Here go the first draft for two reviews of my newest favorite CD’s.
I will write more on each of them after my rigorous semester’s complete.
Gabriel Ayala. PORTRAITS: Music for Classical Guitar.
First off I must say when it comes to guitar music, I love the key of Dm. Yes, more than C, more than Am, more than G even! Bm? A not very close second ahead of everything else I suppose. So anyhow, Gabriel’s Toccata & Fugue is the 10th cut of 11 on this 2008 Canyon Records release.
Oh wow! I love this song, and I really loved this version of it. From the first triplet, to the pause before the next phrase, wow. It’s got that Israel Horowitz feel of the one big fat mic perfectly placed, too.
Albeniz’ Asturias – Leyenda I’ll pass by. I like it, but I have yet to love that song. Ayala’s version of Erik Satie’s Gymnopedie 1 was really pleasing too. A couple years ago I was asked to play some of the Saties including this one at the wedding of my friends Joel and Mollie. I got really good at them, and played out and was fairly satisfied that I could transfer the love of these songs to everyone in attendance. Many comments confirmed that I pulled it off OK. But as I listen to Ayala’s version, I realize there are still some staccatos and silences I’m going to have to keep playing around with before I can call it mastered, to be sure.
Mmmmm. The piece from Sor’s Magic Flute, was delightful. Ayala’s use of the juapango’ish fingernail strokes on the introductory chords did a great job of simulating trumpets or something. For me it worked. Then the waltzy song within a song thingamabob there after a minute or so was just downright fun. Lightly danced and very upbeat and bright. Great work.
More later I promise. This is an album I’m going to come back to many times like Segovia’s Tarrega, Torroba, Sor works that I bought on vinyl once when I was living in Green Bay working mostly on Carulli and Bach pieces. It helped broaden my horizons much; and so now with Gabriel Ayala — thanks, thanks, thanks!
Blackfire.
Wow. Dramatic first note, and the Dine language in the intro is felt even if you don’t speak the language. “We come in peace,” And many other truths, we “anglo society” don’t want to hear. Against the silence. Powerful stuff from a band we already remember as potent. Klee Benally sings and plays guitar and writes a lot. All three sing, and his sister plays bass with Clayson on drums. Between those two elements there is power in the first song that never lets up until the last song finishes. I’ve only seen them live once in Milwaukee, but I can easily imagine that a performance continues that way these days too.
A quote of a quote from a 2005 Northcoast Journal article sums them up really well.
“”Blackfire is my two brothers and myself,” said Janeda Benally, the band’s bass player, explaining that her family grew up on and off the Diné reservation, an embattled place where her people have struggled for years to avoid forced relocation put forward by the BIA, the Hopi and the Peabody Coal Company…”
Here’s another.
“…Janeda and her brothers, Klee and Clayson, came together as a band 15 years ago. “We only knew two songs, but they were our own songs,” said Janeda. “The music really found us, growing up where we did.””
I’ll never forget when they took a Nammy award in MKE and Klee gave some of the acceptance speech. He thanked George W. Bush for giving them plenty to write about.
Peaks Song, the 6th cut on this record is hard driving, pointed, and poignant even. “What do we want; Justice. When do we want it; now.”
Wow.
I think I like their punky metal stuff the best. But I love everything else too. Especially some of the moody stuff, which I’ll describe a lot more later too. But for now let me touch “Common Ground” a little.
Common Ground was written about hurricanes Katrina and Rita. So how fitting is it that Cyril Neville’s featured throughout? He came up with the words for the chorus; and the band blogs that “Cyril has been a strong voice in the failure of the U$ to address the tragedies in New Orleans and works very closely with the Mardi Gras Community.”
I’ll tackle Blackfire’s dad’s CD later too. That’s the second CD of the Recording and it’s quite remarkable as well.
Here go some links:
http://www.ayalaguitarist.com
http://www.nevilles.com/#_bio-cyril
http://www.blackfire.net