Kronos QUARTET - Pieces Of Africa 1992

Kronos QUARTET - Pieces Of Africa 1992
Label: Nonesuch / Elektra / Wea

Jazz

Kronos Quartet is rooted in the classical-quartet tradition, but its members look and sometimes sound more like escapees from the college-music circuit. Kronos has consistently and irreverently bridged musical styles ranging from jazz, rock and blues to folk and avant-garde music, creating, in effect, a challenging commentary on the different kinds of music available in our culture. Its efforts on earlier releases like White Man Sleeps (1987) and Black Angels (1990) have scrambled cultural codes, calling into question the ways in which musical genres are categorized.

Pieces of Africa, consisting of works written specifically for the quartet by African composers, continues Kronos's obliteration of boundaries. The album merges traditional African concepts of composition and time with the typically Western instruments found in the string quartet. The result is not merely novel or exotic but a fresh, real and unusual musical experience.

Instead of relying on the Western concept of harmonic tension and release, these pieces take shape through the development of motives, rhythm and timbre. Melodic lines, like those in "Ekitundu Ekisooka" ("First Movement," composed by Justinian Tamusuza), may be drawn from scales that are atypical in the Western repertoire. The rhythmic layers in "Wawshishijay" ("Our Beginning," by Obo Addy) never compete but rather continually unfold and transform. The two violins, viola and cello combine with traditional African instruments such as the mbira (thumb piano) to create a gamut of compelling, sensual textures: the sinewy, fervent lines of "Escalay" ("Waterwheel," by Hamza El Din) or the rhythmic effusion of "Tilliboyo" ("Sunset," by Foday Musa Suso). This results in a sense of time that is both broad and immediate.

Kronos continues not only to perform contemporary music but to establish important directions for it. Pieces of Africa is at once a constructive critique and an album of quiet, deep and expansive joy. (RS 628)
By SUSAN RICHARDSON.
**
When released, Pieces of Africa was subject to some of the same "cultural imperialist" criticism that had been more successfully leveled at performers like David Byrne and Paul Simon. The album consists of commissions from African composers working at varying distances from European conventions. But whereas Byrne and Simon arguably used the music of Brazil or South Africa as backgrounds over which to display their own egos, the Kronos Quartet's members managed to sublimate themselves in service to the compositions, never giving the listener any sense of condescension. All of which is to say that Pieces of Africa is a very beautiful recording with several superb individual works. Zimbabwe's Dumisani Maraire's opening piece, "Mai Nozipo," with the composer accompanying the quartet on drums, is a rousing, triumphant anthem with a resonant melodic line that will long linger. Thematically, most of the pieces draw on African sources, very clearly in the case of the Arabic-infused songs of Hassan Hakmoun and the great Sudanese composer Hamza el Din. Unsurprisingly, South African Kevin Volan's "White Man Sleeps" comes closest to European traditions, though even this piece, which is gorgeous and inspired throughout, draws inspiration from native environmental sounds. The disc closes with another composition by Maraire, with an accompanying gospel choir making explicit the link between Africa's music and that of the American South. Pieces of Africa teems with beguiling melodies, making it one of this quartet's more accessible projects and also one of its best.
By Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide.
**
Cello- Joan Jeanrenaud
Engineer- Bob Edwards , Judith Sherman , Paul Zinman
Producer- Judith Sherman , Kronos Quartet
Violin- David Harrington , Hank Dutt , John Sherba
With guest performances by;
Dumisani Maraire,
Hassan Hakmoun,
Foday Musa Suso,
Hamza el Din,
Obo Addy,
Radouane Laktib,
Said Hakmoun,
Dan Pauli,
and the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir
Notes: Music written by artists from Zimbabwe, Morocco, Gambia, Uganda, Sudan, Ghana & South Africa
**

01.   Mai Nozipo ("Mother Nozipo") (6:54)
    Performer [Ngoma], Percussion [Hosho], Composed By - Dumisani Maraire
02.   Saade ("I'm Happy") (3:21)
    Co-producer - Itaal Shur , Richard Horowitz
  Oud, Vocals - Radouane Laktib
  Percussion [Bendir], Vocals - Said Hakmoun
  Sintir, Lead Vocals, Composed By - Hassan Hakmoun
03.   Tilliboyo ("Sunset") (4:20)
    Harp [Kora], Composed By - Foday Musa Suso
04.   Ekitundu Ekisooka ("First Movement") (5:36)
    Composed By - Justinian Tamusuza
05.   Escalay ("Waterwheel") (12:17)
    Co-producer - Tohru Ueda
  Tar, Composed By - Hamza El Din
06.   Wawshishijay ("Our Beginning") (4:50)
    Performer [Donno, Brekete, Pretia, Aketse, Gidi], Vocals, Composed By - Obo Addy
07.   White Man Sleeps (Part I) (4:01)
    Composed By - Kevin Volans
08.   White Man Sleeps (Part II) (5:04)
    Composed By - Kevin Volans
09.   White Man Sleeps (Part III) (3:22)
    Composed By - Kevin Volans
10.   White Man Sleeps (Part IV) (6:14)
    Composed By - Kevin Volans
11.   White Man Sleeps (Part V) (3:16)
    Composed By - Kevin Volans
12.   Kutambarara ("Spreading") (7:10)
    Choir - Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir
  Conductor - Terrence Kelly
  Lead Vocals, Kalimba [Mbira], Composed By - Dumisani Maraire
  Percussion [Hosho] - Dan Pauli
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