Alessandra Shulman

Adam Shulman's festive release on Cellar music takes a clutch of well-loved Christmas melodies and reflects them through the lens of a 70s funk/fusion group. Recorded at Hyde Street Studios in San Francisco in the same room as Herbie Hancock's seminal album Headhunters with Shulman on Rhodes, Wurlitzer, organ and synths, Jesse Levit on saxophone, Jason Muscat on bass and Jeff Marrs on drums.

The seven works on the disc (two each by Harry Partch, John Cage, and Lou Harrison and one by LaMonte Young) are among of the most enjoyable introductory albums to just intonation. Guitarist John Schneider, who arranged several of the pieces on the disc for harp and guitar, is joined by harpist Amy Schulman and, in one work, by percussionist Gene Sterling. Schneider's extensive and highly informative notes guide the reader painlessly through a discussion of tuning theories and the history of the pieces.

The trumpet has a curious fate. On the one hand, it is one of the oldest instruments created by humankind, and, with its many variants (in shape, matter, size and sound) it is found in most cultures through time and space. On the other hand, its standing as a solo instrument has been recognized only relatively recently in Western music, although the twentieth century saw a sudden and magnificent flowering of solo works for this instrument, not only in the classical repertoire but also in a wide range of other musical styles.

In Above the Sky non ci sono mezzi termini, è forse il mio album più “estremo”, nel quale la mia passione per il vuoto non concede spazio ad alcun compromesso; pur mantenendo, come nei miei precedenti lavori, l’elemento melodico, il mio interesse va diritto all’essenza del suono, alla musica intesa come colore puro e sperimentazione timbrica.