Corners of the Sky

buy album

Label: Riverview Productions
Released: 2019
Duration: 00:38:48
Views: 1,311

Tracks

Bear Raven Dance, Fluttering, Blackfoot Blueprint, Peyote Blues, Name of Band, Choh-Kon, Living Instruments, Arapaho Ghost Dance, Shizhane Meditation, Sun Circle

Personnel

Hilary Noble

saxophone, tenor

Greg Snedeker

piano

Will Slater

bass

Steve Langone

drums

Hawk Henries

woodwinds

Album Description

Anishana means “Where do you come from?” in Algonquian. Anishana is the new band Hilary Noble and Greg Snedeker created together. Their 2019 release Corners of the Sky (©Riverview Productions) begins to explore that question. Where do they come from? From Afro-Latin rhythms, post-bop jazz harmonies, jam band grooves, Native American chants, and a wide variety of global music starting points. They have been moved by the raw power and intriguing subtleties of various Native American musical traditions and seek to connect this inspiration with their own lifetime experiences in modern jazz, Afro-Latin music, and classical chamber music, which are the corners of their musical skies. In “Bear Raven Dance,” an Athabascan melody of the Southwestern United States touches an Afro-Cuban carnival comparsa rhythm, circling through jazz harmonies. “Shizane Meditation,” “Blackfoot Blueprint,” and “Peyote Blues” draw from live field recordings and use modern digital mixing techniques to create stylistic juxtapositions. “Arapaho Ghost Dance” is based on a chant from the messianic Ghost Dance movement that swept through the Plains in the late 1800’s. “Cho-Kon” means “center” in Sioux: the piece is a blues that uses tone clusters revolving symmetrically around one note. Hawk Henries, a member of the Nipmuc tribe, plays interludes and introductions on the Eastern Woodlands flute that help connect these compositions into a unified whole.

Album Review(s)

• Corners of the Sky by Jack Bowers

Tags