Music Review: Sean Noonan Brewed By Noon - Boxing Dreams

A few years ago, I started writing down short descriptions of the bits of my dreams that managed to survive the evening. The moods ranged from pretty darned funny (Grateful Dead guitarist Jerry Garcia playing basketball for the Los Angeles Lakers) to somber in the extreme (two scuba divers having an underwater conversation about a third, who was a about to drown). After getting several of these down on paper, it occurred to me that the short vignettes had a lot in common with how I experience lyrics in popular music. That is: I hear them only in fragments.

Now, you might think that this ruins the artist's intent, that my model of perception would cause me to miss the point of a song. You might have me there but, in my defense, I do seem to 'get' most songs... over time and by a sort of musical osmosis.

Drummer/composer Sean Noonan put together Boxing Dreams as a series of musical dreamscapes, with each tune to be considered its own story. Despite the fact that these tales are delivered via Ireland, Senegal, Mali, and America (with languages Gaelic, Wolof, Bambara, and English), the music helps bring the stories to life — they make sense, even when the language does not. Very much like a dream.

With an incredible cast of players that includes Marc Ribot (guitar), Amram Bajakian (guitar, Max MSP), the great Jamaaladeen Tecuma on bass, and leader Noonan on drums, it's safe to say that you've never heard music like this before. The key players here are vocalists Susan McKeown and Abdoulaye Diabate, and Mat Maneri on viola. The vocals curl their way around each other, Maneri's viola acting like an extra voice.

Musical dreamscapes? Yes, beginning with the opening title track. Elongated guitar, viola, and bass lines swirl around creating a kind of ambient fog. Things slowly move toward the ominous as the guitar swells, finally erupting into a few huge power chords with even more powerful vocals from Abdoulaye Diabate. That exhilarating climax gives way to the transition into "Courage," where the story is told via Maneri's viola, intertwined with both Diabate's and McKeown's vocals. The searching nature of the tune doesn't prepare the listener for the song's jarring, almost punkish midsection. The surprising new direction really does represent Boxing Dreams in microcosm.

Article Author: Mark Saleski

Mark Saleski is a writer and music obsessive based out of the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. He has contributed to Jazz.com and also writes reviews for Blogcritics.org. He produces the weekly feature The Friday Morning Listen. …

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