Paul Davids

Bassist Mick Paul, best known for his work with the David Cross Band, is releasing his new album “Parallel Lives” on June 9th. The album features guest appearances by David Cross (King Crimson) and David Jackson (Van Der Graaf Generator). Says Mick about the new album, “I’m interested in the way our lives tend to mirror each other without us realising it, hence the title ‘Parallel Lives’. Two of the songs relate to my children who are now grown up, I can see how their lives echo mine and of course how my life has parallels with my parents and the way they saw things and reacted to events- and how it goes on through the generations. It is not a concept album in the traditional sense of having a story as such but I think there is cohesiveness to the overall content of the lyrics that tell some of my story. I also feel that the moods and general feel of the album very much reflect how I felt when I was writing it.”

Heinrich Schütz's Christmas Story, besides being a historical milestone, has always been one of 17th-century music's crowd-pleasers–the former because it's the ancestor of Christmas oratorios by Bach, Charpentier, and even Berlioz; the latter because it presents engaging depictions of the characters in the Nativity story with a cornucopia of colorful instruments (piping recorders for the shepherds, a galumphing bassoon (representing the gait of the camels?) for the three wise men, regally blaring cornets for King Herod, and pompous trombones for his priests).

German composer Michael Praetorius, whose life bridged the 16th and 17th centuries, was one of his era's most prolific writers, both of musical works and of works about music. His "Syntagma Musicum" remains one of the most important treatises on instruments and performance practice; he composed many volumes of Protestant hymn-based works, motets, psalms, works for multiple choir, and Latin music for the Lutheran service. The "Magnificat" performed on this program is one of 14 that Praetorius included in his Megalynodia Sionia, published in 1611. Its polyphonic style and rich instrumental writing–particularly for brass–is occasionally reminiscent of Gabrieli, whose works Praetorius studied; or Schutz, with whom he traveled throughout Germany.