Customer Reviews

John Williams: The Magic Box

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4 star:		(2)
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2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

In pursuing his goal of expanding guitar music beyond the traditional Spanish repertoire, Williams and friends have produced a very enjoyable collection of African style music. The blend of percussion, bass, and wind instruments gives it even more flavor. Particularly delightful is track 3, "Maki," with Williams playing beautiful tremolo and strumming on a bright sounding requinto. Several other pieces give off a similar tropical, mellow, and happy feeling. I'm eagerly anticipating Williams' next project and where he will take us.

Once again John Williams pushes the classical guitar 'limits' to new horizons. Introducing new genre's of music to the guitar is nothing new for this guitarist. Accompanied by voice, double bass, accordian, zarb, harmonium, flute, whistles, percussion and steel string guitar among other insturments makes this a cd that has gone far outside the 'classical' category. This cd however is not specifically a John Williams showcase. It is a panoramic view of Africian music in general. Reflecting the different cultural tastes of the continent. I would like to add that I think Mr. Williams is long overdue for a Grammy Award. Maybe this cd will do it.

I have Magic Box playing and a small water sculpture flowing as I type this and the combination is just about perfect. I wouldn't call myself a sophisticated listener, even though I bought my first Segovia recording as a teenager in the early 1960s and, over the years, have accumulated quite a few recording by Segovia, Isbin, Williams, Parkening, and others. I never tire of listening to these superb guitarists playing Rodrigo and Bach and the other standards but, every once in a while, it is a pleasure to hear something a little out of the ordinary. It takes a special talent for a classically trained musician to handle pop or folk material with any success - as it does for pop/folk musicians to go the other way. Williams does it with ease.

Classical guitarist extraordinaire John Williams has never been afraid to set out on little side-trips, away from the mainstream of the classical guitar literature. Beyond taking part on occasion in big orchestra-backed 'pops' excursions, he has regularly immersed himself in avant-garde, jazz, and even rock projects (for example the band 'Sky'). "The Magic Box" therefore does not really represent Williams doing anything unusual for him, but it does expand his repertoire within the world of folk and international music, in this case the traditional music of Africa. I find most of this material very attractive, but somehow a little less involving than when it is played on native instrumentation (perhaps simple beauties just cannot be improved upon...). Nevertheless, as always Williams executes each item in the program with grace and understanding, and with a level of gentleness and respect that one expects from a classical musician of his calibre. Call it a worthwhile experiment--though I'm not sure I would clamor for an encore.

Being quite close to some of the sources for some of these pieces, I was both thrilled that they had been recognized, while a bit disappointed in the actual music treatment on Magic Box, which I found rather tepid and polite compared to the originals.

Paul-Bert Rahasimanana is much better known as Rossy, and he has many albums, most available on Amazon.com. Unfortunately, the links on this page don't tell you that. I have produced him, and toured and performed with him. He's an amazing musician. I hope people take the time to listen to his music.

Another source musician, Ralanto, is on the cover of an album called Moon and the Banana Tree, a 1995 compendium of acoustic guitar players in Madagascar which I produced for Shanachie. Omby, the piece John Williams covers, is on that album, and again, I hope people will take the time to seek that album out as well. Williams recently referred to it in an interview as a real eye-opener. I wish he could have heard Resting Place of the Mists, the companion CD which is already out of print.

Africa (including Madagascar, which is more properly associated with Indian Ocean culture than with Africa) has some of the most astounding guitar players on earth. Hearing an admittedly superb classical guitarist attempt to do that material justice requires that the listener either be unaware of the source, or willing to ignore it and judge the extremely European treatment he offers, which is dramatically inside the limits of the source. With all due respects, I truly hope it will draw some folks to listen to the real thing.

The premise for this recording is spelled out on the back cover of the CD packaging: "Guitarist John Williams discovers the continuing tradition of guitar music in Africa and Madagascar." He is joined on this musical adventure by Paul Clarvis on hand drums and other percussion, John Etheridge on guitar, Richard Harvey on various woodwinds, Chris Laurence on bass, with Francis Bebey and the Africa Children's Choir providing vocal support.

This music has a wonderfully rich texture to it, with a wealth of rhythmic and timbral variety and interplay. The music also has a remarkable feeling of joy associated with it, the joy of making music and the joy of living life. It will bring a smile to your face if you give it half a chance. The liner notes offer an overview of the music, the sound is clean and clear and well balanced, and overall The Magic Box is magic in a CD jewel box.

This album was quite different from other JW albums I have had, but I love the new rhythms and other people that are included, (like the flutes and childrens voices).

Superb musicianship and wonderful rhythmic music. Anyone interested in guitar, classical or world music should buy this without delay.

This is not the kind of record you'd expect from John Williams. Nothing wrong with the music per se -- it's pleasant enough folk-style sonic filler that you could hear in a restaurant, for example --, but John Williams is a serious musician, and you'd expect from his repertoir some degree of musical sophistication. You don't expect John Williams play "Quand Trois Poules Vont Aux Champs" in its most primordial simplicity. Yet this is just about what he does on this most enigmatic record. What was the point? Using his renown to help his African friends gain exposure? That's the only explanation I could think of, and if true, it's been awfully nice of him, but still, the musical value of this collection of ditties is zero. Well, let me rephrase that: the pieces may be OK as folk sort of thing, but this isn't art music.