New Music

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/10/2021 (1476 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

AMERICANA

Brandi Carlile

In These Silent Days (Low Country Sound)

Brandi Carlile’s 2019 breakthrough to mainstream recognition and Grammy Awards-show stardom must have been sweet vindication. She was a hardscrabble kid who quit school at 17 to pursue music and committed the next 20 years to resolutely chasing her dream with “The Twins” — her trusted bandmates and collaborators, Tim and Phil Hanseroth.

While Carlile’s thrilling contralto was always going to grab listeners attention, she refused to conform to rigid formats; standing fast to her own musical muse — an Americana/folk vibe that incorporates elements of classic rock as well as the dramatic flair of Queen or Elton John. Hers is a sound that others found hard to categorize but Carlile’s epic, show-stopping songs — such as The Story or The Joke — ultimately proved too powerful to ignore.

Now, after taking some time for herself and for her family — and, like everybody else, to ride out the pandemic — Carlile is back for her victory lap, which began earlier this year with the release of her memoir, Broken Horses, and now this, her seventh studio album.

Working again with co-producers Shooter Jennings and Dave Cobb, Carlile and the Hanseroths have created a 40-minute, 10-song outing that offers up some of her most personal lyrics to date while hitting on all her musical touchstones. Album opener Right On Time is a leadoff home run, a heartfelt, piano-driven ode to a lover/partner that builds to a soaring, vocals-and-strings crescendo. On You and Me on the Rock, Carlile channels her inner Joni Mitchell (one of her new best friends) in a light rock tune that’s dappled with California sun (and even channels the Jackson 5 in its bridge). Third song This Time Tomorrow is the epitome of the Carlile/Hanseroth sound, a gentle acoustic-guitar paean to their children, sung in peerless three-part harmony.

If listeners can recover from that one-two-three combination, there’s cinematic rock in Broken Horses, an ode to her younger self in Letter to the Past and a sweet quasi-lullaby in Stay Gentle, clearly written for her daughters. It’s all beautifully sung, powerfully played and, in its grandest moments, teeters on just the right side of being overblown. HHHH1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: Right on Time, This Time Tomorrow, Broken Horses

— John Kendle

ROOTS / COUNTRY

Mickey Guyton

Remember Her Name (Capitol Records Nashville)

It’s hard enough to be Black woman in America, but Mickey Guyton’s path in country music has been especially fraught with obstacles she had to overcome.

On her debut full-length album, released a decade after she was initially signed to her label (a fact that itself raises questions), Guyton has proven what hasn’t killed her has only made her stronger.

The Texas singer-songwriter’s extremely personal record confronts realities that mainstream country music often refuses to acknowledge, whether calling out systemic racism on the Grammy-nominated Black Like Me or ingrained sexism on What Are You Gonna Tell Her. Guyton’s blazing vocals express pain, power and perseverance on the title track Remember Her Name, an anthem about emerging through the fire.

She’s also flaunting and strutting on the catwalk-ready doo-wop bop Different, and her vocal runs on Lay It On Me are a spiritual experience. On a cover of Beyoncé’s hit If I Were a Boy, Guyton’s powerful voice hits all the emotional high notes of the tender ballad.

Guyton is honest about hitting rock bottom while still trying to make others comfortable, a relatable experience for anyone. “If I tell you the truth, will your heart be big enough to hold it,” she asks in Do You Really Wanna Know.

What makes Guyton stand out in country music is her empathic songwriting and an underlying optimism in humanity that doesn’t just rely on white-washed nostalgia. HHHH out of five

STREAM THESE: Black Like Me, Lay It On Me

— Kristin M. Hall, The Canadian Press

JAZZ

Andrew Cyrille Quartet

The News (ECM)

There is a common belief that the term “melodic avant-garde jazz” is an oxymoron. Not always, as this album demonstrates. Drummer Andrew Cyrille has been a leader in the free jazz world for decades with numerous bands and releases across the world of adventurous jazz. This album is a wonderful mélange of influences that swirl around both out-there and gentle moods.

His quartet has Ben Street on bass and Bill Frisell on guitar, with a “new” pianist replacing a regular Cyrille colleague who died last year. The pianist is David Virelles, a brilliant Cuban-born musician who, among other things, is redefining Latin jazz. (I first met Virelles when he was here as a teenager with limited English, playing with mentor Jane Bunnett’s band. He was a standout even then.)

While exploring harmonic and melodic frontiers, there is a sense of calm within often hugely complex and fascinating tunes. Incienso is a beautiful ballad with Virelles providing a lush solo. Frisell’s guitar shines on Baby and particularly on Go Happy Lucky, a wonderful blues track. The News is a clearly free jazz tune, with more electronic effects that stretch each member. Cyrille is always there in the background with rhythmic and solid leadership from the drum chair. Dance of the Nuances offers another example of explorative jazz with Cyrille giving gentle solo foundation.

There is absolutely no bombast here; no “aren’t we doing clever things”; no jarringly loud passages. The music is reflective, serious in intent and totally expressive. The final track, With You In Mind, begins with a poem about love, moves through a Virelles solo to the quartet giving a quiet goodbye. From beginning to end this is an example of fresh new jazz. HHHH1/2 out of five

STREAM THESE: Leaving East Of Java, Incensio

—Keith Black

CLASSICAL

Transatlantic

Garrett Keast, conductor

Chen Reiss, Soprano

Stathis Karapanos, Flute

Berlin Academy of American Music (Onyx Classics)

The Berlin Academy of American Music, a newly minted orchestra founded by artistic director Garrett Keast, celebrates the intercontinental ties that bind with their debut album Transatlantic.

The chamber group is dedicated to performing the works of American and American immigrant composers, with its inaugural offering recorded at the height of the global pandemic and featuring five selections spanning quieter introspection to sunny optimism rooted in the New World.

The first of those is Stravinsky’s Dumbarton Oaks, inspired by J. S. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with its angular rhythms and textures rendered with pinprick clarity.

That same composer’s No Word from Tom, an aria excerpted from his 1951 opera The Rake’s Progress, penned after he became a U.S. citizen in 1945, features soprano Chen Reiss whose agile soprano voice easily handles its virtuosic technical demands.

One of the most luscious offerings is Toru Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea II, featuring Greek flutist Stathis Karapanos’ eloquent alto flute joined by harpist Marie Pierre Langlamet during its three movements: The Night, Moby Dick and Cape Cod. The album also includes the première recording of Israeli-American composer Avner Dorman’s song cycle Nofim: Four Songs for Chamber Ensemble, as well as Craig Urquhart’s — assistant to the late, great Leonard Bernstein — Lamentation for Flute and String Orchestra as an expression of grief following the death of a friend.

But there is none better than Aaron Copland, who typifies the quintessential “American sound.” The original version of his Appalachian Spring Suite (subtitled Ballet for Martha in reference to choreographer Martha Graham) rounds out the album, its scoring for a compact ensemble of 13 instruments allowing the listener to hear with even greater clarity Copland’s fertile ideas. It climax, the Shaker melody Simple Gifts is an overall highlight that still brings a lump to the throat. HHHH out of five

STREAM THIS: Appalachian Spring Suite

— Holly Harris