ALBUM REVIEW: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble’s Sing Me Home

by Maggie Molloy

In light of recent tragedy and political turmoil around the world, we need music now more than ever—not as a distraction or an escape, but as a gateway toward experiencing our shared humanity. We need music to open our hearts, our ears, and our minds. We need music to connect us in ways which transcend language, religion, tradition, and geography.

That’s the idea behind Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble, a global music collective comprised of performers and composers from over 20 countries throughout Asia, Europe, and North America.

With such an array of distinct cultures and musical voices present in their collective, the music of the Silk Road Ensemble is at once contemporary and ancient, familiar and foreign, traditional and innovative. The group makes culturally conscious music, drawing upon instruments, ideas, and traditions from around the world to create music that is reflective of our 21st century global society.

Their new album Sing Me Home is a musical culmination of this ethos. Silk Road members each selected a musical work of personal significance to them, then invited guest musicians from different cultural and musical backgrounds to collaborate with the ensemble on each piece.

Sing Me Home

The result is an album which travels fearlessly from the folk melodies of Macedonia to the traditional textiles of Mali, from the fiddle ditties of Ireland to the harvest songs of Galicia, and from the taiko tunes of Japan to the sitar suites of India.

“When you listen to the album you’ll hear how different our homes are,” Yo-Yo Ma said. “For us, this is one of the great pleasures of Silk Road: we celebrate difference; we cultivate curiosity in our exploration and generosity in our sharing. In our home, something completely unfamiliar presents a precious opportunity to build something new.”

Yo-Yo Ma

Released as a companion album to the documentary film The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, the album stands confidently on its own as a glimpse into the music and personal memories that most inspire the individual artists of the ensemble.

The journey begins with Chinese pipa player and composer Wu Man’s piece “Green (Vincent’s Tune).” Eastern folk melodies come alive through an orchestra of Chinese wind instruments, Western strings, Kamancheh (an Iranian bowed string instrument), assorted percussion, and, of course, the visceral Tuvan throat singing of the Grammy-winning vocal octet Roomful of Teeth.   

Violinist and composer Colin Jacobsen’s contributions to the album include two imaginative arrangements of Western folk tunes: the Irish “O’Neill’s Cavalry March,” featuring Martin Hayes on the fiddle, and the American “Little Birdie,” featuring vocals by Sarah Jarosz. Each arrangement expands the timbral and harmonic palette of Western folk music by incorporating Eastern instruments like the pipa (a four-string Chinese string instrument), the shakuhachi (a Japanese bamboo flute), and the sheng (a Chinese free reed instrument).

What follows is a new arrangement of the traditional Malian tune “Ichichila,” for which the ensemble enlists the talents of Toumani Diabaté on kora (a West African string instrument) and Balla Kouyaté on balafon (an African wooden xylophone). Traditionally sung by the Taureg people while dyeing textiles in indigo pits, the song’s colorful, upbeat cadence comes from the rhythm of the textiles being plunged in and out of the dye with long sticks.

Balkan vocalists Black Sea Hotel lend their voices to an arrangement of the traditional Macedonian folk song “Sadila Jana,” while Japanese percussion instruments take center stage in a contemporary arrangement of the Japanese “Shingashi Song.” Indian raga is the inspiration for the organic and free-flowing “Madhoushi,” featuring Shujaat Khan on sitar and vocals, and “Wedding” features a vibrant marriage of clarinet, oud (a Middle Eastern string instrument), and wordless vocals in a heartfelt tribute to the millions of Syrians who have fled to find new homes in recent years.

But perhaps no other song captures the spirit of the album more than “Going Home,” a piece that has passed through countless composers’ capable hands in the past century. Originally composed as part of Dvořák’s New World Symphony, it was later arranged as a song with lyrics by his pupil William Arms Fisher. On this album, we find it rearranged and translated into Chinese in a twinkling string rendition featuring vocals by Abigail Washburn.

Jumping from China to Spain, the work is followed by a Galician harvest chant. Davide Salvado lends his voice for a new arrangement of a traditional Galician work song titled “Cabaliño,” his voice slow and steady above a bed of lively strings and warbling accordion.

Rhiannon Giddens’ gypsy jazz-infused vocals sparkle atop a tangle of accordion, Klezmer clarinet, and yangqin (a Chinese hammered dulcimer) in an arrangement of the “St. James Infirmary Blues,” while Bill Frisell’s soulful guitar solos shine in “If You Shall Return…,” a Kojiro Umezaki original which takes its inspiration from Bhatiali boat songs.

The album comes to a close with Rob Mathes’s arrangement of the jazz standard “Heart and Soul,” featuring vocalists Lisa Fischer and Gregory Porter. The song plays like a smile: it’s got all the waltz and charm of 1930s New York jazz, but with more global instrumentation.

Because in the end, that’s what the album is really about: bringing together an entire world of sound, listening to one another with open hearts and open minds, and ultimately, creating harmony and understanding in a world that is too often divided.

“All around the world, people constantly meet the unfamiliar through change,” Yo-Yo Ma said. “Rapid or dramatic change can feel threatening, tempting us to build walls to defend against the unknown. At Silk Road we build bridges. In the face of change and difference, we find ways to integrate and synthesize, to forge relationships, and to create joy and meaning.”

LIVE CONCERT SPOTLIGHT: May 20-26

by Maggie Molloy

Spice up your week with Southern soul, contemporary clarinet, and microtonal music!

Rhiannon Giddens and the Carolina Chocolate Drops

Giddens

We may live in the Northwest, but that doesn’t mean we can’t appreciate some serious Southern soul music. This weekend blues vocalist, violinist, and banjo player Rhiannon Giddens is coming to Seattle to perform songs from her new solo album, “Tomorrow Is My Turn.”

Giddens is known for reimagining gospel, folk, and bluegrass tunes, bringing her incredible vocal control and classical rigor to a wide range of musical styles. Backed by her Grammy Award-winning old-time string band, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Giddens will perform music made famous by female music icons like Patsy Cline, Dolly Parton, Odetta, and Nina Simone.

Sri Lankan-American singer-songwriter Bhi Bhiman will open the show.

The performance is this Wednesday, May 20 at 8 p.m. at UW’s Meany Hall.

Clarinetist Sean Osborn and Pianist Jessica Choe

SeanBazooka1smallThe clarinet is frequently overshadowed by its flashier, jazzier cousin the saxophone—but trust us, this often-overlooked instrument has a wide range of musical possibilities. This weekend, tune into the sounds of clarinet soloist Sean Osborn and pianist Jessica Choe as they perform an evening of dynamic and diverse clarinet works.

The program features everything from classical to contemporary clarinet repertoire, ranging from composers like Franz Anton Hoffmeister to Joseph Horvitz. The evening will also feature Osborn’s own musical portraits titled “Three Women and Three Girls,” as well as local composer Karen P. Thomas’s “When Night Came,” a piece written in response to events from the Bosnian War of the 1990s.

The performance is this Friday May 22 at 7:30 at Richmond Beach Congregational Church United Church of Christ. All proceeds from the performance will benefit Emergency Financial Assistance at the Shoreline Hopelink.

Music of Today: The Music of Harry Partch

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For classical music buffs, being inside a microtonal music instrumentarium would probably be on par with being a kid in a candy store. Lucky for us, the Harry Partch Instrumentarium recently took up residency at the University of Washington School of Music.

Partch was one of the first 20th century composers in the West to work with microtonal scales, building his own custom-made instruments in different tunings in order to perform his compositions. Next week, you can hear these extraordinary instruments in all their microtonal magnificence as UW music students and faculty perform works written by Partch on the composer’s own handmade instruments.

The performance is Tuesday, May 26 at 7:30 p.m. at UW’s Meany Studio Theater.