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8 years ago

Volume 8 Issue 4 - December 2002/January 2003

  • Text
  • Toronto
  • December
  • Jazz
  • January
  • Theatre
  • Symphony
  • February
  • Choir
  • Musical
  • Arts

and is a combination" of

and is a combination" of originals and unusual treatments of standards. Random thought: Things . Ain't gets a curious treatment, with the original line being paraphrased and the whole owing more perhaps to funk than to Duke. ·It is quite common for musicians to look towards standard repertoire as a source of inspiration or to use as a springboard to something new and Don't Forget Flossie, for example, is an original in 3/4 time owing more than a little in its structure to the old standard Mean ToMe . . I've always preferred All The Things You Are at a slow tempo. koven does that, and adds a .brooding almost sombre quality to this Jerome Kem classic (as well as taking some liberties with the structure of the song : but that'~ O,K., although Mr. Kem would think otherwise: he did not approve of liberties being tal

ecordfog of many ~inter songs and a few Christmas ones. Their C:ommand of dynamics is admirable, and they are blessed in Sheldon ·Rose with an accompanist a pit above the average. The singers (all of whom are apparently female) perform a very .agreeable version of what must be the ultimate carol for children: Away in a Manger, with descant. They also do a rendition of Let It Snow! · Lei It Snow! Let It Snow! together with the rather sweet The Snow's Gottp, Go! by Mac Huff, and a clever medley titled It's Snowing!, which features a number of well known wintry tunes arranged · by Hillary Kinsdale. On the other hand, they are also accomplished enough to be able to handle a couple of Britten compositions, - including the none-too-simple This Little Babe. Finally, an all-instrumental Christmas CD from the True Nor th Brass, a . quintet that manages to convey a wide range of voices in this particularly Canadian CD. It opens with the triumphal jubilation of Healey , Willan'.s Hodie, Christus Na(us Est arranged (as are ·many of the selections) by the group's tuba player, Scott Iryine. Among ii number of very familiar choices, Irvine throws in his own Nowell Echoes and Meditations on a Huron Carol, the latter of which uses rain sticks, loon whistles and wine glasses along with piano and brass to e;voke the wild sounds of a Canadian winter, including the haunting hqwl of the wolf. The group shows virtuosity in such Qumbers as Gesu Bambino, with its long sustained notes. I Saw Three Ships achieves an ancient quality with the valveless horn and a bodhran; The Christmas Song has a Big Baad sound, while True North uses an unexpected samba be;it for Silver Bells. Many styles; one strong, true northern personality. All Christmas

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