Holes in the Sky
Lara Downes & Friends
Sony Masterworks
By Lou Fancher
April 12, 2019
Pianist Lara Downes
leaves no room for doubt. Given the choice as a professional musician
to rant about male composers’ dominance in music history, the repertoire
of orchestras, chamber ensembles and soloists, and jazz, pop, funk,
R&B, folk, and other playlists, or to rave about brilliant,
overlooked women composers, Downes chooses the latter.
Sacramento-based Downes’s new album released in early March, Holes in the Sky,
celebrates a multigenerational, cross-genre collection of female
composers and musicians. Among the 22 tracks are works written or
performed by 20th century composer Florence Price, songwriter Judy
Collins, violinist Rachel Barton Pine, instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens,
cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing, composers/performers Meredith Monk,
Clarice Assad, Lil Hardin Armstrong, and more. A world premiere by
Jennifer Higdon, Notes of Gratitude, extends the sonic range in
a six-minute work featuring unconventional harmonies, percussive
plucking inside the instrument, and lush, “proper” piano passages.
“You can write a lot of notes,” Downes says, “but what makes great
writing is transforming the instrument. To create color takes a gift.
Jennifer is prolific, with a range as a composer that’s vast. She sent
me this piece and it felt like it had a home here, in terms of rounding
out the sound world. It’s a fascinating piece that lets me do things
with the piano that’s outside of the rest of the record.”
Downes spoke to us about the new CD, balance she finds in her busy
personal and professional lives, and the purpose that today — more than
ever before — compels her musicianship.
You wrote in an email that Holes in the Sky is “honestly the favorite project I’ve ever done.” Will you share your thoughts on why?
I’ve had collaborations before, but have never before enjoyed the
generosity, trust and flexibility I’ve had on this one. I underestimated
the excitement these women would have to share. It’s been sustaining
and nourishing. At the heart of it, being a solo musician is lonely. I
draw from audiences and listeners and I’m fortunate to have that. But to
actually create this thing with a group of people invested in making
something beautiful; I don’t want to fall into clichés, but it’s like a
sisterhood, a collective. Can you imagine being in a studio with Judy
Collins and forgetting she’s Judy Collins? It’s been that kind of thing:
we’re all just making something new and digging deep for it.
What was your research process and were there discoveries that surprised you or might surprise listeners to the CD?
There were a lot of stories that I knew, like the one behind the song,
“Just for a Thrill.” Any person you talk to about that song will say,
“Oh, the Ray Charles song.” But actually, it was written by Lil Hardin Armstrong.
All the stories of her ... well, she was married to Louis Armstrong.
That is quite an act to follow. Yet she wrote this incredible song — and
then it becomes associated with another male giant in the music world. I
knew that story and was intrigued. There have been many women composers
in the [Great] American Songbook who’ve been overlooked.
***
Will you tell us about working with cellist Ifetayo Ali-Landing and the urban youth vocal ensemble Musicality?
Ifetayo is a kid I know through the Sphinx organization. I wanted to
feature young women and shine the spotlight. She’s based in Chicago and I
asked around for a local vocal group. Musicality was recommended. We
did a few takes and I loved their ethereal, young voices. That descant
line of upper harmony we threw in above the melody is there because one
girl had such a wonderful, high voice. You know, usually there’s time,
money, and perfectionism causing tension during recording sessions. With
this project, there hasn’t been any of that. Every session was just
musicians trying things and experimenting with confidence because we
knew what we were doing.
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