PHILLIP BIMSTEIN: Larkin Gifford's Harmonica

Phillip Bimstein

Larkin Gifford's Harmonica

© 2006 Starkland (754702021428)

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Bimstein's compelling aural portraits are "an inspired blueprint for a kind of sound design that is part documentarian, part classical composition and part audio art...very well done" (All Media Guide).

tracks

1 Casino: EatDrinkGambleSex
2 Casino: The Fearful Things
3 Casino: Paradise Lost
4 Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa
5 The Bushy Wushy Rag
6 Rockville Utah 1926
7 Larkin Gifford's Harmonica: Just a Gift
8 Larkin Gifford's Harmonica: As Plain in My Mind as Yesterday
9 Larkin Gifford's Harmonica: Saturday Night Roundup

notes

This "Larkin Gifford’s Harmonica" CD features the "alternative classical" composer Phillip Bimstein. The recording follows his very popular Starkland "Garland Hirschi's Cows" CD, which was widely praised, generated hundreds of calls to radio stations, and was anointed "a cult classic" on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

Multiple-Grammy winner John Adams wrote the CD's enthusiastic Introduction, stating: "Like their composer, the pieces on this album communicate a generous and good-natured spirit that is tempered with wry wit and a special sense of the western landscape and culture that he so loves."

The title piece Larkin Gifford's Harmonica does in fact feature Utah resident Larkin Gifford and his harmonica. Bimstein writes, "I recorded the delightful Larkin playing old tunes on his harmonica and relating his stories about growing up in Springdale in the early 1900's. I then deconstructed and reassembled these materials into new music which retains the character, tone, and patterns of Larkin's playing and storytelling."

In Casino, Bimstein takes a similar approach by interviewing the philosophizing dice-caller Tom Martinet discussing Las Vegas and his fascinating collection of gambling lore. The piece shuffles together Martinet snippets and various gambling sounds such as slot machines, poker chips, and the big wheel, all of which accompany a woodwind quintet, performed here by the Sierra Winds.

The Bushy Wushy Rag focuses on the charming beer vendor Robert Logan, who calls himself "Bushy Wushy the Beer Man." For more than forty years, Bushy Wushy sold beer in Busch Stadium, home of the (World Series champs) St. Louis Cardinals, and he clearly loves both baseball and the fans. The piece deftly combines Bushy's recollections, baseball sounds, and a performance from the Equinox Chamber Players.

Regarding these three musical depictions, Adams notes that Bimstein "has an enviable knack for choosing spoken narratives that reminds me of the filmmaker Errol Morris."

Half Moon at Checkerboard Mesa emerges from Bimstein's fascination with the rich sounds of the natural environment surrounding his home near Zion National Park. Along with oboist Stephen Caplan, the listener hears co-mingled manipulations of singing tree frogs, howling coyotes, chirping crickets, and the churning Virgin River. The work has been performed at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall.

Finally, Rockville Utah 1926 draws on melodic material from Bimstein's beloved Garland Hirschi's Cows work. Garland is a rancher whose cows roam and moo next to Bimstein's home, and the title is the place and date of Garland's birth. Rockville is performed here by the Abramyan String Quartet.

Adams concludes: "Listening to this album of Bimstein's compositions makes me feel like I've taken a slow drive through a western landscape, meeting along the way everyone from Georgia O'Keeffe to Tony Hillerman, Mark Twain, Neal Cassady, Raymond Scott, Kurt Weill, Aphex Twin, and some of those grizzled geezers that populate the novels of Annie Proulx."

Bimstein resides in Springdale, Utah, where he served two terms as mayor, prompting Outside magazine to call him "Americas only all-natural politician composer." His music has been performed at Lincoln Center, Bang on a Can, and London's Royal Opera House. In addition to his studies of theory, composition, and orchestration at the Chicago Conservatory and UCLA, Bimstein led the new wave band Phil 'n' the Blanks, whose albums and videos were college radio and MTV hits.

reviews

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  • Talking, almost singing
    author: Randall

    Phillip Bimstein's artful use of narrative as a sound source continues along the lines he explored Garland Hirschi's Cows. Not quite the same approach as Steve Reich in Different Trains, with its pitch-matching between narrative and accompaniment, Phil borders on under-scoring a story well-told. The music has a subtle effect -- at first it sounds almost like pop-music and then there comes a more insidious effect. The music is adding depth and commentary to the narrative. Larkin Gifford's story is simple and direct -- he likes to make music. He doesn't know how to read music, it's just a gift. This is the effective composition on the CD and Bimstein saves it for last. The Bushy Wushy Beer Man may be the most approachable of the works but it is also the most complex and ambitious. I only wish that Phil's next CD affords him the chance to compose for strings, guitars, or percussion. I have heard a number of pieces for woodwind and he has done a great deal to combat that 'woodwind effect' that bedevils this repertoire. It's time to see his cards relating to strings -- lay 'em down, Phillip.

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