Laurence Juber Trio - Holidays & Hollynights - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2018 . Pianist-composer Edward Simon presents the album Sorrows and Triumphs, featuring Afinidad, his quartet with alto saxophonist David Binney, bassist Scott Colley and drummer Brian Blade. The richly textured Sorrows and Triumphs is also colored by very special guests vocalist Gretchen Parlato, guitarist Adam Rogers and chamber quintet Imani Winds.

Julius Eastman and Will Oldham are kindred spirits. Self-styled provocateurs, they have positioned themselves on the outskirts of distinct traditions, pulling all manners of musical influence towards their outré stance. Eastman, who passed away in 1990 and whose work is experiencing a necessary revival, harnessed the vocabulary of minimalism for joyfully insurgent ends; Oldham's songwriting regularly conjures a pantheon that Greil Marcus called Inchthe old, weird America.Inch Last spring, these two visionaries collided at Cincinnati's MusicNOW Festival, and any distance between them was mediated by curator Bryce Dessner and ensemble Eighth Blackbird. On this album, woven between new arrangements of Oldham's cryptic songs and Eastman's iconic InchStay on ItInch are several of Dessner's InchMurder Ballades,Inch works that tease out the homicidal strain of old folk tunes. In InchDown in the Willow Garden,Inch a classic Appalachian tune, Oldham sings bleary-eyed atop harshly twanging timbres; InchUnderneath the FloorboardsInch takes inspiration from a recent murderous classic by Sufjan Stevens. These explorations of violence are natural fits for Oldham, who has always examined the interstices between intimacy and cruelty. Four of his songs appear here in new, sumptuous arrangements by pianist Lisa Kaplan. In Cincinnati, Oldham compared working with Eighth Blackbird to becoming acquainted with a Inchhaunted house,Inch continually returning to the same spot and observing how his fear was interlaced with a charged energy. The arrangements push Oldham's voice to new heights, as in the ecstatic refrain of InchNew PartnerInch or the lithe polyrhythms of InchBeast for Thee.Inch On InchOne with the BirdsInch and InchWhen Thy Song,Inch shimmering introductions deploy avant-garde effects as a window into Oldham's bleak, poignant sound world. Musicologist Matthew Mendez has identifi

Recorded at the a historic major tag studio in Hollywood, LJ is joined on a few tracks by legends Leland Sklar (bass) Russ Kunkel (drums) and Jim Cox (keyboards). Mixing originals (the new InchBullet Train BoogieInch is an instant classic) and tasty covers such as InchLet's Stay TogetherInch as an ensemble recording with InchLaylaInch and InchAll of MeInch as solo arrangements. For the purists in the audience three bonus solo versions of the ensemble tracks round out this ultimate LJ CD!