{"id":44,"date":"2014-12-02T16:11:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-02T21:11:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myiesstore.com\/helensung\/?post_type=product&p=44"},"modified":"2023-03-27T20:17:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T00:17:59","slug":"anthem-for-a-new-day-cd","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/myiesstore.com\/helensung\/product\/anthem-for-a-new-day-cd\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthem For A New Day – CD"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Helen Sung – Anthem For A New Day, (2014) Concord Jazz<\/p>\n

You could put together a line item description of this album that would fit a significant percentage of current jazz releases. Band: ad hoc. Tunes: mostly originals, a few standards. Genre: new-millennium mainstream. Bases: covered (Monk, Afro-Latin, ballads, burners). Extras: some famous guests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But the devil is always in the details. Anthem for a New Day<\/i> is exceptionally tight, smart and intense. It jolts out of your speakers (or, nowadays, your earbuds) from the opening bars of the opening track, \u201cBrother Thelonious.\u201d Pianist Helen Sung, tenor saxophonist Seamus Blake and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen careen together over the spiky theme. Then they all solo like their hair is on fire, but concisely.<\/p>\n

Sung earned a master\u2019s degree in classical music before she found jazz, which she now plays with extravagant chops and the zeal of a late convert. Her sixth album presents a new emphasis on the roles of composer, arranger, ensemble conceptualist and bandleader. \u201cIt Don\u2019t Mean a Thing\u201d is a witty inversion that turns Ellington into an arch classical etude and refuses to swing, until it swings like crazy. Sung arranges her own piercing melodic line, \u201cHidden,\u201d into movements with openings for vivid interactions between guest violinist Regina Carter, Jensen and Sung on Rhodes. Chick Corea\u2019s \u201cArmando\u2019s Rhumba,\u201d with guest Paquito D\u2019Rivera on clarinet, is an ecstatic, swirling, pounding celebration. Throughout the program, drummer Obed Calvaire and percussionist Samuel Torres are agile and detailed. Bassist Reuben Rogers is free, proactive and prominent.<\/p>\n

There is a hierarchy of great piano versions of \u201cNever Let Me Go,\u201d with Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett at the top. Sung is now on the list. Her piano postulates the melody in fragments. Carter and Rogers respond, alone or together, sometimes leaving the song in the distance but always reinforcing the passion of its plea.<\/p>\n