Blair McMillen - Ballads (CD)

We all have melodies and songs that we love, and I wanted to make an album like this for quite a while. When I brought my "ballads album" idea to record producer Gene Gaudette and pianist Blair McMillen, I had a handful of classical and contemporary pieces in mind, and a few jazz ballads. As we talked and I reached out to composer colleagues, the program took shape. Recently composed or arranged, or from the 20th century, these thirteen pieces evoke various kinds of "ballad": the 19th-century instrumental ballade that tells a story; the jazz ballad, i.e. moody and romantic songs; and the medieval ballata, a poetic and musical form with a refrain, that was also intended for dance.Several friends contributed new inventive arrangements. Matthew Aucoin wrote an adaptation of a song from a cycle he composed the same year, Blair McMillen arranged famous songs by Quincy Jones and Francesco Landini, and Ethan Iverson offered up a re-imagining of an iconic Coleman Hawkins solo.The compositions on this album are mostly very melodic, but a few are more fragmented, even pointillistic, and not so obviously song-like or cantabile. I chose them because of their suggestion of long lines and connection across individual moments, and for the lyrical sentiments that I feel the music still conveys.While considering and discussing pieces to play, I also conceived of this album as a sequence to be listened to and experienced from start to end. In addition to the musical segues, there are poetic threads interwoven throughout, including: the physical and spiritual (presence/absence); the sad/happy mélange of the blues; and the passage of the sun. The sequence suggests the arc of the sun rising and setting nto night, with liminal or complicated states along the way, and associated feelings of lightness, connection, possibility, despair, hope. I was also interested in how, in the juxtaposing and remaking of pieces, emotions mingle in changing, sometimes contrasting, layers, and moods and meanings accrue as artists absorb and use existing art to express themselves.Sincere and deep thanks to all the remarkable musicians that are part of this album. Hope you enjoy this lyrical voyage.- Miranda Cuckson

Track List:

Disc: 1

1. Cancion de Otono (Song of Autumn)
2. Boat of Ra
3. Dialogo Nascosto (Hidden Dialogue)
4. Where Things Weigh Nothing at All
5. Five Studies for Violin and Piano, Op. 1: Study No. 2
6. The Midnight Sun Never Sets
7. Behind Air's Wall
8. Sprung Testament: Tears of Elation at a Liminal Moment
9. Lied II (Song II)
10. Non Ara Ma' Pieta Questa Mie Donna (She Shows Me No Mercy)
11. Five Poems for Violin and Piano-Nightsong
12. Nocturne
13. Hawk's Famous Solo on 'Body and Soul' (For Miranda)