Grateful for so much as my history unfolds in reverse. Summer’s first journey to my birth mother’s home, with a family whom I’m so proud of with me. Upon our return my paternal side manifested. A grandfather in the Jim Crow South. Voice on the line who shared this family’s history of migration to the north, who invited me to holiday gatherings and told me, “You’re not alone in this.” Music and accomplishment has flowed through both sides. My genetically aspirational test results confirming Bahamas, Cuba, Haiti, Jamaica as ancestral places. And out of the sky, my long-failed career as a recording artist is suddenly not quite so failed (recall: history in reverse).
Author: elmahboob
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1996+21: limina
limina, for two pianos and percussion (1996), was composed as an exploratory diversion between larger projects. The title, “thresholds,” is meant to suggest points of transition or spaces between categories.
There are two sections; the longer and more eventful first is in duple metre and features a pop-like, four-chord progression in A major. The second is in triple metre and A-flat major, with an outro-like quality. The transition between sections introduces more complex harmonies and a percussion break.
All of the music is built around the initial melodic pattern, a loop that descends in fifths and ascends back to its starting point in fourths. This line is in fact the opening chord unfolded horizontally, and it becomes the rhythmic motor, layered against itself in canon. The final chord is the same as the opening one, though transposed down a semitone.
Composed and recorded August 1996, Korg 01/WFD
Remixed May 2017Photo: composer, 1997
Music and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2017
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Best of 2016
Childish Gambino “Awaken, My Love!” (Glassnote)
Vicky Chow A O R T A (New Amsterdam)
King We Are King (King Creative)
Laura Mvula The Dreaming Room (Sony · RCA)
Holly Roadfeldt The Preludes Project (Ravello)
Solange A Seat at the Table (Saint · Columbia)
Esperanza Spalding Emily’s D+Evolution (Concord)
reissues · remasters · restorations · box sets
Wally Badarou Back to Scales To-Night (Barclay · Expansion)
The Emotions Blessed: The Emotions Anthology 1969-1985 (BBR)
Philip Glass The Complete Sony Recordings (Sony)
Bernard Herrmann Twisted Nerve (Stylotone)
John Williams Jurassic Park · The Lost World: Jurassic Park (La-La Land)
Various Artists Doing It in Lagos: Boogie, Pop & Disco in 1980s Nigeria (Soundway)
Various Artists Star Trek: 50th Anniversary Collection (La-La Land)
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Linea Nigra, for string octet
Linea Nigra (2015) began as an orchestration of my piano piece Canon Chorale (2005). It is scored for string octet, in this case the same configuration as a double string quartet. Most of the structure and content of the earlier work are retained as a kind of continuo, to which newly devised material adds range and contrapuntal detail.
The general technique is a variation of first species counterpoint. A set of short melodies in each of the modes of C major are heard in two- to six-voice, note-on-note canons at the unison and octave, creating a sequence of block chords, or a chorale. The resulting harmonic progressions may have a cloud-like feel to them especially as melodic lengths and part density increase, and chord roots become ambiguous. Towards the end, faster melodic lines develop out of a recurring a triplet pattern.
The title of the piece reflects my own quest for my biological and cultural roots. Linea nigra (“black line”) thus references the vertical line that appears on a woman’s belly in some pregnancies, while it also suggests Black lineage and survival. It could also stand in the sense of a melodic line, printed or otherwise.
My great thanks go to Ashil Mistry, who suggested the instrumentation and generously edited the score, as well as directing the performance heard here.
Recorded July 3, 2016, London, UK
Scheme Ensemble
Ashil Mistry, conductorMusic and composer’s notes copyright Bruce A. Russell 2016
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Best of 2015
Some great new discoveries and otherwise the usual company in abundance.
John Adams Absolute Jest · Grand Pianola Music San Francisco Symphony · Michael Tilson Thomas · John Adams (SFS Media)
Bang on a Can All Stars Field Recordings (Cantaloupe)
eighth blackbird Filament (Cedille)
Mahan Esfahani Time Present and Time Past (Archiv)
Morton Feldman · Erik Satie · John Cage Rothko Chapel [Gnossiennes, In a Landscape, etc.] Kim Kashkashian · Sarah Rothenberg · Steven Schick · Houston Chamber Choir · Robert Simpson (ECM)
Floating Points Elaenia (Luaka Bop/Pluto)
Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly (Top Dawg · Aftermath · Interscope)
Steve Martland Band Martland (NMC)
Steve Reich Music for 18 Musicians Ensemble Signal · Third Coast Percussion · Brad Lubman (Harmonia Mundi)
Max Richter Sleep (Deutsche Grammophon)
Linda Catlin Smith Thought and Desire Eve Egoyan (Earwitness Editions)
Stephen Sondheim Liaisons: Re-Imagining Sondheim from the Piano Anthony de Mare (ECM)
Ann Southam Glass Houses for Marimba Taktus (Centrediscs)
Tennyson Like What EP (self-released)
Kamasi Washington The Epic (Brainfeeder)
John Williams Star Wars: The Force Awakens Gustavo Dudamel · William Ross · John Williams (Walt Disney)
reissues · remasters
Bernard Herrmann Obsession Special Archival Edition (Music Box)
The Spinners Spinners (BBR)
John Williams A.I. Artificial Intelligence Expanded Archival Collection (La-La Land)
John Williams Jaws and Jaws 2 (Intrada)
John Williams, Herman Stein, Hans J. Salter, Joseph Mullendore, Alexander Courage, Cyril J. Mockridge, Gerald Fried, Leith Stevens, Robert Drasnin, Fred Steiner and others Lost in Space 50th Anniversary Soundtrack Collection (La-La Land)
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Glass Houses for Marimba
My reviews of the launch and CD for I Care If You Listen.
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Come Through
I created a playlist a couple of years ago, to collect a series of 70s and 80s re-edits emailed to me in draft form for my feedback. One of the tracks arrived by way of reply to an email I’d sent with a gift of remastered music files, the source material for the re-edit. This was how it was with me and Masimba Kadzirange, Grandmaster DJ Son Of S.O.U.L., Source of Undying Love. For me it was an acknowledgement: among circles which intersected and didn’t in our brief friendship, we had this. A man of extraordinary musical gifts, recollection, insight, technique and experience, he included me among those trusted folks from whom he sought an opinion and whose musical values were understood and shared. I’m honoured by that fact.
It’s been one month since he left us suddenly. I’m grateful to have shared in the wonderful human being he was, while part of me remembers not taking up his invitation to “come through one time” to a recent series of club nights he was putting on only a ten-minute walk from my home. I was too tired from my job or busy tending to the bedtimes and wakeups of our small children. Every time I did get to hear him spin and cut — always with turntables, music on vinyl and no software — I was astounded by his musicality and brought to my feet to dance and sing along.Masimba made a tremendous impact in his community. He was loved. He will be missed in person, though his memory will continue to be celebrated by those who knew him, and through the music that was a central part of his own celebration of life.
“Pardon the delayed response my brother. You all will see me soon.”
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Boogie Dedication
The Salsoul Orchestra ft. Loleatta Holloway | Seconds
Linda Williams | City Living
Stephanie Mills | You Can’t Run from My Love
Esther Williams | I’ll Be Your Pleasure
Odyssey | Inside Out
Pleasure | Nothin’ to It
Unlimited Touch | I Hear Music in the Streets
Kool & the Gang | Steppin’ Out
Prince | I Wanna Be Your Lover
Eighties Ladies | I Knew That Love
Logg | Dancing into the Stars
Change ft. Luther Vandross | The Glow of Love
Stevie Wonder | As if You Read My Mind
B O O G I E D E D I C A T I O N
79-82
To Nehal and Masimba
beatmixing and harmonic mixing has been employed
without altering the tempo or pitch of the original tracksI B R Λ H I M ΞL M Λ H B O O B
July 2015
EL MAHBOOB 