me, from Songs Around the World (Hear Music)

Head for the internet and look up Playing for Change and watch a great series of music videos performed by dozens of people from around the world, playing their own parts in their own country, mostly outdoors, then edited and united by technology and the impulse to unite us all. Stand by Me is opened by two amazing street singers, Roger Ridley and Grandpa Elliott, but we also see/hear musicians and singers from Holland, South Africa, Congo, Spain, Russia, France, Venezuela, and Italy.

Saluzzi, Lechner, bandoneon, cello, Mozart, flute, harp: Playlist for The Open Window May 25, 2009

2009-05-26T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net at 6:30am Mondays and 10am Sundays

Dino Saluzzi and Anja Lechner: Tango a mi Padre, Minguito, and Carretas from Ojos Negros (ECM)

"Visitors to Saluzzi's rich landscape of memories, emotions, colours, and atmospheres are warmly welcomed-- on the understanding that
not all secrets will be revealed instantly. So: slow down, take your time, listen....the Saluzzi bandoneon has sung its stories everywhere. It has been heard in the mountain villages and the big city, in the concert hall and the bar, in the church and the bordello, at chamber music recitals, jazz festivals, dances...He has worked with tango players folk musicians, jazz improvisers, classical musicians...." from the excellent and extensive notes by Steve Lake.

Saluzzi plays the bandoneon, the concertina-like centre of tango music, but the music is not exactly tango. It's an undefinable and subtle emotional meditation, rubato but with a pulse always there somewhere. He is joined by the cellist Anja Lechner and their collaboration is as inspired as the beautiful photos of them in the CD booklet.

Mozart: Concerto for Flute and Harp-- Jean-Pierre Rampal, Lily Laskine, and the Jean-Francois Paillard Chamber Orchestra (Erato)

When Mozart wrote this at the age of 22 in the early 1700s, music for harp and orchestra was unheard of. In the 19th century, music for flute and harp became quite common. So Mozart started something with this lovely piece.

Boieldieu, Doug Cox, Salil Bhatt, Swing Era: Playlist for the Open Window for May 18, 2009

2009-05-26T06:40:00.001-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net (Kootenay Cooperative Radio) at 6:30am Mondays and 10am Sundays.

Doug Cox and Salil Bhatt: Blessings from Slide to Freedom (Northern Blues)

The blues and Indian music from Vancouver Island's resonator lap guitar guy Doug Cox. The cross genre improvisations are great; the covers of blues tunes so-so.

Boieldieu: Concerto for Harp--Paul Keuntz Chamber Orchestra of Paris; Marie-Claire Jamet, harp, from Boieldieu: Harp and Piano Concertos

Francois-Adrien Boieldieu (1775-1834)was an opera composer I had never heard of. This lovely concerto awakens me to the delicacy precision that is possible on the harp.

Erskine Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Carter, Gene Krupa, various pieces from The Swing Era: 1944-45 (Time-Life)

Swing bands from the time of my parents' youth.

Shankar & Ali Akbar Khan, Szeryng Plays Bach: Playlist for The Open Window, May 4, 2009

2009-05-05T20:47:00.001-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net Mondays at 6:30 am and Sundays at 10 am.

Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan: Hem Bihag, from In Concert 1972 (Apple)

Henryk Szeryng: Partita #2 in D Minor, from Bach: The Unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas

Shakuhachi, Zen, Ellington, Kokopelli, Fasch: Playlist for The Open Window for April 27, 2009

2009-05-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

The Open Window airs at www.cjly.net Mondays at 6:30 am and Sundays at 10 am, PDT

Katsuya Yokokama: Tamuke and Honshirabe from Zen: Katsuya Yokoyama Plays Classical Shakuhachi Masterworks (Spectrum)

This solo shakuhachi music is genuinely meditative, not fake meditative like most of the new age music played in yoga classes these days.

The album notes say that this is "religious music which does not aim at variation or development but expresses repose, a sense of nature....."

In the moment, as they say, and surprising at every turn.

Duke Ellington: Bluebird of Delhi, Depk, Mount Harissa, and Amad from Far East Suite (Bluebird)

The Ellington orchestra toured the Middle East and Asia sponsored by the U.S. State Department in 1963. The trip was cut short by the news of the assassination of President Kennedy. "World music" was unheard of in those days. No one in North America save a few scholars was familiar with anything but Western music.

"The tour was a great adventure for us on what is indeed the other side of the world," Ellington wrote in the album notes. "Sometimes I felt it was this world upside down. The look of the natural country is so unlike ours and the very contours of the earth seem to be different. The smell, the vastness, the birds, and the exotic beauty of all these countries make a great inspiration."

"I hope much will go into this music," he continued, "but doing a parallel to the East has its problems. ....I don't want to try to copy this rhythm or that scale. It is more valuable to have absorbed while there. You let it roll around, undergo a chemical change, and then seep out on paper in the form that will suit the musicians who are going to play it."

Kokopelli: Con que la Lavare, Christmas Angel, Dubela, and Wanane from Spirit (independent)

This is the 50-voice Edmonton group that has been the big-city sibling to our own Corazon for some years, both ensembles having visited and performed for each other. Kokopelli's singers are a bit older-- most are out of high school, but they're still pretty young. They are coming to Nelson to perform twice next week, and three of their new members this year are my daughter Laura Metcalfe, Malaika Horswill, and Oscar Derkx. They all sang in Corazon for years and then moved to Edmonton to go to university and were welcomed into Kokopelli. I'm very excited to see them perform here, not only because of Laura, but the other two as well: I've known Oscar and Malaika since they, along with Laura, were on theatre and music stages in Nelson as little children.

Maurice Andre and Orchestre de Chambre directed by Jean-Francois Paillard: Johann Friedrich Fasch, Trumpet Concerto from Le Canon de Pachelbel & Le Concerto Pour Trompette de Fasch (Erato)

Following on last weeks Haydn Trumpet Concerto, another one, this time featuring the great Maurice Andre.

Silk Road, Wynton, Zorn: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast April 20, 2009

2009-04-23T20:10:00.000-07:00

Beethoven's Breakfast airs at www.cjly.net Mondays at 6:30 am PDT

Silk Road Music: Sparkling Dew and Autumn Cloud from Autumn Cloud: A Journey With Her Pipa (Silk Road Music)

At the recent Northwest Guitar Festival in Nelson I was delighted to make the acquaintance of Qiu Xia He from China who plays the pipa, Chinese lute-like instrument, in the duo Silk Road Music. Her partner in the group is Andre Thibault, guitar. They played a lovely set of Chinese music that crossed over into Brazil, India, Morocco, and other places. Qiu Xia played one solo: a classical Chinese piece that was very moving and I think it was the first time I have ever felt that way about Chinese music which has always seemed inaccessible. I was impressed by her gentle charisma, also.

Wynton Marsalis: Haydn, Trumpet Concerto with Raymond Leppard and the National Philharmonic Orchestra (CBS)

Wynton Marsalis was just a kid when he made this record-- 20 years old. He is probably the world's most successful jazz-classical crossover artist. I am not sure how the classical music establishment views this and other classical records Marsalis has made, but to my ears he approaches this music with panache and virtuosity. Do I hear a few more more notes that are slurred, jazz-like, than we would hear from a purely classical trumpeter?

Masada String Trio: Sippur, Taharah and Hoodaah, from The Circle Maker (Tzadik)

The wildly prolific John Zorn never stops changing. This is chamber music for string trio with influences from the worlds of jazz, klezmer, Middle Eastern and classical. It's his attempt to create a new form of Jewish music. The excellent trio members are Greg Cohen, bass; Mark Feldman, violin; and Eric Friedlander, cello. The music walks a lovely line between comfortable, gentle grooves and curious wanderings from the path.

Ralph Maier, Bill Frisell, Eric Whitacre

2009-04-16T04:05:00.000-07:00

Beethoven's Breakfast airs at 6:30 am PDT Mondays at www.cjly.net

Ralph Maier: Fastasias 13, 10, and 3 by Luys de Narvaez, from Art of Vihuela (Ind.)

We have an annual classical guitar festival here in Nelson, B.C.

The Northwest Guitar Festival, organized by the classical guitarist Alan Rinehart, has many guest artists this year from all over including Ralph Maier from Calgary who has made this album playing the vihuela, which is a precursor to the classical guitar with 12 paired strings and a more lute-like sound than a guitar.

Bill Frisell: Shenendoah, So Lonesome I Could Cry, Wildwood Flower, and Slow Dance from The Best of Bill Frisell Vol 1, Folksongs (Nonesuch)

Stephen Fearing and I, sometime in the early 1980s I think it was, went to hear a solo concert by Bill Frisell in Vancouver before most people had ever heard of him. Here was this studious-looking young man with a couple of guitars and some electronic gadgetry. He played compositions/improvs that used delays and loops in a way neither of us had seen before , constructing little edifices that seemed about to collapse around him at any moment, but instead they miraculously hung together, stumbling brilliantly along in their own bent and hilarious sort of way.

The rest is history, or more specifically a new turn in the history of jazz guitar and in the deconstruction of music categories.

Playing folky stuff is one of many of Frisell's guitar occupations and in fact it is my least favourite. The fact that it is still more beautiful and surprising for me than most music out there is some indication of how much I love his mainstream jazz, his out-there jazz, and his blues music. For a little revelation about Bill Frisell the player of noisy, distorted blues guitar, get his early album Before We Were Born.

Eric Whitacre: I Hide Myself, I Will Wade Out, Cloudburst, and Lux Aurumque, from Cloudburst, performed by Polyphony directed by Stephen Layton (Hyperion)

This CD contains poems by Octavio Paz, Emily Dickinson, Rumi, Lorca, ee cummings, and others translated into choral music by Eric Whitacre.

Corazón and Allison Girvan: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast for April 6, 2009

2009-04-11T07:44:00.000-07:00

Beethoven's Breakfast airs at 6:30 am Mondays PDT at www.cjly.net

Corazón Vocal Ensemble (Allison Girvan, Director): Living in a Holy City, Naked as we Came, U Mandela, MLK, Lonesome Road, Turot Eszik A Cigny, One Voice, Nella Fantasia, Di Ni Siphonono and Tiregere from Voice to Voice (Independent)

Corazón was recently recognized as the Cultural Ambassador for the City of Nelson, and you can read about that in my Waking Before Dawn blog. That post also contains a bit of a tribute to Corazón from one parent speaking for many parents of teenage girls in this town.

This CD was recorded in May, 2008, at the Capitol Theatre. My daughters Laura and Rosie were two of the 50 voices in the group at that time, and had been for several years, so I am fondly familiar with all these songs in many languages and from everywhere: Namibia, Romania, Quebec, The Wailin' Jennys, James Taylor, Ennio Morricone, U2.

There were some superstar singers in the group then, but they've gone now, graduated and moved on, including Eden Richmond, Malaika Horswill, Laura Metcalfe, Oscar Derkx, Anneke McGivern, Hila Silver, and more. This is a welcome record of their inspired work. Since then, a new set of soloists and leaders has stepped forward.

The CD was produced in Nelson by Don MacDonald and Rylen Kewen.

Janos Starker: Cello Suite #2 from J.S. Bach Suites for Solo Cello (RCA)

"I was often asked why, at age 70, I am recording Bach's Suites for the fifth time when previous statements have been received with praise....Playing Bach is a never-ending quest for beauty, as well as in some sense, the truth. One only hopes to get near to it..." That's Janos Starker quoted from the notes of this 1992 recording.

Tin Hat, Blind Paper Dragon, Sad Machinery of Spring: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast, March 30, 2009

2009-03-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

Broadcast at www.cjly.net Monday mornings at 6:30

Tin Hat: Old World, Blind Paper Dragon, Dionysus, The Book, and The Comet from The Sad Machinery of Spring (Hannibal)

Here's the astounding list of personnal and instruments on this CD: Ara Anderson: trumpet, baritone horn, piano, pump organ, toy piano, celeste; Mark Orton: guitar, dobro, piano, banjo, pump organ, autoharp, bass drum, bass harmonica, marxophone; Ben Goldberg: b-flat clarinet, alto clarinet, contra-alto clarinet; Carla Kihlstedt, violin, viola, trumpet violin, voice, piano, celeste, bowed vibes, bass harmonica,ukelin, bul-bul tarang; Zeena Parkins, harp.

Marxophone? Ukelin? Google them for some interesting reading. And what do they do with all that paraphernalia? They play lovely and uncategorizable "chamber music for the 21st century" much of which sounds mysterioiusly and pleasantly familiar, although at the same time I know I have never heard anything quite like it. I think music writers' lengthy descriptors for cross-genre music are getting a bit dull because everybody knows you can meld any two or more kinds of music these days, but I will accept this one describing Tin Hat: "...interweaving Old World Europe with post-modern America, south-of-the-border sensuality with concert-hall propriety, and odd-metered syncopation with deeply soulful grooves" (The New York Press, from the Tin Hat website).

Gryphon Trio: Trio in C Major, from Mozart Piano Trios (Analekta)

The Gryphon Trio is based in Toronto and they do a lot more than play the standard classical repertoire: they won a Juno in 2004 for a recording of music by contemporary Canadian composers, they tend to seen playing jazz clubs, they have made a recording of tango music, they are artists in residence at the University of Toronto's music faculty, and they have tried their hands at multimedia production. They are Annalee Patipatanakoon, violin; Jamie Parker, piano; Roman Borys, cello.
http://www.gryphontrio.com/

Feeling the Music At You: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast March 23, 2009

2009-03-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

www.cjly.net at 6:30 am PDT

Oliver Schroer: Santiago Street Sounds, In Memory of Friends Past, Cowbarn Bells, and Forest Walkby from Camino (Big Dog)

Canadian violinist Oliver Schroer said his music consists of "prayers, incantations, whimsies, melismas, mysteriosos, fractal reels, forest blues, blessings." There is a lot of celtic influence in his music, but it is really quite uncategorizable. He took a recording studio in his backpack when he walked the El Camino pilgrimage trail in Spain and recorded himself playing solo violin in churches along the way. He also recorded church bells, people walking and talking, sheep and goats, and other sounds. In the last years of his life Oliver Schroer lived in Smithers, B.C. He died of leukemia in 2008.You can watch him playing beautifully at his farewell concert.

Lang Lang: Piano Sonata in C Major (Mozart) from Memory (Deutsche Grammophon)

The classical music blogger Alex Ross writes: "In the classical-music world of ten or fifteen years ago, you heard intermittent murmurs of unease about the number of Asian performers who were showing up on the rolls of conservatories, in the ranks of orchestras, and on concert stages. The oft-repeated criticism was that these players showed great technical dexterity but lacked the mysteries of “depth” and “soul.” Such talk had an unsavory taste; Wagner used to say the same thing about musical Jews. In any case, the muttering has died down. When Yo-Yo Ma entrances audiences through the force of his personality, when Mitsuko Uchida delves deeper into Mozart and Schubert than almost any pianist alive, and when the virtuosos Lang Lang and Yundi Li conquer crowds with youthful bravado, notions of an “Asian type” can be filed away in the archive of dumb generalizations. The huge popularity of classical music in the Far East, and particularly in China, has created a talent pool a billion deep, from which a disarmingly varied group of musicians is emerging.

"Listening to Lang Lang, I think of the absurdist pundit Stephen Colbert, who promises not to read the news to his viewers but to feel the news at them. Lang Lang feels the music at you, in ways both good and bad. He advertises his love of performing simply by the way he charges onstage, and he creates a giddy atmosphere as he negotiates hairpin turns at high speed...."

Wendy Sutter: Tissues 1, 2, 3, and 4 from Philip Glass: Poems and Songs for Solo Cello (Orange Mountain Music)

See previous post. I had to play more of this.

Cello: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast March 16, 2009

2009-03-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

www.cjly.net Mondays at 6:30 am PST

Wendy Sutter: Songs 1, 2, 3, and 4, from Philip Glass: Songs and Poems for Solo Cello (Orange Mountain)

This music was written by Philip Glass and Wendy Sutter collaboratively in 2007. In addition to the six songs/poems, we have a series of four pieces called Tissues, for cello, piano, and/or percussion. I find the pieces with just cello and percussion especially wonderful.

"Glass has remarked frequently on the comparison of the range of the cello to that of the human voice. While thoroughly composed for the voice of the cello, a certain singing quality pervades his solo writing. The work itself, at once introspective, pensive and self-analyzing flows with timelessness and unrepentant musicality ..." (from the notes by Richard Guerin)

Maria Schneider Orchestra: Sky Blue from Sky Blue (ArtistShare)
Gil Evans: Where Flamingos Fly from Out of the Cool (Impulse)

Two pieces from teacher (Evans) and student (Schneider, who studied with him). She carries on his tradition of careful, complex, and stately compositions and arrangements for large jazz group. Gil Evans is the man who did the orchestrations for Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain. These two pieces are vehicles for two beautiful soloists: Steve Wilson, soprano saxophone on Sky Blue, and the late and under-appreciated Jimmy Knepper, trombone, on Flamingos. Watch Maria Schneider conducting on You Tube.

Janos Starker: Cello Suite #1 from J.S. Bach Suites for Solo Cello (RCA)

"I was often asked why, at age 70, I am recording Bach's Suites for the fifth time when previous statements have been received with praise....Playing Bach is a never-ending quest for beauty, as well as in some sense, the truth. One only hopes to get near to it..." That's Janos Starker quoted from the notes of this 1992 recording.

Music Moving the Clouds: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast March 9, 2009

2009-03-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

www.cjly.net at 6:30 am Mondays PDT

Joanna MacGregor: Hugh Ashton's Ground, Incarnation II, Endgame, Even Tenor, and Forlorn Hope Fantasy from Playing (Sound Circus)

"I heard it (Incarnation II by Somei Satoh) first being performed to a tiny audience in London one freezing January about twelve years ago," writes Joanna MacGregor.

"I wrote to the pianist, who turned out to live in Vienna, who kindly sent me a photocopy of the piece, a single sheet of simple harmonic progressions, with figures underneath and dynamics-- no metronome mark, no written instructions, no biographical material, nothing. No dictionary contained any information about Somei Satoh; apparently Sony publishes his music but whenever I rang the voice at the other end of the phone had never heard of him. I was forever putting in orders for CDs that never arrived.

"However, after years of picking up snippets of knowledge (usually in casual conversations or on the internet) I began to uncover that Satoh's work often uses Buddhist chant and quasi-electronic effects. In 1981 he placed eight speakers high on a northern Japanese mountain range above a valley, and waited for the fog, sound, and laser lights to move the clouds in various formations...."

That was written in 2001. Satoh is not so obscure now. You can read about him in Wikipedia or here. Joanna MacGregor is a British concert pianist who does not stick entirely with the classical repertoire. The music in this CD spans 6 centuries (from William Byrd and John Dowland to John Cage) and includes a duet with tabla player Talvin Singh and South African jazz pianist Moses Malelekwa.

Jacqueline du Pre with the London Symphony conducted by Daniel Barenboim: Boccherini: Cello Concerto in B flat from Hadyn and Boccerhini Cello Concertos (EMI)

There are some musicians who are so talented at an early age and so mature in their attitudes to their art that people say they were born fully formed.

The violinist Pinchas Zukerman, who worked with Jacqueline du Pre a lot, said she seemed to have practiced and perfected a piece before she sat down to rehearse it. "It was done," he said. "It was done before she came in. In fact I think she was done before she was born." Watch him talking about this in the second video link below.

From her teenage years she was a soloist on the world stage, playing with many of the worlds most renowned orchestras and conductors. She stopped playing at age 28 because she was ill with multiple sclerosis. She died at the age of 42.

The feature film Hilary and Jackie is about her. Watch her on You Tube playing or in a trailer for a documentary film.

Shankar, Glass, Haydn: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast March 2, 2009

2009-03-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

www.cjly.net Mondays at 6:30 am PST

Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass: Prashanti, Sadhanipa and Ragas in Minor Scale from Passages (Private Music Inc.)

I played this excellent collaboration again because I couldn't help it-- see previous post.

Hans-Martin Linde and Collegeum Aureum: Flute Concerto in D Major from Franz Joseph Haydn, Flute and Horn Concertos

This is not available anywhere as far as I can tell-- one more perfect-condition vinyl LP from the donated collection of classical albums at Kootenay Cooperative Radio.

Shankar, Glass, Gould: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast for February 23, 2009

2009-02-25T18:56:00.001-08:00

www.cjly.net Mondays at 6:30 am

Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass: Prashanti and Offering from Passages (Private Music Inc.)

What a discovery! They made this CD in 1990, and I just found out about it. It's a true collaboration: some tracks are based on a Glass theme with a Shankar arrangement built around it, and some are the other way around. There are two ensembles, one led by Shankar and one by Glass. Sometimes they play separately and sometimes together. On Offering, for example, the melody is from a Shankar raga but it's played by a saxophone and there is not an Indian instrument in sight.

The notes quote Shankar remembering Paris in 1965 when the very young Glass was a student doing transcription work for a film score that Shankar was recording. Ravi recalls: From the very first moment I saw such interest from him-- he was a young man then-- and he started asking me questions about ragas and talas and started writing down the whole score....and seeing how interested he was I told him everything I could in that short time."

And Glass wrote, "It was possible to graduate from a major Western conservatory...without exposure to music from outside the Western tradition. World music was completely unknown in the mid-60's."

Glenn Gould: Partita No. 4 from Bach: Partitas No. 4, 5, and 6 (Sony)

The notes quote a writer from Bach's time exclaiming that any young pianist could easily make a name for himself by playing this new music by Bach. And some did just that, including, more than 200 years later in the 1950's and 60's, Glenn Gould, Canada's greatest musician.

Bells, a Bird, and a Five-Year-Old Dancer-- Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast for January 16, 2009

2009-02-17T06:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.cjly.net/-- Mondays at 6:30am PST

The Hilliard Ensemble, the Talinn Chamber Orchestra, and the Estonian Philharomonic Chamber Choir under the direction of Tonu Kaljust: Litany, from Arvo Part, Litany (ECM)

"I have discovered that it is enough when a single note is beautifully played. This one note, or a silent beat, or a moment of silence, comforts me. I work with very few elements-- with one voice, two voices. I build with primitive materials-- with the triad, with one specific tonality. The three notes of a triad are like bells....."

Those are the words of Estonian composer Arvo Part. Litany was composed in the early 1990s and this CD was recorded in 1996.

Paul Reddick: Morning Bell and Wishing Song from Sugarbird (Northern Blues)

When I played this on the air, I got a phone call. "Who's the accordion player?" Well, the accordion player is Garth Hudson, one of the members of The Band back in the old days. The guitarist and producer of the CD is Colin Linden.

This CD has some beautiful liner notes by Koko Bonaparte, starting with: "The songs of Sugarbird sit on the edge of the shade and flirt with the light. Light from the sun and from the mind moves across the face of these songs...." and there is more.

Paul Reddick is a Canadian songwriter, blues singer, and harmonica player. His music seems to be coming to us from some earlier time, but at the same time he is not retro, not a throwback-- he is bringing us new music, right now. Reddick is a fantastic man to watch in live performance. I have seen him twice-- once in the old hotel the name of which I have forgotten that used to be where Charlotte's used to be, in Nelson; and a couple of years ago at the Kaslo Jazz Fest. He has a way of relating to the audience and his musicians (gestures, looks, comments) that is very cool and quite indescribable. Go see him if you can.

Maria Schneider Orchestra: Aires de Lando from Sky Blue (ArtistShare)

Maria Schneider is getting famous lately for her finely crafted compositions and arrangements for large jazz bands. Her style is her own but also reminiscent of one of her mentors, Gil Evans. In the notes to the CD she writes of a trip to Peru where she "...experienced a whole new kind of music...I'd witnessed an entire audience clapping to a kind of music called lando-- music felt in polyrhythmic patterns of 12/8 over 6/4. Though lando felt plain as day like 6/4 to me, I quickly got a big lesson in musical perspective when I saw a small 5-year-old child get up, dancing and clapping in a sinuous 12/8...."

This piece has fascinating and subtle rhythmic shifts, and lovely clarinet work by Scott Robinson.

ArtistShare is not really a record label, it's an artist cooperative with some innovative approaches to marketing and getting the music into our hands and ears-- one more interesting alternative to business as usual at the recording companies.

A Cuban Odyssey, a Chant from a Holy Book, a Mozart Horn: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast, February 9, 2009

2009-02-12T20:17:00.000-08:00

www.cjly.net, Mondays at 6:30 am PST

Grupo Vocal Desandann: Nan Fwon Bwaa, Alabans, and Prizon, from Jane Bunnett: Cuban Odyssey (EMI)

This 10-voice a cappella group from rural Cuba makes music unlike anything I have ever heard from Cuba or anywhere else. They are the descendants of Haitian slaves and they sing not in Spanish or Yoroba but in a patois. Somehow their sound is both brightly innocent and solemn. These three tracks (unfortunately their only available recordings that I am aware of) are from an otherwise quite different CD by Jane Bunnett, as part of her continuing exploration of Cuban music.

Anja Lechner and Vassilis Tsabropoulos: Chant from a Holy Book, Bayaty, Prayer, and Duduki, from Chants, Hymns, and Dances (ECM)

The "unknowable" Georges Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, as one of his students called him, was a unique spiritual teacher who founded the Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man in France in the 1920s. His spiritual practices were gleaned from many world religions and from his own ideas, and they included a set of dance movements to be performed to music composed by Gurdjieff and performed by his friend the pianist Thomas DeHartmann as part of a journey to higher consciousness.

The cellist Anja Lechner and pianist Vassilis Tsabropoulos, on this 2001 CD, have interpreted Gurjieff's music quite freely, and for me these performances do convey the contemplative aims of their composer, but they are also emotionally rich. Who knows whether the eccentric and very particular Gurdjieff would have approved.

Hermann Baumann and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra conducted by Pinchas Zukerman: Horn Concerto No. 3, from Mozart Horn Concertos (Philips)

I love music from the baroque and classical periods written for solo wind instruments with orchestral accompaniment. The International Horn Society says we should call it the horn, not the French Horn. By whatever name, it is a lovely and mysterious instrument and famously difficult to play. Thanks to Mozart for several horn concertos, all gems.

Gypsy Clarinet in Turkey, A Polish Refugee in Mexico, An Exuberant Trumpet, Man on Wire: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast, February 2, 2009

2009-02-03T07:07:00.000-08:00

www.cjly.net, Mondays at 6:30 am PST

Anouar Brahem: Aube Rouge à Grozny, Astara, Karakoum, and Blue Jewels from Astrakan Café (ECM)

When I travelled to Greece as a young man I occasionally heard, in recorded music in cafes and in the street, an otherworldly kind of clarinet playing, very enticing, not like the usual Greek bouzouki music, and nothing like the clarinet technique or style I had learned in school. Then I travelled to Turkey and got a glimpse of the other world those clarinets were calling out from.

One of the highlights of this CD for me is the presence of Barbaros Erkose, a gypsy clarinetist from Istanbul. Even though I stopped playing the clarinet decades ago, I still understand its language. Listening to this CD and I am thrilled by the wildness and sophistication of Erkose's playing. The tone he gets on his clarinet is like nothing I have ever heard: the ones we are used to are jazz and classical and maybe klezmer, and this is none of those.

Anouar Brahem, the leader of the trio on this CD, likens his inspiration to "the tree which, while rising above the ground and taking up more space, continues to develop and dig its roots deeper into the ground," an image appropriate to his home city of Tunis, a multifaceted place with Arabic-Moslem roots and African and Mediterranean influences.

Anouar Brahem is a celebrated player of the oud, which is an Arabic version of the lute. He was born in 1957 in Tunisia and by the age of 10 had entered the Tunisia Conservatory of Music and by 15 was playing with local orchestras. Since then he has reinvigorated traditional Tunisian music and has experimented with other Arabic traditions as well, with the result today being a body of work that spans the entire Arabic and European worlds. In addition to being a solo performer with small and large groups, he has worked as an orchestra director and teacher, and has written music for film, theatre, and dance. The third musician in this trio is percussionist Lassad Hosni.

Henryk Szeryng: Partita No.3 E Major BVW 1006, from Bach: The Unaccompanied Sonatas and Partitas (Odyssey)

The Polish violinist Henryk Szeryng became a citizen of Mexico part way through this life for some fascinating reasons.

In World War II, Szeryng, already a prominent violin soloist in Poland and a scholar who spoke eight languages, became chief liaison officer for the Polish government in exile in London. At the same time, he gave hundreds of concerts for Allied troops all over the world. In 1942 he went to Mexico where the Polish president in exile was searching for a home for thousands of Polish refugees displaced by the war. Mexico accepted them, and Henryk Szeryng was so moved by this humanitarian gesture that he returned to Mexico in 1943, where he was offered the post of director of the string department at the National University of Mexico. In recognition of his musical and cultural contribution, he was granted Mexican citizenship in 1948.

He regularly gave concerts all over Latin America until his friend the pianist Arthur Rubenstein persuaded him to extend his solo career further afield, and this began several decades of concerts, recordings, and acclaim worldwide.

Szeryng was appointed Mexican Roving Ambassador for Culture in 1956 and Special Music Advisor to the Mexican Permanent Delegation to UNESCO. He was the first artist ever to travel on a diplomatic passport.

Henryk Szeryng died in September, 2008. His memorial website is here: http://www.henrykszeryng.net/

His recording of Bach's Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin is one of the highlights of his career, and of this radio show. About Bach, Szeryng said, "Johann Sebastian Bach's work is a Bible. Bach is the ultimate goal, this is where everything starts and everything ends. His music brings you closer to your own spirit, even to analyzing your own spirit and soul. It has an incredible serenity. If people think that a choral or an Adagio, a Cantilena produces this miracle, I would say that even fast movements, a Presto or a quick Allegro, can make you feel more cheerful, more secure, more optimistic."

Herbie Hancock: Maiden Voyage from Maiden Voyage (Blue Note)

This is part two of my tribute to jazz trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who died recently at age 70. This classic recording from 1965 captures the essence of a certain spirit of adventure that produced effortless flight at Blue Note records in the 1960's, and it is one of Hubbard's finest performances. On this track you can hear his thoughtfulness, his exuberance, and his complete focus within the open harmonies of Hancock's new direction. George Coleman, Tony Williams, and Ron Carter shared the date.

The vinyl LP my listeners heard here is the very one I bought when Maiden Voyage was first released. I realized in the radio studio that the record doesn't sound so great any more. It's worn out. I need to buy the CD.

Aldo Ciccolini: Trois Gymnopédies from Piano Music of Eric Satie Volume 1 (Angel)

A few months ago I went to see the film Man on Wire, and last night watched it again with my daughter, and I was struck both times by how perfect this piece was for the final scenes when Philippe Petit walked a tightrope between the tops of the twin towers in New York. http://manonwire.com/

Twelve Dances, One Voice, Two Etudes: Playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast, January 26, 2009

2009-01-31T08:41:00.000-08:00

www.kootenaycoopradio.com, Mondays 6:30 am PST

1. Norbert Kraft and the Razumovsky Sinfonia directed by Peter Breiner: Granados-- Spanish Dances 1-6, from Twelve Spanish Dances (Naxos)

In 1916, when Enrique Granados was returning to Europe after performing for President Woodrow Wilson, the ship on which he was travelling was torpedoed by the German navy and sank. Granados and his wife were drowned.

Granados was a Spanish composer and virtuoso pianist sometimes referred to as the Spanish Chopin. He lived in Spain and Paris, and was acquainted with many French composers of that time including Faure, Debussy, Ravel, and Saint-Saëns.

His two best-known works are Goyescas, a series of pieces inspired by the paintings of Goya, and Twelve Spanish Dances. Many of his works originally written for piano have been transcribed for the classical guitar including Peter Breiner's transcription of Twelve Spanish Dances on this recording. Breiner also created the lovely orchestral arrangements on this CD.

Norbert Kraft is a leading Canadian classical guitarist.

2. The Wailin' Jennys: Glory Bound, Swallow, Apocalypse Lullaby, One Voice, and Firecracker from Firecracker (Red House)

We're at the final performance of the Nelson B.C. 50-voice vocal group Corazón in May, 2008. "This song," director Allison Girvan tells us as we near the end of the performance, "is sung by three young women who have been in Corazón for as long as it is possible to be in it. They are all leaving us this year, and I don't know what I am going to do without them. This is One Voice by the Wailin' Jennys."

My daughter Laura moves forward on the stage and starts to sing, solo.

This is the sound of one voice
One spirit, one voice
The sound of one who makes a choice
This is the sound of one voice.

As Laura sings, Anneke McGivern, Laura's friend, walks slowly up to join her and the two of them sing…

This is the sound of voices two
The sound of me singing with you
Helping each other to make it through….

Malaika Horswill, a close friend of both of my daughters since all three were small children, joins them and adds her soprano to the harmony for the third verse.

This is the sound of voices three
Singing together in harmony….

Eventually the whole group, 50 people, joins them.

This is the sound of all of us…

And fifty voices become one voice.

Now whenever I hear the Wailin' Jennys, I think of that inspired evening. My other daughter, Rosie, was in Corazon during that performance as well.

Noel Lee: Etudes 1 and 2 from Claude Debussy: Piano Works 3 (Philips)

As I told my listeners when I played this music on the air: "Debussy's Etudes were written in France in 1915, put on this recording in Copenhagen in 1962, found their way in vinyl form by a donation to the CJLY music library in 2007 and to your ears this cold winter morning before dawn in the beginnings of 2009. Strange (and wonderful) how these things happen."

Gryphon, Shakti, Bayrakdarian: playlist for Beethoven's Breakfast January 19, 2008

2009-01-26T20:24:00.000-08:00

www.kootenaycoopradio.com, Mondays at 6:30 am PST

1. Gryphon Trio: Trio in C Minor K. 548 from Mozart, the Complete Piano Trios (Analekta)

"The gryphon, a Greek mythological creature that was the guardian of treasure and symbolized the joining of cosmic energy and psychic force, reflects the group's interest in many genres of music" (from the liner notes). The Toronto-based Gryphon Trio plays contemporary and classical works. http://www.gryphontrio.com/

2. Remember Shakti: Bell' Aria from Saturday Night in Bombay (Verve)

Remember Shakti is a group of Indian musicians led by tabla player Zakir Hussain and British guitarist John McLaughlin. In the early 1970's they formed the acoustic group Shakti and pioneered a fusion of jazz and Indian classical music. John McLaughlin, in the years before that, was a member of the Miles Davis bands that made the shocking Bitches Brew and the sublime In a Silent Way. Shakti broke up in the 1980's. McLaughlin and Hussain have worked creatively together and apart ever since to acquaint western and Indian music with each other. In fact they are among the founders of what we call "world music."

The group Remember Shakti was formed in 1997 with some of the original players and some new ones including the respected elder Hariprasad Chaurasia on flute. Here is a video of a small version of the group: .http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=qyCH70FODJA

3. Isabel Bayrakdarian : Spring, Mount Alakyaz, Striding Beaming, and Lullaby, from Gomidas Songs (Nonesuch)

Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935) is known as the father of Armenian classical music. He was a survivor of the Armenian genocide of 1915, and in an attempt to save Armenian musical culture he took songs and dances of the Armenian peasantry and recreated them in a European classical format. The singer Isabel Bayrakdarian is an Armenian-Canadian who, in addition to being an up-and-coming opera star, holds a degree in biomedical engineering from the University of Toronto and was featured on the movie soundtrack for “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” and Atom Egoyan's "Ararat." For a stunning cultural experience watch her perform one of the songs from this CD, accompanied by four players of the duduk (an Armenian woodwind instrument of ancient origins), outdoors in an ancient ruin in Armenia, at http://tinyurl.com/9q7s2w.

Bagatelles, Blues, and Bansuri: Playlist for January 12, 2009

2009-01-25T17:05:00.000-08:00

www.kootenaycoopradio.com, Mondays, 6:30 am PST

1. Alfred Brendel: Six Bagatelles, from Beethoven: Fur Elise, Eroica Variations, and Bagatelles (Philips)

A bagatelle is a short lively piece, and Beethoven wrote many of those. But he told his publisher that these were "quite the best pieces of their kind that I have written" (from the liner notes).

The great concert pianist Alfred Brendel, with a distinguished career of performing and recording the classics, was born in what is now the Czech Republic in 1931 and now lives in London. He has a website: http://www.alfredbrendel.com/

Brendel recently retired. Read a review of his final concert, performed in Vienna in December, 2008, just before his 78th birthday, here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2008/dec/19/alfred-brendel-vienna

2. Oliver Nelson: Stolen Moments from The Blues and the Abstract Truth (Impulse)

In the 1960's my friends and I all listened to the new stuff like the Beatles and Dylan, but I had a parallel track: I was into the new jazz: Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, Ornette, etc. One of the musicians who shone brightest for me in those days was trumpet player Freddie Hubbard. He died recently in his seventies.

He was at the top of his game in the 1960's, when he led his own groups and played with every other great jazz musician you can think of from that period. Later in his life he ran into a number of health problems and personal problems which detracted from his playing and he never matched his wonderful work from his younger years.

Every solo he played in the 60's was creative, unpredictable, and uplifting. Good examples are his work on Oliver Nelson's The Blues and the Abstract Truth, and Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage.

When Freddie Hubbard died recently, Wynton Marsalis, who is a generation younger, said, "Certainly I listened to him a lot.… We all listened to him. He has a big sound and a great sense of rhythm and time and really, the hallmark of his playing is an exuberance. His playing is exuberant."

And to Marsalis' comment I would add that it is dramatic, because the exuberance comes in bursts. His solos often consist of a few phrases that are calm and thoughtful, then the exuberance will burst out for a few bars, then back to being thoughtful, then erupting again, never with clichés or standard licks, never coasting, always fresh. You can hear that in his solo on Stolen Moments.

Think of the astounding personnel on this record: Roy Haynes, drums; Paul Chambers, bass; Bill Evans, piano; Oliver Nelson, tenor saxophone; Eric Dolphy, alto sax and flute; Freddie Hubbard, trumpet.

3. Rakesh Chaurasia and Talvin Singh: Vira from Vira (Times Music)

I was in New Delhi a few years ago, and in one of the CD shops the proprietor told me the only customers who were interested in buying classical Indian music were the westerners. I bought this CD there.

Rakesh Chaurasia is the nephew of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, the eminent player of the classical Indian bamboo flute, or bansuri. The nephew is continuing the uncle's tradition and experimenting with it. The tabla player Talvin Singh is also a classical musician who likes to experiment—in this case by using electronics to produce the traditional drone that you find behind much Indian music.