Iyer emphasizes music as action; and that fits in with the sense of force the listener hears in the trio’s work. The album cover has a piece of art—it is called “Mother as a Mountain,” a 1985 wood and gesso piece by Anish Kapoor—and it looks like a monumental presentation of a woman’s most private part, but a feminine spirit does not seem to guide the music. Rather, this is very masculine work.
Tag: music
Flowers for Nat: David Murray Cuban Ensemble Plays Nat King Cole En Espanol
There is strong ensemble playing in the downbeat, sad “No Me Platiques,” in which the saxophone blares and also creates small, intricate patterns; and an emotional intensity emerges, with long, plaintive saxophone lines near the end. “Black Nat,” the one song David Murray wrote for the collection, mostly fits with the other music here, and has a lot of energy, though its wildness seems a bit beyond Cole’s customary cool control.
Bright, Dark Herald: Concerto in One Movement, and Symphony in E Minor by Florence Beatrice Price, performed by the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble
I suppose that I was surprised by that antique quality—a particular sweetness, a setting of the strings—as Florence Beatrice Price is an African-American artist, and I often associate that with immediacy, modernity. In fact, I can hear in her concerto a melody that sounds familiar, possibly bearing some relation to what one might hear in the American songbook of the twentieth-century’s first half: something beautiful and firm but perhaps too accessible, too slight.
After Conflict, Understanding: Big Grenadilla and Mumbai by Evan Ziporyn, with Sandeep Das, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, conducted by Gil Rose
Before Headley was apprehended as a criminal, he was mapping out a proposed attack in Copenhagen. Years later, the American, experimental classical musician Evan Ziporyn has created and made public a musical work, Mumbai, inspired by the violent assault in that great, troubled city, partnered with another composition, Big Grenadilla, a clarinet concerto.
Laughter, Love, Loss, Legacy (The Music Remains): Leaving Eden, a song collection by the Carolina Chocolate Drops
One of the most significant statements on Leaving Eden is fiddler and singer Rhiannon’s song “Country Girl,” an affirmation of the family, work, and natural resources to be found, nurtured, and relished in country life. “All day I dream about a place in sun, kind of like the place I’m from,” sings Rhiannon, in a song that I believe will be returned to again and again by different singers.
Different Ingredients, A Lot of Flavor: Twenty Dozen by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band
Southern funk is like a floating spore that carries no poison but can land and flower on any surface, in a cane field or a kitchen, on a baseball diamond, a parade float, or a fishing boat, in a church pew, a bingo hall, or on a dance floor, at a baby’s christening or a backyard barbecue—anywhere. It sprouts with the knowledge that pleasure, like purpose, does not have to be confined to predictable activity.
Inspiration and Instruction: Doc Tate Nevaquaya’s Comanche Flute Music
On Comanche Flute Music, Doc Tate Nevaquaya describes listening at night to nature and communal youth meetings, listening to the chants and the laughter. When Doc Tate was a young boy, he heard an instrument—and remembered it—and was later told it was a flute playing a courting song.
Playful and Sensual, Seductive: The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates
The two men met at Temple University in Philadelphia, where they both were students in the late 1960s, and some of their early music was folk rock—and they moved to New York in the mid-1970s. Their albums include Whole Oates, War Babies, and Bigger Than Both of Us, Voices, Beauty on a Back Street, Along the Red Ledge, Private Eyes, H-2-0, Rock N Soul Part 1, Big Bam, Boom, and Ooh Yeah!—and songs from some of those albums are included on The Very Best of Daryl Hall & John Oates.
Musical Reportage: The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved, by Hunter S. Thompson, with music by Bill Frisell, produced by Hal Willner, featuring Tim Robbins, Dr. John, Ralph Steadman, and Annie Ross
Thompson was one of those writers who made his eyes, his nerves, and his appetites available to the reader, rather than a deeply cultivated mind. Hunter S. Thompson gave the reader an experience. However, if everyone rebels against civilization, there will be nothing left but anarchists and animals.
Sweet but Sly: The Best of The Beach Boys
The Beach Boys formed in 1961, signed with Capitol Records in 1962, and are known for songs such as “California Girls” and “Good Vibrations” and the albums Pet Sounds and Smile, and they are celebrating their 50th anniversary now, in 2012, with a reunion tour. Their story is very American in many ways: though the group’s principal songwriter, Brian Wilson, wrote sunny songs, his childhood and adult life were quite stormy.