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Volume 27 Issue 4 - February 2022

Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.

Gould's Wall -- Philip Akin's "breadcrumb trail; orchestras buying into hope; silver linings to the music theatre lockdown blues; Charlotte Siegel's watershed moments; Deep Wireless at 20; and guess who is Back in Focus. All this and more, now online for your reading pleasure.

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OTHER FINE VINTAGES<br />

Live<br />

Roswell Rudd; Duck Baker<br />

Dot Time Records (dottimerecords.com)<br />

! A master of blues, ragtime and folk<br />

idioms, Duck Baker has long applied his<br />

fingerstyle acoustic guitar skills to modern<br />

idioms as well, from recording the compositions<br />

of bop masters like Thelonious Monk<br />

and Herbie Nichols to free improvisation.<br />

This CD pairs him with a musical hero of<br />

his youth, Roswell Rudd, the first significant<br />

trombonist of free jazz but also a throwback<br />

who restored his instrument’s traditional jazz voice, with all its burps,<br />

smears and bellows along with its legato sweetness as well. Assembled<br />

from club recordings in New York City in 2002 and Albuquerque, New<br />

Mexico in 2004, these performances range from broad entertainment<br />

to high art.<br />

Jelly Roll Morton’s Buddy Bolden’s Blues exemplifies Rudd and<br />

Baker’s shared joy in roots jazz, with Rudd’s vocalic expressionism<br />

and Baker’s crisp blues phrases coming to the fore. Melancholy People<br />

is just that, the lachrymose Streisand anthem drenched in as much<br />

excess sentimentality as can be dredged up for the occasion. There<br />

are a few Monk tunes in versions that are both expressive and precise<br />

with the two dedicated interpreters managing that fine balance on<br />

Well, You Needn’t and Bemsha Swing. Baker’s long solo stretch on<br />

Light Blue is a joyous account of a lesser-known Monk composition.<br />

The duo is capable of playfulness and genuine sentiment, creating<br />

a sense of authentic dialogue on Going West, while the extended<br />

Church is lifted by Rudd’s exuberant use of mutes.<br />

Stuart Broomer<br />

Best of the Best Live<br />

Sharon, Lois & Bram<br />

Elephant Records CAS-CD-42150 (sharonloisandbram.com)<br />

! Award-winning Canadian children’s/<br />

family entertainers Sharon, Lois & Bram<br />

toured and performed extensively for<br />

decades since their founding in 1978 to<br />

astounding success with their generationsspanning<br />

fans and audience members. They<br />

also had their own television shows. After<br />

Lois retired in 2000 and then died in 2015,<br />

Sharon and Bram continued as a duet. This<br />

is the trio’s first new album release in 21 years, featuring 22 unedited<br />

live tracks recorded during their North American performances in<br />

different venues from 1989 to1995.<br />

Listeners will not be disappointed with the choice of songs, the<br />

trio’s verbal banter, the performances and the quality of the recordings.<br />

The tracks are seamlessly connected in attention-grabbing<br />

sequence. Classic song versions like She’ll Be Coming Round the<br />

Mountain and Alphabet Song feature them encouraging audience<br />

singing and movement participation, to backing band upbeat accompaniments.<br />

The witty How Much is that Doggie in the Window? has<br />

Bram barking and teaching the audience to sing as violin countermelody,<br />

waltz tempo and closing harmonies drive the song.<br />

Sharon, Lois & Bram’s signature song Skinnamarink is a (to be<br />

expected) highlight, replete with audience singing exchanges and a<br />

background rocking-band closing. The included (and well-deserved)<br />

audience cheers and applause make one feel like you are live in<br />

the audience.<br />

The respectful performing relationship between Sharon, Lois &<br />

Bram and their band flourishes in tight harmonies, changing tempi,<br />

and dance and singalong moments, making this a “greatest of the<br />

great live” collection for fans of all ages!<br />

Tiina Kiik<br />

Reviewed in this issue<br />

34 J.S. Bach / Karlheinz Essl: Gold.Berg.Werk<br />

Xenia Prestova Bennett & Ed Bennet<br />

34 20C Remix<br />

Standing Wave Society<br />

35 Inner Landscapes<br />

Xander Simmons, Collectif Novart<br />

35 Pozgarria da<br />

Petar Klanac & ensemble 0<br />

New to the Listening Room<br />

36 Fire & Grace<br />

Alma<br />

37 The Sound and the Fury<br />

The Shea - Kim Duo<br />

39 Brian Field - Vocal Works<br />

Brian Field<br />

40 Johann Sebastian Bach: Goldberg Variations<br />

Sarah Hagen<br />

42 Mozart. Post Scriptum<br />

Sergei Kvitko<br />

44 Metamorphosen<br />

Maiburg Ensemble<br />

46 Vintage Americana<br />

Christina Petrowska Quillico<br />

47 Glorious Clouds<br />

Dai Fujikura<br />

48 Bell Threads<br />

Adam Roberts<br />

49 You Are the Light and the Way<br />

Alex Bird & the Jazz Mavericks<br />

53 Equanimity: A Futuristic Jazz Tale<br />

ViO<br />

Previously reviewed, in <strong>Volume</strong> <strong>27</strong> no. 3<br />

55 ... and then there’s this<br />

Artifacts<br />

55 Libre<br />

Jesse Cooke<br />

55 Uprooted<br />

Matt Sellick:<br />

37 As She Sings<br />

David Tanenbaum<br />

37 Brahms String Quartets<br />

The Alexander String Quartet<br />

45 confined.speak<br />

Ensemble Dal Niente<br />

46 Plays Well With Others<br />

loadbang<br />

Read the reviews here, then visit<br />

thewholenote.com/listening<br />

58 | <strong>February</strong> <strong>2022</strong> thewholenote.com

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