Farewell To Music
Albany, 2021
8/10
The composer and clarinetist Barbara White has quite an interest in the bamboo flute the shakuhachi, and her decade long collaboration with Riley Lee provides for some very atypical and exciting song craft on this listen.
“Buddha Smiles on East 23rd opens the listens with the warm and dreamy shakuhachi from Lee emitting much beauty, and “Buddha Pines in the Dappled Glade” continues this approach with more firm blowing techniques as space is manipulated with much skill.
Further on, “Cut The Devil’s Throat” places White’s clarinet into the atmospheric and nearly sci-fi landscape, while “Refuge” spends 9+ minutes mesmerizing us with its quivering moments and soft, mysterious instrumentation.
Approaching the end, “My Lagan Love” is a brief 2 minutes of emotive and soothing chemistry between the pair, and “She Moved Thorugh The Fair” exits on the most adventurous tune, where guitar and drones from Charles MacDonald are met with Lee and White’s improvised solos.
Lee is the first non-Japanese musician to attain the title of ‘grand master’ of the shakuhachi, and together with White’s composing prowess and intimate clarinet delivery, they make for a very atypical and memorable outing.
Travels well with: Conversa- Duos For Cello And Piano; Jeremy Muller- Within The Within