Dowland Without Any Dowland

Another ECM new series release which gives a contemporary improvisatory spin on early music, this time from the Dowland Project on a disk called Care-Charming Sleep. The Dowland Project here consist of the voice of John Potter, Stephen Stubbs on chitarrone and baroque guitar, John Surman on soprano saxophone and bass clarinet, Maya Homburger on baroque violin and Barry Guy on double bass. Oddly, there isn't any Dowland on this particular disk which features songs and madrigals by Monteverdi, Purcell, Robert Johnson ( not the blues ! ), John Wilbye, Cipriano de Rore, Benedetto Ferrari, Giovanni Felice Sances, Riccardo Rognoni and Cherubino Busatti. Potter sings the songs straight and gives fine performances that bring out the melancholy of the lyrics. The players improvise in totally apposite ways and remain faithful to the spirit of the original music. Surman has long learned to rein in his jazz sensibilities when appropriate and just occasionally Guy begins to "swing" a little. Homburger duets convincingly with Surman on a couple of occasions and otherwise plays with real period authenticity. A disk to which I'll return often and for now, the final disk on this amble through my record collection. It's taken just over a year and I am now going to forsake the "next off the shelf" philosophy and be a little more selective about which disks I want to revisit and when. As and when any new disks are acquired I'll post about them here, so the blog isn't defunct just yet !