New Folk
Anaïs Mitchell & Jefferson Hamer
Child Ballads
(Wilderland Records, $12.98)
Francis James Child (1825-1896) was an American scholar who researched and compiled a work that’s had an enormous effect in the world of traditional folk song. In The English and Scottish Popular Ballads (published in 10 volumes between 1882 and 1898), he enumerated and examined 305 ballads, which are still known as the Child Ballads.
Anaïs Mitchell and Jefferson Hamer chose seven ballads; their harmony singing and simple arrangements for guitar, fiddle, and pump organ bring out all the drama, pathos, and tragedy of these timeless tales. In their choices and arrangements, Mitchell and Hamer also subtly pay tribute to the many traditional British artists who’ve covered these very songs: Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Fairport Convention, Anne Briggs, Ewan MacColl, June Tabor and Maddy Prior. This is a lovely album, and a heartfelt introduction to the Child Ballads.
Simone Dinnerstein & Tift Merritt
Night
(Sony Classical, $13.98)
Classical pianist and singer/songwriter Tift Merritt have made a thematic album devoted to melancholy moods of the night. Quiet and spare—just voice, piano, and guitar. It juxtaposes folk songs (“Wayfaring Stranger”), classical pieces by Bach, Schubert and Purcell (“Dido’s Lament”), and newer songs by Merritt, Patty Griffin, and Brad Mehldau. With the solo piano “Cohen Variations,” the ghost of Leonard Cohen makes an appearance, and the album ends on a bright note with Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.”
Love for Levon: A Benefit to Save the Barn
(StarVista, 2 CD, $22.98)
Six months after singer, drummer, and bandleader Levon Helm died, a benefit was held to continue Levon’s “Midnight Rambles” musical get-togethers at his barn in Woodstock, New York.
Luminaries such as Allen Toussaint, Gregg Allman, John Hiatt, Lucinda Williams, John Mayer, Mavis Staples, Roger Waters, My Morning Jacket, Garth Hudson, Grace Potter, Bruce Hornsby, Warren Haynes, and Dierks Bentley sang and played the iconic songs associated with Levon, both with the Band, and in his solo career.
Billy Bragg
Tooth & Nail
(Cooking Vinyl, $14.98)
Last year we finally got to hear the never-issued Volume 3 of Billy Bragg and Wilco’s Woody Guthrie project, Mermaid Avenue, thanks to the release of the complete 3-volume set. Billy says his new album is “stylistically, the follow-up to Mermaid Avenue that I never made,” exploring the ups and downs of relationships, with a few political songs as well.
New Classical
Gloria Cheng & the Calder Quartet
The Edge of Light: Messiaen/Saariaho
(Harmonia Mundi, $18.98)
Pianist Gloria Cheng and the Calder Quartet link Olivier Messiaen and one of his musical heirs, Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. Messiaen’s Préludes and Pièce pour piano et quatuor à cordes converse with Saariaho’s solo piano pieces and piano quintet. Liner notes by director Peter Sellars.
David Greilsammer
Mozart in-Between
(Sony Classical, $13.98)
Pianist David Greilsammer loves to juxtapose contemporary composers with past masters. His release last year, Baroque Conversations, was an example of inspired programming and playing. On his new album, he directs the Geneva Chamber Orchestra from the keyboard in works by Mozart as well as Denis Schuler’s 2010 composition In-Between. Mozart’s Symphony No 23 in D major, and the “Jeunehomm” Piano Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major are heard, as well as incidental music from Thamos, King of Egypt, and an aria from Mitridate, sung by countertenor Lawrence Zazzo.
Julia Fischer
Bruch & Dvořák
(Decca, $18.98)
Fischer plays Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Antonin Dvořák’s Violin Concerto op. 53 with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, conducted by David Zinman.
In Concert
Friday, March 22, 8 p.m.
at The Kennedy Center
2700 F Street NW
Metro: Foggy Bottom
Charles Lloyd – 75th Birthday Celebration Concert
On Friday, March 22, at the Kennedy Center, there will be a 75th birthday celebration concert with tenor saxophonist Charles Lloyd, featuring his quartet (Jason Moran, bassist Reuben Rogers, drummer Eric Harland), and special collaborators: tabla master Zakir Hussain, and vocalists Alicia Hall Moran, and Maria Farantouri.
Listen to the recently released duet by Charles Lloyd and Jason Moran, Hagar’s Song (ECM, $18.98); it’s one of the best ballad albums of recent years.
