CD Review – Elements, by Matthew Schoening

All the elements come together perfectly on Matthew Schoening’s latest CD, which has the composer and musician leading a rich symphony of sound composed of guitars, bass, keyboards, horns, and percussion. Being in charge of such a tight unit comes naturally to Schoening, especially since all of these elements are literally under his direct control – all of the aforementioned instruments (or their sounds, at least) are generated entirely by Schoening on his electric cello live in front of an audience of 75 people, with no prerecorded tracks or postproduction editing or overdubs.

Thanks to the technology of live looping, Schoening functions as a one-man band, and the results are stellar. This kind of showmanship can easily be gimmicky and come at the expense of true, creative musical expression. Not so in this case. While Schoening’s inventive capability is something to marvel at, it is only more impressive because it is simply a tool used toward a greater end – that of making beautiful, compelling music.

And beautiful and compelling the music is. The album is one 45-minute suite composed of five movements: “Water,” “Air,” “Fire,” “Earth,” and “Spirit” – the elements of the title. The movements have numbered program changes strictly for the purpose of identification, but they really function as one complete whole. Stylistically, the music is jazz improvisation embellished with the lush sonic textures of New Age.

This CD is quite the achievement in terms of both Schoening’s ingenuity and artistry. Innovatively and compositionally, Schoening is to the electric cello what Pat Metheny is to the electric guitar. Schoening at times even sounds like the Pat Metheny Group, without the Group. One of the finest recordings available in the marketplace, the album deserves to be an instant classic and warrants the attention of serious music devotees.

--Raj Manoharan

CD Review – Midsummer, by Uwe Gronau

German composer, musician, and performer Uwe Gronau’s latest album is a 2-CD set of delightful, upbeat music that’s perfect for any season, not just the one indicated by the title.

The first CD features synth-rock in the vein of Jan Hammer and Tangerine Dream, while the second disc is more comparable to the quieter, pastoral reveries of Vangelis, George Winston, and Jim Brickman. Regardless of the style or tempo of the music, Gronau maintains interest throughout with gorgeous melodies, hook-laden grooves, lush sonic textures, and kinetic percussion channeled through his piano, virus-synthesizer, organ, bass, and acoustic guitar, as well as his and producer Clemens Paskert’s drum programming.

Standout tracks include “Magic Forest” and “Left Hand” (both featuring crazy wicked guitar by the U.S.A.’s Martin Brom – I want to hear more from this guy!), “Gliding Flight” (which includes clean, tasteful fusion lines by German guitarist Wolfgang Demming), “Steps in the Snow” with its gossamer, Knight Rider-like mystique, and “Midsummer,” “Passage,” and “Rivers Bound to Sea,” which are the perfect blend of New Age and art rock.

Although Midsummer is primarily instrumental, perhaps the most effective and moving tune on the album is its only vocal song, “Silence.” Both the lyrics and Gronau’s voice evidence an earnestness, honesty, and humility that are instantly appealing and perfectly encapsulate the spirit of the album.

If you like the aforementioned artists, as well as independent musicians such as Michael Stribling, David Wahler, David Mauk, and Al Conti, Midsummer by Uwe Gronau will be at home in your collection and deserving of several very good listens.

--Raj Manoharan

CD Review – 3rd Eye Rising: A Journey Through Ascending Realms, by Paradiso and Rasamayi

Paradiso and Rasamayi serve as musical spirit guides on their latest collaboration, 3rd Eye Rising: A Journey Through Ascending Realms.

The CD features the talents of Paradiso on didjeridoo and keyboards and Rasamayi on chants and Tibetan and crystal singing bowls, resulting in a blissful sound experience that creates the impression of floating on clouds.

Paradiso's keyboards lay the lush sonic foundation over which his didjeridoo and Rasamayi’s chants and Tibetan and crystal singing bowls coalesce into exotic otherworldly sounds that rapture the senses and elevate the consciousness into other dimensions of being.

There is one track, which I call “The Gong Song,” that completely grabbed my attention and never let go. Aside from a brief synthesizer intro, the recording is composed entirely of two gongs that sound like one gong coming to a shimmering conclusion over several minutes. I never thought I could be mesmerized by a tune consisting solely of gongs. It is probably the most compelling track on the album.

3rd Eye Rising: A Journey Through Ascending Realms comes as close as an album can get to being the perfect aural background for meditation and massage. Its hypnotic, cathartic effect makes it absolutely conducive to therapeutic healing, and it’s pleasant to listen to as an ethereal soundtrack to accompany the mind on its transcendental journeys.

--Raj Manoharan

CD Review – Dreaming Still, by Kathryn Kaye

Dreaming Still, the appropriately named debut album from pianist Kathryn Kaye, could very well be the soundtrack to a dream: it’s lyrical, beautiful, and, well, dreamy.

The compositions are simple yet elegant, much like Kaye’s brilliantly understated piano playing, which is tinged with the gracefulness of the hymns she learned during her Appalachian upbringing. She makes full use of the keyboard, anchoring soaring melodies in rich, deep chords, and yet manages to keep it all reigned in and prevent it from becoming overbearing or overwhelming. The result is a pleasant listening experience that is perfect for both intellectual stimulation and emotional refuge.

Kaye is backed on this recording by a solid lineup of musicians including Charlie Bisharat on violin, Eugene Friesen on cello, Dan Greenspan on bass, Jill Haley on English horn, Derrik Jordan on percussion, and Noah Wilding on vocals. The Grammy Award-winning team of producer Will Ackerman and recording engineer Corin Nelsen brings a polished sheen to the proceedings, resulting in a crisp, crystal-clear sound that practically puts listeners up close with the musicians in the studio.

Dreaming Still will leave piano music aficionados, as well as casual music listeners, in a positively blissful, dreamy state of mind.

--Raj Manoharan

Happy Birthday, Andy Summers!

Today is the 68th birthday of my favorite guitarist and musician of all time – Andy Summers.

I first became acquainted with the music of Summers in 1983 at the age of 10 in a Catholic elementary school classroom when I heard a hypnotic and futuristic-sounding pop/rock song emanating from the radio of Candy, my substitute teacher. When I asked what the song was and who recorded it, I was promptly informed that it was “Spirits in the Material World” by The Police. I was instantly hooked, so much so that that Christmas, my parents got me a vinyl copy of Synchronicity, The Police’s fifth and final studio album and one of the biggest hits of the year. The Police have since remained my favorite rock band of all time.

Summers was the guitarist for the mega-popular group, who were active in the late 1970s and early 1980s and reunited for a 30th anniversary tour in 2007 and 2008. Being a good decade older than his bandmates Sting and Stewart Copeland, Summers began his professional recording career in the early 1960s, playing for Zoot Money’s Big Roll Band (which later became the psychedelic but short-lived Dantalian’s Chariot), Eric Burdon’s New Animals, and Soft Machine. After formally studying guitar at Northridge University in California from the late 1960s to the early 1970s, Summers returned to England and plied his trade as a session guitarist for Joan Armatrading, Neil Sedaka, Kevin Coyne, and Deep Purple’s Jon Lord before achieving monumental success and international stardom with The Police.

After the dissolution of The Police in the early 1980s, Summers scored some Hollywood films (Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Weekend at Bernie’s) and recorded one rock vocal album before establishing himself as an acclaimed and accomplished contemporary instrumental guitarist across a variety of styles, including jazz, fusion, New Age, and world music.

One of Summers' upcoming projects is Spirit Garden, a collection of guitar duets featuring Summers and classical guitarist Andrew York. In addition to acoustic and electric guitars, Summers and York also play other instruments. The duo’s collaboration began on the title track of York’s latest album, Centerpeace, which is available now. More information on Centerpeace and Spirit Garden can be found at www.andrewyork.net.

For a good overview of Summers’ solo work, I highly recommend the following albums: Mysterious Barricades, A Windham Hill Retrospective, Synaesthesia, and The X Tracks. My personal favorite Summers albums are Mysterious Barricades, The Golden Wire, Charming Snakes, World Gone Strange, Synaesthesia, Earth and Sky, and First You Build a Cloud.

--Raj Manoharan

CD Review – Calmness of Spirit, by David Hoffman

Composer and brass-man David Hoffman couldn’t have picked a better title for this CD. Combined with the beautiful, soothing cover photograph of mountains under a misty golden sky, it sets the mood for the sweet syrup for the soul contained on the album.

The horn player, who was part of Ray Charles’s band for over a decade, has cultivated a lush, lyrical, and dreamy soundscape to envelop oneself in when seeking solace from the stress of everyday life. The CD is also a perfect backdrop for relaxation as well as an engaging stimulus for focused meditation.

The music really epitomizes the concept of jazz/New Age fusion. The jazz part of the equation is apparent in Hoffman’s utilization of the trumpet, the flugelhorn, and the piano. He is obviously a proponent of more is less, as evidenced by his tasteful phrasing and careful selection of notes. He places bits and pieces of trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano here and there, in essence weaving a musical tapestry. For example, on “Julie’s Dream,” dedicated to his wife, Hoffman hangs piano chords like velvet drapes over a foundation of lush synthesizer textures.

This brings us to the New Age component of Hoffman’s jazz/New Age fusion. The album is layered with ethereal and otherworldly keyboard and synthesizer textures that start off quietly and increase in amplitude without becoming overwhelming. The tones are just right and almost function as a conduit to other dimensions. Nowhere is this more apparent than on “The Ambience of Motion,” which is a really cool and groovy, meditative and mystical space-out.

Throughout, Hoffman is ably supported by his friend, collaborator, and label-mate Paul Adams on guitar, bass, flute, and percussion. Although the compositions are all Hoffman’s and this album is unequivocally his own unique musical statement, he and Adams work very well together and exhibit great musical chemistry. They truly are a fantastic duo.

Calmness of Spirit is definitely recommended for massage, healing, meditation, and for anyone who likes cool jazz/New Age fusion. It’s classy, artful, elegant, and therapeutic.

--Raj Manoharan

CD (Fan) Review – Up Close, by Eric Johnson

The first new studio album in five years from Grammy Award-winning Texas guitar hero Eric Johnson has finally arrived, and it’s quite the trip – and well worth the wait. Like his other CDs a mix of instrumentals and vocal songs mostly penned by him and showcasing his unique virtuosity on the electric guitar, Up Close includes some of the best work that Johnson has ever written and recorded.

The album is dripping with crackling guitars. If a guitar died and went to heaven, this is what heaven would sound like. Johnson is on fire, effortlessly weaving incredible, sparkling solos in and out of both the instrumental and vocal tracks. The vocal songs range from energetic blues and rock numbers to gorgeous, heartfelt ballads. Inspired like never before, Johnson plays and sings with a fervor not present in his previous work. Perhaps Johnson is like a fine vintage wine, improving with age.

I was first introduced to the music of Johnson 20 years ago by an employee at a local cable television station I was interning at during my senior year of high school. That was the year Johnson, then 36 years old, released his breakthrough second album, Ah Via Musicom, which achieved the distinction of having three instrumental songs reach the American Top Ten.

As accomplished and groundbreaking as Ah Via Musicom and its edgier and sonically more expansive 1996 follow-up, Venus Isle, are, Johnson has really poured his living, breathing essence into Up Close. The result is the best guitar-based album of the last several years, and one of the best guitar-based and general music albums of all time.

With Up Close, Johnson is at the top of his game as a guitarist, composer, and singer. He has created a masterwork of soulful jazz/pop/rock fusion that exudes passion, especially through his trademark virtuosic guitar sound. Even with guest vocals by Malford Milligan, Steve Miller, and Johnny Lang, and guitar performances by Jimmie Vaughan, Steve Hennig, and Sonny Landreth, the album is clearly all Eric Johnson up close front and center.

--Raj Manoharan