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Music

Kite Parade’s Retro Is Great From The Get-Go

Retro

Kite Parade is a project of multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter Andy Foster, and Retro is the second album from them. I always enjoy discovering new artists that immediately hit that pop/rock/prog sweet spot such as Jonas Lindberg & The Other Side, Frost*, or Lifesigns, and Kite Parade is an admirable addition to that elite list.

Right off the bat, the first song, Retro, evokes the best of ’80s rock with a pulsing synthbeat while snippets of TV ads play in the background. Foster’s vocals remind me a little of Kyros’s Adam Warne. He has an unerring sense of melody throughout the song that had me hitting replay several times. 

Speed of Light, the second track, kicks off with a funky bass groove and propulsive melody that reminds me of classic OSI (Office of Strategic Influence). The brief loping guitar solo midway through is excellent and sets things up for the final, exhilarating chorus. Both Nick D’Virgilio and Joe Crabtree play drums on the album, and it sounds like D’Virgilio is playing on this song.

The next track, Wonderful, is the single (scroll down to watch the official video), and at first I thought it was a letdown from the joyous pop/rock energy of the first two tracks. It starts off sounding like many a generic ballad, but it slowly builds energy throughout. Then, at the 2:50 mark, Foster puts a nice twist in the melody that takes the song to an entirely new level. Keys and guitars trade solos, adding layer upon layer of sound that make this a standout song. Great choice for a single, guys!

The next two songs, Shadows Fall and Under the Same Sun, continue the winning streak. The former is a mini-epic, clocking in at more than 9 minutes. However, Foster’s gift for providing endless musical hooks makes the time fly by. 

Retro closes with the 14+ minute-long Merry-Go-Round, which deftly avoids any “hmm, how much longer?” thoughts in the listener. As a matter of fact, the entire album is such an enjoyable experience, I listened to it three times in a row without a break.

We’re almost a third of the way into 2023, and so far Retro is my favorite album. It’s a perfect mix of, well, retro synths, catchy melodicism, tasty guitar riffs, and pleasing vocals. If you’re looking for some nice ear candy with a prog rock feel, you can’t do much better than Kite Parade.

Music

Jazz for Record Store Day 2023 – Zev Feldman’s Quest Continues

Record producer Zev Feldman hasn’t slowed down one bit since we checked in with him about this time last year. For this year’s Record Store Day (Saturday, April 22nd), Feldman’s fingerprints are on no fewer than six releases of consistently excellent archival jazz — on four different labels, no less! All will be available on LP in limited quantities only at participating stores, beginning on RSD. CD and digital release dates vary; purchase links are included in the titles below.

Three of these releases come from the vaults of Baltimore’s Left Bank Jazz Society, which sponsored concerts by a multitude of great musicians for 50 years starting in 1964; two of them are the latest in a series from Cory Weeds’ Vancouver-based Reel to Real Recordings. On Bish at the Bank: Live in Baltimore, pianist Walter Bishop Jr. leads a quartet of first-class players — including saxophonist/flutist Harold Vick, bassist Lou McIntosh and drummer Dick Berk — through sets from 1966 & 1967 marked by thrillingly extroverted, thoroughly satisfying interplay. Confident and crisp, Bishop and his bunch leave a distinctive, sparkling mark on standards, blues and a hefty chunk of Miles Davis’ repertoire, based in classic bebop stylings but stretching the idiom to a John-Coltrane-tinged probing of “Willow Weep for Me” (complete with soprano sax).

If Bishop’s music sparkles, organist Shirley Scott’s Queen Talk: Live at the Left Bank positively sizzles! Playing a classic Hammond B-3 (and providing her own bass lines on foot pedals) for this 1972 date, Scott, backed by George Coleman on tenor sax and Kenny Dorham on drums, leaps out of the gate ablaze on Coltrane’s “Impressions”, lays down smoky grooves that ground the contemporary hits “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “By the Time I Get To Phoenix”, and steps out in high style for the standards “Witchcraft” and “Like Someone in Love”. And when vocalist Ernie Andrews joins the party towards the end, full-fledged testifying breaks out and the blues prevail.

The third Jazz Society show, Sonny Stitt’s Boppin’ in Baltimore: Live at the Left Bank, is being released through Feldman’s new Deep Digs Music Group, on his fledgling Jazz Detective label. A giant on both alto and tenor sax, Stitt took the legacy of Charlie Parker to new heights of innovative expression; for this 1973 set, he brings a sweet, dancing touch to ballads “Lover Man” and “Stella By Starlight”, digs into the challenging changes of “Star Eyes” and “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” and turbocharges multiple 12-bar hard bop workouts. The veteran rhythm section of Kenny Barron on piano, Sam Jones on bass, Louis Hayes on drums meets the challenge of keeping up with Stitt with energy to spare, prodding his creativity onward and upward while asserting a presence all their own. Exhilarating stuff!

The other Jazz Detective release, Blue Room: The 1979 VARA Studio Sessions in Holland, provides an evocative distillation of the magic trumpeter/singer Chet Baker could conjure, taken from two Dutch studio sessions. Given room to explore on Wayne Shorter’s bossa nova “Beautiful Black Eyes” and the title ballad, Baker’s tone is rich and his improv work a thing of genuine beauty; his dashing up-tempo takes on “The Best Thing for You” and “That Old Devil Moon” build delightful momentum; and his vocals on “Oh You Crazy Moon” and “Candy” are finely shaded, with pensively inventive scat episodes. A variety of players provide empathetic backing; Phil Markowitz’s interactive piano and Jean-Louis Rassinfosse’s sturdy bass stand out.

In lieu of a new release, Resonance Recordings (where Feldman made his initial impact and continues as Co-President) is offering a second LP edition of Eric Dolphy, Musical Prophet: The Expanded 1963 New York Studio Sessions. A fellow traveler with cutting-edge players such as Coltrane and bassist Charles Mingus, Dolphy brought a refined yet pungent new voice to the alto sax, flute and bass clarinet. This comprehensive set includes the solo albums Conversations and Iron Man (recorded by Jimi Hendrix’s future producer Alan Douglas with an all-star session group), plus outtakes and “A Personal Statement”, a flamboyant neoclassical piece by future smooth-jazz stalwart Bob James (?!?). Fusing primal hollers and sophisticated dissonance into a spicy musical gumbo, Dolphy was deprived of appropriate recognition by his early death; this multifaceted compilation lays out his unique contributions to jazz for all to hear.

The final Feldman RSD release, Bill Evans’ Treasures: Solo, Trio & Orchestra Recordings from Denmark (1965-1969) on Elemental Music, was not yet available for review — but based on previous finds like 2020’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s and last year’s Morning Glory and Inner Spirit, it should be another winner. Kudos to Zev Feldman and to all involved for the cornucopia of great jazz from the past that makes every Record Store Day an eagerly anticipated event, and will enrich fans of the music for years to come.

— Rick Krueger

Music, Republic of Letters

In Concert: The Maria Schneider Orchestra Looks Up – and Soars

The Maria Schneider Orchestra presented by The Gilmore Festival, Chenery Auditorium, Kalamazoo, Michigan, March 12, 2023.

On the final date of a tour celebrating both a Pulitzer-Prize nominated album (2020’s masterful Data Lords) and 30 years together, composer Maria Schneider and her 18-piece jazz orchestra got down to business with aplomb and obvious delight. Launching “Look Up” (featuring supple, soaring trombone from Marshall Gilkes and Gary Versace’s lyrical piano), the MSO quickly gathered itself and swung hard, from a hushed opening through yearning, full-bodied ensemble passages into the charming reggae-tinged coda. It proved an inspired invitation into Data Lords’ contrasting aural portraits of disc 1’s grim “The Digital World” and disc 2’s expansive “Our Natural World”, and the Gilmore Festival audience, at this outlying event from an organization usually devoted to keyboard music of all genres, ate it up.

Pivoting to the dark side with the sardonic, Google-themed “Don’t Be Evil” (“and they can’t even live up to that low bar,” Schneider commented) bassist Jay Anderson set up the mocking tango pulse, Ben Monder spun out a fiercely rocking web of guitar, trombonist Ryan Keberle peeled off growl after growl, and Versace took the mood from pensive meditation to harried protest as the orchestra built menacing riffs behind them all. In the title role of “Sputnik,” baritone saxophonist Scott Robinson ran through an astonishing gamut of melodies, textures and sounds, feeling his way into orbit through the barbed obstacle course of his bandmates’ hypnotic, obsessively repeated laments. Throughout the afternoon, Schneider’s compositions proved gripping and brilliantly tailored to her players, while her conducting brought the music’s sure-footed rhythms and the group’s precision-tooled backgrounds into pin-sharp focus.

Flipping back to the natural world, soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson conversed with Johnathan Blake’s percussion (including wood-fired pottery?!?) and Julien Labro’s accordion on the pointillist “Stone Song”, with Schneider cueing gleefully off-kilter orchestral hits. Halfway between the two domains, tenor saxophonist Donny McCaslin (best known, along with Monder, for his playing on David Bowie’s Blackstar) attempted contact in the tense, Morse code-based “CQ CQ Is Anybody There?” — only to be answered by the dissonant howls of Greg Gisbert’s distorted trumpet, wickedly role-playing as artificial intelligence. During these works, the orchestra and Schneider listened hard to each soloist, visibly reacting to particularly special moments of improvisation, and shaping their support to match the fleeting moods.

Release followed tension quickly, via the throwback chart “Gumba Blue” from the MSO’s debut album Evanescence (with features from Gisbert, tenor saxophonist Rich Perry and Versace). Then the highlight of the afternoon: Schneider’s setting of the Ted Kooser poem “The Sun Waited for Me” (originally written for soprano Dawn Upshaw and classical orchestra) translated stunningly into the big band idiom, with Gilkes and Labro “singing” the now-wordless melody while McCaslin pirouetted above, below and around lush ensemble backings that mutated from classical chorale to gospel groove. A ravishing experience!

But then, Schneider took the mike: “Can you handle this? This is about the annihilation of humanity at the hands of artificial intelligence . . . Sometimes it feels good just to face these things head on!” Cue the jittery, pulsating title track of Data Lords, with trumpeter Mike Rodriguez and alto saxophonist Dave Pietro raging against the dying of the light, and Schneider stoking the Orchestra’s encroaching singularity to a fever pitch in a shuddering apocalypse of a climax! Good thing we wanted an encore; Schneider decided to leave us with “something peaceful”: “Sanzenin”, a final vista from the natural world, with Labro fluttering over the Orchestra’s muted portrayal of a Japanese garden.

In sum, the overall impact of the MSO was overwhelming. Schneider’s thoughtfully crafted tone poems, her intense focus and leadership, her orchestra’s breathtaking ensemble playing and consistently creative, exciting solo work made for a musical experience that was visceral, invigorating, moving and beautiful in the highest sense of that word. Only the Bach Collegium Japan’s 2003 Saint Matthew Passion and King Crimson in Chicago in 2017 have been more powerful live shows for me. If you want to experience this one for yourself, I heartily encourage you to pay what you want and livestream the concert between now and April 12th!

— Rick Krueger

Music

In Concert: Artemis on the Hunt

Artemis, Royce Auditorium, St. Cecilia Music Center, Grand Rapids Michigan, February 16, 2023.

On a West Michigan night where snow and ice made travel a slippery business, Artemis cut right to the chase. Thanking those in attendance for braving the elements, pianist/founder Renee Rosnes briefly introduced her fellow players, then counted off the tricky opener “Galapagos”. Navigating the twists and turns of Rosnes’ post-bop tune, the sextet’s free-flowing intro and tight initial statement gave way to confident, creative solos by tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, flutist Alexa Tarantino, trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, Rosnes and drummer Allison Miller, with bassist Noriko Ueda driving the supple, pulsing beat forward all the while. The applause after each solo and at the end of the tune was spontaneous and heartfelt; from where I sat, it felt like everyone in Royce Auditorium was in for a good night.

One secret of Artemis’ success would seem to be this: not only is every member a world-class player and leaders in their own right, but they absolutely delight in their ongoing collaboration. As they dug into the evening’s music (taken mostly from their upcoming second album for Blue Note Records), they frequently grinned with joy and cheered on each other — especially during the generously allotted solo spots. Glover lovingly developed core motifs into rich, flowing lines; her feature on Billy Strayhorn’s ballad “A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing” was the very model of an intense build to an expressive climax. Spending most of the night on alto sax, Tarantino brought a puckish sensibility to her solo moments, playing high-spirited rhythmic games while stretching tonality almost to the breaking point. And Jensen brought impressive range and imagination to bear on trumpet; her multifaceted arrangement of The Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill” displayed the same dramatic juxtapositions of register and timbre and intricate melodic knots as her arresting lead moments.

A powerful front line like this demands a rhythm section that will step up to the challenge of egging them on — and again, the players on stage didn’t disappoint. Rosnes kept the band percolating with thrilling grooves under the tightly harmonized ensemble chorales and imaginative comping for solos, then unapologetically grabbed the spotlight during her own vibrant, gleeful features; Ueda’s imaginative propulsion flowered into joyous, brilliant melodic flights on Thelonious Monk’s “Hackensack” and a composition of her own; and Miller was always forceful, always elegant, always doing the unexpected — kaleidoscopically shifting to just the right accent, rhythm and color for the moment. Throughout the night, piano, bass and drums shouldered in alongside the horns and joined the conversation as equals, forging one marvelous moment after another.

Whether navigating the enthralling compositional hurdles of Miller’s “Bow and Arrow”, paying tribute to the late Burt Bacharach by debuting a fresh arrangement of his “What The World Needs Now” or stopping clocks (and hearts?) with Rosnes’ spare ballad “Balance of Time”, Artemis was in tune with each other and on point as an ensemble from beginning to end. Above all, they had serious fun — as good a definition of jazz as any — and, if the standing ovations that capped the night were any indication, so did the audience. Check out their first album (recorded with slightly different personnel) below, catch them live if you have the chance, and be on the lookout for a new album in May from this first-rate group!

— Rick Krueger

Music

The Best Music of 2022

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2022 was an excellent year for prog music fans, with several old favorites releasing surprisingly strong new albums. Here are my favorites, in alphabetical order:

The Bardic Depths: Promises of Hope

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No sophomore slump for these guys! Promises of Hope is even better than their excellent debut. Dave Bandana’s composing and singing is terrific, and Brad Birzer’s lyrics plumb new depths. Let’s hope their partnership is a long and fruitful one.

Big Big Train: Welcome to the Planet

BBT Welcome

This release came quickly after Common Ground, and is the last to feature the late David Longden, but it is by no means an “Odds and Sods” collection. It is a heartwarming album with some of BBT’s best-ever songs – Proper Jack Foster is an instant classic.

The Dear Hunter: Antimai

Dear Hunter Antimai

Casey Crescenzo’s Dear Hunter has one of the most unique sounds in music today, combining alt-pop, hot jazz, and prog jams. And it’s all good! Antimai is a concept album about a society where different classes of people live in concentric rings of a city. The poorest live in the outermost, and the most powerful live in the inner tower. I have listened to Antimai many times this year, and I always hear new and entrancing details.

Evership: The Uncrowned King, Act 2

Evership King 2

Evership’s Uncrowned King Act 2 concludes their musical interpretation of Harold Bell Wright’s allegory. If you are a fan of classic ’70s prog, then you will love this album.

Galahad: The Last Great Adventurer

Galahad Adventurer

These long-time prog vets released a very satisfying set of songs in  2022. Blood, Skin, and Bone is one of the best songs of the year – melodic, heavy, with an excellent message: how external factors influence how we react to each other. One of my most-listened-to albums of the past few months.

Glass Hammer: At The Gate

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The concluding chapter in Glass Hammer’s Skallagrim saga is the best. You can read my review here. Glass Hammer is the finest American prog rock group, period. It is astounding how they have maintained such high quality over such a long career. As The Years Go By is another top song of 2022.

King’s X: Three Sides of One

Kings X 3 Sides

Fourteen(!) years after their last studio album, this hard rock/prog trio surprised everyone with one of their best albums ever. From the blistering funk of Let It Rain to the beautiful ballad Nothing But The Truth, King’s X have never sounded better. What a joy to hear them play again!

Jonas Lindberg and The Other Side: Miles From Nowhere

Digital 4

If I had to pick the single best album of 2022, Jonas Lindberg and the Other Side’s Miles From Nowhere would be it. It was released early in 2022, and I still listen to it regularly. It is full of delightful pop/rock hooks performed with excellent musicianship. I have listened to this album dozens of times, and I’m still not tired of it.

David Longden: Door One

Longden Door 1

This posthumous release of David Longden’s solo album only emphasizes what a loss the world suffered with his passing. It is not an unfinished set of sketches, but a complete and masterfully produced album. Love Is All is one of his finest songs, and a fitting conclusion to an amazing musical career.

The Porcupine Tree: Closure/Continuation

PT Closure

Another big surprise from a progrock veteran! I never thought Steven Wilson would work with Richard Barbieri and Gavin Harrison again, but here we are, and the music is pretty darn magnificent. Dignity is another PT classic, and here’s hoping there’s more music coming from them in the future.

Shearwater: The Great Awakening

Shearwater

This was a new discovery for me. I love late-era Talk Talk, and The Great Awakening sounds like something Mark Hollis would put together if he were still alive. No Reason is one of the most haunting songs I’ve ever heard. 

Tears for Fears: The Tipping Point

TFF Tipping Pt

Yet another surprise release from longtime musical veterans! Usually, when I hear a beloved artist from the ’80s is getting to put out new music, I get very apprehensive. Let’s face it, the ’80s were forty years ago, and the chances of rekindling the magic are very small. However, Tears for Fears’ The Tipping Point is one of the best albums of 2022, and one of the best of their career. Not a throwaway song in the bunch, and they sound as good as ever. Rivers of Mercy is my favorite, but every single song is a winner.

Devin Townsend: Lightwork

Devin Townsend Lightwork

Devin Townsend is one of the most fascinating artists working today. You never know what style his latest album will be: brutally hard rock, country, ambient, pop? Lightwork is a relatively quiet entry in his vast catalog, but it rewards repeated listens. The crunchy guitars crunch, the soaring vocals soar, and the endlessly satisfying melodies pour out of the speakers (or earbuds). So far, I think Lightwork is in Townsend’s top five best.

And there you have it: a baker’s dozen of great albums from the year 2022. The most satisfying trend is the number of great albums produced by artists after a long absence: King’s X, Porcupine Tree, and Tears for Fear. I hope they don’t wait as long to release their next albums!

Music

50% Off All Dave Kerzner

Hello! I posted this on my Facebook and I realized it doesn’t always reach everyone. I wanted to make sure everyone knew about this sale I’m doing this weekend. It was for Black Friday but I extended it through Cyber Monday so that no one misses it! This is Squids Saturday (a lesser known holiday) so here’s the info for you. It’s really simple. HALF PRICE ON EVERYTHING! Best deal I’ve ever done on Bandcamp. Enter this code on check out on my Bandcamp page: bf2022

You save 50% off ANYTHING from CDs to downloads to Blu-Rays to box sets to T-shirts to posters to coasters (ok I don’t have coasters… but I should! Traveler coasters would look nice along with a Traveler mug!). Cheap shipping world-wide (often less than the actual cost we pay). Click HERE to have a look at what’s on my Sonic Elements Bandcamp Page!

I know some of you live in different parts of the world and this half off deal might be a good time to buy anything you were thinking about from my solo albums to In Continuum to SOC, Mantra Vega, tribute albums and more!

Special downloadable album only available this weekend!

Speaking of SOC, also just for this weekend only I’ve made disc 10 of the Corners of the Mind 10-disc box set a downloadable album. It’s listed at $20 but with the “bf2022” discount coupon applied it’s only $10! It has brand new previously unreleased recordings of songs I wrote with Sound of Contact like “Closer To You”, “Not Coming Down” and “Realm Of In-Organic Beings” plus songs from Dimensionaut I’ve done live and in the studio on various albums. In addition to those, I included some bonus tracks of alternate versions of songs from The Traveler that were originally worked on around the time of Dimensionaut!

Have a great safe weekend of music and fun! Thanks as always for your support for not only my music but the many progrock music makers, bands and artists that you love so we can keep this ship sailing! – Squids

Music

Glass Hammer’s At The Gate

GH-2022-cover-1080px-PREVIEW

Glass Hammer is set to release the third album in their Skallagrim Trilogy, entitled At The Gate. The first album of the trilogy, 2020’s Dreaming City, heralded a new, much heavier sound for GH, which is continued in At The Gate. The albums chronicle the sword-and-sorcery adventures of a hard-bitten thief named Skallagrim who finds himself locked in a desperate struggle with forces of evil. Through his struggles to find his lost love, he matures and gains much wisdom. In this final installment, Skallagrim has been cursed to live a thousand years seeking his love. When he finally does find her, he ends up sacrificing himself so she can be free.

At The Gate begins with one of Glass Hammer’s finest songs of their long career – the beautiful The Years Roll By. This song is in more of the “classic” prog style long-time GH fans have loved – a keyboards-driven melody with majestic vocals underpinned by Aaron Raulston’s excellent percussion and Steve Babb’s energetic and inventive bass. The inimitable Babb also supplies the pipe organ and keyboards on this one. Vocalist Hannah Pryor really comes into her own on this track, and Fred Schendel is outstanding (as usual!) on guitars.

Savage is up next, and it begins with a spare, unaccompanied guitar riff that soon explodes into a heavy groove. Pryor’s voice is perfect for this crunchy, metallic style, as she can really wail while maintaining a delicate tone.

North of North continues the interesting experiments GH has been doing with their instrumentals in the trilogy. It begins with a propulsive, Tangerine Dream-like synth riff that builds and builds. I hope they continue to explore this style of music!

All Alone begins as another crushing tune reminiscent of King’s X at their heaviest. The style fits the lyrics, as Skallagrim grimly mutters, “The dark is deep and blood runs cold, so cold. Don’t leave her there all alone.” The mood lightens when the melody transforms into a bluesy riff and Pryor sings, “Think how good you’ll feel when the battle’s won, no need to roam, you’ll take her home to stay.” I like the tension between the dark and light moods in this track.

All For Love is the most “proggy” song on the album, with lots of time changes, switching from major to minor keys, and furious guitar work from Reese Boyd. From the beginning, the tempo gallops along, leaving the listener feeling like he or she has run a marathon!

Snowblind Girl keeps the up the fast and furious pace, and Raulston really shines on this track. It also creates tension between the melodic passages sung by Pryor and the dark, chaotic instrumental responses.

Standing At The Gate is the most “difficult” song on the album, with discordant organ chords opening it and the rapid tempos continuing. GH alum Jon Davison has a nice cameo here on vocals.

After four heavy, blistering songs, the last two provide some welcome relief. In The Shadows and It’s Love are combined into a single track, and they contain some of the most beautiful music Glass Hammer has produced. In The Shadows evokes Radiohead at its most gentle and melodic. It’s a terrific song with simple instrumentation that like a balm after the frenetic and dense activity of the previous four. In it, Skallagrim has vowed to sacrifice himself for the sake of his love, and he is at peace with it: “There’s no life without you, there’s no life. If I walk this life alone, if I never find a home, there’s no life without you.”

In The Shadows segues seamlessly into It’s Love with some majestic organ work by Babb and the trebly, melodic bass that he is so good at. The production is open and inviting, as Pryor sings, “What you’re longing for is waiting in Heaven up above. There is no greater act then when one lays down his life, down for love.” It’s a truly beautiful moment, and one of Glass Hammer’s career highlights. The song ends with a coda that recalls the riff from Dreaming City’s A Desperate Man, which is nice way to tie the trilogy together into a unified work.

So, to sum up, At The Gate contains some of Glass Hammer’s most ambitious and challenging music. It is a tribute to their skill and talent that they pull it off so successfully. The album opens and closes with songs that sound like classic Glass Hammer, but with a contemporary feel. Looking back over their career, it is astonishing to me that a group of musicians are able to compose and perform such consistently excellent music over such a long period. Glass Hammer never fails to satisfy discerning prog fans, while exploring new and fascinating styles of music. They never stop evolving – here’s to hoping they continue for another 20 years!

You can order At The Gate here.

Here’s the video for The Years Roll By:

Music

Glass Hammer Set to Release New Album

Glass Hammer 2022 cropped sm
Hannah Pryor, Fred Schendel, Steve Babb, and Aaron Raulston

“Wow”, just “Wow”. Check out the video for The Years Roll By, the new song from Glass Hammer’s upcoming album, At The Gate. If you need a lift, this song will do it! It hearkens back to GH’s classic, more “symphonic” sound, while incorporating the heavier edge they’ve had lately. IMHO, it’s one of the best songs they’ve recorded in their long career:

Here’s the official press release with more info:

The Years Roll By is the opening track on Glass Hammer’s At The Gate concept album —set for release on October 7th, 2022.

Bandleader Steve Babb said the following about the new album: “At The Gate completes our sword and sorcery inspired trilogy that began with 2020s Dreaming City. We followed that up with last year’s Skallagrim—Into The Breach.”

For the uninitiated, he went on to explain. “It’s the story of a scarred and battered thief, Skallagrim, who’s had his memory stolen along with the love of his life. He’s got to fight unimaginable horrors and slay hideous creatures and sorcerous villains if he’s ever to reclaim either. Finally, at the end of the last album, his memory is returned, but he finds himself cursed to wait one thousand years for a chance to find his lost love! At The Gate picks up at the end of his tale as he prepares to face the ultimate challenge of his life—to finally rescue his girl and defeat the evil being who has imprisoned her.

“Of course, as with any Glass Hammer concept album, there is more to it than a simple plot. On the surface, it appears to be about magic swords and heroes, but it’s actually a story about confronting evil, how to survive it, and how to face despair and heartache.

And most importantly, it’s about why the pursuit of profound and lasting joy in an often joyless world is worthwhile, even when all available evidence suggests it cannot be found.”  

Babb says he chose to open the album with a ballad. “…something ethereal, something reminiscent of what our fans call classic Glass Hammer. The Years Roll By fits the bill, I think. Of course, there’ll be plenty of metal and prog on the new album. The next music video I plan to release hits really hard!”

Autographed copies of At The Gate are available for pre-order on the Glass Hammer Store website. www.glasshammer.com

History, Music

Stratford Festival Review: Freedom Cabaret 2.0

In last year’s cut-down Stratford Festival lineup, actor/musician/playwright Beau Dixon’s Freedom Cabaret (part of the Festival’s Forum of other performing arts and speakers) garnered some of the strongest reviews. Walking out of yesterday’s performance of Freedom Cabaret 2.0, I completely understood why.

Subtitled “How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America”, this year’s cabaret is loosely structured around the life of work and Martin Luther King, Jr. Dixon’s command of the black musical tradition is formidable and thrillingly eclectic; grasping the connections between decades and genres with a firm hand, his new set comfortably mingles jazz, soul, folk, gospel and even a touch of hip-hop in an arc that illuminates both King’s journey and the idealism he set loose during the era of the Civil Rights Movement.

And the ensemble that Dixon has reconstituted for this year — serving as the lynchpin on piano and vocals for a trio of singers with rhythm section — grasps those connections at the same level, vividly painting a compelling portrait of King’s context, life, death and legacy. Shakura Dickson’s floating soprano and Alana Bridgewater’s earthy alto scale the gospel heights of “Oh, Happy Day” and “Move On Up A Little Higher”, then pull back for an eerie, hovering “Strange Fruit” and Nina Simone’s wrenching “Four Women”; Aadin Church runs the emotional and vocal gamut from soaring tenor to down-home baritone on showcases like Louis Armstrong’s “(What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue”. Rohan Staton on guitar, Roger Williams on bass and Joe Bowden on drums lay down one irresistible groove after another, slipping serenely from a Jeff Beck quote in “People Get Ready” to the abstracted jazz of “Freedom Day”. And Dixon ties it all together with his supple piano, his power-packed voice and his understated yet emotional narration.

Most fascinating to me were the artists Dixon chose to anchor King’s story. Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today” and “Living for the City” bookended the narrative, melding harmonic sophistication with unaffected idealism; the Staples Singers “Why? (Am I Treated So Bad)”, “Freedom Highway” and “Respect Yourself” embodied both the lament of the oppressed and the spiritual grit to stand up against that oppression. But the searing quartet of pieces by chanteuse Nina Simone provided the real key to unlock the heart of King’s message. From unflinching confrontation with racism’s deepest horrors in “Mississippi Goddamn” (operatic in structure, visceral in its impact) through the heartbroken elegy for the fallen leader “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)” pivoting to the visionary hope of “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, Simone’s music is brutally honest and unsparing — but it also incarnates how King’s dream of hatred conquered by love was set loose in the 1960s and how its ramifications have been rippling out ever since.

The dream and its spread — even after the horrors of black history in the United States, even in the face of what obstacles remain following the progress of the Civil Rights era — are why Dixon and his ensemble can finish Freedom Cabaret with a hearty invitation for the Festival audience to join the “Love Train” that King set in motion. If you can, I highly recommend you catch it.

Setlist:

  • Oh, Freedom
  • Love’s in Need of Love Today (Stevie Wonder)
  • Why? (Am I Treated So Bad) (The Staples Singers)
  • Oh, Happy Day (The Edwin Hawkins Singers)
  • Move On Up A Little Higher (Mahalia Jackson)
  • Strange Fruit (Billie Holliday)
  • Mississippi Goddam (Nina Simone)
  • Freedom Highway (The Staples Singers)
  • People Get Ready (The Impressions)
  • We Shall Not Be Moved
  • John Henry (Harry Belafonte)
  • Black Man in a White World (Michael Kiwanuka)
  • (What Did I Do to Be So) Black and Blue? (Louis Armstrong)
  • Respect Yourself (The Staples Singers)/Respect (Aretha Franklin)
  • Freedom Day (Max Roach & Abbey Lincoln)
  • Phenomenal Woman (Maya Angelou)/Four Women (Nina Simone)
  • So Much Trouble in the World (Bob Marley and the Wailers)
  • Why? (The King of Love Is Dead) (Nina Simone)
  • Harlem (Langston Hughes)/To Be Young, Gifted and Black (Nina Simone)
  • Living for the City (conclusion) (Stevie Wonder)
  • Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now (McFadden & Whitehead)
  • Move On Up (Curtis Mayfield)
  • Love Train (The O’Jays)

Personnel:

  • Joe Bowden, drums
  • Alana Bridgewater, singer
  • Aadin Church, singer
  • Shakura Dickson, singer
  • Beau Dixon, piano, singer, musical director
  • Rohan Staton, guitars
  • Roger Williams, basses

Freedom Cabaret 2.0: How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America runs through August 28th at the Tom Patterson Theatre’s Lazaridis Hall in Stratford, Ontario. Tickets are available at stratfordfestival.ca.

— Rick Krueger

fiction, History, Music, Republic of Letters

Live from the Stratford Festival

This is an exciting time for the Stratford Festival. In 2022, we reopen our theatres, honour the excellence of the past and embark on a new leg of our journey together. A fresh start: an opportunity to reassess ourselves in the world today, reaffirm what we value and take the best path to an extraordinary future.

This will also be a year to celebrate milestones: our 70th season, the 20th anniversary of the Studio Theatre, the 10th season of The Meighen Forum, and the grand opening of our glorious new Tom Patterson Theatre.

It’s fitting, then, that our season theme for 2022 is New Beginnings. Our playbill explores the difficult moral and ethical decisions a new journey entails: What is the best way to start again? How can we avoid the traps of the past? In an imperfect world, what is good?

From Shakespeare’s most iconic play, Hamlet, to the American family classic Little Women; from the great Nigerian Nobel Prize winner Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman to such captivating new plays as 1939 and Hamlet-911, we offer you stories about navigating a new start in life.

Antoni Cimolino, Artistic Director, Stratford Festival

Since 2004, my wife and I have been regular visitors to the Stratford Festival in southwestern Ontario. We’ve fallen in love with the Festival’s unbroken ethos across 70 seasons — dynamic, top-level performances by a dedicated repertory company of classics by William Shakespeare, Molière, Anton Chekhov, Berthold Brecht and others, as well as substantive, appealing musicals and fresh, often experimental works by today’s playwrights. We’ve also fallen in love with the city of Stratford; set in the heart of Ontario farm country, it combines picturesque architecture, unique shops and eateries, and a stunningly beautiful park system along the Avon River and Lake Victoria. And the thought of everyone who’s trod a stage at the Festival’s multiple theatres, played a rock show at the hockey rink or busked for change on the streets (ranging from Alec Guinness and William Shatner to Richard Manuel of The Band and native son Justin Bieber) makes the place a performing arts lover’s dream.

Which is why it hit hard when, in the wake of the worldwide pandemic, the Festival’s 2020 season was cancelled and the 2021 season only went on under severe limitations and restrictions. It’s true that the summer of 2020 brought welcome YouTube screenings of the Festival’s ongoing project to film every play by Shakespeare (along with other archival videos), culminating in the online Stratfest At Home subscription service. But, a few days back at a local B&B, with a full season of 10 productions energizing the town around us, has served to remind me that there’s nothing like the real thing. And that experience is what I plan to share here with you.

Over the next few days, we’ll be attending Molière’s The Miser (currently in previews at the Festival Theatre), Shakespeare’s Richard III (at the new Tom Patterson Theatre), and Freedom Cabaret 2.0: How Black Music Shaped the Dream of America (at the TPT’s Lazaridis Hall). Look for reviews posted here ASAP after each performance. Whether you’re able to visit the Stratford Festival this season or in the future (or take in what it offers online), my hope is to capture at least a bit of the serious fun, the sheer emotional and intellectual sweep, the thrills, spills, heartbreak and heart’s ease — in short, the immersive, cathartic experience live theatre at its best can provide, and that the two of us have come to love and crave.

— Rick Krueger