A paean to creation and a divine conception of humanity
fire music archive inc | fire music sanctum north | 01/26/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
""make no mistake; this is first and foremost religious music. every sound from the 24-member band, every gesture from conductor silva serves an extra-musical purpose --creating a sonic analogy to a mystical experience. the sheer roiling volume, density, and fullness of tone created by the massive ensemble fills the listener with a powerful sense of the infinite, a sublime combination of awe, dread, and unearthly ravishment. listening to the orchestra at full voice is like staring into the sun: searingly bright details team over the surface, then soloists explode out from the central mass like tongues of fire and collapse back into the inferno. in music like this, individual contributions are almost incidental to the overall impact, but there are peak moments and outstanding soloists worth noting. the duet of trumpeter roy campbell and saxophonist sabir mateen elevates the music near the start of "visions 1." later karen borca's bassoon soothes the music as it descends from the heights. kidd jordan is a towering presence, first in a duet with rob brown during "visions 2" and later as primary soloist in "visions 3." silva seems at the mercy of a more powerful force, a puppet of the creator. during "visions 2", he speaks in tongues with a shocking intensity that the instrumentalists mimic in a startling call and response. during "visions 3, he shouts "the pyramids, the pyramids, the pyramids" in a hallucinatory frenzy. the gaudy colors of his synthesizer flash through the ensemble at times, inspiring the band to flow in new directions. the entire album is improvised and silva not only spurs the group to a closer auditory approximation of mystical union, but his gestural conducting shapes the collective improvisations, controlling dynamics, rhythm, texture, and color. under silva's guidance, "visions 2" features some lovely orchestrations, such as the reeds behind french horn mark taylor, and the ensemble's rise and fall in the last five minutes before the bass trombonist bill lowe and tuba player joe daley gently usher the music back to earth. this is irrational, excessive, beautiful, flamboyant, grandiose music, a paean to creation and a divine conception of humanity." --ed hazell, coda"
