For more information about the Meridian Arts Ensemble, please contact us. The Meridian Arts Ensemble: Anxiety Of Influence by Evil Bob Shocks are good for you. You think you know a thing or two about music, instrumental ensembles, and how they sound & operate - then your world gets a magnificent jolt like mine got when I received a copy of Anxiety Of Influence - the 6th album recorded by The Meridian Arts Ensemble for the Channel Crossings Label (CCS 9796). What a great CD! The Meridian Arts Ensemble is a brass quintet augmented by a percussionist and pianist, and they are not just good - they are double secret, extra-mega good. Their performances positively radiate honesty and warmth to a degree which has become all too unfortunately uncommon in recent years. I was further shocked to discover just how much interesting, rich and sonorous music can be generated by such a small instrumental group. I particularly like the highly eclectic and un-snobby repertoire choices by this group as well. They are equally at home performing Frank Zappa, Debussy, Lutoslawski, Captain Beefheart, Elliot Carter, Jimi Hendrix, and on this latest release, a whole slew of contemporary composers whose work is completely new to me. Anxiety Of Influence has a noticeable Frank Zappa presence. The disc opens right off with 6 FZ numbers: Run Home Slow The Little March Little House I Used To Live In (Piano Intro) Little House I Used To Live In (Ensemble) The Black Page Drum Solo The Black Page (The "New Age Version" From "Make A Jazz Noise Here") The dazzling virtuosity of the group is quite evident in their full ensemble body-tackling of the meticulous and suave FZ polyrhythms in The Black Page. Zappa himself said that "It takes a quarter of a million dollars to make a band sound like that" - The Meridian Arts Ensemble sounds at least a half a million as good as any road band performance Frank ever got of this work. He would have been right pleased. The piano introduction to Little House I Used To Live In is worthy of mention not only for its skillful performance, but for what an interesting piece of composition it is in itself. Although it says right on the CD liner that it's Zappa, there's all of these other delicate little flavors lurking in it. I hear whiffs of Samuel Barber, Scriabin, Charles Griffes, Schoenberg.... yet over the top of it there are definite Frank Zappa stylistic note choices holding it all together. With a curious and quiet cluster, it dies away... The disc continues with, believe it or not: the Sarabande from Pour Le Piano by Claude Debussy. It takes an arranger of extreme daring and sensitivity to be able to pull off transcribing piano works by Debussy (and Chopin as well) for other ensembles - much less for brass quintet, but arranger John Sheppard did an incredible job which was completed with a performance of equal sensitivity. This is followed by Semahane (Whirling Wall) by contemporary composer Stephen Barber. According to the composer: Semahane is inspired by the spiritual ceremonies of the Mevlevi sect of Sufism, known in the Western world as the 'whirling Dervishes'. I dunno if it's really important to know that in order to like the music, but it has an interesting and unique sound anyway - no matter what the influence. Frank Zappa continuity for the disc is maintained in a section of Semahane titled: Homage to F.Z., wherein a kind of Messiaen-like calm lies over a transfigured and very gentle Black Page quote delivered with quiet grace by the MAE. Next is Zen Monkey by another one of them modern dudes: Daniel Grabois. This is quite nice - it's got this chorale-like atmosphere punctuated by silence and soaring melodies and attractive ensemble textures throughout. You should hear this one. For those people who are scared off by anything composed in recent memory, on the 20th-century-O-Meter (with a 1 for Early Richard Strauss and a 10 for Stockhausen), I'd give this a very accessible 4. If this were a disc by The Canadian Brass, by now you'd expect some nice fluff - maybe excerpts from Phantom Of The Opera, or Star Wars. No such "luck" here. Instead we get More Good Music: a convincingly free and crisp rendition of a traditional Afro/Cuban piece called El Solitario. Suddenly it's 1945 and you're table-hopping with Richard Rodgers at The Ritz. One of the crowning achievements on this disc is the next track: Variations on a theme of Kurt Weill by Stanley Silverman. I already like Kurt Weill, but to hear such an affectionate, playfully humorous and effective set of variations on one of his tunes is all the more reason to bow to Silverman's skill as a composer as well. I won't ruin it by describing it further - but as if everything else I've mentioned about this disc wasn't enough, this one piece alone is worth getting a copy of this CD. Anxiety Of Influence closes with 2 short works by MAE tuba player Raymond G. Stewart: the aptly-named Okay Chorale, and KOHS-Ska. This last work is a cheerful and light-hearted piece in the rhythmically "pushy" Ska style which shows off the MAE's energy, versatility and precision as well as any track on this disc. This is a CD I'll be listening to for a while. If your local Music Store doesn't carry this thing, BITCH ABOUT IT. top of page This website and all content copyright © 2006 Meridian Arts Ensemble