Product Review
This collection of chamber works by contemporary African American composers offers a fascinating look at how history and musical languages interweave. Olly Wilson's "Sometimes" is a tremendous exploration of voice and tape, held steady by William Brown's tenor, which seems to extend its range warmly while fragmenting "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child." T.J. Anderson's equally striking "Intermezzi," a trio for tenor saxophone, clarinet, and piano, presents assorted miniatures that come together improvisationally. Likewise, Donal Fox's contributions draw from "Intermezzi" and "Sometimes," inverting and interrogating constructions in freely improvised segments. David Baker's "Through This Vale of Tears" is a lengthy song cycle, using Brown's tenor, Vivian Taylor's piano, and a string quartet in a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It's wonderful to hear how 20th-century classical techniques merge with sonorities gleaned in part from avant-garde jazz. --Andrew Bartlett