Following hot on the heels of my review of Joan Jeanrenaud’s latest CD, I thought about other outstanding female cellists and immediately Maya Beiser came to mind. She was cellist for the Bang on a Can All-Stars, a group of musicians, most of them based in or at least having roots in the New York City avant-garde music scene (i.e., The Knitting Factory). She left the All-Stars to pursue her own musical interests, much like Jeanrenaud did with Kronos. Beiser has premiered works by Steve Reich, John Zorn, Tan Dun, Julia Wolf (a co-founder of Bang on a Can), and Osvaldo Golijov (whose work has also been recorded by Kronos). In 2000, Beiser released an excellent album entitled "Kinship" that showed of some of her virtuoso talent on pieces that she has performed live (again, another parallel to the Metamorphosis disc of Joan Jeanrenaud).

Beiser collaborated with percussionist and fellow All-Star Steven Schick to create The Maya Beiser–Steve Schick Project—I can tell you the name of their group is the least creative thing they’ve ever produced—and released "Caught by the Sky with Wire", in 2001. Although this CD came out a little while back, I’d be remiss if I didn’t review it. Otherwise this fantastic album would probably fall through the cracks, and it deserves a much wider audience.

The CD opens with an African flavored piece, "Gada Yina African" that simmers with happy lilts from Beiser’s cello and answering accompaniments courtesy of Schick’s marimba and bells attached to his ankle, no less! The tones are crisp; the sound is open with a faint feel of echo. Listening to this is very much like being at a live performance of the music. Not too unexpectedly, this piece is reminiscent of the Kronos Quartet’s outstanding disc, "Pieces of Africa". However, I occasionally think that Kronos’ playing is a bit too self-aware, and that’s a feeling I NEVER got listening to this disc. The music playing comes across as completely spontaneous and the juxtaposition of these works, which vary greatly in style and origin, never seems jarring, but always “obviously correct.” "Gada Yina African" is a great way to start of the disk. Very likeable and friendly.

The title piece, "Caught by the Sky with Wire", is performed for your pleasure next and consists of seven short pieces each of which could stand alone but synergize to create something much bigger than their sum. Each small work evokes widely disparate images. The fourth small fragment entitled "Tied Together Like This" sounds like "Xenakis": cello rubbing, percussion slicing, totally cool. Two fragments, "Those with the Longest Shadows" (the third fragment) and "Again, the Little Girl and Her Bird" (the fifth fragment) serve as short intercalary pieces (and use much the same music), similar to the way the "Promenade" keeps appearing in Moussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as a musical accompaniment for the spectator as she walks from one picture to the next. The last fragment (In a Year When She Can Speak Again) is a lengthened recapitulation of the two short fragments mentioned above. As I listened to this work over and over again, I began to realize that something sinister lies just beneath the surface. It speaks of loneliness, bondage, trauma.

The third extended work, "Grand Alap", runs nearly twenty minutes long. An alap, as it pertains to Indian ragas, is an improvised beginning that relates to music that will come later in the piece, yet the alap itself is frequently important on its own terms. According to what I was able to glean from one website (http://www.artofthestates.org/cgi-bin/piece.pl?pid=167), “The opening passage serves as a kind of ritual offering to all surrounding spirits and is a request for permission to begin the performance. This practice has occurred in the music-making practices of cultures throughout parts of Asia for many centuries, including Cambodia…Grand Alap requires the percussionist to be male and the cellist to be female, as each of them has a vocal part which is both separate and related to their instrumental parts. Each of them is required to articulate certain phonemes as well as to sing.” The playing is outstanding and both Beiser and Schick have a knack for anticipating each other.

"Northstar Boogaloo", by George Lewis, is a basically a black pride rant at home in a coffeehouse atmosphere, complete with bongos. Percussion rules in this work with looped tapes as sketches of urban scenes are painted before us. This is strong stuff and the piece approaches greatness as it comes to grips with easy money, lack of respect for past idols of character and ability. This would be high performance art if the voice were live rather than looped in. The voice of the poet sounds excluded from everything: the comfort of the white world, his heroes who no longer are relevant to the new generation; a fast buck given not earned; entitlement rather than earning; in fact, it is the poet ranting who seems inconsequential as he judges all that he sees, passing him, his idealism, and his relevance by.

"Habil-Sajahy", written by Franghis Ali-Zadeh, is the last work on the disc and uses the cello and percussion to imitate native Azeri instruments. This music is steeped in variations on local folk music with occasional musical drones supporting the subdued action.

Don’t be put of by the fact that this is “contemporary music.” That term unfortunately connotes cold, soulless music that only an academician could love. "Caught by the Sky with Wire" is warm-blooded contemporary music suffused with nods to and respectful turns of Middle Eastern, Urban American, and Central Asian influences that offers up something new upon repeated listening. No, this isn’t Enya, but if you enjoy mild musical challenges, you’re sure to be won over by this exciting disc. No music-because-I-say-so, teeth gnashing stuff here. Just an incredibly interesting, great sounding, well produced album of work played by two virtuosi. Run, do not walk to the phone to order this disk. Alas, great as this music is, you’re not likely to find it at your music store down the street, but it is worth your time and effort to find it, much like panning for gold.

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Beiser/Schick Project

Caught by the Sky With Wire

Released: January 30, 2001
Origination Year: 2001
Time: 67:18
Tracks: 5
Produced by: Maya Beiser & Steve Schick
Engineered by: Josef Kucera
Mastered by: ??
Style: Studio
Format: CD
Enhancement: None
Label: O.O. Records
Website:
N/A

Gada Yina African
Caught by the Sky With Wire
a) The Dance
b) Hugging Himself For Days and Never Getting an Answer
c) Those With the Longest Shadows
d) Tied Together With This
e) Again, The Little Girl and Her Bird
f) His Heart, Exploded with Wire
g) In a Year, When she Could Speak Again
Grand Alap (A Window in the Sky)
Northstar Boogaloo
Habil-Sajahy