The Listening Guide
🎶 The listening guide: five albums, released during the past twelve months, chosen around a weekly theme 🎶
This week, we pick five albums upon which the harp plays a vital role. From chamber ensembles to largely solo recording projects, original works and covers of pieces by jazz legends such as Alice and John Coltrane, Dorothy Ashby, and Chick Corea — there’s a serene pool of soothing music to dive into.
Dezron Douglas & Brandee Younger – Force Majeure
Amanda Whiting – Little Sunflower
Album of the Week
Lithuanian saxophone quartet Katarsis4 recorded their amazing new album at the Liepkalnis underground reservoir in Vilnius, last year. Harnessing the acoustic properties of the enormous space, as well as using extended techniques and bringing everyday objects into their music-making process, they’ve created an absorbing two-part album which is at times soothing, and at others unsettling. The band features: Arminas Bižys (alto, baritone sax), Algirdas Janonis (alto sax, hornpipe), Danielius Pancerovas (baritone, alto sax), and Kazimieras Jušinskas (soprano, alto sax). Support the project on Bandcamp!
Classic Album
Pianist John Wright, who sadly passed away in December 2017, released South Side Soul on the Prestige label in 1960. The album has become a posthumous hit on YouTube, and showcases his own soul-and-blues-steeped playing style, alongside the sensitive sideplaying of bassist Wendell Roberts and drummer Walter McCants. With track titles referencing his native Chicago, it’s an album with a great mix of grooves and moods and a genuine, uplifting feel. The record is on streaming services in its original form and within a compilation of Wright’s recorded work.