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Diego Barber: The Choice
ByInformed by shades of rust and the desolate brown earth of the Western Sahara, Mauritaniaand certainly the steaming heat that sets the North Western Africa ablazethis album billows incredible energy. Although some of the music is personal in nature, describing elegiac encounters with people close to the composer, such as the rhapsodic "To Annie," the second half of the album is a deeply impressionistic musical sojourn across the part of the African continent that Barber visited before he was inspired to write some of this music. The journey begins in the Canary Islands and Spain, described in beautifully conceived work on "Jose's House," "Ailanto," and the dusky "Pittaluga," which weaves West African blues as well as the classical strains of Barber's invention into a meandering tale of wonder. A swinging "Chicago" stands alone as a chart where Barber's blues meets the idiom of jazz, before Barber embarks on an epic journey through the reserve of Banc D'Arguin that stretches between Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania and the Northern citadel of Nouadhibou.
Barber's guitar becomes his Homeric lyre, capturing the rhythm of undulant camels traversing the great expanse of brush, desert and verdant land. The ebb and flow of the Atlantic waters seem to pervade in the rippling harmonics that sweep across especially the melody of "Nouadhibou," the first part of Barber's epic suite, "Sonata Banc D'Arguin." Barber's playing is sublime, not only in the manner in which he makes the land come alive, but also in the unbridled technique he displays throughout this suite. "Mauritania," the middle part of the suite is a brooding reverie that captures the proud and erect Berber and Bafour. Indee,d the romance of this land and its peoples cuts deep into the composition and is couched in some of the repetitive triads that Barber plays, while "Nouakchott" provides the dramatic release in the tension, as Barber brings his epic memorable journey home.
Track Listing
To Annie; Contraste; Jose's House; Chicago; Ailanto; Pittaluga; Sonata Banc D'Arguin: 1--Nouadhibou, 2--Mauritania, 3--Nouakchott.
Personnel
Diego Barber
guitar, acousticDiego Barber: guitar; Larry Grenadier: bass (2, 4, 6); Johannes Weidenmueller: bass (1, 3, 5); Ari Hoenig: drums (1-6); Mark Turner: saxophone (2, 4, 6); Seamus Blake: saxophone (3, 5).
Album information
Title: The Choice | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: Sunnyside Records
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About Diego Barber
Instrument: Guitar, acoustic
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