Volume 23 Issue 3 - November 2017
In this issue: conversations (of one kind or another) galore! Daniela Nardi on taking the reins at "best-kept secret" venue, 918 Bathurst; composer Jeff Ryan on his "Afghanistan" Requiem for a Generation" partnership with war poet, Susan Steele; lutenist Ben Stein on seventeenth century jazz; collaborative pianist Philip Chiu on going solo; Barbara Hannigan on her upcoming Viennese "Second School" recital at Koerner; Tina Pearson on Pauline Oliveros; and as always a whole lot more!
In this issue: conversations (of one kind or another) galore! Daniela Nardi on taking the reins at "best-kept secret" venue, 918 Bathurst; composer Jeff Ryan on his "Afghanistan" Requiem for a Generation" partnership with war poet, Susan Steele; lutenist Ben Stein on seventeenth century jazz; collaborative pianist Philip Chiu on going solo; Barbara Hannigan on her upcoming Viennese "Second School" recital at Koerner; Tina Pearson on Pauline Oliveros; and as always a whole lot more!
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comprises seven Cuevas original tunes and three she co-wrote with<br />
producer/keyboardist Jeremy Ledbetter who also did the arrangements.<br />
Central to the recording is Yonathan “Morocho” Gavidia and<br />
several percussionist colleagues who Cuevas met through Aquiles Báez,<br />
a Venezuelan guitar-and-quatroist who performed in Toronto last year<br />
and who is also featured here on several tracks.<br />
I confess I am at a disadvantage in that, although lyrics are included<br />
in the booklet, there are no translations and I don’t have much of a<br />
Spanish vocabulary. Fortunately the press release that accompanied<br />
my copy of the disc includes an explanation of the title. Cuevas says<br />
“‘Golpes’ means hit, often referring to rhythms, while ‘flores’ means<br />
flowers. To me, the title suggests a combination of the sophistication,<br />
beauty and gentleness of flowers and the strength and force of<br />
the Afro-Venezuelan rhythms.” There is one song in English, A Tear<br />
on the Ground, inspired by a visit to India, where Cuevas “spent a few<br />
days doing yoga at an ashram that was right by a lake that had a sign<br />
warning people to be careful of the crocodiles.” The song includes the<br />
lyric “crocodiles will swim in our tears / and our hearts will pound<br />
together without fear,” giving a new take on the phrase “crocodile<br />
tears.”<br />
In addition to a number of Venezuelan musicians there are several<br />
familiar names from the local jazz scene including Mark Kelso, Rich<br />
Brown, George Koller and Daniel Stone. As mentioned, infectious<br />
rhythms abound and it’s hard to sit still while listening. One exception<br />
is the lush and lovely Mi Linda Maita inspired by Cuevas’ grandmother.<br />
With rich string sonorities and Cuevas’ pure voice it is<br />
breathtaking, but even here we end up swaying to the beat that builds<br />
as the song develops. Golpes y Flores, her fifth release, will further<br />
cement Cuevas’ place in Toronto’s World Music firmament and, I<br />
expect, will go a long way in bolstering her international career. It<br />
is a dandy!<br />
Concert Note: The Eliana Cuevas Ensemble performs at the Rex, 198<br />
Queen St. W. on January 4 and 5 at 9:30pm and at the Richard Bradshaw<br />
Amphitheatre at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing<br />
Arts on January 10 (one set only at 5:30pm; free).<br />
I will briefly mention one more pop-inspired<br />
disc that I’ve been enjoying this month, Let’s<br />
Groove: The Music of Earth, Wind & Fire,<br />
Cory Weeds’ latest venture on his Cellar Live<br />
label (CL041017 cellarlive.com). First off, I<br />
love the cover. I don’t know if it will come<br />
through in the miniature version shown<br />
here, but it’s worth a trip to the website<br />
just to check it out. I’m not sure it would<br />
be safe to “groove” in those oversized shoes, but it’s a great picture!<br />
The project was the brainchild of pianist and organist Mike LeDonne<br />
who did the arrangements of the iconic R&B band’s tunes and plays<br />
soulful and funky Hammond organ throughout. I was always a sucker<br />
for EWF vocal gymnastics, missed here, but the saxophones of Weeds<br />
(alto) and colleague Steve Kaldestad (tenor) are a satisfying substitute,<br />
especially their tight harmonies in unison passages and the<br />
flights of fancy in their solos. The excellent rhythm section includes<br />
LeDonne’s longtime associate drummer Jason Tiemann, percussionist<br />
Liam MacDonald and guitarist Dave Sikula. My favourites are the title<br />
track, Getaway and Shining Star. If you’re in the mood to Groove, you<br />
can’t top this.<br />
We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and<br />
comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The<br />
Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S<br />
2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website thewholenote.com<br />
where you can find enhanced reviews in the Listening Room with<br />
audio samples, upcoming performance details and direct links to<br />
performers, composers and record labels.<br />
David Olds, DISCoveries Editor<br />
discoveries@thewholenote.com<br />
STRINGS<br />
ATTACHED<br />
TERRY ROBBINS<br />
There seem to have been several CDs lately<br />
featuring outstanding Canadian classical<br />
guitarists, and you can add another one<br />
to the list with Verdi’s Guitar – Fantasies<br />
for Solo Guitar by J. K. Mertz based on<br />
operas by Giuseppe Verdi, performed by<br />
British Columbia guitarist Alan Rinehart<br />
(Ravello RR7975).<br />
Operatic transcriptions were very popular<br />
throughout the 19th century in the days before recordings and radio,<br />
and were usually made with home performance in mind. These<br />
Mertz transcriptions, though, were clearly not aimed at amateurs,<br />
gifted or otherwise. The technical challenges of reproducing operatic<br />
scores within the limitations of the guitar must have been daunting,<br />
but Mertz – an important figure in the development of the Romantic<br />
guitar style – produced an Op.8 Opern-Revue that consisted of 34(!!)<br />
transcriptions of operas by composers from Adam to Wagner.<br />
The six Verdi transcriptions – all included here – are from Ernani,<br />
Rigoletto, Nabucco, Il Trovatore, La Traviata and I Vespri Siciliani.<br />
They are delightful fantasia-style works, with familiar arias popping<br />
out from time to time: Ernani, involami; Caro nome; Questa o quella;<br />
and La donna e mobile.<br />
Rinehart’s playing is clean and stylish throughout, especially in the<br />
tremolo passages in Ernani and I Vespri Siciliani, a technique later<br />
used to great effect by Francisco Tárrega.<br />
Now, if we could only hear Wagner’s Flying Dutchman…<br />
Another very interesting Canadian guitar<br />
CD is Transcendencia, the debut disc from<br />
Alberta flamenco guitarist, Holly Blazina<br />
(iTunes; Spotify; hollyblazina.com).<br />
Originally trained as a classical guitarist<br />
Blazina has a solid grounding in the traditional<br />
flamenco technique and has been<br />
composing her own pieces in the genre for<br />
more than a decade, workshopping them<br />
with noted flamenco masters Paco Fernandez in Seville and Ricardo<br />
Diaz in San Francisco. They are in traditional flamenco forms –<br />
Alegría, Bulería, Abandolao and Farruca, for instance – and mostly<br />
with the traditional accompaniment of male and female voices,<br />
palmas and percussion, but often introduce instruments from other<br />
musical worlds, such as violin (on three tracks), and saxophone, piano<br />
and Persian santur dulcimer (on different single tracks). The result<br />
is not so much a mixing of genres as an extension of the flamenco<br />
musical style with an added dimension, and it’s very effective.<br />
Blazina’s playing is clean, crisp and idiomatic – especially in<br />
Invocación, the solo final track with its excellent tremolo – and the<br />
contributions from the nine other musicians fit in seamlessly. A lovely<br />
recorded sound adds to a highly entertaining disc.<br />
Transcriptions form the entire program of<br />
another Canadian CD this month, as bassist<br />
Joel Quarrington is back with another<br />
recital disc of transcriptions for double bass<br />
and piano (his Brothers in Brahms was<br />
reviewed here in September 2013), this time<br />
in Schubert “AN DIE MUSIK” with pianist<br />
David Jalbert (joelquarrington.com).<br />
68 | <strong>November</strong> <strong>2017</strong> thewholenote.com