Volume 8 Issue 9 - June 2003

which makes it a very endearing
record. First there's the choice of
tunes, familiar things like Joyspring
and Love for Sale, which make you
want to settle in for a good listen.
Then there's the production - with
very little overdubbing and no fancy
effects, the CD plays very much like
a live set in a club. Backing musicians
David Braid, Michael McClennan
(who arranged a number of the
tunes), Davide Di Renzo and David
Occhipinti all get lots of room to
stretch out, too.
Ms. Bambrick has terrific technical
abilities - great pitch, range and
flexibility - honed through her many
years of experience on the jazz scene
singing with, among others, the jazz
vocal quartet, the Beehive Singers,
as well as through her work on CBC
Radio's "The Vinyl Cafe". Along
with the technique she also brings a
lot of heart and personality to the
songs.
Besides the familiar standards
there are also a few original and notso-familiar
tunes. Aren't I Cute?,
written by Ms. Bambrick is, as the
title implies, a fun little number that's
part Blossom Dearie and part Spike
Jones thanks to the addition of a kazoo
chorus. Th.e inclusion of the
Prince tune How Come U Don 't Call
Me Anymore? and an ode to Newfoundland
let Me Fish OjfSt. Mary's,
make this an eclectic collection of
tunes with much warmth and personality.
·
Cathy Riches
Terry Riley - In C
Bang on a Can
Cantaloupe Music CA21004 (SRI)
Terry Riley - In C
SMCQ; Walter Boudreau
ATMA ACD2 2251
Terry Riley's In C (1964) precedes
the Trudeau era, Gay Pride, and fax
machines. It is a semaphore of the
minimalist movement, so well known
that it now receives attention in music
history textbooks. Based on 53
scraps of melody in the primary key
ofC Major, scored for any number
of instruments and fairly improvisatory
with each fragment repeated ad
libitum until the individual perform-
56
ers choose to move on to the next, it
is a work of zing and contradiction.
It can be both aggravating and compelling;
fun and meditative; popsy and
serious. Hey, it's from California.'
Perhaps fitting for a piece so contradictory,
here are two performances
as different as night and day -
and I like both, and would not wish
to choose between them. '
Bang on a Can's 11-person New
York rendering shimmers. It has a
combination of vitality and leisure to
it. It unfolds and just keeps twinkling
along, like a sonic kaleidoscope, in
less•is-more style.
Walter Boudreau's competing
version from a live Montreal concert
is outrageous and virile. He
starts off by appending to the front a
sort of Indian raga, while the audience
is still chattering and rustling.
The music slowly gathers force,
abetted by vocal grunts, chants, and
deep-toned "oo's." A chorus and
French-Canadian singer/poet Raoul
Duguay add a minor-keyed song noodle
up top, and sung text with imperceptible
words.
The whole thing !).urns along like a
dark, pulsing orgy of voices and
instruments - an ensemble three
times the size of Bang on a Can's -
repetitive, shouted, and with a rock
beat much of the time, until it finally
dies away. Riley himself in the liner
notes tellingly brands this
performance of his work a "fantasia".
And an audience erupts in
cheers 35 minutes later. Me, too.
Shorter electroacoustic selections by
Canadians Donald Steven and
Michel-Georges Bregent round out
the ATMA release.
Both recordings are fme, and both
. albums offer especially good graphic
design.
Peter Kristian Mose
Haendel
Louise Pellerin, Dom Andre
Laberge, Helene Plouffe
CBC MVCD 1157
I put this one into my player expecting
the onset of stifled yawns. Within
minutes I was on the phone to a
music store ordering scores, calling
an oboist to arrange a reading and on
the internet lauding the merits of this
remarkable disc.
Recorded in the winning ambience
of the abbey church at Saint-Benoitdu-Lac,
Quebec, Handel's modest
organ continuo artfully recorded and
balanced against the fluid oboe of
Louise Pellerin and the lyrical violin
lines of Helene Plouffe make for
enchanting listening.
DISCS OF THE MONTH
Collected Stories
Martin Van de Ven; Brian Katz
Lilah 0218 (Independent) .
Sweet Return
Flying Bulgar Klezmer Band;
Jane Bunnett
Independent FBR CD 005
www .flyingbulgars.com
Traditional folk music has always
been a source of inspiration and study
by performers and composers alike,
with the subsequent evolution of
styles and genres opening doors to
new experiences for musician and
listener alike. Two recent releases
from Toronto-based musicians show
that with experience comes
experimentation. In both cases, traditional
Jewish music is treated with
the utmost respect and care with the
results of experimentation being as
different as night and day.
But beyond the secrets of intelligent
musicianship and exacting production
lies the art of clever programming.
Here's where this CD
really shines. With only a handful Of
oboe sonatas in the Handel catalogue,
four of the most tuneful are set in a Collected Stories is a glorious and
sensible order that sustains interest. contemplative celebration of
To heighten the experience even traditional and original Jewish mumore,
we encounter a careful selec- sic performed with wit, spontaneity
tion from Handel's Nine German and tenderness by stalwart Toronto
musicians Martin van de Ven and
Arias in which the violin obbligato is
played instead by the oboe and the Brian Katz along with, on three
soprano part by the violin. This puts tracks, special guest, the Dutch vio­
Plouffe up front with the musical idea linist Monique Lansdorp.
and an interpretive challenge she Util.izing the u~que ~ma!! combo
meets exceedingly well, matching o'. cl.armet and ~1tar (with piano and
oboist Pellerin's passion in the So- , viol~~ thrown~ for fu~) t? perform
natas. Dom Andre Laberge, Abbey trad1t1on~l Jew1s.h music 1s a brav.e
organist and Prior is at all times taste- undertakmg, which could ~ave eas1-
ful and precise.
ly stu~bled. Instea?, the nsk has re-
Those strict about period style, ~ulted ma b~eathtaking and ear-openhowever'
may muse on the mix of i~g .e~~lorauon of t!1e eno~ous posan
organ voiced mildly Baroque with s1b1!Jt1es tha~ .this mus1: has to
only discreet "chiff', the straight- offer. The traditional selectJo~ show
tone violin playing and the use of a Ka~ and van de V~n at th~Ir best;
modem oboe. Still, the affection fo~ the the1r years of expenence yield fine
music by all three players mutes any performances. . .
questions about stylistic authenticity.
N~teworth~ is the openmg track
As CBC radio's Peter Togni re- Roz.h!nkes Mu ~and/en; once th.e
cent! y said when playing a cut from opemng ~elody is stated on solo gu1-
this CD, the performance seems the !