Pot Pourri

Musical Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year to you and yours with some of these new Christmas recordings out in time for the holidays.

The Choirs of St. James United Church in Toronto perform with enormous holiday spirit in Love Came Down at Christmas. The ethereal angelic opening track O Come All Ye Faithful has the choir in superb form. From carols to more secular songs like Santa Claus is Coming to Town, the choir and Music Director Clive R. Dunstan have assembled the perfect mix of repertoire with an eclectic mix of organ, piano and flute accompaniment. Some high notes need to be tweaked but high marks for an excellent recording. You can email stjames_uc@rogers.com or call the church at 416-622-4113 to purchase the disc.

Maria Dolnycky's Lullaby for a Snowy Night (www.mariadolnycky.com) features piano performances of holiday music from around the world. All is well played, perhaps a bit too percussive at spots, but well worth a listen, especially for Dolnycky’s intriguing take on Bela Bartok's Romanian Carols, and her touching rendition of Pietro Mascagni's Christmas Pipe Tune.

I knew that Toronto-based baritone Bruno Cormier (www.brunocormier.com) is a very fine singer in the operatic genre. A huge Christmas present surprise for me was finding that he is also an accomplished composer. His L'arrivée du Christ is a slightly atonal yet lyrical tradition-based six part song cycle. It is the highlight of the CD Dans le silence de la nuit, a collection of French Christmas songs arranged by Bruno, and performed by him and his sister, mezzo-soprano Aurélie Cormier. This is a very professional and musically moving release. Both singers have the soul and the technique to dazzle, and are accompanied by a tight instrumental ensemble.

The Canadian Music Centre (www.musiccentre.ca) has another Christmas star with A Chatman Christmas (Centrediscs CMCCD 15509), a collection of holiday choral music by UBC professor Stephen Chatman. Chatman's original works and arrangements of classics feature traditional harmonies with a fluid tonality, all astutely performed in this “composer-supervised recording” by the University of British Columbia Singers conducted by Bruce Pullan, with a number of special guests. Make sure to hear Jumalisten joucko, with medieval drummer Quennie Wong. This is a memorable and very idiosyncratic Christmas song.

Jakub Jan Ryba's Czech Christmas Mass (Archiv Produktion 477 8365) features mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozenà in this re-release of a 1998 recording. Ryba (affectionately known as “Hey, Mister” after the mass' opening line) wrote this Czech language masterwork in 1796. A holiday tradition to this day, the charming sound is so very much in the style of the music of the time. The childlike innocence that we all associate with Christmas is perfectly captured in both words and music as the humour and loving story of Czech shepherds at the manger unfolds. Great performances by the Capella Regia Musicalis under Robert Hugo too.

Finally, what would Christmas be without Luciano Pavarotti singing O Holy Night, Joan Sutherland’s Joy To The World or Renati Tebaldi’s take on Schubert's Ave Maria? The two CD compilation Christmas Voices: The World's Greatest Voices, The Essential Sacred Songs (Decca 478 2093) give us these and other famous voices in timeless performances that will keep you in the holiday spirit for generations to come!

The Offering of Curtis Andrews

Curtis Andrews

Independent (www.curtisandrews.ca)

I’ve been smiling more than usual today, bopping around the apartment to this joie de vivre-filled CD by Curtis Andrews, Newfoundland’s globe-trotting percussionist and composer.

Very ably aided by fellow islander musicians Patrick Boyle (outstanding on trumpet), Bill Brennan (keyboards), Chris Harnett (saxes and flute), Brad Jefford (electric guitar) and other fine players, Andrews’ very eclectic world roots are clearly on display here.

The music is self-described as “world jazz” and the tag fits. Drawing from Andrews’ studies in South Asian, West Africa and North America music, “The Offering of…” merges all those influences in an energy-rich field, couched in mainstream jazz forms improv-rich solos and melodic-harmonic language. With such a rich multi-cultural banquet, I must admit it took me several listening to fully clue into the multi-layered inter-cultural musical goings on.

Equally at home on mrdangam (South Indian classical drum) and Ewe (West African) percussion as on drum set, Andrews sets a high musical standard for his collaborators. Not indulging in mere musical exoticism Andrews impresses with his good humour in Genghis Khanda Blues (yes, it is in 5/4), and shear musical ambition on exhibit in his virtuoso mrdangam solo in Malabar. One of my favourite tracks is Camel Ride, an enigmatic though easy-going east-coast feel post-Shakti bebop. Kaju Fenny (titled after a reportedly wicked Goan cashew liquor) is another outstanding chart. A tip: if you want to join the players in their fun, just be sure to keep tapping a slow 7 beat cycle throughout its convoluted beat groupings. That way you can land on the downbeat with them.

“The Offering of Curtis Andrews” marks the debut of an important and accessible new world-conscious compositional and percussion voice. Visit the website to preview the album, download the free charts, and hum or play along!

The Rumba Foundation

Jesse Cook

EMI 50999 698061 2 4

Jesse Cook can now add ethnomusicologist to his résumé, right under rumba flamenco guitar god. For his 7th album, the award-winning composer travelled to Bogota, Colombia to absorb the musical culture and integrate it into his unique style of nuevo flamenco music. And he’s done a fine job of it, too. Sometimes when musicians attempt to bring together musical genres the result is somewhat disjointed, with one style awkwardly inserted into the other, never achieving a true blend. But on “The Rumba Foundation” Cook and crew achieve an artful marriage of rhythms and harmonies. Several tracks have been recorded with Colombian musicians Los Gaiteros de San Jacinto, and on Manolo’s Lament and Bogota by Bus the group has found the common ground between the musics and traditional Colombian instruments like gaita flutes are completely at home. La Rumba del Jefe’s medium groove completely hits the rhythmic sweet spot.

Cook’s writing and playing shifts easily between contemplative ballads and blistering guitar work. So although there are new sounds here, we also get treated to some of his trademark gorgeous ballads on Tuesday’s Child and Homebound (aided by Chris Church’s plaintive violin), while unleashing the million-note-a-minute runs on Paul Simon’s Cecilia. This, the only cover on the record, is completely appropriate as the rousing multicultural rendition is a great tribute to the man who was one of the first to bring “world” music to North American pop audiences.

Alchemy

Tasa with special guests: Mark Feldman; Adrean Farrugia; Dhruba Ghosh;

DJ Olive Independent TASA004

(www.tasamusic.com)

Ten years ago Tasa’s founder, tabla player Ravi Naimpally, set out to realize his vision to create a new musical form out of the many cultures that co-exist in this country. True to form and mission, “Alchemy” delivers on all fronts.

The complete experience of the album leaves the listener feeling as if they had been traveling, shifting in and out of place, space and time. The “trippiness” of the music can largely be attributed to the soundscaping of guitarist Chris Gartner, and the intermittent scratching of guest DJ Olive. Fragments of electronica sneak up on you in a delightful and unjarring kind of way. If pressed to choose a favourite, it would be Boatman’s Song – an original and haunting arrangement of a traditional Indian folk song. The band collectively evokes mystic waters, complete with rain stick. I was mesmerized by the “other worldliness” of Tasa’s newest addition, Samidha Joglekar’s alaaps (extemporized free-form vocalizations), and I could lose myself inside the reverb and timbre of Ernie Tollar’s magical flute playing.

Dhurba Ghosh guests on sarangi, a stringed instrument akin to the violin considered by many as the closest acoustic reproduction of the human voice. Samudra, one of Naimpally’s originals, means ocean in Sanskrit. Ghosh’s sarangi and Tollar’s sax toss around their easy conversation like waves with the “voice” of Naimpally’s tabla. The song ends in a whirlpool jam session. The album’s last two tracks, Bija and Solar really showcase the band’s versatility and bring new meaning to the term World music.