Bizarre or baRock – Elizabeth Anderson – [TrackList below] Move MD 3179 [Distr. by Albany] ***:
(Elizabeth Anderson, harpsichord; Kylie Davies, doublebass; Danny Fischer, drums)
More Bizarre or baRock – Elizabeth Anderson – [TrackList below] Move MD 3326 [Distr. by Albany] ***1/2:
(Elizabeth Anderson, harpsichord; Rose Westbrook, acoustic & electric bass; Tony Floyd, drums; Ariel Valent, vibes; Ron Nagorcka, didjeridu & sampler)
Elizabeth Anderson has the reputation – at least in her native Australia – as the hottest and hippest harpsichordist around today. She plays several actual works of the Baroque period on her two CDs, but she applies the term using all its shades of meaning – going up to the present day. That means these very hip tracks – 20 on the first CD and 25 on the second – can include jazz, blues, Gershwin, the Beatles, and Brubeck.
Alec Templeton did some things like this back in the 1930s, and his Bach Goes to Town is included on the second CD. I see the late Don Angle arranged some of the tracks – he did many albums of swinging harpsichord on the obscure Afka label. The first two tracks of the first CD are by Willard Palmer, and were created for harpsichordist Igor Kipnis. Some of the tracks are just piano pieces which happen to work well on the harpsichord – such as Albeniz’ Leyenda: Asturias. Pieces with Spanish rhythms fit the instrument well – the two Scarlatti sonatas on the first disc support that. Others are standard Baroque harpsichord hits such as Handel’s The Harmonious Blacksmith. It all fits together rather well.
An original by Don Angle called Chocolate Bunnies is on the first disc, and a piece by Goebels, Chocolate Boogie opens the second one. The three-movement Bach-Vivaldi Concerto in D Major reminded me of Jacques Loussier with its jazzy treatment, but on the proper harpsichord instead of the piano. The added musicians on the second CD expand the instrumentation of some of the tracks. For the final two tracks, Anderson goes from Mozart’s Rondo a la Turka to Brubeck’s Blue Rondo a la Turk – a great pairing.
It’s a fun idea, and the sort of thing I would have liked to do when I had a jazz harpsichord trio briefly in college. (I majored in piano but my teacher didn’t like the harpsichord and wouldn’t let me play part of my student recitals on it.) However, I have to say that while the actual Baroque selections are most enjoyable, the jazzier ones don’t quite swing and sound to me only slightly more professional than the tape I have of my own little trio.
TrackList, First CD:
Palmer: Ragtime
Palmer: Blues for Harpsichord
Trad.: Scarborough Fair
Albéniz: Leyenda: Asturias
Bach: Small Prelude in c minor
Dandrieu: The Lyre of Orpheus
Daquin: The Cuckoo
Mageau: Winter’s Shadow
Whiffin: Cycles I
Angle: Chocolate Bunnies
Ligeti: Hungarian Rock
Purcell: A New Ground
Handel: The Harmonious Blacksmith
Lennon/McCartney: Eleanor Rigby
Albright: Danza Ostinata
Conceição: Batalha
Brown: Nine Rarebits
Scarlatti: Sonata in d minor; Sonata in a minor
Gershwin: I Got Rhythm
Tracklist, Second CD:
Goebels: Chocolate Boogie
Koll: Fuguedelic
Bach: Prelude and Fugue in C major
Templeton: Bach Goes to Town
Bach-Vivaldi: Concerto in D major
Scruggs: Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Couperin: La Princesse Marie, Air dans le gout Polonois
Kosciusko: Polonaise and Trio
Telemann: Bourrées, Polonoise
McAlley: The Addams Family Virginall
Lowe: baRock
Nagorcka: This Beauteous Wicked Place
Malcolm: Bach Before the Mast
Peerson: The Fall of the Leafe
Howells: Lambert’s Fireside
Purcell: Round O’
Ligetti: Continuum
Mozart: Rondo alla Turka
Brubeck: Blue Rondo à la Turk
— John Sunier
