Three Great CD's from 2014 You don't Want to Miss: Gunn, Hipped Hopped Klezmer and 19th century Polish piano
Mar 15, 2015 at 12:25 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 1

shabta

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There is so much great music released each year that most people never get to hear or even hear about. I can’t fix the former, but by addressing the latter, I hope that some readers will be inspired to take a chance on something new. This is some the year’s best stuff that is also a bit off the beaten track… I would totally love to hear about albums you like so feel free to add your suggestions/reviews in the comments.
 
Steve Gunn- Way Out Weather

 
I am a sucker for a good old fashioned guitar based rock with a jammy, folky feel. Steve Gunn the guitar wiz on tour with Kurt Vile’s Violaters, has crafted a real gem. It borrows a little jangle from the Birds, loosey goosey shuffle from the Grateful Dead, Middle Eastern drone and a bit of blues but those are just touchstones for reference. Guitars, electric, acoustic and lap steel, are layered one atop one another weaving in and out, dancing, sliding and gliding always enhancing and enchanting never crowding all swirling around Mr. Gunn’s pleasing voice.  Ok so we kind of knew Mr. Gunn was a great player, but what is surprising is his ability to craft a tune, turns out he can write the kind of songs that will stick in your ear. I got to see him in Lyon, France last month on a barge on the Saone River that was being used as a club. Expected that the single Gunn available for the live performance would leave us wanting the multi Gunn approach of the CD, yet the strength of the songs framed with the unitary Gunn’s tasteful playing sat perfectly atop the strong rhythm section of bass and drums. It’s a sneaky, album that rewards the repeat listener repeatedly.
 
Krakauer’s Ancestral Groove- Checkpoint
 

 
Calling this a Klezmer album is like trying to describe a Coltrane album by saying it is Jazz or describing the fabulous meal you had the other night by calling it food or by describing David Krakauer by calling him the most amazing clarinetist on earth. From Kronos Quartet to Itzahk Perlman to Danny Elfman to Emerson Quartet to various Symphony Orchestras to Socalled to John Zorn, he has played nearly everything across nearly every genre.
This Klezmer reimagined through the lens of avant jazz, hip hop, funk and electronica. In addition to his amazing Ancestral Groove band, which includes Keepalive on samples and beats, he gets Guitarist Marc Ribot and Organist John Medeski to sit in here and again over there. The center piece is Mr. Krakauer’s extraordinarily virtuosic clarinet, which is in turns beautiful, screaming, sensitive and bleating sometimes all in the same bar. Oy, who knew that anyone could make a licorice stick sound like that? Certainly not Uncle Moishe, who is rolling in his grave, not because it so wrong but because it is so right and he can’t stop grooving. On most of the tunes if you ain’t dancing, you ain’t listening or maybe it’s Saturday. But it’s ok you can dance even on the Sabbath because, Boychik I promise not to tell.
 
Tobias Koch - Farewell to the homeland – The romantic spirit of Polish piano music
 

 
During Chopin’s time, Poland had it really going on musically. I suppose that during the 19th century, Poland having been divided into three by its powerful neighbors, it was through the subversive efforts of the musical artist that polish identity could be preserved and flourish. The first half of this century heard the craze of Mazurs and Polinaise that swept the cafes, bourgeois salons and manor houses. It was out of the milieu that Chopin arose, and this collection contextualizes a bit of musical history.
 
Mr. Koch faithfully presents an excellent sampling of this musical genre on one of four perfectly maintained fortepiano appropriate to the age of the piece. But when I say faithfully preserved this is not, as far too much classical music is, music as museum piece. This is music made to bring forth all the vitality and energy as though it were the most modern, au currant thing. Sometimes when hearing music played on old pianoforte, I long for the far richer sounds of a modern grand. Here under the sensitive digits of Mr.Koch, we get to appreciate the nuance and timbre of each instrument, more supposedly sonorous ebony and ivory be damned! Most of the composers here were new to me and even the two Chopin tracks are pretty rarely played (but when you hear them you will wonder why). So put this on, drink a Zywiec, wash it down with a shot of Wodka and let the music work its magic.
 

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