All The Way

Three and a half decades after Diamanda Galás’ first recordings as a solo vocalist, she still talks about her singing as an act of violence. Musing to Rolling Stone about her performance of the folk standard “O Death”—versions of which are included on both of her new records, All the Way and At Saint Thomas the Apostle Harlem—she describes it as a cycle of destruction. “You keep breaking it and breaking it and breaking it and desiccating it and putting it back together until it becomes a new life form,” she says. “And then you rip it apart again.” It’s an accurate description of that solo piano piece—which traffics in the California-born composer’s longheld affinities for bebop, blues, and stately morbidity—but it’s also a handy summation of the harrowing work Galás has made for her whole career.

Born on August 26, 1958 in a small town in northern Israel, Mordy Ferber began his musical journey as a singer at the age of 10. He formed a trio and performed at school events and small concerts in his hometown. At the age of 12, after picking up a guitar at the home of a family friend, he decided to take some formal guitar lessons; that lasted almost a year.This album of the guitarist with a textural jazz style, featuring Bob Mintzer on sax, flute, and bass clarinet.