Another Bland Attempt to Cope with COVID-19

from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed

Today I seem to have endured my third encounter with music that has responded to COVID-19 by blunting sharp edges, rather than seeking them for stimulation. To “review the bidding,” the first of these experiences involved Scott Routenberg’s Inside album, consisting of eleven tracks of music for keyboards and software. I wrote about this at the end of this past October while declaring my preference for one of my recordings of Arnold Schoenberg’s orchestration of Johannes Brahms’ Opus 25 (first) piano quartet in G minor. Inside was followed, at the beginning of January, with Love in the Time of Cholera, duo performances by jazz pianist Peter Malinverni and classical violinist Juliet Kurtzman.

I can now add to the list Spirit Garden. This is the second album featuring saxophonist Tivon Pennicott, in which he performs with a full (and richly lush) string ensemble. He also draws upon the services of two jazz bassists, Dominique Sanders and Yasushi Nakamura, as well as drummer Joe Snyder and trumpeter Philip Dizack. The advance material claims the album title represents “a communion of human spirits, who can collaborate, be nourished, heal, and give each other hope through positivity. It’s a direct reflection of fruits in a garden and the fruit of the spirit.”

Sadly, I cannot see myself inhabiting such a garden. Perhaps that is because my auditory cortex is still buzzing with the provocative sonorities evoked by composer Ash Fure, whose music I discussed about a week ago. On the jazz side my dispositions remain more inclined to the consistently provocative subtleties of pianist Satoko Fujii and the many colleagues that have joined her on adventurous journeys. In such a listening context I find no need to seek a blissed-out experience, no matter how honorable the intentions behind that experience may be.