Cedille Records forwards this review:
Black Grooves
February 1, 2019
In 1997, violinist Rachel Barton Pine presented her landmark album, Violin Concertos by Black Composers of the 18th & 19th Centuries, on the Cedille Records label. Released 21 years later, Blues Dialogues
is the most recent culmination of Pine’s ongoing research into music by
Black composers. Going beyond the confines of Western classical music,
her new project features twelve works that draw upon the African
American experience and more specifically, blues idioms, which the
violinist claims is her “second-favorite genre of music.” This is
certainly a fitting sentiment for a Chicago native, especially one who
has polished her blues chops by jamming with two local legends—Son Seals
and Sugar Blue.
Accompanied by her principal recital partner, pianist Matthew Hagle,
Pine opens the album with “Blues (Deliver My Soul),” written in 1968 by
the late composer, legendary jazz educator and Indiana University Jacobs
School of Music professor David N. Baker.
In the liner notes, Pine explains how she discovered this work as a
teenager and was immediately captivated by its adaptation of a classic
12-bar blues progression. Opening with a virtuosic cadenza, Pine then
settles into the bluesy style with ease, while Hagle’s chord
progressions reflect Baker’s roots in the Black church. Together they
create a harmonious interplay between the sacred and secular.
Two more pieces from the same era follow. Noel Da Costa’s
“A Set of Dance Tunes for Solo Violin” (1968) is a transformative
arrangement of five American fiddle tunes, concluding with “New Orleans
Clog Blues.” This is the first commercial recording of the work, which
certainly deserves more attention, and Pine’s nimble approach to these
tunes is delightful. Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson’s
three movement “Blue/s Forms” (1972) delves into shifting tonalities
and “blue notes,” while his “Louisiana Blues Strut” (2001) for solo
violin reimagines the cakewalk.
Also represented on the album are three of the most well-known African American composers from an earlier era. William Grant Still’s
Suite for Violin and Piano (1943) is a true classic. The three-movement
work, inspired by sculptors, also explores bluesy syncopated rhythms. Clarence Cameron White’s
“Levee Dance,” op. 26, no. 2 (1927) was frequently performed by Jascha
Heifetz as an encore piece. The central theme is from the spiritual “Go
Down Moses,” to which White added a blue-note chromaticism as well as a
showstopping cadenza. Duke Ellington’s popular “In a Sentimental Mood” (1935) is featured in a newer arrangement for violin and piano by Wendell Logan that provides both instruments an opportunity to shine.
On the second half of the album, Pine performs works by contemporary composers. The title track, “Blues Dialogues” by Delores White, is a free-flowing four movement fantasy, followed by “Woogie Boogie” (1999) from Belize-born British composer Errollyn Wallen. “Filter” (1992), by the always fascinating Daniel Bernard Roumain,
draws primarily upon hip-hop and electronic dance music. At Pine’s
request, he added a cadenza on a “psychedelic” blues scale, and her
execution of this wicked passage is jaw-dropping. Billy Child’s
“Incident on Larpenteur Avenue” (2018), commissioned by Pine, is a
haunting political statement that “explores the events and impact of the
2016 killing of Philando Castile by
a Minnesota police officer,” including the sound of the seven fatal
gunshots. Charles S. Brown’s “A Song Without Words (1974) draws upon
Blind Willie Johnson’s iconic recording “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground.” Pine convincingly transfers the work’s improvised vocal line to violin, once again proving her incredible versatility.
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