Rituals

Kyle Aho

Label: OA2 Records
Format: CD
Barcode: 0805552220520

Catalog number: OA2 22205
Releasedate: 04-11-22

"Aho is one of the most intelligent, perceptive, and skilled musicians I have ever come across." - Bob Brookmeyer

"...a brave harmonic and spatial improviser...(he) views the piano as an orchestra full of surprises...if he were a painter we would marvel at his blending of 'abstract' and 'representational'...(his music is) emotional and intellection...joyous in its creativity." - Michael Steinman

Nine poems and phrases are the heart of this wide-ranging project by composer/pianist Kyle Aho for his Missouri-based jazz quintet, along with vocalist Christin Bohrisch. Selecting poetry and text that underscore the artist’s struggle for transcendence through creativity, Aho's search over the last decade revealed works from ancient voices such as Mayadeviyaka and Symeon, poems from Walt Whitman and Franz Kafka, and three works by his own mother, Margaret Aho. The longing resonating from the texts connected with Aho, much as the music of John Coltrane, Wayne Shorter, and Keith Jarrett. With short solo piano and instrumental pieces creating a sense of balance, flow, and discovery, the poems set to Aho's compositions express a yearning for communion and spirituality, for an existence beyond the physical.

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