The 3rd in a series of 5 suites from pianist Dave Burrell commemorating the people and events of the American Civil War, a mature and passionate work performed in a duo with NY trombonist Steve Swell, performed live at the Rosenbach Museum and Library in Philadelphia.
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2014 Country: Lithuania Packaging: Jewel Case Recorded live at the Rosenbach Museum and Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, PA, on January 19th, 2013 by Steve Swell.
"Dave Burrell's Turning Point, the third in a series of five suites commemorating the people and events of the Ainerican Civil War, is one of the crowning achievements in his career. A mature and passionate work, it weaves together 150 years of American history and music into a piece that grapples with some of the most horrifying moments in American history and yet remains profoundly hopeful. Born after a nine-month gestation period of historical research and rehearsals, the music evokes the harrowing events of mid-nineteenth century America through a vivid mix of sound imagery, stylistic references, and improvisation in an attempt to come to terms with the Civil War and its legacy.
It's an enormous undertaking, yet Burrell succeeds in portraying a vast landscape of war and social upheaval by working on a modest scale, with just trombonist Steve Swell as his partner. As Burrell points out, Swell has the tradition-informed creativity to make genuine contributions to Burrell's music. "Steve is inspired by Roswell Rudd and Grachan Moncur Ill, both of whom I worked with. He not only knows the avant-garde, but he played in Lionel Hampton's band, Burrell says.. And we've been together on projects with William Parker, so I was very familiar with what he could do. I felt that having Steve was like having an entire brass section."
Their duo project was just one of many performances that Burrell has done as composer-in-residence at the Rosenbach Museum and Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia since 2006. With a collection of books and papers of writers such as Marianne Moore, James Joyce, and Lewis Carroll, the Rosenbach is one of the preeminent literary archives in the world. As composer-in-residence, Burrell had previously brought to life through music the Rosenbach's holdings of documents related to African American history, Moore's poetry, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition. By far the most ambitious of his Rosenbach projects is a multi-year series devoted to the American Civil War of which Turning Point is a part. The series began in 2011 on the 150th anniversary of the first shots fired at Fort Sumter and will end in 2015, the sesquicentennial of the Confederate surrender at Appomattox."-Ed Hazell