Wednesday 19 April 2017

David Friesen and John Stowell: Star Dance; Waterfall Rainbow; and Through The Listening Glass











Bassist David Friesen made quite a few albums back in the day with a very Oregonian feel, thanks to the frequent use of not just modern classical influences but also added string quartet, oboe and soprano sax textures.  There is a quite a bit of 'filler' (for me) bass solo material to wade through in these but here and there some true delights shine through, and these are far far less known than Ralph Towner and Collin Walcott's group.  (Incidentally I just recently heard their bassist Glen Moore's 1979 album Introducing which is also incredibly well composed.)

The towering Ralph Townering of Star Dance from Friesen and Stowell's first, 1976 album of the same name:





Note the scoring of oboe and clarinet with string quartet.

More of the same plus more chamber instruments on the Wedding Dance from the second album featured here:





From the final collaboration album, Opening Out:






Obviously, christian themes permeate.






5 comments:

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  2. When I want to hear more I usually first check Spotify for the albums before downloading. Usually they don't have what you're offering but all these Friesen albums are there. But I don't know if that's of any interest to you, indeed I don't feel like an album is really "available" if it's only on Spotify. Also, the availability there varies by country.
    So I'm not planning to post here in the future if something's on Spotify... and I hope I'm not being a killjoy now, either. :D

    (One more note: what you called "Wedding Dance" would seem to me to be "Spring Wind".)

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  3. "Ralph Townering" ;)...thanks a bunch for this bunch of lovely records.

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