CD Review

What would happen if Tony Levin and Basia got together for a late-night rendezvous in Tel Aviv or Moscow? Or if Sting picked up Caroline Lavelle for a binge of swirling, thumping rhythm? Or how about if Don Schiff and Kate Bush absconded into modal midnight, or if Robert Fripp took Linda Cushma out for some enchanted evening?

If you've ever been both a progger and a connoisseur of a particular pop, maybe you've come up with some interesting ideas of what a really hot date might be like. It gets complicated (of course) because your wild and varied sensibilities are not so easily catered to in the company of just one flame.

If you're a red-blooded American bloke, perhaps you imagine a fanciful fling with, oh, let's just say all of the fair ladies mentioned above. What a feast of companionship, a profound and complex blend of passion, grace, and intellect.

Or you could simply put on a new CD, "Live the Music," and spend an intoxicating 53 minutes and 53 seconds with Irene Oleansky: one woman, one voice, one Chapman Stick, a small but flavorful supporting cast, and a baker's dozen tracks served up fresher than a real dozen doughnuts. It's all so sweet that you won't even mind missing your goodnight smooch at the end of the affair.

OK, so you will. But you'll live with it. Because what a perfect recipe it is. Oleansky possesses the nimble tapping prowess and the delicately breathy syllabication of Cushma, the haunting soprano elegance of Bush, and the shining mulitalent of Lavelle.

Her Stick playing is remarkably mature for someone who has been playing not even two years. With a 20-year-old polycarb, her timbre is classic Chapman, and she has already mastered the deep, glissandoistic wango-boom of Levin. Listen to "The Child of Music" and "Miss You" and you might wonder whether Guillermo Cides is not the only guest tapper on this album.

All right, so the result here is not exactly one for the prog bins at the record store. Rather, Oleansky has channelled a broadly accessible energy into a feast of cosmopolitan pop that ought to be just as appetizing in Israel as in Russia as in the United Kingdom as in los Estados Unidos. Anywhere else you'd like to go? She'll take you there. In fact, the album was recorded largely via the Internet in three nations: Israel, Russia, and Spain. No single track defines this work. The tunes range from lovely, lulling ballads to scrumptiously groovy world-beat hybrids, with plenty of side dishes throughout.

The music to "Ala Ya Uma," from the root-5th-b10th bass line to the electronic percussion, is a striking first cousin to Sting's "Perfect Love ... Gone Wrong." Except that instead of French rapping, we are treated to Oleansky's bilingual duet with herself. The overlapping lines of the Yemenite verses in this traditional Jewish song alternate with her own English lyric, sung with some fascinating and tantalizing English pronunciations. The message here is equally vivid: "Oh I adjure you that my love and I would never be apart / Because without him sorrow rises to the sky of my heart."

"Dance With the Music of Your Heart" is another spicy crossbreed of bilingual dialog and familiar Euro-style whump and sizzle (imagine Peter Gabriel's "Big Time" cutting a rug with the fluttery flatpicking of early-1980s Fripp-Belew). Again, the accented English is the tang of the dish.

The instrumental "Meditation" really highlights the chimey crispness and clarity of Oleansky's old 10-string polycarbonate Stick, which she scored on eBay a mere year and a half ago. It's a timeless testament to all Sticks, new and old, and especially old (Oleansky notes that Cides plays polycarbs exclusively, a humbling revelation for us wood snobs).

"The Child of Music" is as close to a title track as we get, and to me it's worth the price of the whole disc. Here Oleansky double-dates Cides (ambient Stick) and producer Kirill Malahov (vocals and programming) on an ethereally groovy and sumptuous paean to redemption and hope. The lyric takes us from former despair to boundless optimism, and the track's orchestrational subtlety belies its flawless production (listen on headphones for the full effect). The intermittent blending of Malahov's gentle baritone and Oleansky's lippy croon is seamless, and combined with the tune's floating thrum it could inspire a sensitive listener to dance spontaneously across the room in tears of joy.

While "Child's" infectious modal rumble has the silky polish of late 1980s-early 1990s British jazz-pop-dance, it also comes with an Argentinian twist: Cides' mesmerizing swirls adorn and tease Orleansky's and Malahov's delicate voices as if with a luxurious evening gown.

But for us tappers, the real excitement is Oleansky's gut-whumping, butt-kicking bass-side Stick performance, which, for full effect, you should feel through the center-console subwoofer of a Jeep Wrangler at 75 MPH. If someone told me that Levin himself had sat in on this track, I would have little trouble believing it.

"Miss You" is Tony on the town with Basia. Here Oleansky multiplies herself vocally in a lush chorus of longing. In the background she again does 1980s KC proud with chunky, slip-sliding Levinisms.

As the hour winds down, catchiest melody goes to "Mystery," a slow-jumping showcase for Oleansky's inimitably flavored vocals and her Cushmatic tap-pop-bump Stick technique. The final highlights are her arrangement of Don Schiff's "Deep Within Your Soul" and a reprise of an earlier track, "Stay." In Schiff's number, the subtlety of Oreansky's playing comes alive in distant distorted fills and shiny arpeggios, all supported once again by Malahov's meticulous programming and satin vocals. As they sing the line "44 years, I ride the winds of change," the two voices soar together like mating eagles, then make a perfect landing in the soft arms of "Stay (Version II)." In this closing track (before a bonus club remix of "Dance"), Orleansky puts down the Stick, ceding to Cides, who renders a weepy Fripperistic soundscape and lays down an almost tantric bass groove that's as careful and gradual as a well-delivered goodnight kiss.

So, ladies and gents, take a long shower, put on your best evening duds, and pick this hot number up at 8 o'clock sharp. Take your ears with you and know how to use them. And did I mention that this date is cheap? For a flat $17 U.S. (shipping included), this elegantly packaged disc will arrive punctually at your door all the way from Israel.

Your reservation is waiting at www.musicbrothersrecords.com/irene

John
johnedmonds.net