Customer Reviews

Pieces of Africa

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I largely consider myself an alternative rock fan and to describe my knowledge of classical music as "limited" would be kind. I first got to know Kronos when they covered Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir" and had a video (which I saw once) on either VH1 or MTV. I was fascinated, so when they came to perform at my college (back in 1992) I went to see them. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. They didn't play, they didn't perform in the sense that most classical artists I've seen perform. It has one-half recital, one-half performance art.

So, I rushed out and bought a CD--fortunately it was "Pieces of Africa." I have since bought about half of Kronos's CDs, and all of their releases since, but this one ranks as my favorite. Why? It is joyful, uplifiting, and spiritual without being sentimental. It is a beautiful CD, rich in texture and melody. The quartet is often accompanied by vocalists, drummers, and other African musicians in a way that doesn't simply "feature" them, but integrates them. You can feel the collaboration among the artists.

Above all, this CD offers an accessible, non-threatening introduction to Kronos and their work. If you never explore beyond this CD, never buy Tan Dun or Night Prayers, your life will still be better for having heard this wonderful music.

More than just a compilation of great music by noted African composers, the album is a repository for the emotional richness of Africa. Each piece is lively, intricate and accessible. There is much joy here; the tracks are full of happiness, heat and nightfall. Also sorrow, but that's Africa, too. A friend gave this to me when I happened to be writing a book about Africa, and it became my soundtrack. I have given dozens of CDs to friends who love Africa. From "Sunset" by Foday Musa Suso to "Waterwheel" by Hamza El Din, "Pieces of Africa" is one of the great musical adventures of the past decade.

I especially like the quartet by Volans and waterwheel. But there are no bad pieces here and most are sprightly and inventive, with a few really beuatiful ones.

Three or four years ago, I heard 'Pieces of Africa' recommended on NPR for those who enjoy Paul Simon's album influenced by African/South American music (The Rhythm of the Saints album, I believe). When I purchased it (on tape), it became quickly apparent my money was well-spent. I enjoy classical music, but am not extremely knowledgable about it and enjoy something extra. Kronos Quartet, of course, has that extra, and every one of my friends who have heard me listening to it want a copy for themselves. I'm purchasing a compact disc for my friend today. For all four years, I've listened to it frequently to study, relax, or get motivated, and I've never tired of it--I don't think it's possible!

from a drummers perspective: this is one of the most meditative, subtlely complex, works i've come across in some time. that means i think it rocks, in a good way....

I heard Kronos Quartet several times after buying this album and I love listening to them perform. This is a great mix of African and Western influences, at times rambunctious, while other times reflective and full of pathos. The technical skills of the musicians is superb. I really recommend this album! Some of my favorite tracks are Mai Nazipo, Tilliboyo for kora & string quartet ("Sunset") and White Man Sleeps #3.

The Kronos Quartet first caught my eye with their performances of music by Terry Riley. I kind of consider them the Flecktones of the classical world (a reference to Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) -- virtuoso musicians who head off in a bunch of different musical directions and who can always be counted on for something new and inventive. That certainly holds true here as well.

I feel there are three basic kinds of music on this CD. First are the pieces from traditions of sub-Saharan Africa (tracks 1, 3, 4, 6 and 12). These are usually folksy tunes, with additional instruments, percussion and/or voices. The feel of these pieces is generally speaking upbeat. I think anyone who enjoys music by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra will appreciate these short pieces -- I found the general feeling and atmosphere very compatible with the Penguin Cafe, although this is certainly more African in the specific details.

The second category are pieces from North African traditions with more of a Middle Eastern flavor (tracks 2 and 5). Again, very nice music for what it is.

The third category is the only longer, multi-movement piece, "White Man Sleeps" by South African composer Kevin Volans. This is the only work that falls in a category that could be referred to a "classical" in the sense most people think of. It is a wonderful string quartet work and a really nice centerpiece for this album.

So if I have all these good things to say about it, why do I give the album four stars instead of five? While I like the music and appreciate the non-traditional use of the string quartet, I just didn't feel the string quartet added much to the bulk of the sub-Saharan music (the first category above). I mean, you could play Bob Marley on a massive pipe organ, but why would you? This is kind of that feeling.

I almost always appreciate efforts to build bridges between musical, cultural and spiritual traditions, and I appreciate this one as well. But this music doesn't really need a string quartet -- fiddler or two would do fine. And basically that's the role the strings play. Nice fiddling, and a bit of fun.

Get it for "White Man Sleeps" and even the North African stuff, where the strings blend in more naturally. Don't get me wrong, this record is recommended. But in the end, much of it comes across more as a noble experiment than a roaring success.

Let's face it, when you look at the title, you think this can't possibly work, and I still find it difficult to believe. I first heard the Volans track 'White Man Sleeps' on the invaluable 'Late Junction' on Radio 3 (what a great introduction to new music, of all shapes and sizes). However, the entire album came as a great and exciting discovery: who would have thought you could marry traditional (African) instruments with a chamber quartet as exacting and structured as the Kronos Quartet, and have a blissfully happy outcome? For that's what we have here: a quartet format and discipline augmented by the sounds and rhythms of Africa, which has a smile on its face, and at times really 'sings' with joy.
Tired of the astringency of modern composition/composers? Acquire this unexpected treasure, and feel those smile muscles reappear! Excellent performance and lovely, clear production job. Uniquely engaging.

Nice double-meaning title, e.g. "compositions" out of Africa, each being a (sonic) piece of the continent. The Kronos Quartet more or less single-handedly (or, should I say, "four-handedly") initiated, in the 1980s, the trend that I would dub "Classical encounters World Music", with their recordings of arrangements of Jazz Classics (their tribute to Thelonius Monk was one of their first recordings, back in 1985, ASIN B0002BO0L2 - can't provide the link or I'll run out before the end of this review) or progressive Jazz (Zorn and Lurie in Kronos Quartet : Winter Was Hard), Pop (Hendrix' Purple Haze in 1986 on Kronos Quartet: Sculthorpe, Sallinen, Glass, Nuncarrow, Hendrix) or popular dance music (Piazzolla: Five Tango Sensations). Then came the fruitful encounter with Terry Riley and the transformation of those ethnic roots (in the case of Riley, the North Indian Ragas of Pandit Pran Nath) into fully-fledged contemporary string quartets that brought a new slant and a gush fresh air to a time-hallowed genre: Cadenza on the Night Plain and Salome Dances. After Riley came Kevin Volans, who wrote his first three String Quartets for Kronos: White Man Sleeps in 1985 (Kronos recorded two movements out of the five in 1987 on White Man Sleeps, but the complete quartet is played here), "Hunting: Gathering" in 1987 and "Songlines" in 1988. The Quartets are rooted in World music, taking their inspiration in many musical traditions of Africa, and in repetitive minimalism, but like Riley, Volans shows a sonic imagination and formal freedom that makes them entirely original works.

Here, Kronos pursues the gig by commissioning African musicians, of which only a few seem to have some kind of formal training in Western classical music. The selection of composers gives a nice cross-section of the continent: they come from Zimbabwe, Morocco, Gambia, Uganda, Sudan, Ghana and, in the case of Volans, South Africa.

Now, when Volans or Riley use folk and world-music inspiration, they metabolize their sources into the traditions of Western Classical music, filtered through their unique compositional imagination. As Volans put it about his "Hunting: Gathering": despite the rooting in African music, "it is above all the choice of medium, the string quartet, that places the material firmly in the Western classical tradition. Japanese prints informed every aspect of Van Goghs's late work - the colour, the sense of light the formal thinking. Yet Van Gogh's choice of oil paint on canvas makes the painting Western European."

Not the rest of these compositions: the music remains folk or traditional in string quartet attire, with a complement of various African instruments (explanations would have been welcome: not everybody needs to know what is a ngoma, a hosho, an oud, a bander, a kora, a tar, a donno, a brekete, a pretia, an aketse, a gidi, a mbira) and, in some pieces, vocals. In track 12, I'm not sure whether I hear a percussion instrument (and none is credited for that track in the booklet), or just the performers striking the wooden boards of their instruments. And even the string quartet doesn't seem to change much to the color of the original music: all these cultures have string instruments.

The music is pretty and sweet, undemanding and inconsequential, mostly rhythmic and dance-like or sounding celebratory (track 1, by Zimbabwe composer Dumisani Maraire, music that you could imagine taking place in an Irish pub as much as in Southern Africa, track 2, 4, 6), more rarely sounding more contemplative and ballad-like (3). Those closest to the Western traditions seem to be Justinian Tamusuza (4) and Hamza El Din (5) - I'm not surprised that they were respetively a student of Volans and introduced to the Kronos Quartet by Riley.

In that context, the composition of Kevin Volans stands out. I'm not sure what to make of the indication on the booklet that this is "the original, unrevised version". As is clearly explained by Volans himself in the liner notes of the two competing recordings by the Duke Quartet (Kevin Volans: Hunting: Gathering) and the Smith Quartet (White Man Sleeps / Mbira), the piece was originally written with non-equal-temperament tuning in mind, for two harpsichords tuned in African tuning and evoking the African mbira ("the generic name of a popular African instrument with a set of plucked keys, a soundboard and resonator", says Volans), viola da gamba (encouraged to bow "badly") and percussion. So what Volans wrote for the Kronos Quartet in 1985 (after initial resistance at the idea of transposing for an instrumentarium that "encapsulated the very heart of Western classical music" and played in conventional Western tuning) was indeed a transcription or reworking for string quartet. Maybe then Volans revised the string quartet after its premiere by the Kronos and they are playing the version of the premiere, although the differences with the two other recordings are difficult to detect, and when there are some (I think I've spotted one longer and one abridged patch of repetition, both short), it is hard to tell if they derive from options offered by the score, or from different prescriptions.

Anyway, by Volans' own admission, the transposition and retuning made the composition into an entirely new piece: "when Kronos asked me to do White Man Sleeps for them, I became interested in the issue of translatability. I have come to the conclusion that the color fo the instruments or the color of the sound that they produce, is as important for the meaning of the music as the pitch, or the rhythms, or anything else." Having heard the original composition, cleverly featured on the Smith Quartet's disc, I also think the reworking is much better. While the original version is often trudging and rattling, the version for string quartet is highly imaginative and evocative, sensuous in sound, exhilarating it its motoric/repetitive movements (1, 2 & 5), intriguing in the jazzy and slightly limping pizzicatti of its third movement, ceremonial and hushed in the fourth movement (verging on the sentimental but not quite crossing the line), and always melodically appealing. It lets you hear and enjoy, better than the original, what you can imagine are the sounds of Volans' physical African environment; by his own admission, these have inspired the composition even more than the country's culture. It is the substantial piece in an entertaining but not very substantial program, although Volans' next two string quartets (also written for Kronos) are even more imaginative and free. Kronos recorded only the second, Kevin Volans: Hunting: Gathering (String Quartet No. 2) (1987) - Kronos Quartet and left Balanescu to record the third, along with the second (see my review of String Quartets 2 & 3). Here, in White Man Sleeps, though the sonics afford them less sensuous instrumental presence, the Kronos are more dynamic, biting and light-footed than their competitors, the Duke Quartet and the Smith Quartet, which makes theirs a preferable version, although the Duke's all-Volans disc remains worthwhile if only for the 6th String Quartet, and the Smiths' interesting for providing the original version.

I love every moment, every note of the music on this album. It's inspiring, exhilarating, and just plain fun.