Reynolds Rap

Take a trip over to S21 for my review of Belinda Reynolds' CD Cover. If I didn’t already have a comped copy, I would actually shell out the cash to iTunes for it.

Now playing: Glass Cuts: Philip Glass Remixed (Orange Mountain Music). Until recently, I considered actively listening to any of Glass's music completely unneccessary. Why bother, when the soundtrack to every Hollywood drama and television commercial, for everything from insurance to energy drinks, is a blatant plagiarism of his works, with a bit of John Adams thrown in for good measure? Then something curious happened. I began learning Joan Tower's Or Like A....An Engine, included in the Schirmer compilation American Contemporary Masters. Each time I settled down to work, the score would inexplicably open not to the Tower but to Glass's Wichita Vortex Sutra instead. I began to run through it as a warm-up every day, and I soon realized I was actually enjoying it. Go figure.

This particular disc reminds me of the hip yet unobtrusive tunes played at my hair salon in Soho. If nothing else, it has encouraged me to seek out original versions of the works featured, especially Dennis Russell Davies' recording of the Tirol Concerto. I'm assuming it's even more beautiful without the drum machine.

Postscript: I normally despise chain restaurants, but I love that the Houston's in the Citicorp building on 53rd has Chuck Close's gigantic portrait of Philip Glass hanging in the dining room. Nothing complements a turkey burger better than a sleepy-eyed composer with a wildly disheveled coiffure.