Matt Haimovitz is one of those pioneering cellists who is taking his instrument out of the symphony orchestra and chamber ensemble and into the rest of the world. Haimovitz has gone were few cellists have gone before, including rock clubs, pubs, with big bands and various electronica. About this album he says that he missed the LP Age as a recording artist and wanted to embrace its idealism, adventure and freedom in this Vinyl Cello album – which is also being released as a 12″ LP. It’s also the title of Tod Machover’s composition written for Haimovitz. It introduces a technique he calls “talking cello” – using the instrument to imitate the speaking voice with words just beyond comprehension, backed up by a DJ turntablist working with LPs containing textures built from Haimovitz’ cello recordings.
This album highlights the series of commissions for new cello concertos which Haimovitz made, concentrating on non-traditional ensembles well beyond the traditional symphony orchestra. He calls it his Buck the Concerto series. Canada’s McGill University has a seven-cello band, and the lead-off selection is Haimovitz arrangement of Jimi Hendrix’ 1970 protest song Machine Gun for his solo cello and the cello band “Uccello.”
We have already reviewed the earlier Haimovitz CD of the cantata by Luna Pearl Woolf on New Orleans and the Katrina disaster. The unusual work takes a path among lament, protest and homage, ending with a New Orleans march back from a funeral – the cello wailing out its solo over the rest of the ensemble and voices. David Sanford’s Scherzo Grosso sets up Haimovitz’s versatile cello as a jazz or rock soloist while the big band takes a more European-improvised-music stance than jazz.
– John Sunier
