Henry Brant Collection Vol. 8
Too often, funny music isn’t. It tries too hard or the particular brand of humor just isn’t your cup of tea. To make matters worse, we feel uncomfortable about laughing even at an especially ludicrous concert of avant-garde music. Finally, here is a selection of music that assaults every listener’s capacity for stoicism and gives you permission to enjoy yourself.
The nine works on Volume 8 of innova’s Henry Brant Collection range from unfeasibly jolly, to zanily bizarre, and just plain loopy. There’s something here representing every type of amusement: for those who love Buster Keaton as well as those who prefer The Office, or PDQ Bach.
Long before there was Switched On Bach, irreverent Henry was fooling around with Wachet Auf and making it swing a la Benny Goodman. Then there were the pianists (Reinbert de Leeuw in this case; no dime store slouch) found in Woolworth’s in the 1920s (which Henry still remembers), ready to play fancy versions of requested songs�
Revenge Before Breakfast is more than just a good title; its “synthetic nostalgias” are going to make you weep with bemused incredulity. Just when you think that would be hard to beat, along comes Inside Track: way over the top. On the one hand it’s a spatial piano concerto played by the superlative Yvar Mikhashoff, on the other, a whacked out carnivorous sparrow that must have swallowed a soprano on a planet filled with helium�
Another standout is Altitude 8750; coincidentally the exact height above sea level of the 1990 Telluride Composer to Composer Conference. The ensemble for this instant piece is an all-star cast including: Pauline Oliveros, Charles Amirkhanian, Wadada Leo Smith, Gloria Cheng, Larry Polansky, James Tenney and a host of others with an astonishing capacity for hell-raising.
From smirks to guffaws, Charlie Chaplin to Benny Hill to Ricky Gervaise, this music will get some kind of rise out of you. If your funny bone is not touched in some new way, innova promises your money back, miseryguts.
