Yo-Yo Ma & Friends - Songs of Joy & Peace
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.81 You Save: $5.13 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.99 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Songs of Joy & Peace
Free Music Review: classical music
Hit: 5 Stars
Yo Yo Ma and a wonderful mixed bag of other musicians. This is a new household favorite.Free Music Review: Songs for Joy and Peace - Yo-Yo Ma
Hit: 5 Stars
A pleasure to listen to with a great variety of sounds. I highly recommend it.Free Music Review: A decent attempt to bring the world together for the holidays
Hit: 4 Stars
Anyone who enjoys professional instrumentation should find something worthy on this CD. "Songs of Joy & Peace" begins with Yo-Yo Ma's expressive solo of "Dona Dobis Pacem (Give Us Peace)", which will later be the theme of 4 improvisations with various instrumentalists on this CD.
Diana Krall and James Taylor each offer us a nice vocal recording, both of which are mostly non-Christmas, except for a small improv on the piano from Krall before she kicks into the song. Renee Fleming's song seems to be below her normal standard of performance, but is still way above average. The Krall, Taylor and Fleming recordings seem slightly out of place for the theme of a holiday CD, but they all sing with romantic warmth, which makes the inclusion of these recordings more than acceptable.
A major highlight for me is Alison Krauss' beautiful recording of "The Wexford Carol", which is a traditional Irish Christmas carol. Her vocals are perfect and the song seems natural. "The Wexford Carol" is my absolute favorite vocal track on the CD for capturing the traditional passion of the holiday season. The tracks with Chris Botti are also major highlights. I am usually partial to the trumpet with its great melodic tones. (I played the trumpet in school.) Botti sounds really professional alongside Yo-Yo Ma on the cello. Christina Pato on the bagpipes is a nice celtic highlight.
My favorite instrumental track is "My One and Only Love", with Joshua Redman on the saxophone and Yo-Yo Ma on the cello. Yo-Yo shows the expressiveness that has made him famous, and Redman is just phenomenal. "My One and Only Love" is my favorite arrangement, only rivaling the wonderful rendition of "Happy Xmas (War is Over)" with Hawaiian Jake Shimabukuro on the ukulele. I was surprised at how expressive the little ukulele really can be, and the tone color is right on. But I must not forget the legendary Dave Brubeck. He records some wonderful instrumental holiday jazz with Matt Brubeck (his youngest son), and also with the entertaining Paquito D'Rivera on the clarinet.
The back of the CD states Yo-Yo's objective for this disc:
"Imagine a party, a musical party inspired by the holiday season. A party that celebrates the universal hopes, dreams and joy animating seasonal festivals the world over. That is what brought Yo-Yo Ma together with a remarkable group of friends - some old, some new - to create SONGS OF JOY & PEACE. It is Yo-Yo's hope that everyone who listens to this album will hear a song familiar, comfortable and beloved to them as well as discover and fall in love with music that is brand new."
In the end, Yo-Yo Ma did a decent job in achieving his objective, but I am still trying to imagine this musical party. I know very little about the Assad family from Brazil, but I enjoyed their "Familia" recording very much, and Sergio Assad's guitar recordings are right on. The Cuban clarinetist Paquito D'Rivera is a nice inclusion to the CD, with his professional quality instrumentation with the clarinet. Israeli pianist Alon Yavnai is also very professional, as well as Wu Tong, who sings while playing the traditional Chinese sheng. Overall, "Songs of Joy & Peace" includes musicians from America, Cuba, Canada, Galicia, Brazil, Israel, and China (the ethnic origin of Yo-Yo Ma).
In conclusion, it is clear that Yo-Yo Ma has more in mind than just a simple run-of-the-mill holiday album. I do not find Yo-Yo's ideas to be grandiose, but instead I look at it as an appeal for everyone to embrace the different qualities of each culture in this world. Yo-Yo has been trying to increase cultural literacy since 1999 with his Silk Road Project, which promotes "collaboration among artists and institutions, promoting multicultural artistic exchange, and studying the ebb and flow of ideas among different cultures along the Silk Road."
I will recommend "Songs of Joy & Peace" not only to Yo-Yo Ma fans, but also to fans of instrumentation in general. However, this CD is an eclectic collection, which sometimes makes the flow of the recordings seem ill-matched. I recommend sampling first. In the end, I feel the CD holds together nicely overall. "Songs of Joy & Peace" is certainly worth the price.
Free Music Review: Lovely to listen to
Hit: 4 Stars
This is not your typical holiday album. There are a few holiday standards here, such as "Joy to the World", however, the arrangement is not what you might expect. I feel the true highlight of this album is track #8; Alison Krauss is goose bump worthy as a vocalist. Tracks #6 and #7 are ubeat and uplifting additions to this album. Where this album fell short is in the few songs which are arranged in an off putting minor key, and with track #20, which seems out of place among the others. However, overall, this album makes a welcome addition to any holiday collection.Free Music Review: Yo Yo Ma and friends create a perfect musical holiday
Hit: 4 Stars
This is a wonderful compilation of talents! With its underlying theme of Dona Nobis Pacem (Give Us Peace) a number of talented artists sing and play a wideranging variety of sacred and secular music. Some of the music is famililar, some songs are amazing discoveries. All the performances are remarkable. A jig, a carol, a Gregorian chant and a hymn combine to enliven the pleasure of listening to other world music which may be less familiar. Joyful is the best word to describe this album and it is perfect for the holidays.