Volume 21 Issue 1 - September 2015

stripped down to its essentials. About half of the songs are originals,
including the title track, plus effective covers of Billy Eckstine, Marvin
Gaye, Son House and the duo’s reworking of Robert Johnson’s Come
On In My Kitchen.
Coffee Creek is the first full-length release
by the young Toronto bluegrass band Slocan
Ramblers (slocanramblers.com). Mentored
by Chris Coole of Foggy Hogtown Boys fame
who also produced this disc, the group shows
a virtuosity and command of the genre that
belies their youth (and geography). The formation
is fairly standard – banjo (Frank Evans),
mandolin (Adrian Gross), guitar (Darryl Poulson) and double bass
(Alistair Whitehead) – with the vocal duties shared and the balance
about equal between original instrumentals and traditional bluegrass
songs. The band’s website testifies to a busy touring schedule,
both across the country and south of the border, but unfortunately
it seems we won’t get to hear them live in Toronto in the immediate
future. Readers in Ottawa can catch them on October 24 at Spirit of
Rasputin’s Folk Club at Westboro Masonic Hall.
Of course my summer was not spent entirely in front of loudspeakers
attached to mechanical (or electronic) reproduction devices.
There was a generous share of backyard music-making with friends
and I attended a number of live music shows. The one that had the
most impact on me was at the Summerworks festival, a “musical”
unlike any other I’ve seen. Written and created by Adam Paolozza
and Gregory Oh, Melancholia: The Music of Scott Walker drew on
five decades of music recorded, and for the most part written, by the
former Walker Brother, best known to members of my generation
for the 60s hit The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore. I must confess
that I was unaware of Walker’s creative development in the intervening
years. I was actually surprised to hear that there even was such
a person as my understanding was that no member of the Walker
Brothers was actually named Walker. But it seems that the baritone
“brother,” born Noel Scott Engel, adopted the name when he went out
on his own in the 1970s. The music that followed was a far cry from
the pop ballads that had brought the boy band fame, which for a time
rivaled that of the Beatles. Evidently he was profoundly influenced by
the music of Jacques Brel and some of his earlier solo work reflects
this, including an album of covers of Brel’s work. Walker is also well
versed in classical music and has given producers such instructions
as “I hear Sibelius here” and “I’m thinking of Delius for this.” His
own songs became darker and darker over the years and although his
distinctive, low plaintive voice would not change much, the music
behind and at times over top of the lyrics, did profoundly.
Since experiencing the live local production
I have continued to explore the world of
this troubled, solitary artist. Although he has
not performed live in many years, he did allow
cameras into the studio when he was recording
the album The Drift. The resulting documentary,
Scott Walker: 30 Century Man produced
by Stephen Kijak (with executive producer
credits to David Bowie who professes to have been deeply influenced
by Walker), was released in 2006 and is viewable on YouTube. I highly
recommend it. And then skip ahead to his latest release from 2014,
Soused (4AD CAD 3428CD) which features five extended Scott Walker
“songs” on which the now familiar melancholy voice is accompanied
by the Seattle drone metal band Sunn O))). Not for the faint of heart!
We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and
comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The
Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S
2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website
thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct
links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for
online shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.
David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com
TERRY ROBBINS
The Toronto-based Canadian guitarist
Drew Henderson is probably best known as a
performer as one half of the Henderson-Kolk
Duo with Michael Kolk, whose Mosaic solo CD
was reviewed in this column in March 2014.
Nocturne – Guitar Music of the 19th Century
is Henderson’s independent first solo release
(classicalguitarist.ca). His playing puts me very
much in mind of Kolk’s, which is saying a great deal: there’s the same
outstanding technique with unerring accuracy and cleanness; a clear,
rich tone across the board; lovely dynamics; virtually no finger noise;
and above all a beautiful sense of line and phrase.
Henderson has chosen a varied and interesting recital program.
Giulio Regondi was a child prodigy in the early 1800s, and is represented
here by his Nocturne “Reverie” Op.19 and Introduction et
Caprice Op.23. Henderson plays an eight-string guitar on the CD,
which enables him to include the usually-omitted bass notes in Les
Soirées d’Auteuil Op.23 by Napoléon Coste, who often wrote for a
seven-string guitar. Four Capricci from Luigi Legnani’s 36 Capricci per
la Chitarra Op.20 and a simply dazzling performance of Paganini’s
Grand Sonata in A Major round out a superb disc.
The CD was recorded two years ago in the Church of St. Mary
Magdalene in Toronto, with Henderson handling the recording and
editing himself; he did an outstanding job. Henderson has technique
and musicianship to burn, and has produced a simply terrific CD.
James Ehnes and Andrew Armstrong
are back with another recital CD, this time
featuring the Violin Sonatas of César Franck
and Richard Strauss (Onyx 4141).
There’s a glowing, expansive opening to
the Franck, especially in the piano chords as
the momentum builds, and real passion in
the Allegro second movement. The famous
canon in the fourth movement is a pure
delight. Ehnes is in his element with the big
tone and strong, controlled bowing you need for the long, sustained
violin phrases in this work.
Written within a year of the Franck, when the composer had just
met his future wife, Strauss’ Sonata in E-Flat, Op.18 is an early work
bubbling with a sense of joy and passion that both performers catch
perfectly.
One short Strauss work and three song transcriptions complete the
CD. The Allegretto in E is a brief but lovely piece from the last year of
the composer’s life. The three songs are Wiegenlied, Waldseligkeit and
Morgen!; the intricate piano decorations that run beneath the long
violin line throughout the Wiegenlied are particularly lovely.
Ehnes is in superb form throughout the disc, and Armstrong is his
equal in every respect.
There’s another performance of the Franck
Violin Sonata on a new CD featuring works
by Lekeu, Franck and Boulanger from the
Montreal violinist Frédéric Bednarz and
pianist Natsuki Hiratsuka (Metis Islands
Music MIM-0006).
Guillaume Lekeu and Lili Boulanger
(Nadia’s younger sister) both died at the
tragically young age of 24. Lekeu’s Sonata in
G Major is a fine three-movement work, with its long violin lines and
agitated piano in the outer movements somewhat reminiscent of the
Franck, which was written just six years earlier. Bednarz’s beautiful
sweetness of tone is evident right from the start.
Boulanger was always in fragile health, and her works often seem
to display her awareness of her condition. Nocturne is a simply lovely
and delightful piece, again perfectly suited to Bednarz’s sweet tone.
60 | Sept 1 - Oct 7, 2015 thewholenote.com