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- Artist:
Mel Graves - Rating:
- Release Date: July 01, 2001
- Total Time: 59:18
- Type: Avant-garde
- Genre: Avant-Garde
Review
Jazz bassist Mel Graves is also a gifted contemporary classical composer. Day of Love focuses on this aspect of his work. The title piece is a moving song cycle based on the poems of Pablo Neruda and dedicated to the composer's wife. The seven songs are scored for flute (Bob Afifi), baritone (Thomas Buckner), and bass (Graves). An instrumental introduction and a bass interlude complete the cycle. The words of Neruda did not only inspire touching melodies, but also brought sounds from South America. Afifi's flute is central to the work; its aerial lines evoke the Andes, while the bass anchors the piece in jazz and Buckner's elegant voice brings it into contemporary music. It does not really result in third stream jazz, but in an idiom where all influences are profoundly integrated. Simply put, "Day of Love" may be Graves' finest composition -- the work of a fully-matured composer. "Global Village," an earlier piece (1988, while the previous one dates from 1996), takes the form of a string quartet and is thus less striking. Performed here by Ethel (Ralph Farris, Dorothy Lawson, Todd Reynolds, and Mary Rowell), it resulted from a commission by the Kronos Quartet. This music is all about movement (the three parts are titled as dances), contrasts, and emotion channeled through playfulness. The last movement particularly shares affinities with Boris Kovac's string quartets. The performance is convincing, but the overall interest of "Global Village" pales in comparison with the title piece. ~ François Couture, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | Composers | Performers | Time |
| Day of Love: Introduction | (2:21) | ||
| Day of Love: Morning | (3:04) | ||
| Day of Love: Your Breast Is Enough | (7:09) | ||
| Day of Love: Adonic Angela | (2:15) | ||
| Day of Love: Body of a Woman | (4:10) | ||
| Day of Love: Bass Interlude | (2:51) | ||
| Day of Love: Learning into the Afternoon | (3:38) | ||
| Day of Love: We Have Lost Even | (6:05) | ||
| Day of Love: The Morning Is Full | (4:21) | ||
| Global Village: Dance of Life: Dance of the Whirling Dervish | (9:41) | ||
| Global Village: Dance of Death: Dance of the Shaman | (6:51) | ||
| Global Village: Dance of the Global Village: | (6:49) |
