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