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Drumming
Drumming is one of the undisputed masterworks of Steve Reich’s oeuvre, a long and complex percussion composition that thoroughly explores his early ideas of rhythmic phasing in the context of simple harmony and highly complex multilayered polyrhythms. The piece is written in four movements, which are played in continuous sequence: the first for tuned bongos, the second for marimbas and voice, the third for glockenspiels, voices, and piccolo; and the fourth for all of the instruments and voices together. Since there is some flexibility to the score (players get to decide how many repeats to follow), a performance can last anywhere from 55 to 75 minutes. Traditionally, of course, Drumming has been played by an ensemble of musicians. But for this recording percussionist Kuniko elected to perform the entire thing herself, using overdubbing techniques in the studio to create all of the necessary parts. As always–and she has already demonstrated an impressive affinity for Reich’s music–she plays with both an intensity of focus and a virtuosic precision that are unmatched in her field; under her mallets, sticks, and fingers, this music shimmers with brilliant clarity and the dense beauty of Reich’s patterns is revealed as never before. An essential purchase for all library collections. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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At The End Of The River
One of the great things about Cajun music is that while it has its own stylistic parameters (two-step rhythms, accordion-and-fiddle instrumentation, certain laissez les bons temps rouler lyrical tendencies) it can also easily adapt itself to other styles, infecting them with a distinctive South Louisiana vibe: basically, if you sing a blues or R&B song in Cajun French, it’s going to sound like Cajun music. The Revelers make the most of that flexibility on their latest album, delivering the expected rollicking genre exercises (“Au bout de la rivière,” “Pendant”) along with honky-tonk country (“She’s a Woman,” “You’re Not to Blame”), horn-heavy torch songs (“I Wouldn’t Do That to You”), and more. The main quality criterion for a Cajun album is how fun it is, and this one is tons of fun. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Glass: Annunciation
Like several other composers associated with the Minimalist school, over the course of his long and distinguished career Philip Glass has gradually broadened his stylistic palette, eventually arriving at a point where the previously forbidding repetitiveness of his music has been replaced with expansive harmonic movement and an almost Romantic sense of melodicism and emotionality. Of course, he’s still Philip Glass, so you’ve still got your immediately-recognizable arpeggiated repetitions – it’s just that the chords change more often, and those passages of repetition are broken up much more frequently by long and lyrical lines of melody. On this collection of pieces written between 2010 and 2018, the outstanding Brooklyn Rider string quartet teams up with pianist Paul Barnes to deliver performances of deep warmth and sympathy, carefully but powerfully wringing every drop of emotion out of Glass’s eighth string quartet, his two-movement Annunciation piano quintet, and two briefer chamber works. Recommended. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Remember Me, My Dear
Soprano saxophone and all-male vocal quartet is not an obvious combination, but in 1993 jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble were invited by ECM label head Manfred Eicher to get together and try out some collaborative music. The resulting album (Officium) was something of an unexpected hit, and the quintet toured together regularly during the following two decades. This album was recorded live during the group’s farewell tour in 2014, and finds them continuing to explore the strange but successful blending of ancient and modern vocal polyphony and eerie reed melismas that attracted so many listeners to the original album. The music won’t be to everyone’s taste, but you can certainly see why so many feel it worked so well, and there’s no questioning the deep connection between the performers on these highly unusual and frequently gorgeous pieces. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Adams: Become Desert
“Become Desert completes a trilogy that I didn’t set out to write,” says composer John Luther Adams. The previous two related compositions are Become Ocean and Become River, but this one is the most ambitious in terms of instrumental forces (it involves five distinct instrumental and vocal “choirs”). It explores and deploys sonic space to a degree unprecedented in Adams’ always space-conscious work: opening with quietly shimmering percussion and strings, its texture and harmonic density gradually thicken, even though the harmonic movement itself is close to static. By halfway through its 40-minute length, the whispering breezes have turned into majestic cliffs of sound; by the end, everything has subsided again into a whisper. Exceptionally beautiful despite its minimal harmonic materials, Become Desert is a uniquely lovely and immersive listening experience. (The DVD offers two different mixes of the work, along with a slideshow of desert images that loops during playback.) -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Coming Home
Vibraphonist, arranger, and composer Lolly Allen leads a crack team of sidemen on her second album, on which she explores the sounds that were bubbling on Los Angeles’s energetic jazz scene in the 1950s: plenty of Latin rhythms (“Mambo Inn,” “O Grande Amor,” Luiz Bonfá’s “Gentle Rain”), some soulful hard bop (Horace Silver’s “The Hippest Cat in Hollywood”), but also some straight-up bebop, which was still happening on the West Coast several years after it had become somewhat passé in New York. Allen demonstrates not only exceptional instrumental, compositional, and arranging chops, but also a wonderful adroitness as a bandleader, taking charge of a shifting ensemble that includes varying combinations of piano, bass, drums, sax, guitar, trumpet, and trombone. Particularly impressive is her ability to work in tandem with a pianist–always something of a challenge given that vibes and piano perform pretty much identical functions in a jazz combo. A triumph overall for a major young talent. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Chinese Fantasies
This lovely collection of chamber works for violin by Chinese composers opens with Gang Chan’s flowing and mellifluously pentatonic Morning of Miao Mountain, for violin and piano. It’s a gorgeous and immediately accessible piece, played with limpid grace by violinist Fagye Sun, and it does not exactly prepare one for the somewhat spikier and more challenging works to come, three of which are written by the celebrated contemporary composer Bright Sheng: The Stream Flows, A Night at the Chinese Opera, and Three Fantasies. Things get soft and lyrical again with works by Huwei Huang (E’Mei Mountain Moon Song) and Qingxiang Zhang (Jade Gate Fantasy), and the program ends with a piece for unaccompanied solo violin written by cellist Daniel Tressel and commissioned for this recording by Sun. Her playing is magnificent throughout, as is that of her accompanists. Highly recommended. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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De Rippe: Music for Lute
Albert de Rippe, originally named Alberto da Ripa, was an Italian lutenist who achieved success in the 16th century court of the French king, Francis I, and his output of fantasias, intabulations, and dances filled six volumes, which were published posthumously by his student, Guillaume de Morlaye. What made de Rippe's lute music unusual for its time was its independence from accompanied vocal music (even though a number of his intabulations were based on chansons), and its expressive potential and intricate displays allowed the full flowering of his ideas beyond familiar patterns. Paul O'Dette is a leader among lutenists, always considering his art in the historical context, so even a relatively forgotten composer such as de Rippe receives his attention. O'Dette's loving treatment of de Rippe's music goes beyond filling a gap in the historical record. The richness of the counterpoint and the virtuosity of de Rippe's writing, clearly intended for his own abilities, show an expansion of possibilities for instrumental music that would influence keyboard works in the following century. Harmonia Mundi's studio recording is quite close to O'Dette, though there is enough resonance to keep the sound from being dry. --Allmusic.com – reviewed by Blair Sanderson
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Jazz Party
Jazz has been so focused on complexity and virtuosity for so long that it can be easy to forget that its roots are in fun and celebration. Which, of course, is another way of saying that its roots are in New Orleans. Which, of course, is where Delfeayo Marsalis has been holding court for the past ten years at the Snug Harbor club with his Uptown Jazz Orchestra every Wednesday night. On Marsalis’ seventh album as a leader he takes that large ensemble through a diverse and relentlessly fun set of tunes that nod to gospel, son, R&B, and jump blues, but that never lose touch with that slippery, funky second-line feel. By turns seductive, funny, swinging, bombastic, and subtle, these tunes never, ever lose their sense of joy; Marsalis is not only a top-notch trombonist, but he’s also one of the best bandleaders out there. For all jazz collections. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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I Still Believe: The Greatest Hits
GRAMMY -nominated singer/songwriter Jeremy Camp delivers, I Still Believe: The Greatest Hits, a comprehensive anthology of his career-to-date as one of the most accomplished male artists in Christian music. The project is a 15-track journey through some of Camp's most iconic songs, such as "Overcome" and "There Will Be A Day," as well as more recent chart-topping hits, such as "Dead Man Walking," "Same Power," and "He Knows." -- Amazon
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Timeless
American songbook standards on solo piano. Jim Brickman has revolutionized the sound of solo piano with his popstyle instrumentals and star-studded vocal collaborations. With four certified gold albums, he's sold more than seven million CDs. A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Brickman is the host of a weekly syndicated radio show, Your Weekend with Jim Brickman, airing on 80+ stations across North America. -- Midwest Tape
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Concurrence
This is the second installment in an ongoing series of recordings dedicted to “bringing the orchestral sound world of Icelandic composers to the ears of the world,” in the words of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Daníel Bjarnason. Four compositions are featured: the majestic and sometimes downright eerie Metacosmos by Anna Thorvaldsdóttir; Haukur Tómasson’s second piano concerto (featuring the outstanding pianist Vikingur Ólafsson); Oceans by Maria Huld Markan Sigfúsdóttir; and Páll Ragnar Pálssom’s Quake (featuring cello soloist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir). Because the program’s focus is on composers from a very specific place, one is tempted to listen for stylistic commonalities–but good luck with that. Each work is fairly modernist, but beyond that there isn’t much that unites them sonically. Instead, each composer offers a different musical vision, some more programmatic and others more impressionistic, some more tonal and some less so. All are very much worth hearing, and the playing is consistently excellent. -- Rick Anderson, CD HotList
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Freegal MusicGet three free mp3 downloads per week and listen to 3 hours of streaming per day with your library card. Available via the Freegal Music app or the Freegal website.
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hooplaSet-up a hoopla account with your library card to use the hoopla app and website to stream music. You can borrow full albums for one week, up to five per month.
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Mercer County Library System 2751 Brunswick Pike Lawrenceville, NJ 08648 Phone: (609) 882-9246 E-mail: nrsupprt@mcl.org |
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