November 14, 2010

Since we’re living in the download age, I want to recommend a track. On cellist Matt Haimovitz’s album Meeting of the Spirits,  David Sanford has arranged Miles Davis’ Half Nelson for a drum-less string section. You must hear what he does with it. Deft dramatic beauty, and I hope Sanford will arrange an entire album of similar jazz fare for strings. For instance, I’d love to hear Repetition and Boplicity this way. Sanford, who founded the Pittsburgh Collective and is a professor of music at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts, gives Half Nelson just the right amount of grace and edge. You’ll find Meeting of the Spirits (Oxingale) at iTunes

by Marc Myers

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