The Whole Music Experience

Chamber/ Folk   Jason Seed Stringtet In the Gallery   Jason Seed Music Is it classical chamber or bluegrass? Certainly, guitarist-composer Jason Seed’s repertoire that appears on In the Gallery sounds like classical chamber with twang--a bit bluegrass swing played by a string quartet plus fusion guitar.   Well, that’s the best way I can describe the music on this CD.   Glenn Asch (violin and viola), Helen Reich (viola), Dan Armstrong (string bass) and Scott Tisdel (cello) join Seed’s guitar exploring new frontiers (much like the Kronos Quartet).   And if that’s not exotic enough for you Chinese Pipa master, Yang Wei appears on Where the Corners Meet , which resembles Chinese folkloric meets an Appalachian string band meets chamber music (though it sounds a bit busy for my tastes). Seed’s Tangoesque takes its inspiration from Bill Frisell (another eclectic guitarist), Strange Meeting, according to the liner notes.   Seed’s guitar gr...

World Hector Del Curto   Eternal Piazzolla Green Parrot Records Since the moment a music librarian in Seattle introduced me to the tangos of bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla, I have admired and loved this music.   I have delved into several of Piazzolla’s recordings with his quintet and other ensembles, and I have heard tribute recordings from other musicians, both inside and outside of Argentina.   Similar to Franz Liszt and the American blues legend Robert Johnson, we wonder if Piazzolla also sold his soul to the devil in exchange for mastership of his instrument and genre.   Of course, I don’t mean this literally and I’m referring to the bursts of passion found in Piazzolla’s compositions. When I saw a listing for Argentine Hector Del Curto’s Eternal Piazzolla I decided to review the recording.   As usual, I was concerned at first about the musicians’ interpretation of Piazzolla’s repertoire, but in this case, there was no need for conce...