Tag: new recordings

A composer friend of mine once joked that a lot more people would listen to his music if he threw in a drum track. This idea brought back painful memories of Hooked on Classics and that disco tune “A Fifth of Beethoven,” but I had to admit that he had a point. Americans have an obsession with beats—they want to tap their feet, bob their heads, and occasionally just boogie down when listening to music. This is nothing new. Music and dance have been inherently linked since the first Neanderthal man blew a tune on his four-note bone flute and his buddy moved about. Probably even earlier than that! There is a primal, human link between sound and movement. Nearly every culture (with the exception 16th-century Switzerland under John Calvin, the Massachussetts Bay Colony, and the town in Footloose—all of which prohibited dancing), has traditional music and traditional dance that co-exist. Therefore, it does not seem too implausible for a populace conditioned to link a steady beat with movement to crave this element in their music. This month, 8 of the 25 CDs that I received reminded me of this basic need to move when hearing music.

Swing music, gleaned from the African-American musical tradition that emphasized a strong rhythmic component and the rich song tradition of European-Americans, was a natural hit on the dance floor during that era. That’s why hearing the Susie Arioli Swing Band play classics like “Pennies From Heaven” and “Honeysuckle Rose” is a great first example of how music catalyzes motion. However, in today’s world, it isn’t the big bands, but the electronic sounds manipulated by a sound engineer that get young bodies moving. Two albums this month attempt to reconcile this rift between electronic sounds and acoustic instruments by combining the two into ambient grooves. “Strange Lives” by Metaphor combines the talents of 8 musicians who throw everything but the kitchen sink into their music—guitars, French horns, snake charmers, accordions, synthesizers, violins, and voices just to name a few. In that same vein, the New York-based trio Plexus prides itself on the fact that the normal rhythms and breakbeats that one hears in contemporary jungle and drum’n’bass are played live, with a real drummer (and some programming of course). The result is a fresh, emotive spin on what has become an otherwise watered-down and dull musical style.

Somewhere along the line, someone thought that this link between dance and music would make great entertainment and the worlds of formal dance, musical theater, and burlesque shows came into being. On the newest recording of the mind-blowing World Saxophone Quartet, the first piece was written by David Murray for the dance company Urban Bushwomen and is based on an excerpt from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Paul Chihara‘s ballet Shinju, which appears on a brand new recording of his music from New World Records, is based on the suicide plays of the famous Japanese dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon. Finally, the work of the Bard is set to music and dance in Galt MacDermot and John Guare‘s early-70s, psychedelic and sexually charged rendition of Two Gentlemen of Verona.

The last two recordings that sparked thoughts of dance are, granted, a little more far-fetched… The first is Rise of the Firebird, which of course reminded me of the great Stravinsky ballet. I was surprised however to find that it was, in fact, a collection of works for wind ensemble by 10 different composers. Thinking of wind music, I naturally thought about the American phenomenon of the marching band, which is a form of dance in itself. If you are a fan of marching band music, check out An American Salute, a collection of patriotic tunes including plenty of Sousa, the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” some Gould, Copland, and Ives, and much more.

Dance will always be a key component to how music develops in the United States and the world at large. The two art forms are kindred spirits that feed one another with their creativity and energy. So, this summer, keep your ears open and your feet moving and be sure to check out these recording along with the 17 others featured this month!

Other SoundTracks this month:

• In Memoriam William Albright
• The Organ Symphonies of Edward Shippen Barnes
• Tim Berne: The Sevens
• Horn Sonatas of Three Centuries
• Guy Klucevsek: The Heart of the Andes
• Andy Laster’s Lessness: Window Silver Bright
• Jeff Manookian: Symphony of Tears
• Dennis McCarthy: Enterprise
• Modern American Classics, Vol. 6
• Paul Freeman Introduces…
• Ponder Nothing: Susan Fancher, Saxophones
• Shulamit Ran: Excursions, Fantasy Variations, Soliloquy, Verticals
• Rudis/Custudio/Diaz-Infante: Crashing the Russian Renaissance
• Ed Schuller: Ong Song
• Roberto Sierra: Bayoán/El Éxstasis de Santa Teresa
• Skrowaczewski’s World: Chamber Music of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
• Twentieth Century Contrasts

I heard an awful joke once, the details I have thankfully since forgotten. The punch line basically indicated that the only woman you would ever see as part of a jazz outfit would be a singer. While it may have been true that the only way women could be recognized in the jazz world was through their vocal prowess and that this strong tradition of female vocalists continues today, this joke upset me because it seemed to suggest that women (and therefore singers) were not technically proficient enough to act as a composers, instrumentalists, or bandleaders. Today, while obstacles still remain for women in jazz, many sections of the wall have been torn down, allowing for a freer exchange of ideas. Thirteen new recordings this month exhibit the presence of women in the jazz of the 21st century, a genre that is shedding its passé machismo and growing into a more pure expression of the human spirit.

Sing for Your Supper

While at one point in time, women were forced to sing songs chosen by the (male) bandleader, today’s female vocalists are taking charge of their own musical destinies by forming their own ensembles, realizing their own recording projects, and performing their own compositions. A founding member of the renowned vocal jazz group The Manhattan Transfer, Janis Siegel‘s most recent solo project is a collection of jazzed up pop tunes of the ’50s and ’60s (the Brill Building era)—a personal voyage into the musical environment of her youth. Siegel’s early jazz influences included Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, so you can be assured that her versions of “Mr. Sandman” and “I Want You to Be My Baby” are anything but traditional. Other women who have envisioned their own recording projects include Diane Hubka, whose concept for You Inspire Me was to collect seven of the world’s greatest guitarists to accompany her on the album’s various tracks; Helen Schneider, who belts out American classics on her newest CD Cool Heat; and alto Catherine Dupuis who embraces her theatricality on her latest recording Moments. While these women were heading up their own projects, Susanne Abbuehl and Judi Silvano were recording their own compositions. Abbuehl’s transcendent ambient jazz juxtaposed with Silvano’s upbeat, theatrical tunes exhibits the diversity of sound and style that have been introduced by women to the jazz world.

Playing the Game

Many women who are involved in jazz today come to it as players, which was almost unheard of fifty years ago. Keyboardist and composer Roberta Piket is joined by her completely plugged-in band Alternating Current on the album of her compositions, humorously titled I’m Back In Therapy and It’s All Your Fault. Her funky style of jazz features unusual voicings flecked with hints of the modernist classical tradition. Meanwhile, pianist Jessica Williams is joined by bassist Ray Drummond and drummer Victor Lewis on her recording This Side Up, a collection of deeply emotional tunes inspired by Williams’ unique synesthetic perception of music. Equally as organic in creation, hollow-body guitarist Kim Reith‘s compositions in combination with her trio’s interpretations yield a sparse, post-bop musical landscape.

While the aforementioned women were leading their own ensembles, other women have been participating in the shift toward cooperative, leaderless recording endeavors such as saxophonist/flutist Jane Bunnett, who with a team of musicians (all male, I might note…), created Spirituals & Dedications, traveled to the undiscovered worlds of collective consciousness using traditional spirituals as a point of departure. Confronting free jazz, New York/Japan-based pianist Satoko Fujii and her partner Natsuki Tamura create six musical sketches exploring the forms and meanings of Cirrus and Cumulonimbus among others on the aptly named Clouds. Meanwhile, the Lynne Arriale Trio (named for the pianist and leader of the group) puts a new instrumental spin on classic tunes like “It Don’t Mean a Thing” and “The Nearness of You.”

The Triple Threat

A talented songwriter, guitarist, and singer, Cassandra Wilson integrates American blues, folk, pop, jazz with Brazilian and African music into one spiritual journey on her newest album Belly of the Sun, which was recorded in an abandoned train station in her home state of Mississippi. Her soulful voice and powerful lyrics are soulfully expressive as they advocate for progressive societal change. Wilson, a renaissance woman of the jazz world, reminds us that women have been an integral part of the development of jazz. Women, otherized for so long by musical machismo, have finally taken responsibility for themselves and opened up doors that were once invisible not only to them, but to the men who were not exposed to their creative ability. They have found ways to have their ideas heard within already established circles while never ceasing to forge new pathways as postmodernism rips open the expectations of art.

Jazz has always prided itself as the great American music, and with the women in the United States possessing more rights and social freedoms than in most other countries it seems only natural that they be more visible in the jazz world. Thanks to the women that have dedicated themselves to this music, jazz continues to be a relevant musical form instead of simply an artifact of a time gone by.

Also, check out 35 new recordings NOT by female jazzers, some of which are not even jazz:

• • 156 Strings
  • John Abercrombie: Cat ‘n’ Mouse
  • The Applebaum Jazz Piano Duo: the apple doesn’t fall very far from the tree
  • Chris Chafe: Arcology
  • Aaron Copland: Symphony No. 3, Billy th
    e Kid
  • C. Curtis Smith: Twelve Etudes
  • Duduka da Fonesca: Samba Jazz Fantasia
  • Eastman Wind Ensemble at 50
  • Elements String Quartet: Live
  • Morton Feldman: Voices and Instruments
  • Fond Affection: Music of Ernest Bacon
  • The Fully Celebrated Orchestra: Marriage of Heaven and Earth
  • George Gershwin: An American in Paris
  • Jerry Grant and the L.A. NuJazz Alternative: Rush Hour
  • Tom Harrell: Live at the Village Vanguard
  • The International Computer Music Association Commission Awards – 1997-99
  • Intonarumori: Material
  • Robert Kurka: The Good Soldier Schweik
  • Joe McBride and the Texas Rhythm Club: Keepin’ It Real
  • Ron Miles: Heaven
  • Eric Moe: Up and At ‘Em
  • Music for Solo Clarinet & Orchestra
  • New Music from Bowling Green
  • On the Sensations of Tone: Tom Heasley, ambient tuba
  • Opium
  • Jean-Michel Pilc: Welcome Home
  • Roger Reynolds: all known all white
  • The Shock of the Old: Common Sense Composers’ Collective & American Baroque
  • Grete Sultan: The Legacy
  • John Surman/Jack DeJohnette: Live in Tampere and Berlin
  • Richard Teitelbaum: Blends
  • Trio3: Open Ideas
  • Trio DaPaz: Café
  • Toby Twining: Chrysalid Requiem
  • Whippin’ the Keys: 75 Years of Novelty Piano Ragtime

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Every time I see this one old friend of mine he asks the same question. “Mandy,” he says very earnestly. “Why do I like the music that I like?” Trained in math and physics and a believer that there is an answer to every inquiry, he wonders why he loves the blues. What is it about the blues that speaks to him? “I’m a relatively happy person and have a pretty good life” he says, confounded by his seemingly inappropriate fondness. At first, I would try to explain it using various theories from the scientific (We’re conditioned to respond to certain kinds of tonal progressions…) to the Freudian (Well, did your mother listen to the blues when you were growing up?) and the Jungian (Are you sure you’re happy? Maybe the blues sing to your repressed feelings of dejection…) to the capitalist (You like it because the marketers told you to.)

After several attempts at explanation, none of which satisfy him, and several rounds of beer, I throw my hands in the air and come to the inevitable conclusion: I don’t know. I don’t know why he likes the blues and I don’t know why the visceral power of three baritone saxes bellowing together over African rhythms on Bluiett‘s Blueback knocked me over. Or why Sarah Vaughan‘s rich voice and sparkling musicality penetrates right into my soul, making me dance in my chair and ponder the sad corners of my life alternately.

I was drawn into the new recording of George Crumb‘s Makrokosmos performed by pianist Laurie Hudicek by the concept—24 fantasy-pieces after the Zodiac (I have a secret passion for astrology and, of course, had to hear if certain pieces resonated with my ideas about each sign). Once I got past my superficial exploration, the archetypal mystic sounds of George Crumb—chanting, moaning, and rubbing glass against the piano strings—sent a chill down my spine, making me love it for its sheer eeriness. After adding some Gloria Coates, with her glissando-obsessed, static tone-defying fifth string quartet, and a series of percussion pieces from the ensemble Nexus, featuring the ghostly resonances of the marimba and steel pans, I was having a better time than if I was settled at home eating popcorn and watching a scary movie.

While these two composers satisfied my penchant for the mysterious, the songs of Amy Beach as performed by Emma Kirkby sparked my romantic side, enchanting me with their beautiful poetry and even more beautiful melodies. Speaking of beautiful melodies, the premiere recording of David Diamond‘s string quartets certainly has its share, although the emotional gamut swings wider, incorporating frustrated dissonance that hits the spot when the pressure of listening to 43 recordings is getting to you. And although the only memory I have of Georgia is a Stuckey’s off the interstate on my way to Disney World when I was little, I sure had an adoring picture of it on my mind after listening to the Bill Charlap Trio (with guests Tony Bennett, Frank Wess, Jim Hall, and Shirley Horn) covering a bunch of Hoagy Carmichael tunes on Stardust.

And finally, reminding me that I am still young, Mikel Rouse‘s funky and energetic Cameraworld features the latest in sampling technology, operating simultaneously in the realms of spoken word, hip-hop, intelligent dance music, and R&B. At times it sounds a lot like what was on the truly alternative radio station I listened to in the mid-nineties. It is highly addictive music and I can’t stop listening. I still don’t know why…

In any case, I encourage all of you to check out the great crop of new releases featured this month, take a listen, and figure out which ones speak to you.

Other SoundTracks This Month:

• African Heritage Symphonic Series, Vol. II 
• America Remembers: Works for Saxophone Chamber Orchestra 
• Leonardo Balada – Orchestral Works 
• Billy Bang – Vietnam: The Aftermath 
• Boulez conducts Varèse 
• John Cage – Complete Piano Music/ Hommage à Satie 
• Canticum Novum: Sacred Vocal Music from the Late 20th Century 
• Scott Colley – Initial Wisdom 
• Eleanor Cory – Of Mere Being 
• Cindy Cox – Columbia aspexit 
• Emily Dickinson – A Different Slant of Light 
• Dave Douglas – The Infinite 
• Equilibrium – Over the Moon 
• Anthony Iannaccone – Orchestral Works: Waiting for Sunrise 
• Peter Lieberson – Raising the Gaze 
• Ruth Lomon – Songs of Remembrance 
• Sharon Kam – American Classics 
• Stan Kenton – Balboa Bash 
• The Orchestral Music of Meyer Kupferman 
• Daniel Gregory Mason & Frederick Shepherd Converse – Violin Sonatas 
• Gian Carlo Menotti – The Saint of Bleecker Street 
• The Dom Minasi Trio – Takin’ the Duke Out 
• The Modern Cello 
• Works for Flute and Piano of Louis Moyse 
• David Murray & the Gwo-Ka Masters – Yonn-Dé 
• Music from Six Continents 
• Recent American Works for Winds 
• Konrad Rhee – Night Flight 
• Pierre Schroeder – Pagan Mass 
• William Grant Still – Music for String Quartet 
• A Storm in the Land: Music of the 26th North Carolina Regimental Band 
• Igor Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms/Les Noces/Lamentations of Jeremiah 
• Robert Ward – Roman Fever 
• The Weimarband – Sturm n’ Twang 

In a society where the bottom-line rules, the sun rises and sets with the Dow Jones, and the word “culture” is often preceded by the modifier “pop,” the life of an American composer is a bit of an aberration. Hard work doesn’t guarantee success, success doesn’t guarantee an abundance of money, and people with an abundance of money, often don’t care to hear anything new. The truth is that what most Americans identify as American music (R&B, rock, pop, rap, country, folk) does not include the classical music tradition. Therefore, those who choose the path of a composer in the United States are inherently strong-willed mavericks, going against the grain of their culture. While Michael Tilson Thomas has a specific idea of what constitutes an “American maverick,” I would argue that each and every American composer is a true individualist, a part of a small community of risk-takers, marginalized by the corporate heartbeat of the US. The 40 recordings that we received this month spotlight many musicians who have truly crafted their art with a unique approach to music making.

Simply by being a female composer in the 1920s and 1930s, Ruth Crawford Seeger undermined the gender roles that were imposed upon Americans at the time. More importantly, however, the wild atonality of her music established her as one of the key figures in the development of a classical music tradition in the States. Henry Cowell, a giant in the realm of mavericks, invited Seeger to publish the final four of her Preludes and her Study in Mixed Accents in the New Music Quarterly, which was a key publication for the distribution of “maverick” music. These pieces along with many others appear on a recording of Crawford Seeger’s complete solo piano music performed by Jenny Lin, allowing you to hear how the composer’s music evolved into an original voice.

A few decades later, the musical landscape of American music was forever changed by the music and philosophies of John Cage, who is represented this month by a recording of his music for saxophone, an instrument that is kind of an American maverick itself. A late work by his “New York School” ally Morton Feldman, the delicate almost 2-hour Violin and String Quartet, receives its premiere recording by violinist Christina Fong and the Rangzen Quartet. And Reflections collects a decade’s worth of chamber music ranging from a piano trio to a duet for toy piano to prepared guitar by Bernadette Speach, a one-time Feldman student whose music carries on the anti-tradition tradition of the New York School.

While retro instruments have intrigued many composers, another contingency has found inspiration in brand new instruments. The realm of electronic music attracts maverick composers from all walks of life who want to experiment with a whole world of new sounds. Earnest Woodall uses his virtual instruments to meditate upon the work of eleven different painters resulting in a potpourri of styles and sounds on his aptly titled Pictures in Mind. With his most recent works, Puriya Dhanashri and the three-CD set Bhimpalasi, Michael Robinson fuses raga music with traditional Western orchestral instruments and computer-generated sounds. As if this weren’t original enough, each recording comes with a one-of-a-kind cover made by Robinson himself from paper imported from Japan and India. Aarktica, the brainchild of Jon DeRosa, takes a more ambient approach to electronic sounds and timbres on …or you could just go through your whole life and be happy anyway, while Amnon Wolman uses computer-music along with the poetry of Rita Dove to create the sparse music theater production Thomas and Beulah. And a true outsider in every sense of the word, Kenneth Gaburo is represented this month by Five Works for Voices, Instruments, and Electronics, which includes a solo piece for trumpet mouthpiece. During his lifetime, Gaburo prided himself on not being associated with any movement or scene.

Speaking of scenes, there seems to be an influx of free improvisers in the Baltimore area. An art form that is everything experimental and nothing conformist, these musicians answer to no one, making use of homemade instruments and the most extreme ends of the sonic spectrum. Key members of this scene include saxophonists Jack Wright and Bhob Rainey who documented their off-the-cuff experiences on the improv road via such CDs as Double, Double, Signs of Life, and Places to Go.

But the true mavericks remain those that broke the mold, with a style that is deeply personal, that makes no concessions. People like Lou Harrison, a former student of Henry Cowell’s, who’s works for keyboard (particularly for harpsichord) are collected on a new recording featuring Linda Burman-Hall. And we can’t forget about the composers who appear on Cold Blue, a re-release of the 1984 LP featuring the music of such mavericks as Ingram Marshall, Chas Smith, Peter Garland, and Daniel Lentz, who’s contribution “You can’t see the forest…Music” is scored for “three speaker-drinkers with three wine glasses (with mallets) and red wine?”

Kitty Brazelton, a trailblazer in the postmodern downtown scene, combines her classically trained roots with her punk side and a deeply personal expressionism on a new recording of varied instrumental works titled chamber music for the inner ear. Joining Kitty in the fight to reject categorization, guitarist Bruce Arnold combines the twelve-tone system and jazz on a recording of offbeat, original tracks.

In a country obsessed with brands and marketing consultants who specialize in branding, the term maverick to refer to our American composers seems all the more appropriate. While originally maverick was used to refer to an unbranded range animal, now it seems more appropriate to refer to an unbranded artist—all of those composers out there that cannot be neatly packaged into a heading at Tower Records. The ones that have the power to inspire, excite, and confuse audiences all at once. Why do I think that all American composers are mavericks at heart? Well, considering we can’t even agree upon a name for the type of music written by these folks, this music is anything but part of a conformist tradition.

Other SoundTracks This Month:

• Adams, Cox, Fink, Fox 
• Leroy Anderson: Orchestral Favourites 
• Michel Camilo: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra 
• Eric Ewazen: Orchestral Music and Concertos 
• Jerry Goldsmith: Christus Apollo&nbs
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• For the Fallen 
• Freedom: The Golden Gate Quartet with Josh White 
• Philip Jones Brass Ensemble: The 20th Century Album 
• Roger Kleier: Deep Night, Deep Autumn 
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Sea Hawk 
• Frank Lewin: Burning Bright 
• David Maslanka: Symphony No. 5 
• Mingus Big Band and Orchestra: Tonight at Noon… 
• Ned Otter: So Little Time 
• Recollections of the Inland Sea 
• Rubin/Clement: Piano dialogues 
• A Salute to Hollywood Musicals 
• Chamber Music of Paul Schoenfield 
• Ray Vega Latin Jazz Sex Quartet: Pa’lante 
• Ben Verdery: Ufonia 
• Andrew Waggoner: Legacy 
• Randy Weston: Ancient Future/Blue 
• Yo-Yo Ma plays the music of John Williams 

Many writers don’t comprehend why composers desire to set their literary works to music, believing the writing to be complete and satisfying alone. On the flipside, many musicians feel that words simplify the complexity of their emotions, reminding us that music can express that which cannot be expressed linguistically. Despite these arguments, well over a third of the total recordings we received this month contained some sort of text. Obviously, such rhetoric does not resonate with many contemporary composers who are strongly attracted to the power of uniting the words with music.

First of all, composers of politically conscious work often use a text in order to solidify the interpretation of their message. For example, by setting common feminine linguistic gestures and manipulating their timbre and tone with a computer, Susan Parenti‘s piece, “No, Honey, I can do it,” pinpoints how language anchors people into their gender roles. The compilation on which it appears also contains a politically motivated piece by John Richey that samples patriotic songs of the People’s Republic of China and an interactive piece created by Preston Wright that allows you to guide yourself through a sonic landscape via your computer.

Composer Jake Heggie and legendary Broadway librettist Terrence McNally join forces in the opera version of Dead Man Walking, which offers a view of death row through the eyes of a condemned man. The politically and emotionally massive story of Sister Helen Prejean, who counseled a convicted rapist and murderer awaiting his death, is performed by the San Francisco Opera, featuring the vocal talents of Susan Graham, John Packer, and Frederica von Stade. The high dramatic pitch of this story makes it a challenging listen. Approaching capital punishment from an historical perspective, Garrett Fisher‘s spectacularly eerie musical drama, The Passion of Saint Thomas More, commemorates the life of the saint killed in 1535 for disapproving of Henry VIII’s abandonment of divine law for royal power. The combination of chant, Norwegian folk singing, Indian harmonium, and a libretto in English, Latin, and Norwegian infuses the work with beautiful desperation.

On a lighter note, Dean Drummond‘s satire, Congressional Record, features excerpts from congressional transcriptions, including a rant by Jesse Helms on the NEA, the Kenneth Starr report, and a dramatic plea to improve…plumbing standards. In addition, Harry Partch’s microtonal inventions and bass-baritone Robert Osborne enhance texts from diverse sources such as the poetry of Ella Young, the philosophy of Lao-Tze, and the novel God’s Lonely Man by Thomas Wolfe.

Despite obvious political uses of text, other composers simply want to tell a story. The Tender Land by Aaron Copland offers a first-hand look at this phenomenon. Despite criticism of Erik Johns’s libretto, Aaron Copland’s Americana-infused score (considered the last work of his populist phase) offers many musical jewels such as the soprano aria “Laurie’s Song,” the quintet “The Promise of Living,” and great square dancing music throughout. Here, the University of Kentucky Opera Theater seems like the most appropriate ensemble to record such a humble work.

Meanwhile, Swedish mezzo Malena Ernman spins the tales contained within a collection of Cabaret Songs by William Bolcom, Kurt Weill, Friedrich Holländer, and Benjamin Britten. The most extreme example of telling a story through music is Erik Belgum‘s concept of musical prose. His newest musical story, Strange Neonatal Cry, combines an urban romance (or obsession, if you will), read in a conversational film noir style with a stark score that paints a dark, lonely picture of our contemporary world. Less strict with literary structure, Tim Thompson‘s neo-romantic, simple lines, and sparse use of emotive texts combine to form a sonic ode to nature.

Probably the most popular transformation of text into music is of poetry into song. The abstract, rhythmic nature of poetry lends itself well to additional interpretive decisions provided by musical integration. A collection of art songs by John Duke sets the poetry of legends such as Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, and Emily Dickinson, as well as lesser known poets like Sara Teasdale, Elinor Wylie, and Mark Van Doren. The songs on this disc are carefully crafted to be subtle, simple reflections on light emotional themes and observations. Also in the business of converting poetry (and prose) into song, Michael Dellaira‘s haunting harmonies exalt his chosen texts which include excerpts from John Dos Passos’ The Big Money and poems by Emily Dickinson and Richard Howard. Though trained at Princeton in the twelve-tone idiom Dellaira’s thoughtful choral and vocal settings of poetry and prose are anything but formulaic.

The texts of the pieces included on the recording by the Americas Vocal Ensemble take their inspiration primarily from Latin American poetry and are thus in Spanish. The unisons and complex rhythmic layers that permeate the program represent current trends in South American vocal writing, although many of the pieces were written by Americans (of the United States, that is).

Some musicians just feel a need to sing as is the case with trumpeter Ron McCurdy who sets down his horn on the track “Wee Small Hours” to free up his voice, which rings out with smoky emotion. The tunes (mostly originals) on this album range from romantic memories to humorous asides, all punctuated by great solo playing by McCurdy and his cohorts.

But text isn’t always necessary to refine a point. Henry Cowell‘s mythical ballet Atlantis reminds us how expressive the human voice can be even when there is no discernable language. Although Atlantis features three singers, it contains no written text. Also included on this recording, titled Dancing With Henry Cowell, are several premiere recordings such as his “Suite for Small Orchestra,” “Heroic Dance,” and “Three Ritournelles” from Marriage at the Eiffel Tower. The truth is that the setting of texts results from constant interaction between the wordsmiths and note-smiths. As musicians, composers, writers, poets, and painters, we are not quarantined from each other and will continue to reap inspiration from our fellow travelers.

*** This month we introduce a new format for Soundtracks. Due to the large numbers of recordings we are receiving now, we have decided to forego the long essay format for a tighter essay more related to the theme of our issue. For the recordings that don’t fit neatly into the theme, we have included a brief description of the music included with the sound samples and content listing. Please note that recordings that are not selected for the essay are not of lesser quality, they simply did not fit with the topic of the essay. For example, this month the “other recordings” are ones that contain no text. Hopefully, this will make it easier to explore the new recordings of each month.

Other recordings of the month:

• American Saxophone Quartet 
• beat hollow : fognode
• The Derek Bronston Band : ebb
• John Cage : Credo in US
• Curlew : meet the curlews!
• Arnold Dreyblatt : The Adding Machine
• Emergency String Quartet : Hill Music
• Morton Feldman : Indeterminate Music
• Morton Feldman : Piano
• Fischer Duo : b. 1938
• Steinar Hannevold : Oboe Concertos by Corigliano, ???, ???
• Homeland 
• Ezra Laderman : The Music of Ezra Laderman, Vol. 3
• Network for New Music : Dream Journal
• Bobby Previte : The 23 Constellations of Joan Miró
• Paul Steven Ray : Shinespace
• David Stock : Speaking Extravagantly
• Richard Toensing : Flutes Concertos; Of Shepherds and Angels
• Kerry Turner : Ricochet
• Benjamin Verdery : Soepa

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Although I am not a heavy television watcher, there is generally at least one program (usually with some kind of cult following) that sparks my interest for a short period before I move on to the next trend. The Powerpuff Girls, Iron Chef, and Junkyard Wars are a few of the strange and fascinating diamonds that I have found in the rough of cable television. Recently, a friend of mine introduced me to a show on The Learning Channel called Trading Spaces, in which two parties trade homes and decorate the new space. As I watched the show, I realized that creating ambiance is much more than adding a fish tank, some framed art, and a cool lamp or two. Therefore, I have taken it upon myself to add another dimension: music—so, without further adieu my spatial visions for the 36 new releases of American music this month.

The Big One

Jacob Druckman‘s rich tonalities are elevated on a new recording of orchestral music including a song cycle featuring Dawn Upshaw and his Viola Concerto, played by Roberto Diaz. His thick compositions music necessitate a large and lush traditional concert hall. Considering that Druckman was born in Philadelphia, perhaps the newly opened Kimmel Center would be the perfect space to celebrate his music. The bombastic tone clusters and polyphonics of Henry Cowell‘s music should never be relegated to anything less than the greatest of concert halls, despite the criticism of some. Furthermore, there is no question that Gian Carlo Menotti‘s Apocalypse requires ample space and resonance to create the proper drama. Also included on this recording is a ballet suite, titled Sebastian, indicating that a large ballet theater or opera house would serve this recording’s needs for live performance the best. Meanwhile, the energetic music contained on the University of Michigan’s Symphonic Band’s new recording would fill a large space magnificently with the sounds of winds and brass. Rosa Parks Boulevard by Michael Daugherty would be especially powerful in a classically enormous concert hall.

Small is Beautiful

Having received a good deal of chamber music recordings this month, it should come as no surprise that small recital halls and auditoriums have copious musical options. Although the spirituals would be best suited to a semi-resonant church, the poignant art songs by Robert Owens and William Grant Still on Amen! African American Composers of the Twentieth Century, require the intimacy and attention given to music in a small recital hall. The ingenious text settings of the Selected Songs of Ned Rorem, featuring soprano Carole Farley and Rorem himself on piano, will also penetrate through a small hall and fill it with warmth. I imagine a stage with flowers on it and red seats in the audience… Stanislaw Skrowaczewski‘s subtle orchestral music, which unfolds into delicate yet complex harmonies, would also breathe best in a cozy space such as a recital hall. In addition, the pieces on flutist Katherine Hoover‘s new recording Kokopeli, which includes the music by J.C. Bach, Mozart, Pleyel, and musings written herself, would be most appropriate for a small, standard venue. However, even more suited to such music would be a small hall in London, for a majority of the pieces included on the disc were either written in or about the British metropolis. With London as our theme, American ex-pat and current London resident Andrea Cavallari‘s atonal-tonal hybrid Self Portrait delivers diverse impressions of self, desiring small gestures and an involved audience.

A slightly larger auditorium with more modern fixtures would create the right environment for the bass trombone, featured on Eric Ewazen‘s new recording. A piece like his Concertino for Bass Trombone and Trombone Choir, will fill the whole space with mellow tenor tones. Expand the space a little and perhaps add a small balcony and you are ready for a new recording of Leo Kraft‘s chamber music. My vision for this music involves scattering several different ensembles (violin and piano, percussion and flute, harpsichord, and tenor plus five instruments) throughout the auditorium with the chamber orchestra of sixteen instrumentalists on stage; each piece played fluidly in succession to emphasize the stark contrast of style between each finely crafted (or Krafted, if you will) piece. Turn this space into a high school auditorium and the environment is just right for a collection of simple piano pieces by Norman Dello Joio, which appear on Family Album. Each piece was written for his children as they learned to play the piano.

Going Downtown

Some of the composers represented this month would probably consider any performance that they give really to be a “gig”, a word that indicates a certain level of informality about a performance or something not traditionally associated with the concert music tradition. When playing at a jazz club, for instance, any performance is inevitably deemed a gig. The disc that would best be represented in a jazz club this month is Dave Douglas‘s Witness, a politically and musically progressive project, which dedicates each track to a significant activist who has striven for positive social change. His music is complex and enthusiastic and is sure to get the heads bobbin’ and the feet tappin’ in a traditional basement jazz club. Bridging the gap between jazz clubs and the small performance spaces popping up here and there in abandoned buildings and old factories, is the music of Alvin Singleton. Singleton’s new album Somehow We Can, includes a heavily jazz-influenced pieces, “Vous Compra” for trumpet and piano, a post-minimalist, intense string quartet, and a piece for solo 5-string electric viola.

Chris Chafe‘s seamless melding of algorithmic composition and acoustical performance, heard on his new disc titled Arco Logic, requires a slightly more formalized setting, demanding attention. His plaintive melodic lines and army of synthetic sounds defy both the neo-romantic
and new age aesthetics that such music has fallen prey to before. Many of his pieces would be enhanced by a psychedelic visual display. Also suited to such a space is Al Margolis‘s dark-humored recording If, Bwana I, Angelica. Between ridiculous sound effects (including the sound of a dog walking, a clown horn, and a whoopee cushion noise) and dark layers of noise, the audience’s experience may be enhanced by a drink.

More suited to a larger art space is the new improvised musings of vocalist Thomas Buckner and digi-man, Tom Hamilton. The echo of the electronics would bounce great off of metallic walls and heighten the intensity of the dialogue between two musical extremes: the human voice and electronics. Meanwhile, a converted factory (preferably with some old machinery still kicking around, would accentuate the crunchy industrial sounds that form the skeleton of Annie Gosfield‘s new recording Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery. The sonic abyss she creates with her music requires an equally cavernous space. Have some artwork that you want audience members to discover in your space? Try putting on Judith Lang Zaimont‘s …3: 4,5, which will cause the frenetic energy of the crowd to burst into bouts of exploration. Or for a conceptual art piece, try out John Cage‘s Thirty Pieces for Five Orchestras, which involves the orchestra being broken into five ensembles, conducted separately through the piece.

Inside the Box

Two deeply meditative recordings have been selected for black box performances, where there is nothing to contemplate but the music and the depths of the unconscious. Matthew Shipp‘s New Orbit, with pieces for piano, trumpet, drums, and bass, create harmonically and rhythmically complicated gestures with an ethereal glow about the sound. I feel that his music would illuminate such a dark space. On the other hand, the somber theme (9/11) and heartfelt playing on George Winston’s Remembrance: a memorial benefit, demand a peaceful and solemn room.

Four score and twenty years ago…

Not only does the theater music included in SoundTracks this month have special staging requirements, but the ideal space would also have to serve the right historical period of the piece. Written in 1906, The Red Mill, a romantic operetta (or musical, what’s the difference anyway?) by Victor Herbert would have to be housed in an old theater. The quaint Americana sound would be exalted in any of the turn-of-the-century theaters that are scattered across the United States. The Middle Eastern melodies that infuse A. Louis Scarmolin‘s 1948 one act musical drama, The Caliph, would be especially suited to a rococo theater with luxuriant sets depicting ancient Baghdad. Opening up the seats up an old time dance hall, reminiscent of Ricky Ricardo’s Tropicana, would create the proper atmosphere for the music of Stan Kenton, whose big band performs such standards as Tampico, Body and Soul, Begin the Beguine, and Tea for Two. A different kind of theater, however, is required by Irving Berlin‘s classic Alexander’s Ragtime Band. Here, the stage is replaced by a movie screen in the classic style of the 1930s movies houses, complete with balconies and curtains and certainly without that blasphemous stadium seating!

Three other pieces struck me as having deep ties to the past, but for these more intimate pieces, I would rather hear them in the depths of a an old estate house. Alan Hovhaness‘s tender and experimental works for violin/viola and keyboard, reach back into the traditions of many cultures and translate these themes into a modern language. Also suitable for such a salon setting is the Jazz Inspired Piano music of the 1920s, when trendy jazz and “classical music” deeply imbued with tradition, were blended by such great composers as Gershwin, Copland, Debussy, Satie, and Hindemith. The subtlety of each creation is best enjoyed on a sofa with a glass of wine. This setting would also match the heart-wrenching settings of Lorca’s poetry by David MacBride. The pained elegance of his poetry, reflected by MacBride’s intense suite for piano and poet’s voice, would reverberate through the bodies and souls of the small audience.

Some Mel Tormé with your braised pork?

The combination of food, drink, and music has long been identified with the good life. Therefore, it seems like a great venue for new music would be some of our country’s eateries and watering holes. For a romantic, candlelit meal, the sensual chamber jazz of Joe Beck and Ali Ryerson on alto guitar and alto flute respectively would yield the perfect ambiance. With a group of friends and a busier restaurant, perhaps the vocal jazz of song-styling legend Mel Tormé (and his Mel-Tones) would be just right. Featuring great tunes by Cole Porter, Gershwin, and Rodgers and Hart, this recording seems to fit on the menu right between dessert and a digestif. More appropriate to an old saloon, than an upscale restaurant, Charles Wakefield Cadman‘s transcendent, optimistic music reveals the roots of his training. One of the first significant American composers not trained in the European tradition, it makes much more sense to set him in the Old West rather than a concert hall. On a recording of his chamber music, you can hear the Native American influences on his distinctive personal style. In a divier place, probably a bar filled with the elusive “locals”, Bobby Previte and the Bump‘s funk-blues tunes, would be great accompaniment to a draught beer and some darts. Upbeat and catchy, the music of this small jazz combo would appeal to many.

The Summer Sun is Calling My Name

It must be remembered that some music simply cannot be contained within the wal
ls of a building. In such cases, the perfect place to hear these works is on the grass. For example, the colossal orchestral works of Harold Farberman, often sounding like or actually being (The Great American Cowboy Suite) the soundtrack to a Western, would be best enjoyed in a bandshell at an outdoor festival. The freedom expressed in the music is reflected by the unrestricted, open air. A reissue of a 1982 LP by drumming artist Big Black, called Ethnic Fusion, seems to be afternoon music in an urban park. Blending African, American, and Caribbean rhythms together in five dialogues between Big Black’s drums and Anthony Wheaton’s guitar truly get to the roots of American music. Such natural music belongs in a natural setting. On the other hand, the elegant, sentimental chamber music of David Maslanka would be the perfect musical accompaniment to a garden party and belongs amongst cultivated flowers and strolling people.

Like matching wine with food or proper attire with weather, so we must consider the correct space for particular music. Hopefully, this guide will help you so you don’t get stuck drinking a Chardonnay with beef stew or wearing a wool sweater on a summer day in New Orleans.

In November, for the first time in my life, I flew from New York to California. Despite many trips across the Atlantic, I had only been west of Chicago once. So it comes as no surprise that I was absolutely fascinated watching the landscape go by: Appalachia, Detroit, Chicago, the never-ending plains, Denver, the Rocky Mountains, Zion National Park, Red Rock Country, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas (where I had a one hour lay over), the Redwood Forests, and finally, the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco. For over six hours, I stared out the window, completely enamored by the silent beauty below me. Perhaps I am falling prey to banal media-driven, government-sponsored “wartime” patriotism, but I prefer to think that I was enchanted by something I had never seen before: my country.

Once I was back in New York, facing a desk full of CDs that needed attention and forum posts chastising NewMusicBox for only covering a few small geographic regions, I became very interested in where all of this music was coming from. Despite our critics, I found that 25 states are represented among the 31 CDs featured this month, which feature an equally diverse range of influences and sounds. Of course, who would expect anything less, considering the contemporary musical aesthetic is eclecticism?

A city that never sleeps

Voice and Piano Music: John Cage

The starting point for my trip was New York, so I am going to start this essay with a run down of New York “happenings,” starting appropriately with a disc dedicated to the piano and vocal music of John Cage. Although a native of Los Angeles, Cage wrote the majority of these pieces in New York City. However, don’t let the simple title fool you; Cage had an aversion to traditional song writing, so the piano and voice never perform at the same time, unless the piano is being beaten like a drum. For a portrait of historic Broadway, check out two under-appreciated, light-hearted musicals by the late George Gershwin—Tip-Toes (in collaboration with his brother Ira) and Tell Me More (with Ira and B.G. DeSylva). Or move a few decades ahead and immerse yourself in Bernstein‘s first two symphonies, titled Jeremiah, a denunciation of the Nazi persecution of the Jews (written in 1942), and The Age of Anxiety, which traces the evening of four friends who attempt to work through their various sexualities. Of interest to this issue of NMBx, the latter contains a dirge opening with a 12-tone line!

The Music of Elliott Carter

New York pillar Elliott Carter turns 93 this month (on the 11th), so celebrate with some cake and the fourth volume in Bridge’s ongoing series, The Music of Elliott Carter, featuring the talents of Speculum Musicae and some bizarre instrument pairings including an ode to plucking for harp, mandolin, guitar, vibes, trumpet, and trombone called Luimen. For some stark contrast to Carter, pop in a recording of former New York City cab driver Philip Glass‘s early piano music, an artifact of minimalism including Two Pages and the Cagean One+One, where the piano is tapped rather than played. Another New York-based superstar, Billy Joel (born in the Bronx, raised on Long Island), is dabbling in the classical idiom and his Elegy: The Great Peconic found its way onto a CD benefiting the American Cancer Society entitled Music of Hope.

Absolution: The Absolute Ensemble

Meanwhile, American expatriate (he is currently at the American Academy in Rome)/former Brooklyn resident Derek Bermel‘s multicultural piece for solo piano titled Turning, along with 12 etudes by his teacher and long-time Michigan inhabitant William Bolcom. Also among the younger generation of New York composers, Denman Maroney‘s piece Par 3 for “hyperpiano”—strumming, striking, and bowing the piano with copper bars, mixing bowls, sheets of rubber, and other household items—appears on Absolution, a new disc by downtown staples, the Absolute Ensemble. Or if you prefer pre-Giuliani Times Square style, New York sound designer and smutty website entrepreneur, Joe Gallant (and the Illuminati) has a new recording of jazz, noise fusion that uses everything from violins to horns to the Hammond B3 and computers.

East Coast tunes really knock me out…

Songs of Samuel Barber

Across the river from the New York, people may sleep, but they still compose music! In New Jersey, James Adler created Memento Mori: An AIDS Requiem, to commemorate the friends and colleagues he has lost to this disease. The piece takes the form of a Roman Catholic requiem interspersed with Hebrew texts and poignant poetry and prose by writers affected in some way by AIDS. Leaving this homage behind, we continue westward into Pennsylvania, where we find three composers who couldn’t be more different from one another. Native Pennsylvanian John Philip Sousa is probably the most prolific composer of patriotic music in American History. Many of his famous marches were written in support of the US war effort during World War I, such as Bullets and Bayonets, Wisconsin Forward Forever, and Solid Men to the Front, all included on the second volume of his Music for Wind Band. Also born in Pennsylvania and spending a great deal of time in this state was Samuel Barber and although his Adagio for Strings has become an orchestral standard, especially in light of our current military conflict, this CD focuses on his songs for soprano and piano, exploring the intimate relationship that Barber had to poets and their texts. Included on this recording are lovely settings of the poetry of Joyce, James Stephens, Robert Graves, Theodore Roethke, and Robert Horan. Pennsylvania’s multiple personalities are confirmed with the work of Pittsburgh-born Billy Strayhorn, whose jazz standard appears revamped and given new, well, Lush Life, when performed by oboe, bassoon, clarinet, bass clarinet, and sax, played splendidly by the Calefax Wind Quintet.

Hearing V oices: Will Ackerman

Further astray into the wild land of…New England, we come across two more recordings, one from Vermont and one from Maine. Will Ackerman‘s fusion of world music and New England-style folk guitar uses multiple languages and performers. Listen and pretend you’re frolicking barefoot around the Green Mountains in the summertime. Further north, in the eastern most state of Maine, the Tim Janis regime has its headquarters and his new recording, An American Composer in Concert features music inspired by the New England landscape. According to his Web site, he is “perhaps one of the most successful independent musicians in the history of the music business.”

Whistlin’ Dixie

Negro Folk Symphony: William Dawson

If you aren’t into the cold, crowded Northeast, we can travel down south and find a hodgepodge of music claiming its roots south of the Mason-Dixon line. A Tennessee émigré (Benjamin Boone) combines talents with a German immigrant (Stefan Poetzsch) in the Transatlantic Reed-String Project that was formed in Florida of all places through a midnight improv session. Primarily improvisational in nature, the music acts as an intimate cross-cultural dialogue about such topics as HMOs (I didn’t know they had those in Germany…), peace, and the Trail of Tears. Next door in Kentucky, Michigan-native James Curnow contributed a string quartet inspired by the poetry of John Keats to a recording by the Society of Composers, Inc. titled “Inspirations”, which also features music by Lori Dobbins (California), Keith Kothman (Indiana), Steven Everett (Georgia), Chihchun Chi-sun Lee (Kansas), and Paul Rudy (Missouri). The styles are as diverse as the places with Dobbins’ piece for soprano and percussion and Lee’s work for traditional Taiwanese silk and bamboo ensemble. Also in the vicinity is George Crumb‘s home state of West Virginia. Get your copy of Volume 5 of Bridge’s Complete Crumb Edition, highlighting his piece Easter Dawning, an octatonic-scale piece for carillon. Two different versions appear on the recording. And if you want to go deeper into the South, be sure to listen to Mississippian William Dawson‘s 1934 Negro Folk Symphony, which elaborates on hymns, folk songs, and spirituals of the South. Also billed on this recording is Duke Ellington, who was born in our nation’s capital.

And the waving wheat, it sure sounds sweet…

Distant Visions: Brian Bevelander

The Midwest is a bastion of compositional creativity at the moment. We already heard some of them on recordings with composers from other regions, but there are more! I swear! The ambiguous state of Ohio (Midwest, Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, what is it??) is represented this month by pianist, composer, and Ohio-resident Brian Bevelander, whose new recording, Distant Visions, fuses electronics with acoustic instrument in a seamless fashion. On the other end of the Great Lakes, in Minnesota (to be pronounced Minnisohda), Carl Witt is lending his talent as a pianist and a composer on Visionary Duos, a varied collection of contemporary duets for flute and piano. Then further south in Oklahoma, not only are they “gonna give you carrots, barley, and potaters,” they’re also going to give you some great music! For example, three string quartets by Kenneth Fuchs, the first guided by the collages of Robert Motherwell, another inspired by the poetry of Walt Whitman, and a final one based on nothing but the music itself. How novel. Moving into Oklahoma Past, we find out that Roy Harris, composer of music celebrating the “Great American West” was born near Chandler, OK. His hefty Seventh Symphony appears on a recording alongside his New York City-born pupil William Schumann.

Mama don’t let your babies grow up to write bad music…

The Blue Estuaries: David Ashley White

Despite the stereotypes of gun-totin’, rodeo attendin’ cowboys, Texas and the Southwest have a well-established musical infrastructure. Lifelong Texan and composer Fisher Tull (great Texas name!) is remembered by his adoring friends on a new CD, featuring works that span the duration of his career, including Nonet for Winds, Percussion, and Piano, which combines 12-tone theory with chance creating quite a feast for the ear. In addition to Fisher, the Houston Chamber Choir presents The Blue Estuaries, a collection of American choral music, including music of three Texans: Robert H. Young, David Ashley White, and Rob Landes. Also among the 11 pieces showcased are songs by American folk music guru Stephen Foster, Aaron Copland, and a variety of traditional tunes, all sung beautifully and not too saccharine in their patriotism. Inching to the west, we tackle (and rope…) New Mexico. Here lays the home of Michael Udow, percussionist and joint composer (with Christopher Watts of Washington state) of The Contemporary Percussionist, an aural companion to the book of the same name. It consists of 20 multiple percussion recital solo etudes, which are a pleasure to listen to even without the book and an incredible resource for a young percussionist. (Christmas present, perhaps?)

Be sure to wear headphones in your hair…

Points on Jazz: Dave Brubeck

Nestled in the Rocky Mountains and host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, Salt Lake City, Utah, is also home to composer Marie Baker Nelson, whose sensuous, delectable Culinary Concerto for Clarinet appears on a recording of concertos performed by clarinetist Richard Stoltzman. Once through the mountain passage, the golden land of California greets us with music from native-Californian and jazz legend Dave Brubeck, whose works for four hands remind us that neither classical music nor jazz have developed in a vacuum. In addition, the symphonic music of movie/opera/Broadway composer and former Beverly Hills resident Louis Gruenberg is the focus of a new recording spotlighting his Symphony No. 2 and his tone poem, The Enchanted Isle. Nothing says California like the expansive, romantic lines of Gruenberg.

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?

Feeling strangely sentimental about America? Take a listen to American Anthem featuring such patriotic hits as America the Beautiful, Shenandoah, and The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Bonus for this disc: it does NOT include Proud to Be An American. And finally, this essay will end in honor of our In the First Person interviewee, Milton Babbitt: a recording of popular music from the Depression Era he’d be sure to love called Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?, including Lew Brown and Ray Henderson‘s Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries. Advice we should all heed during the stressful holiday season and our “recent” economic recession.