All Things Strings, Album Review >>
<p>From the opening track, a string-quartet arrangement of Regina Spektor’s “Machine” (with its intimate vocal), the Real Vocal String Quartet calls the listener to attention with the clockwork tap of bow on wood and the grating snap of a well-played chop. This independent release from the San Francisco Bay Area–based string quartet—violinists and vocalist Irene Sazer and Alisa Rose, violist and vocalist Dina Maccabee, and cellist and vocalist Jessica Ivry—shines a light on one of the most talented and innovative quartets on the chamber-music scene (Sazer is an up-and-coming composer and a founding member of the Turtle Island Quartet, Rose is a current member of Quartet San Francisco, and all are gifted arrangers, who have contributed arrangements to this publication’s Strings Charts line).</p>
<p>Their hook is that these four women are fine singers with haunting harmonies. They’re also accomplished string players, classically trained and with deep roots in traditional, jazz, samba, klezmer, and pop music. That the members of the Real Vocal String Quartet are able to meld these disparate influences to create a sound that is solely their own, and undeniably charming, is a testament to their artistic abilities.</p>
<p>Musically, Four Little Sisters ranges from pop covers (“Machine,” Gilberto Gil’s “Copo Vazio,” Duke Pearson’s delightfully swinging “Sweet Honey Bee,” Roger Tallroth’s “Falling Polska,” and David Byrne’s “Knotty Pine”) to originals (Sazer’s “Homage to Oumon” and Rose’s “Elephant Dreams”) to trad tunes (“Allons a Lafayette,” “Durang’s Hornpipe,” and “Grand Mamou Waltz”). Yet, these alluring tracks blend exceptionally well, and are packed with beguiling surprises—the vocal harmonies on “Allons a Lafayette” are reminiscent of the vibrant Eastern European woman’s choir Kitka gone Cajun.</p>
<p>This is Saturday morning music exhibiting all the best qualities of that designation: bright, cheerful, playful, soothing.</p>
<p>Clearly, the Real Vocal String Quartet has something to say.</p>
02/12/13 >> go there
