This may be the single most powerful piece of music that the Kronos Quartet has ever recorded, and perhaps that Terry Riley has ever written. This is because Requiem for Adam is so personal, so direct, and experiential. Requiem for Adam was written after the death of Kronos violinist David Harrignton's son. He died, in 1995, at the age of 16, from an aneurysm in his coronary artery. Riley, who is very close to the Harringtons and has a son the same age, has delved deep into the experience of death and resurrection, or, at the very least, transmutation. Requiem for Adam is written in three parts, or movements. The first, "Ascending the Heaven Ladder," is based on a four-note pattern that re-harmonizes itself as it moves up the scale. There are many variations and series based on each of these notes and their changing harmonics, and finally a 5/4 dance as it moves to the highest point on the strings. The drone-like effect is stunning when the listener realizes that the drone is changing shape too, ascending the scale, moving ever upward and taking part in the transmutation of harmony.
Produced by Evans' former employer Ry Cooder, Blues for Thought often sounds like a Cooder album with a great singer. Better yet, Cooder has retained the services of some A-list studio cats, but manages to make them sound like drunken denizens of a Mississippi roadhouse. With the legendary Jim Keltner leading the way with his powerhouse thwacka-thwacka, and Cooder laying down his usual ultra-soulful licks, Evans and company groove mightily though a collection of first-rate material, including blues classics and Evans originals that sound like classics. Highlights are numerous, but one is the second song, "Hey Mama, Keep You Big Mouth Shut," which is almost assuredly the only version of a Bo Diddley tune to feature an oud…
Produced by Evans' former employer Ry Cooder, Blues for Thought often sounds like a Cooder album with a great singer. Better yet, Cooder has retained the services of some A-list studio cats, but manages to make them sound like drunken denizens of a Mississippi roadhouse. With the legendary Jim Keltner leading the way with his powerhouse thwacka-thwacka, and Cooder laying down his usual ultra-soulful licks, Evans and company groove mightily though a collection of first-rate material, including blues classics and Evans originals that sound like classics. Highlights are numerous, but one is the second song, "Hey Mama, Keep You Big Mouth Shut," which is almost assuredly the only version of a Bo Diddley tune to feature an oud…
Produced by Evans' former employer Ry Cooder, Blues for Thought often sounds like a Cooder album with a great singer. Better yet, Cooder has retained the services of some A-list studio cats, but manages to make them sound like drunken denizens of a Mississippi roadhouse. With the legendary Jim Keltner leading the way with his powerhouse thwacka-thwacka, and Cooder laying down his usual ultra-soulful licks, Evans and company groove mightily though a collection of first-rate material, including blues classics and Evans originals that sound like classics. Highlights are numerous, but one is the second song, "Hey Mama, Keep You Big Mouth Shut," which is almost assuredly the only version of a Bo Diddley tune to feature an oud…
Singer/Guitarist Brownie McGhee and his life-long musical partner, blind harp-man, Sonny Terry are best known as champions of the "Piedmont"-style blues pioneered by artists such as Blind Blake, Blind Willie McTell and Blind Boy Fuller. In the 1960s, they became icons of the folk-blues revival. The recording presented here however showcase a different chapter of the story. This is a collection of raw and rocking jump blues cut between 1947 and 1955 for juke boxes in black beer joints and dancehalls by the New Jersey-based Savoy Record company. Essential blues recordings from two of the genres' most revered artists.