Gospel Meets Jazz, With Unpredictable Results

Don Byron released Love, Peace, and Soul with his New Gospel Quintet on Feb. 

Part I  

Part II 

(文本为音频大致内容,可能与音频并非完全一致,欢迎大家贡献听写稿^^)

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: We're listening to some music you might hear in church, but not in the style you'd expect. Two new jazz albums reinterpret gospel songs, but in very different ways.

Tom Moon has this review of both albums - one from Don Byron, the other from Hank Jones and Charlie Haden.

TOM MOON, BYLINE: Jazz musicians, even non-religious ones, have a soft spot for gospel. It's part of the foundation of American music, an essential language, like the blues. That doesn't mean they treat gospel tunes gingerly.

From Louis Armstrong on down, jazz performers have seized on hymns and spirituals as a starting point for improvisation.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MOON: That's bassist Charles Mingus with his classic group in 1959. His approach to gospel has inspired generations of jazz musicians, including Don Byron, the talented woodwind player heard here on clarinet.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MOON: Byron and his group chase gospel's exuberant side, those toe-tapping, jubilee-style rave-ups. Many of their arrangements open with a vocal chorus followed by solo turns that travel far from what's printed in the hymn book.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MOON: The solos on Byron's new work are certainly high spirited, almost Saturday night boisterous. Sometimes, though, we turn to gospel for calm reflection, and this is where the new album from Hank Jones and Charlie Haden shines.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COME SUNDAY")

MOON: "Come Sunday" is the second gospel collaboration between Jones and Haden. It was recorded a few months before Jones died and it's transfixingly effortless music, a conversation between masters, built around these solid reassuring melodies they've heard and likely played for decades.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "COME SUNDAY")

MOON: Sometimes, jazz improvisation has a muscle flexing, look-what-I-can-do aspect. Not this music. Jones and Haden are long past the point of trying to impress anybody. As they shut out the chatter of the modern world, the two go searching for a higher truth, a moment's peace. In these sturdy old songs of faith, they find it.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BLOCK: The latest album from Hank Jones and Charlie Haden is called "Come Sunday" and the new album from Don Byron is called "Love, Peace and Soul." Our reviewer is Tom Moon and you can hear more examples of gospel-inspired jazz at . 

声明:音视频均来自互联网链接,仅供学习使用。本网站自身不存储、控制、修改被链接的内容。"沪江英语"高度重视知识产权保护。当如发现本网站发布的信息包含有侵犯其著作权的链接内容时,请联系我们,我们将依法采取措施移除相关内容或屏蔽相关链接。