Gendhing For A Spirit Rising (Global Coolant)
David Lopato
Released October 4, 2017
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nV9pu-gRWlLKb7MWBe_VnG-_j1WmA2aqk
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/album/2vJPSKZf1fWHNKpZbpJYhX?si=yw6r2wd9TSaB4aktBlB5Yg
About:
Pianist/composer DAVID LOPATO has performed his own compositions extensively throughout the world. As a composer, he has received multiple grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and The Beards Fund. He is also the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to study Javanese Gamelan in Surakarta, Indonesia, where he lived for a year. As a performer Lopato has toured his own music in configurations ranging from solo piano to 10-piece ensembles. He has performed with Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Mark Helias, Ray Anderson, Wadada Leo Smith, Dewey Redman, Gerry Hemingway, and Jane Ira Bloom among others. He has recorded on the Lumina, Enemy, Unity and Global Coolant labels. In addition, he is the producer of the concert series at InHouse in downtown Manhattan, and teaches on the faculties of the The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, and Montclair State University.
Track Listing:
Disc 1
1. Ladrang (David Lopato) 07:00
2. This Life (David Lopato) 11:25
3. Jalan Jiwa (David Lopato) 04:21
4. Gendhing (David Lopato) 20:49
Disc 2
1. Beboppin’ With Bella (David Lopato) 08:50
2. Jakshi (David Lopato) 11:32
3. Ambush and Aftermath (David Lopato) 09:06
4. Peace March (David Lopato) 05:53
Personnel:
David Lopato: piano, keyboards, vibraphone, marimba, glockenspiel, Sundanese kendhang, gongs, hand claps
Marty Ehrlich: alto, soprano saxophone (2)
Mark Feldman: violin (2)
Lucas Pino: soprano saxophone (8), clarinet (5–8)
Bill Ware: vibraphone (5, 8)
William Moersch: marimba (1, 4)
I.M. Harjito: Javanese rebab (4)
Erik Friedlander: cello (1, 3, 4)
Ratzo Harris: acoustic bass
Tom Rainey (2): drums
Michael Sarin (3, 5–8): drums
Anne Stebinger (4): Javanese hand drums
Mark Perlman (1,3): Javanese hand drums
John Hadfield: percussion (6)
Review:
A two-CD set, David Lopato’s Gendhing For A Spirit Rising is unlike anything you are likely to hear this year (or any year). A multi-instrumentalist and composer, Lopato is also a syncretist who manages to combine elements of modern jazz, Western classical music and, most obviously, Javanese gamelan. Unlike many experiments with musical fusion, Lopato’s music is the genuine article, his interest in Javanese gamelan dating from the mid-1970s. And it shows. The gamelan vibe is heard in earnest on “Ladrang,” a piece that combines the essence of gamelan’s dreamier, mesmerizing aspects with a more Western sensibility via a memorable theme that’s both driving yet tuneful. It’s an ensemble number that puts its emphasis on repetition, a feature of gamelan’s dizzying ways with pulse and rhythm. The blend of the Middle East and South India surfaces with the lively “Jakshi,” a tune in 7 that, while it includes improvisation, comes across as more conventional, almost folkloric. Jazz returns center stage with “This Life,” an uptempo swing tune that includes another beboppy head along with some lyrical lines from Lopato. Tom Rainey’s drums add just the right percussive flair. There’s also strong work turned in by violinist Mark Feldman, reedist Marty Ehrlich and bassist Ratzo Harris. Indeed, it’s when Lopato jumps off the piano stool that some true blending of genres emerges, a heating up as jazz and gamelan show their affinities.
John Ephland (DownBeat)
