Leading the pack of interesting characters is Senior Sergeant Mike Shepherd (Neil Rae). Not only does he drive a vintage car – which to his junior officer’s astonishment still has a cassette player – he’s an avid country music fan and tends to have chats with the corpses whose murders he’s trying to solve.

His subordinates, Detective Kristin Sims (Fern Sutherland) and Detective Constable (DC) Breen (Nic Sampson) might still enjoy teasing their boss about his odd habits, but they also respect his abilities as a detective. Part of the pleasure of the show is watching the three detectives interact over the course of an investigation.

The town of Brokenwood is a character itself in the series. From the picturesque New Zealand settings used as its locations to its inhabitants – they all combine to make a rich tapestry against which murder stands out vividly. Especially if you’ve been watching the series for a while and have become familiar with Brokenwood’s inhabitants.

In this case familiarity does not breed contempt. In fact part of the pleasure of watching the show is seeing familiar faces and watching the interactions between the various people who live in the town and the detectives.

Speaking of familiar faces, anyone who has watched any of the other TV shows (or films) from New Zealand that have made their way over to North America will spot some throughout the four episodes of ‘Series 5’. You might not recognize their names but Olivia Tennet, Shane Cortese and Dean O’Gorman who make guest appearances in Brokenwood this time round have will be recognizable to fans of 800 Words and The Almighty Johnsons.

The scripts and stories in The Brokenwood Mysteries: Series 5 are of the high quality we’ve come to expect from the show. Well mainly lighthearted in approach, the show’s writers are equally capable of handling sensitive issues with the finesse and delicacy they deserve.

Even better is the manner in which they’re able to work things like sexual harassment, bullying and even mental health issues, into the plots without taking away from the story or being obvious about their intent. It’s all part of what makes this show a joy to watch.

The Brokenwood Mysteries: Series 5 is a wonderful mix of character, location and stories that is sure to delight both seasoned fans of the show and newcomers alike. So, next time you’re in the mood for a little murder take a trip to scenic New Zealand and meet the quirky inhabitants of the town of Brokenwood. You won’t regret it.

The post Blu-ray Review: ‘The Brokenwood Mysteries: Series 5’ appeared first on Blogcritics.

A few years ago we premiered videos from her album of Bach’s Cello Suites; around the same time, I heard her perform another concert of modern pieces. Her explorations continues. The quality of the music in this latest program ranged from exhilarating to predictable, but her technique and sensitivity revealed all the works in advantageous light.

The concert opened with Gity Razaz’s “Legend of Sigh.” This compelling work traces a suicidal woman’s journey through despair, an enlightening dreamscape, and transformation. An evocative video clarifies the narrative, mingling abstract and concrete imagery. The music encompasses interesting melodic modes and orchestral textures, building to a curious roar that suggests a psychedelic happening. (For more on this piece, including a video, and other music by Razaz, see my review of a 2016 Segev concert that also included “Legend of Sigh.”)

Captivating in a very different way was Anna Clyne’s “Rest These Hands,” a transcribed movement from a longer work for solo violin. A hypnotic drone underlies a melody that suggests the Middle East. This leads to a sequence of dramatic arpeggios, which were executed by Segev with dextrous three-dimensional bowing, and anxious runs assertively played.

Electronics returned in Missy Mazzoli’s “A Thousand Tongues.” Mazzoli made some waves recently with her chilling new opera Proving Up. In “A Thousand Tongues,” written before the composer began writing opera, chunky blocks of recorded sound accompany the cello lines, then recede in favor of a section that reads like a slightly twisted romantic air. Recorded vocals join the mix, but wordlessly, illustrating the lines by Stephen Crane that inspired the piece: “Yes, I have a thousand tongues,/And nine and ninety-nine lie./Though I strive to use the one,/It will make no melody at my will,/But is dead in my mouth.” But just as the loud experimental soundscape began to overwhelm the cello, Segev’s beautifully sweeping tone emerged and reasserted its centrality. As in opera, melody in the end can’t be stamped out.

As a piece for solo acoustic cello, “Perhaps” by Reena Esmail provided another good medium to highlight Segev’s warm true tone and fulsome musicality. The music itself, though, came across as pretty, but not very interesting, with a bland film accompaniment. Having read the brief program notes, I wasn’t surprised. As a reviewer of new music recordings and concerts, I read a great many prose glosses on modernistic pieces. Describing or commenting on what is essentially an abstract art requires humility, and demands one not take oneself too seriously. I’ve observed that the more philosophically strained the commentary, the less impactful the music itself usually is.

That’s the case with “Perhaps.” The program notes, by the filmmaker, refer to ever-trendy philosopher Jacques Derrida’s conception of “perhaps” as a noun. Addressing a film – the one that accompanies this piece, I assume (but not Esmail’s music itself!) – it says: “Perhaps as both a noun and an adverb is a suspension that creates space to allow anything to happen.” (True, I suppose, but so does a silence or an empty page.) The note goes on: “in this sense, the concept for me is something that allows room for hope – something very rare these days.” Indeed so. If the images on the screen or the notes in this piece of music reflect those ideas, it escaped me. The words are too far from the meat of the art they’re meant to illuminate. End of rant.

The concert ended in more straightforward fashion with the “dance party” (Segev’s apt description) of “Spinning Song” by Dan Cooper, the program’s lone male composer. The title recalls a ubiquitous piece drummed cruelly into piano students of a certain age, but if you were one of those students, put that right out of your mind. Cooper’s rambunctious “Spinning Song,” originally for violin and electronics, cruises from beat to beat, rhythmic and percussive. In Segev’s energetic realization it glowed with a effervescent, tribal energy, a bracing end to a varied and virtuosic evening. 

The post Concert Review: Cellist Inbal Segev – ’21st Century Women’ appeared first on Blogcritics.

After covering the Music Festival for the last four years, I’ve found it best to follow several must-see artists, pick a few favorite venues, and keep an open mind as I traverse Austin’s eclectic downtown area for a one-of-a-kind live music experience in a one-of-a-kind music city.

This year features over 2,000 official performers – many of whom are first-timers – from over 60 countries. They hope to make their marks and take their careers to the next level. As silly as it may be to get caught up in the spring-summer music festival hoopla, being a SXSW showcasing artist is still a big deal for most emerging artists as they try to navigate and succeed in an ever-changing music industry.

Several music acts I hope to see:

• Andrew Bird
• The Beths
• Blushing
• Broken Social Scene
• Cherry Glazerr
• Ella Vos
• Japanese Breakfast
• Jealous of the Birds
• Nicole Atkins
• Oh Pep!
• Two People

Besides the many downtown venues, SXSW features three official stages at the Convention Center for more intimate performances and an Outdoor Stage at Lady Bird Lake. The latter stage is open to the public if you apply for a free Guest Pass. This year it features performances by X Ambassadors, Andrew Bird, and Patty Griffin.

There aren’t as many quasi-private showcases as in years past. Collide is back. So is FLOODfest. No word on Pandora nor Spotify (seriously, please Google it if I’m wrong). A quick shout-out to the free ACLU100 exhibition on March 9 at 8pm, hosted by Padma Lakshmi and DJed by Questlove, which celebrates the organization’s many decades of fighting for basic human rights.

As always, the music festival is fluid. Check the SXSW Schedule regularly and keep the official SXSW Go App updated for best live results.

The post SXSW Music Festival 2019: Preview (March 11–17, Austin, Texas) appeared first on Blogcritics.

Thinking about my many years here at Blogcritics, I appreciate the profound impact this experience has had on me as a writer and as a person. It gave me a venue for my work and a global audience as well. As an editor, I learned of many new perspectives and read and edited work from writers from all over the world. The word “appreciation” comes to mind but only begins to describe how much this place has meant to me.

I recall a few emails between Eric Olsen (co-founder with Phillip Winn) and me back in 2005. Once I went through the application process, Eric welcomed me aboard. The first article I wrote was about the death of the beloved James Doohan, who played Scotty on the original Star Trek series.

This was a monumental step for me as a writer because before this moment I had written mostly fiction and an occasional poem. Unsure of myself as a nonfiction writer, this opened the door for me and I never looked back. I started writing movie reviews, opinion pieces, television series reviews, and even a piece about my turkey meatloaf recipe. I found my nonfiction voice and discovered it could carry a tune.

All these years – and hundreds of articles – later I am forever grateful for the opportunity Eric gave me to join “a sinister cabal of superior writers.” He also eventually brought me on as an editor, and that allowed me to grow as a writer as well. There is nothing like reading and editing other people’s work to learn so much more about being a writer. It also provided a chance to “meet” so many writers as I worked with them while editing their articles. These virtual connections have been rewarding ones, and I have BC to thank for them.

At first, I functioned as co-sports editor with Charlie Doherty, and along the way I edited some very fine articles about teams, players, and big games. I also had fun writing articles about sports – many about my beloved Mets and Jets – and I especially liked writing stories that explored sports’ controversies like baseball’s steroid debacle and football’s problem with concussions (chronic traumatic encephalopathy or CTE).

When Eric passed the reins of BC on to Jon Sobel and Barbara Barnett, BC’s heart never skipped a beat. In their capable hands some sections morphed into new ones, but the basic cool vibe remained the same. I then became a Culture and Society editor; therefore, an even wider variety of articles came my way, many about theatre, actors, and the arts. I felt like I had found my niche.

When Jon and Barbara decided to start a BC Flash Fiction section, I became very excited but I was also a bit daunted – the challenge of writing a short story 1000 words or less seemed difficult for me. Word counts have always stressed me out – I can see myself as a kid counting the words of an essay with my pencil. How was I going to be able to compress my fiction into something 1000 words or less?

It took me some time of trial and error, but once I got a handle on shortening my work for this format, I got into it because I had met the challenge. Eventually I had written enough flash fiction stories to put them together in my book Flashes in the Pan. This is another reason why I think of BC with so much gratitude and affection – it has inspired me to change, to adapt, and to explore new pathways as a writer.

There also came a time when I realized that something happened to me – I couldn’t visit a place or see a movie without wanting to write about it for BC. This changed how I went about my vacation or sat watching a film. In the end I think it gave me a greater appreciation for travel and moviemaking because I was thinking about what I was doing in a completely different way.

So, after almost 14 years and probably a thousand or more articles written and edited, I am profoundly grateful for BC and the people connected to it. Thank you to Eric and Phillip, Jon and Barbara, Christopher Rose, Josh Lasser, Lisa McKay, Charlie Doherty, Eric Berlin, the late great Gordon Hauptfleish, and the many other writers and editors I have worked with here at BC.

It has been a rewarding and unforgettable experience, and it provided me with incentive to work harder and open myself to new ways of thinking and writing, and that is truly invaluable.

Thanks for everything, BC. It has been a blast!

Klaatu barada nikto!

The post ‘Blogcritics’ – An Appreciation appeared first on Blogcritics.

Detective Jay Swan (Aaron Pedersen) is sent to investigate the disappearance of two young men from a remote cattle station. (Station refers to land controlled by European settlers in Aboriginal territories). Along with local police sergeant Emma James (Judy Davis), he works to uncover what happened to the boys.

However their investigation is complicated by a few things. The first being the station the boys disappeared from is owned by James’ family, and run by her brother. The second, is Swan’s troubled daughter follows him to town brings her past with her. On top of that are the secrets buried in the communities, European and Aboriginal, that nobody with power wants revealed.

The fact that Swan is Aboriginal and has something of a reputation for being a maverick doesn’t make his life any easier either. Not only does his manner of conducting an investigation cause friction between him and James, he doesn’t care who’s feathers he ruffles in the process of uncovering the truth.

This isn’t the first time Pedersen has played Swan. He originally played him in the movies Mystery Road and Goldstone. According to an interview with Pedersen included in the special features, the events depicted in the TV series take place sometime after the events in the first movie, but before the second movie takes place. So, on the off chance you’ve seen both movies (they’re both brilliant with Goldstone currently airing on Netflix) that will explain any continuity issues you might encounter.

For those who haven’t seen Pedersen in anything other than a supporting role before he’s a revelation. He does the stoic cowboy/lone wolf thing as well as anybody out there. However, you quickly find out that’s not who the character really is. It’s just a shell he wears for protection. When the facade cracks we see all the pain and anxiety he’s trying to hide and control.

Davis is equally as good in her performance. Like Swan she presents a flinty exterior, but she genuinely cares about her community, both the European and Aboriginal, and is more concerned with justice than anything else. In fact, her concern for justice is so deep, the current case she’s working on leads her to try and rectify a crime committed over a hundred years ago.

Mystery Road is not just an immaculate police procedural and noir type detective story, the show’s writers have done an exemplary job of detailing the damage European settlement did to the indigenous population of Australian. Without belabouring points or making it obvious we not only witness the inequality in society but how the crimes of the past are still impacting the present.

Mystery Road is a brilliant piece of television combining a great noir police procedural with intelligent and subtle social commentary. A rare and great mix that makes it one of the best series of its type.

The post Blu-ray Review: ‘Mystery Road: Series 1’ appeared first on Blogcritics.

A Cornucopia of Stimulation

The film festival includes 134 feature films, 101 short films and 17 serials. Past SXSW episodic premieres have included Mr Robot and  American Gods.

This year over 2000 musical performers from around the world will share their talents on multiple stages and venues. The list keeps changing and is updated here.

Besides movies and music, the event explores technology, health, comedy, government, cannabusiness, sports, and gaming. Remember radio? It’s here, too.

The list of celebrities, newsmakers, and creatives in attendance seems to grow every year, making it a great place to do business, learn, party and touch the future. There is also a job fair.

Movie fan? This year you can see Olivia Wilde, Jodie Foster, Leonard Maltin, Elizabeth Banks, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Ethan Hawke

If you are a political wonk, you can attend sessions with John Boehner, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Senator Elizabeth Warren, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, former Governor John Kasich, former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Katie Couric will be there to talk about cancer and Dan Rather will lead a discussion on editing your genes. Self-driving cars your thing? Malcolm Gladwell and Jo Ling Kent will be driving that conversation. Blockchain and cryptocurrency will be explored in depth during six sessions. The NASA exhibit is always one of my favorites.

All the above just scratches the surface.

Faster

Two changes to make navigating the festival easier and one unknown factor can influence getting around Austin during this year’s SXSW.

Standing in long lines is a given at SXSW and the first line is the one to pick up your badge. The festival starts on Friday and until this year the first day you could pick up your badge at the Austin Convention Center was Thursday. Well, happy hump day, Austin, because now you can pick up your badge beginning at 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Wednesday, March 6. This should help cut down the wait.

The second improvement involves the SXSW Express Pass. This is like a Fast Pass at Disneyland which allows you to skip standing in long lines and get in first.

The Express Pass is free to anyone with Platinum, Interactive, Film, and Music Badges. It doesn’t guarantee entry but does get you to the head of a shorter line at conference sessions and parties, music festival showcases, film screenings, and comedy shows.  A limited number of passes are available depending on the event.

In past years you needed to show up early at the Convention Center on the day of the event to get an Express Pass. This year, you will be able to request the pass through the SXSW Go app on your phone the day prior to the event.

Maybe

What’s the “Maybe” about? For the first time in its history, SXSW will not be taking place during Spring Break. Why is that important? Because the University of Texas at Austin is a few blocks from the SXSW main venues. Its 50,000 plus students will be coming to class every day (maybe). Will this make a big difference? It’s a mystery.

For more info about attending the event, check their website.

See you in Austin.

The post SXSW 2019 Preview: Film, Music, Culture and Faster, Maybe appeared first on Blogcritics.

Gilda (Ana Luiza Rios) and Otavio (Tavinho Teixeira) enjoy the high life in a gigantic mansion on the coast of Brazil.

Otavio makes a good living running a private security firm that protects the citizens in the crime-ridden nearby city of Fortaleza — those who can afford his services, of course. He also enjoys the friendship of the powerful local congressman Borges (Pedro Domingues).

Their mansion is located on a sparkling private beach that seems millions of miles away from the riff raff. They employ impoverished locals as servants, alternately treating them like garbage and slaughtering them for their own amusement. This is one twisted couple.

Otavio also belongs to the elite Cannibal Club, whose membership consists solely of upper-crust men. They meet regularly to kill and eat hapless victims. They consider these people to be less than human. In their minds, they are the dregs of society, better off serving as food than continuing to take up space. The club is headed by Borges, who is fanatical in his quest to keep it a complete secret.

Borges tells Otavio that he suspects one of the club’s members to be disloyal and, just like that, he vanishes. Then, at an anniversary party, Gilda accidentally stumbles upon Borges doing something she shouldn’t have seen, and Otavio is terrified that their heads will be next on the chopping block.

Sprinkled with sequences of extreme gore and sex, The Cannibal Club sometimes feels like an art film co-created by John Waters and Herschell Gordon Lewis. However, instead of playing it all so broadly, Parente presents some of his most biting satire in a more subdued manner, which makes it all the more humorous.

For example, even though the amoral Gilda and Otavio have butchered plenty of lower-class victims, when faced with killing one of their class equals, Otavio exclaims, “But we’re not murderers!” And when a couple of men walk into a room where unseen assassins lay in wait, the door closes and sonic mayhem ensues — gunfire, shouts, groaning and scuffles.  It’s like something out of a Warner Bros. cartoon. You almost expect to see animated smoke billowing out from under the door.

The film is attractively lensed in widescreen by DP Lucas Barbi, whose camera isn’t afraid to linger over the more extreme visuals. The score by Fernando Catatau is appropriately bonkers, with styles ranging from sleazy jazz to carnival-style anthems.

Though it’s certainly not for all tastes, The Cannibal Club will be best appreciated by those who like their humor jet-black — with a side of fresh meat.

The Cannibal Club opens theatrically in select markets March 1, and nationally on VOD March 5.

The post Movie Review: Guto Parente’s Satirical ‘The Cannibal Club’ appeared first on Blogcritics.

The premise of New Dawn follows the end of Far Cry 5, which had Hope County devastated by a nuclear blast. The entire country (and potentially the world) has been affected by a nuclear exchange. The people of Hope County hid in bunkers, and emerged to rebuild, forgetting real-world science and assuming the radioactive fallout would not kill everyone.

The action picks up 17 years after Far Cry 5. My character entered the remains of Hope County in a train as part of an aid caravan. This world, now post-apocalypse, is not composed of the barren landscapes of a Mad Max or Fallout mythos, but instead vibrant, colorful, and frankly beautiful. The train is attacked by the new villains, twin sisters Mickey and Lou, who lead a faction called the Highwaymen. My character is left to save the day as per usual.

What is not standard is the delineation between good and evil. In many of these games, like Far Cry, Uncharted, and Call of Duty, you are in the role of the ‘good guys.’ But many hundreds of people die by your hand. This is often explained by opposing people who are truly evil as demonstrated by their in-game actions. In Far Cry New Dawn that line is much grayer.

Like the Highwaymen my core foci are expansion, gaining resources, and protecting my people. Like the Highwaymen I only recruit people who can help my cause; there is literally no way to bring randoms into my base outside of the key personnel who can make a difference. As with the ‘heroes’ of The Walking Dead, sometimes both sides do horrible things.

The twins show their ‘villain’ card a number of times in various fairly heavy-handed ways. This makes it easier to justify my somewhat mirrored actions to eliminate them and prevent their people from taking advantage of the survivors in Hope County. But that contrast is certainly there.

The reasons this game clicked with me are the ridiculousness of the vibrant post-apocalyptic world and the re-emergence of Joseph Seed. Later on in the game, essentially superpowers are introduced that allowed me to truly just enjoy the experience as a fun popcorn flick style narrative. It’s similar to how Saints Row IV went (even more) ridiculous with superpowers and became the best game in that series.

Once I had my teeth into the game I realized once again that the Far Cry mechanics are pretty fantastic. Stealth weapons rule the roost, with bows, the truly epic saw launcher, and silenced weapons introduced and used ad nauseam in my playthrough. The ability to craft weapons, special ammo, and vehicles is really cool as well and adds to the variety when running through the world.

Other welcome additions to the series are the added or expanded RPG mechanics, such as skills; the ability to upgrade the home town of Prosperity; and Treasure Hunts. Prosperity is an interesting hub where certain portions can be upgraded to allow more crafting, traversal, and ability options.

Another great addition to the Far Cry formula is expeditions. These are essentially out-of-story raids on beautiful set-pieces like aircraft carriers or mining towns. I could trigger them by talking to the local pilot, and even replay on harder difficulties. These expeditions rewarded me with valuable resources and frankly were plain fun to experience.

Settlements are another neat aspect of New Dawn. They are dotted around the map and encountered naturally or tagged on the map by survivors. Once the settlements are freed they generally rewarded me with plenty of resources (especially the key one, Ethanol), and are mini-hubs that can be used to launch from. They can also be ‘scavenged’ which allows the Highwaymen to reclaim the sites, so I can take them back again against tougher odds but for higher rewards.

Between the expeditions and settlements there are also Treasure Hunts, similar in idea to the Prepper Stashes in Far Cry 5. These are also queued by the survivors I met, but were always accompanied by some truly fun story beats. Sometimes it was a crazy machine I had to figure out; other times it was following the trail of an unlucky survivor just trying to stash his stuff and dogged by animals and bandits. They always reward with perk points, Far Cry currency (which can also be bought with real money), and plenty of resources.

These three side ventures are completely optional (aside from some key story-based settlements) but add a truly enjoyable way to grind for resources and abilities. I hesitate to even use the word grind because I found stealth clearing settlements, battling trough expeditions, and discovering the Treasure Hunts to be really fun.

Throughout these side ventures and the main game the core mechanics of Far Cry are pretty fixed. I established footholds in new areas, hunted animals and bad guys, fired a lot of weapons, and traversed the map in all sorts of weird and fun ways.

There are a host of companions, from the truly annoying Hurk and the interesting Pastor Jerome to animals like Horatio the wild pig and Timber the dog. All of the companions level up as they take out enemies, with you gaining new abilities. Timber was hard to displace for me as the dog could actually see more and more resources and enemies (even through walls) and flag them to me as he leveled up. This removed a lot of the annoying searching for resources. Plus he is so damn cute!

In the end Far Cry New Dawn was a truly enjoyable game for me once I embraced it as a silly popcorn style action experience. The mechanics are proven and amazing, and the new and expanded features are truly fun; they actually made a post-apocalyptic world look beautiful and fun to explore. Far Cry New Dawn is available now on PC, Xbox One and PS4.

The post PC Videogame Review: ‘Far Cry New Dawn’ appeared first on Blogcritics.

Saturday night, at a 5 Boroughs Music Festival concert at the Old First Reformed Church in Brooklyn, the trio showed that this surprising juxtaposition is no gimmick. In the second half of the 17th century, musicians began playing French art songs (airs sérieux), originally written to be sung, on newly invented woodwind instruments instead. Baroque oboist Debra Nagy founded Les Délices a decade ago in part to revive this music. Her latest inspiration has been to explore the resonance between those old airs and the sophisticated songs of the 20th century.

Rounding out the trio were Mélisande Corriveau, one of the finest viol players on the scene, and the superb harpsichordist Eric Milnes. The textures they create together range from dark and mysterious to vibrant and bright. One variable is Corriveau’s facility on both the tenor viola da gamba and the less-often heard pardessus de viole, the member of the viol family with the highest range (and five instead of six strings). Held in the lap, the instrument was popular centuries ago when the similarly sized and newly ascendant violin was considered inappropriate for women to play.

More importantly, the trio is adept at varying energy and emotional tenor through rhythmic playfulness and creative arrangements. They got the soulful spirit of Billy Strayhorn’s “A Flower is a Lovesome Thing,” Nagy’s wooden oboe approaching the tone of a soprano sax. They swung easily on tunes like “Crazy” (the Patsy Cline hit), the Beatles’ “Michelle” (which, recall, has some French lyrics), and the crowd-pleasing standard “Autumn Leaves.” Corriveau laid down a jaunty and pretty solid walking bass line on the last, something I’ve never heard before on a viola da gamba.

Meanwhile their expressive renditions of centuries-old French songs were full of courtly romance and dreamy rubatos. They bathed their first Marin Marais selection in lush atmospherics. They found a dramatic and brighter tone in a song by Jean-Baptiste Lully featuring the pardessus. They evoked passionate romance in two works by Joseph Chabanceau de la Barre, a composer I’d never heard of.

They returned to Marais for the evening’s pièce de resistance, a new arrangement of his well-known “Folie d’espagne” that took the form of an impressive set of variations. These managed to bring to mind not only great works in that genre by the likes of Brahms, but also the jazz tradition, as Nagy and Corriveau traded improvised-sounding sixteens.

That marvelous performance wafted straight into another minor-key song in 3/4 time, Edith Piaf’s “La Foule.” The trio adorned it with the characteristic ornamented double verses of the early French airs. Conversely, in this expansive context, “Vos mespris” by Michel Lambert with its friendly melody could almost have been a 20th-century song.

Altogether the trio succeeding in illuminating the consonances among these songs of near and distant centuries. Crucially, they seemed to have a good deal of fun doing it. Playing with impeccable taste, tone, timbre, and togetherness, they revealed how in an important sense the song does remain the same, though it flowers in infinite variety.

Centuries ago the French transplanted their airs from the human voice to the the wordless tones of wooden instruments. In the 20th century and on into the 21st, jazz musicians reimagine 20th- and 21st-century songs in instrumental settings. Les Délices has stepped back to give us an even wider perspective by crafting intimate and incisive arrangements of material from different eras. 

See Les Délices online for their upcoming events, and the 5 Boroughs Music Festival website for upcoming concerts around NYC.

The post Concert Review: Les Délices Finds the Links Between Baroque and Jazz (NYC, 23 Feb 2019) appeared first on Blogcritics.

Our Native Daughters are Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell. Each of the women have accomplished musical careers in their own right and bring a wealth of personal and professional experience to the project. Oh, and each of the women are also African American (well Canadian in the case of Russell).

While we can profess to be colour blind all we like, the reality is you can’t help but look at a person and notice the colour of their skin. So get over it. The fact each of them are of African descent is important, because the songs on this album deal with the reality of being of that heritage – both historically and contemporarily.

Some of the tracks are going to make a lot of people uncomfortable and some of them are going to make others angry. Unfortunately the latter will be for all the wrong reasons. All these songs should make everyone angry for the injustices and indignities they depict from the past and the present. But too many people will only be angry because they’ll see them as attacks on their precious privileges.

Maybe these people won’t be able to see past that, but for the rest of us this is an album of brilliant and emotionally potent music. Each of the songs have sprung from the experiences of African Americans and their history in North America. In “Quasheba, Quasheba” Russell recreates the history of the slave her family is descended from and tries to pass back a message of hope through the mists of time, “You were Forgotten/Almost forsaken/Your children founded generations/Your strength sustained them/They won their freedom/Traced their roots to find you waiting.”

As Giddens points out in her introduction to the collection the songs aren’t just about the African experience, they’re about being a woman and an African American. Too often shunted aside and reduced to secondary roles throughout history or ignored, the songs on this disc help to shed light on their lives and history.

“Polly Ann’s Hammer” tells the story of John Henry’s wife, the person who had to carry on when he died after being worked to death. “This is the hammer killed John Henry/Won’t kill me, won’t kill me/This is the hammer killed your daddy/Throw it down and we’ll be free.”

Nobody ever bothered to think about what happened to the wife who had to carry on, working and feeding her babies after John Henry died until now. This is a piece of brilliance which encapsulates the neglect and abuse African American women have had to, and continue to, endure.

Songs of Our Native Daughters isn’t just a statement about political and social injustice, its an album of music that’s both touching and sublime. It also serves as a timely reminder that to attempt to pigeon hole somebody’s musical inclinations because of the colour of their skin is a farce.

Four African American women playing banjos (for those who might have forgotten – the banjo was an instrument brought to North America by African slaves) is enough to make a lie out of any stereotypes you might still be harbouring about music. The fact they’re singing everything from Creole to Bluegrass influenced music – with all sorts of stops along the way – proves the diversity of African influenced music in North America and beyond. (Slaves were in the Caribbean and South America – everywhere Europeans needed disposable labour)

Songs like “Mama’s Crying Long” might break your heart, but their take on Bob Marley’s “Catch A Fire” – “Slave Driver” for their purposes – and the song “Moon Meets the Sun” are affirmations of hope for the future. This is an album as rich and textured, and fraught with violence and emotional turmoil, as the history of Africans in the Western Hemisphere. Not for the faint hearted or narrow minded, but if you let it Songs of Our Native Daughters will open your mind and strengthen your heart.

The post Music Review: Our Native Daughters – ‘Songs of Our Native Daughters’ appeared first on Blogcritics.