Twelve Songs by Charles Ives
Theo Bleckmann and Kneebody
Theo Bleckmann could sing me to sleep anytime he likes, even if he doesn’t want to snuggle. The German-born, New York-based singer and composer has got a warm and engaging voice and oodles of good taste and insight. He’s given an imaginative yet intimate treatment to songs of Charles Ives in a new disc with the experimental quintet Kneebody. The CD on Winter & Winter is up for a Grammy Award this weekend in the classical category Best Crossover Album.
Tho Theo can do all kinds of wild and experimental things with his voice (why else would he be a regular collaborator with Meredith Monk?), he delivers the Ives tunes with straight ahead clarity. It’s in the far-flung accompaniments that the disc really diverges into realms that Ives might never have imagined and yet might also appreciate. Kneebody improvises around the original accompaniments and there are extended preludes and codas to some of the songs. In addition to Kneebody’s core instrumentation of saxophone, trumpet, piano and percussion, they throw in all kinds of unexpected sounds, electronic and otherwise. Theo also contributes electronics into the mix.
The collection focuses on some of Ives’ lesser known songs. It opens with the tender “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” and gets gently rambunctious in “The Cage” and reaches its jazzy peak in “The New River.” Two Ives lieder are included, perhaps in homage to Theo’s roots as well as something for the Munich label’s home audience. “Feldeinsamkeit” (In Summer Fields) is given a nightclub feel by brushes on a snare drum and in “Weil’ Auf Mir” (Eyes So Dark) the instrumental backdrop features restrained feedback from an electric guitar.
I’m always a sucker for a good hymn tune and “Serenity” (“Oh Sabbath rest of Galilee…) and “At The River” (“Shall we gather…”) are both set in a radiant haze of electronics. During a recent cruise, my partner Richard and I enjoyed listening to “At The River” as we sat on the deck of the ship. Yes, it was the Caribbean we were looking at, not a river. But it’s still water that we were zoning out to and the song fit in nicely. Another water-treatment comes in “The Housatonic at Stockbridge,” which includes undulating crescendos from Ben Wendel’s saxophone.
The disc concludes with “Waltz” (an excerpt of Ives’ original text: Little Annie Rooney,/ (now Mrs. Mooney,) / Was as gay as birds in May, / s’her Wedding Day). As with most of the disc, the band jams with spirit but the spotlight remains on Theo.
