Williams Synthia

Blues music award nominee for soul blues female artist of the year Sharrie Williams is back with a soul inspiring, blues filled workout. Out Of The Dark presents the princess of rockin' gospel blues at the height of her powers. Three time Blues Music Award nominee and 2012 Blues Album of the Year award winner from L'Academie du Jazz, Sharrie Williams was born and raised in the Daniel Heights projects of Saginaw, Michigan. Sharrie began singing in the church choir at the age of six, and by the time she was 12 she had begun touring and recording with the Greater Williams Temple church choir.

Given that John Williams has his pick of much of the $80-million, thrill-packed boilerplate that comes clanging out of Hollywood every summer and fall, it's especially noteworthy (and often gratifying) when he doesn't exercise his option. In scoring Alan Parker's adaptation of Frank McCourt's Pulitzer-winning memoirs of his dire Irish upbringing in the 1930s and '40s, Williams has produced a graceful, autumnal work of compelling, though decidedly delicate, emotional power. Using spare piano and solo woodwind melodies filled with longing eloquence, Williams effectively punctuates a sweeping, largely string and wind ensemble. As he did to great effect in The Phantom Menace, the veteran leans heavily on his classical moonlighting duties for inspiration. Interspersed throughout (and also effectively underscored by his music) are concise, telling excerpts of the film's narration read by Alan Bennett.

Featuring Vaughan Williams’ masterly and intensely personal Five Mystical Songs, this album reflects on the sources of inspiration of some of his sacred choral works, alongside gems of 19th- and early-20th-century English church music. Often setting the poetry of the King James Bible, the finely spun melodies and sensitivity to word-rhythm of composers from S. S. Wesley to Herbert Howells result in a uniquely British form of expression.