With:
Fred Thelonious Baker: Acoustic guitar, electric bass
Stan Sulzman: Soprano saxophone, flute

[no multi-tracking was used on this recording except fo "Full Circle"]
 

Program:
All compositions by Karen Street  p.r.s / m.c.p.s

  1)  Finally... A Beginning [3:14] solo accordion
  2)  Horseshoe Bay [4:20] solo accordion
  3)  Orange Grove [5:22] accordion + Fred T. Baker, acoustic guitar
  4)  For the Children [3:54] solo accordion
  5)  In the Ballroom With the Rope [4:47] solo accordion
  6)  Water Garden [5:26] accordion + Fred T. Baker, acoustic guitar
  7)  I Dance For You [5:26] solo accordion
  8)  Child's Play [4:17] solo accordion + Stan Sulzman, flute
  9)  Ever After [4:31] solo accordion + Stan Sulzman, soprano saxophone
10)  Full Circle [3:28] accordion + Fred T. Baker, electric bass

Total time: 45:29
Released: July 2001

Label: Karen Street ATKS0101 
Mastered by Chris Thorpe at Serendipity
Enquiries: phone +44 (0)7973 692497
email: info@karenstreet.com 

Review by Joe Natoli :

Well friends, it has been two years since my last CD review, due to intense obligations toward my  MBA degree which I happily finished last August. But I can come back to this activity with renewed excitement after being away from it for so long. I truly missed creating these reviews for you and I owe reviews to so many artists who were so nice to provide me with an opportunity to hear their work.  Eventually I will catch up but I am very happy to get started again with this particular CD. 

Every now and then, something truly fresh, new, and innovative emerges in the recording world, and even less frequently in the accordion world. Certainly there are many world-class artists out there who are producing wonderful recordings. But many of you will agree that most recordings revisit the same material again and again. Typical fare for an accordion CD is baroque, classical, romantic, contemporary, jazz, ethnic, or polka performances. When was the last time any of you heard anything outside these boundaries? Maybe the next logical question would be, "What even exists outside these boundaries? You have named just about every style possible to record!" This review brings you the answer to that question...Karen Street! Karen's CD, Finally...A Beginning is such an unexpectedly pleasant surprise, it is outside any cliché boundaries, and it has quickly become one of my favorite accordion recordings ever. Also, the fact that this recording was done on a Giulietti free bass accordion makes it even more unique, because I have not had the pleasure before of hearing any free bass accordionist using the instrument to its fullest potential to lay down either solo or accompaniment tracks with such grace, rhythm, and color. 

Instead of walking you through each piece on the CD as I frequently do, first I must jump with joy to Track #6, entitled Water Garden. This selection is an inspired, poignant, and gorgeous composition. The melodies and themes that evolve are sumptuous, elegant, and beautifully simple. The accordion and guitar weave in and out of each other's musical space with such finesse and passion, you will not leave this composition without being deeply touched. Like many of the other compositions on this CD, Ms. Street displays her abilities to stretch the boundaries of tonal harmonic progressions. The delicate ending colors between the high accordion sounds and the guitar are analogous to the delicate sounds of glass chimes put into motion by a gentle breeze on a balmy spring day. Fred T. Baker on acoustic guitar does a very professional and polished job in adding wonderfully complementary colors that make this piece a great success. I just love this composition.

Now back to the beginning of the CD which is also the title track, Finally…A Beginning. This opening piece is going to catch many people pleasantly off guard. And how appropriate the title is! This truly does mark a new beginning in recorded accordion literature because as far as I know, there are no other artists out there exploring these same territories. In many respects this and all the other pieces on the compilation remind me of the compositional approach of Astor Piazzolla where he evolves immensely intriguing compositions around a tonal foundation with occasional dips into polytonality or atonality. Once he grabs the listener’s attention with the breadth of his harmonic and stylistic palette, he then settles back into the more tender and accessible harmonies, only to be off again in new directions several times throughout the composition. Finally…A Beginning seems to aspire to this same compositional approach, but I would venture that Ms. Street’s harmonic palette is even more interesting than Piazzolla’s because she has a solid command of more progressive jazz harmonies, which seem to give her compositions an added flexibility and wider variety of choices, all of which she exploits successfully.  Also, the accordion is not an especially percussive instrument like the piano. Nevertheless, Ms. Street lays down rhythmic tracks (either in the solo or ensemble contexts) where her sense of clocking is right on, in spite of weaving melismatic melodies around the rhythmic background. Additionally, she seems to be very efficient at creating a completely self sufficient interesting solo musical space, which is no small task on the free bass accordion.

In Track #2, Horseshoe Bay, the free bass is used very nicely to create treble and deep bass contrapuntal lines against the right hand material. This piece is more recognizably “new age” than the others, but as always, Ms. Street surprises the listener with tasty jazz harmonies. The only thing that I did not find especially attractive on this piece is the sense of pulling on the bellows almost on every beat in some sections. This is uncharacteristic for the rest of the CD where the bellows control is excellent.

Track #3, Orange Grove, introduces Fred T. Baker on acoustic guitar and starts off with very interesting quartal harmonies. Ms. Street  then immediately dives into a gently rhythmic and harmonically very interesting background to the guitarists improvisations. After the next quartal harmony bridge, the tables are turned and teh composer gets her chance at improvisation on top of the guitar rhythms. The interplay between both musicians here are dynamic and exciting. Again, the harmonic palette is ear candy! This is a great selection that needs to be listened to many times to catch all the nuance of creativity.

For the Children, Track #4, is very much like Water Garden, in that it is intelligently creative, takes the listener to unexpected territories, and lives up to the intent of the title with its sensitivity and unique yet simple beauty. This piece asks its audience to take the time to listen to its carefully constructed colors and subtle delicacy, just the same as we should all take the time to cherish and understand the gift that children bring into our lives. This is another one of my favorites.

In the Ballroom with the Rope is more atonal and experimental than the other compositions. It uses the free bass very extensively and puts it right out front. Many of you who may be acquainted with Tito Guidotti’s compositions (American in Japan, Hollywood Fantasia, or Sonata di Bravura) may see some similarities to Tito’s quartal harmonic approach. This is a very interesting piece, but my biggest complaint is the lack of any explanation for the origin of the title. Title choices are a very personal part of the compositional process, and peering into this part of the composer’s psyche is often very helpful in understanding and adding further enjoyment to the composition. I just wish this and some of the other very provocative titles on the CD would have been discussed. It seems like it would not have added much space or expense to the cover jack material.

I Dance for You, Track #7, reminds me more than any other piece on the CD of Astor Piazzolla, because it’s rhythmic excursions are very tango-ish while its harmonies are very much like Piazzolla’s compositions. I can imagine this selection becoming the sound track of a documentary on a famous dancer or the musical material for a new age ballet.

Ms Street must have a real soft spot in her heart for children because Track #8, Child’s Play, is yet another artistically subtle reminder of the beauty and innocence of children. This time she very effectively introduces the talents of flutist, Stan Sulzman, to create a musically playful environment with a dialog between the accordion and flute that is very reminiscent of Dave Brubeck’s Takes Five and other odd meter jazz pieces. My only complaint on this recording is that on my audio equipment the flute seemed to be recorded very hot. This is a complaint I have of many recordings where the engineer forgets that a wind instrument is most likely going to be loud just on its own momentum so the mic controls need to be toned down quite a bit to blend better with the other instruments.

After much of the contemplative material in Track #9, Ever After, the CD ends on a really positive upbeat note with the final track Full Circle. This piece is great fun and Fred T. Baker enters again with some hot improvisations on electric bass only to give way to even more lively percussion accompaniment as the piece draws to an exciting close. With this last selection Ms. Street and all of the musicians seem to be conveying to the listener what great fun it was to make this collection, while hoping that the audience had just as much fun in the listening process.

Also, some mention should be made about the outstanding artwork on the cover jacket, which also is a thing of subtle beauty. It takes permutated views of the Giulietti accordion and uses them in mosaic fashion in a continuum across all the fold out pages as a very artistic backdrop to the printed material. Like the audio material on the CD, it is very unique and not like anything I have seen before. Simply a really tasteful and artistic job.

I cannot say enough good things about this CD. It truly is a new beginning for the accordion, as the title implies. Everything from the CD jacket to the last piece on the compilation is a wonderfully pleasant surprise. If you love the accordion and you want to delve into territories that have not been explored before on the instrument, please run out to get this CD and get into your collection. You will not be disappointed. One comment however is that Ms. Street decides to “hide” her affiliation with the Giulietti Continental Free Bass accordion until the last page of the fold out jacket cover. My suspicions are that she would like to be accepted as a musician first, regardless of her instrument of choice. But my advice is to let people know overtly what instrument she plays. She does the accordion and especially the free bass a great service with this CD, and in my opinion, she should announce her instrument proudly and unequivocally! Congratulations. I can’t wait to hear your next endeavors Karen!

Please Note: Any supporting or opposite opinions to this review are welcome and can be published in tandem with this review if so requested.