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Media Type: CD
Artist: SHANKAR,RAVI
Title: PASSAGES
Street Release Date: 08/21/1991
Domestic
Genre: INDIAN

Violinist Regina Carter recorded I'll Be Seeing You: A Sentimental Journey following her mother's death. A tribute to her mom, it features period songs she was fond of. But far from wallowing in sentimentality, it's a spirited work of reflection featuring vocals by the irrepressible Dee Dee Bridgwater on two songs, including a freewheeling "Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen," and the charismatic Carla Cook on three tunes, including a darkly glowing "St. Louis Blues." Teaming to warmly atmospheric effect part of the time with clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera and accordionist Gil Goldstein, Carter readily avoids easy nostalgia, whether basking in the childlike delights of "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," "Little Brown Jug" and "Anitra's Dance" (the Peer Gynt classic, taken from the great '30s bandleader John Kirby's arrangement), or the more sophisticated of emotion of Duke Ellington's "Blue Rose" and "I'll Be Seeing You." Produced by John Clayton, the album doesn't rise to the heights of Freefall, Carter's 2001 duo recording with pianist Kenny Barron, but its easygoing qualities win out over the slick high conceptualism of some of her other efforts. —Lloyd Sachs

Violinist Regina Carter's able to cover ample stylistic terrain without any sense of a tourist's itinerary. Her signature excursions on Rhythms of the Heart reveal a jaunty joie de vivre reminiscent of Stephane Grappelli, best showcased on "Lady Be Good" and Tadd Dameron's "Our Delight." But there are also credible forays into salsa with "Mojito," Afro-pop with "Mandingo Street" (featuring Cameroonian multi-instrumentalist and composer Richard Bona), and soulful reggae on a cover of the Temptations' "Papa Was a Rolling Stone," where vocalist Cassandra Wilson provides her trademark hushed refinement. A longtime sidewoman for trombonist Steve Turre and others, Carter proves adept at fostering ideal forums for her cohorts, particularly pianist Kenny Barron, whose tune "Cook's Bay" is a pastoral gem, and whose exchanges with Carter on "N.Y. Attitude" ensure that's there's a graceful depth to the song's brisk efficiency. Finally, don't overlook the pensive beauty of Carter's take on the ballad "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most." —Britt Robson

The three works on this disc were all commissioned for Yo-Yo Ma. Listening to Leon Kirchner's Music for Cello and Orchestra put me in mind of Mahler. Indeed, had Mahler lived long enough to hear and be influenced by the Berg Violin Concerto and decided thereupon to write a cello concerto for Feuermann, it might have sounded a bit like Kirchner's darkly passionate score. Both the Rouse and the Danielpour pieces are meditations on death, each lasting about half an hour. They are different in character but as compelling and vivid as the soloist for whom they were intended. Capturing these accounts was a heroic undertaking for Sony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and all the participants—the takes were recorded during the blizzard of 1996, when two feet of snow blanketed the East Coast. The venue was the Giandomenico Studios in Collingswood, New Jersey, and the sound turned out to be first-rate. —Ted Libbey

Voices of Light, inspired by the classic French silent film "The Passion of Joan of Arc," works as a cinematic accompaniment, but it's not movie music. Influenced by minimalism and the likes of Gorecki and Part, Einhorn's music is tonal and accessible. The texts—in Latin and antique French—are from the Bible, and from writings by (mostly) medieval women, including Joan of Arc herself. Joan is represented by the reliably intelligent and well-tuned Anonymous 4 (Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer and Johanna Rose); soprano Susan Narucki sings her often high-flying lines with beauty and clarity. —Sarah Bryan Miller