Americanvas
Pianist/composer Joe Gilman’s ninth album, his third for Capri Records, entitled, Americanvas,is a compilation of musical interpretations of the canvasses of 10 American painters over the past 70 years. Gilman is joined by Ben Flocks on both soprano and tenor saxophones, Chad Lefkowitz-Brown on soprano, tenor and alto saxophones, Zach Brown on bass and Adam Arruda on drums and percussion.
The opening track, which is entitled “Gossip,” begins with Gilman showcasing his prowess on the piano as he plays a simple yet fast-paced melody repetitiously, which is Gilman’s attempt to musically convey how gossip travels swiftly. The mood then mutates into a fresh new sound courtesy of Flocks’s precise tenor saxophone work and Lefkowitz-Brown’s supreme alto saxophone play, which could make listeners envision how gossip changes as it moves from person to person.
The third track, entitled “Cebola Church,” is about a Georgia O’Keeffe painting of a church called the Santo Nino Church near her home in Cebolla, New Mexico. In the liner notes to this song, Gilman states that, “I tried to tell a musical story of a short history of events that might have happened in the church one season.” The simplistic tune that makes up the track begins with Gilman striking low piano notes as Zach Brown’s bass work brings about a portentous and penetrating feeling. Arruda’s drumming can be heard intermittently in the back and then Lefkowitz-Brown’s alto saxophone play lifts the spirit of the track a tad.
“Whaam!” the album’s fifth track, is the musical interpretation of Roy Lichtenstein’s 1963 Magna on canvas, which is one of the earliest known examples of pop art, adapted from a comic panel of a 1962 issue of DC Comic’s ‘”All-American Men of War.” The track begins as its title suggests, with Flocks’s tenor saxophone playing an urgent feverish rhythm accompanied by Arruda’s rapid drumming and Gilman’s brisk piano stroking. Zach Brown’s soft bass work can also be heard faintly in the background.
The fifth track on Americanvas is entitled “Monkey Puzzle.” It’s the musical form of Keith Harring’s 1988 painting of seven monkeys and a toddler monkey all depicted in a variety of vibrant reds, yellows, blues, etc. In the album’s liner notes, Gilman describes his version as having “three melodies with staggering entrances…sounds like a Monk tune (‘Monk-ey’) or that the painting is in a “Sphere!’” This is exemplified by Gilman’s jumping from piano note to piano note as monkeys often do and Lefkowitz-Brown’s alto saxophone play following suit.
In conclusion, Joe Gilman’s Americanvas is a unique album that accurately illustrates through music the sensation that can be conjured when beholding some of America’s artwork of the past 70 years.