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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

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