Admittedly, as one who keeps holiday shopping at arm’s length and has somehow fashioned the Sundance Film Festival into a year-around sport, this is one of my very favorite times of year.
There’s the college football bowl season, of course, what with my USC Trojans and Utah Utes both achieving prime-time BCS status and a host of other match-ups that make you drool in spite of the fact that blatant systemic unfairness runs rampant in the selection process.
And it’s that time when music comes at you from every which way, a state of affairs that is always a good thing. Well, most always. Although there are those who are less than enchanted with the holiday music that annually emanates from the outdoor P.A. system at the old Heber Tabernacle, I for one find it a most welcome form of massage therapy.
For the most part it’s the mainstream stuff but, as I seldom seek out anything filtered through the predominant culture, it quickly takes me back to a more innocent, though obviously less interesting, time. Why I find it striking such an appealing chord, as it were, probably has a lot to do with how sound seamlessly negotiates frozen space on its way to the inner ear.
An easy nominee for Best In Show this year, however, would be a recent release by Yo-Yo Ma entitled “Songs of Joy and Peace,” wherein he gathers a most eclectic bunch of instrumentalists and vocalists to celebrate a virtuosity of the spirit.
With much of the material world slipping more and more into the tank each passing day, this collection is just what the doctor ordered. You become awash in the transcendental. Your “self” expands to the point where inclusion, rather than exclusion, rules your roost. OK, so that might be a bit over the top.
Anyway, you got master cellist Yo-Yo Ma, presumably alternating between his quite famous sidekicks, the 1712 Davidoff Stradivarius and the 1733 Montagnana (the one he forgot in a taxi a few years back), in serious collaborations with some of the more legendary names of our time.
The coolest thing about the recording is how the arrangements allow both the artistic mindsets and personalities of the performers to come through. There is obviously no hurry as each tune is shaped perfectly by those involved to fit the duet or ensemble situation.
The quite charming and outgoing fiddler Natalie MacMaster who is returning to Park City’s Eccles Center for the Performing Arts this Saturday evening, December 20 is a perfect example. When she and Yo-Yo get that Celtic thing going on a medley of “A Christmas Jig” and “Mouth of the Tobique Reel,” you just know she’s jumpin’ and foot-tappin’ all over the place while Ma can’t get the grin off his face. In joy and peace, there is much room for jubilation.
The hits just keep on coming! Dave Brubeck and his cellist son Matt are brought in to join the legendary Cuban clarinetist and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera for a like-you’ve-never-heard-it jazz take on “Joy to the World.” It seems like only yesterday that Paquito, along with other members of the Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars, put on an exhilarating Saturday morning student workshop at the Eccles Center as part of the Jazz Festival.
Each collaborator seems spiritually suited to the moment at hand. Obviously, they are honored to be in the presence of the mythical Yo-Yo Ma and the depth of the individual relationships shines through.
You can just imagine the magic generated by Yo-Yo when he cavorts musically with Diana Krall on a film tune or Alison Krauss on an “olde” carol from the British Isles. And he gets similar results with James Taylor and their close-to-the-bone arrangement of George Harrison’s “Here Comes the Sun.”
You also get Joshua Redmond’s tenor-sax riffs on “My One and Only Love,” as if they’d finally found a true home with of all instruments the cello. And the same for Chris Botti’s quite-singular trumpet solos on “My Favorite Things.” Leigh von der Esch has been telling me to catch this guy’s act for years to no avail. That will change at the first opportunity!
Mandolinist Chris Thile, late of “Nickel Creek” and current leader of the “Punch Brothers,” joins uber-bassist Edgar Meyer and Yo-Yo on a whole slew of wonderful improvisations on the classical Christmas canon that are sprinkled throughout this dazzling recording. They also join soprano Renée Fleming for “Touch the Hand of Love.”
It goes on and on, each selection a homage to the joy and peace not only of the season, but of the eternal. These talented folks have gotten together and bestowed upon us a gift for the ages. There’s something very special about Yo-Yo Ma, apart from his instrumental virtuosity and sheer love of music, and all those who joined him in this project, if they weren’t beforehand, are now very aware of his overwhelming gifts.
It obviously doesn’t really take all that much to wax superlative with whatever hyperbole avails itself, but, with Yo-Yo, it’s understandable to shout his praises. Or as Dylan might say, “It’s alright, Ma, I’m only bleating!” Ooooh!
Jay Meehan is a culture junkie and a free-lance writer with a background in commercial and community radio, among other pursuits. He has been a columnist and feature writer for various Park City publications going back to 1973.