by Pico
Ever since the music business as we know it first came into existence, there have always been musicians for whose need for artistic purity and/or just out of financial necessity has made them into “do it yourself” musicians, producing homemade music for a limited audience. More accurately, a portion of that audience who actually were able to find them. Recent advances in technology has allowed these DIY types to make their own music and deliver it to the masses more inexpensively. It’s also made it possible for them to produce recordings approaching the level of sophistication of major studio and major record level quality.
Still, Domina Catrina Lee’s Songs From The Breastbone Drum takes the whole DIY game to a higher level. A swirling, probing mix of progressive jazz, classical, new age and ethnic fusion with an overall avant garde bent, the acoustic guitarist and composer Lee singlehandedly created for the most part a realistically sounding string quartet, tablas, sitar, electric bass, drums, flutes, woodwinds, whistles, synths, piano and even the really exotic instruments, like a Turkish stringed instrument called a saz. She didn’t accomplish this the way Pat Metheny did with his last album, though, she used more economical means. All of this was made possible with the increasingly accessible tools of DAWs, MIDI orchestrations and software-based synthesizers.
None of this gee-whiz stuff would mean a thing if Lee couldn’t figure out how to leverage what limited resources she at her disposal. She understood the challenge of making this record: “I am working in a tight, ‘money challenged’ personal environment where personal inventiveness remains the needed element.” Having faced challenges and obstacles all her life, the Singapore-born and based Lee was prepared to meet this one. Told by her family her hands were too small to play guitar, she forged ahead and learned it anyway without much formal training, and proceeded to soak in a dizzying potpourri of styles from the mind-expanding modal experimentations of John Coltrane, to the passionate fire of Mahavishnu Orchestra to the minimalist modern composition genius of Terry Riley and Steve Reich. Her music and her playing reflects that lack of formal training in the very best way: there is always a tendency to go off beaten paths and play things that sound right from a gut level, not an academic level. She even taught herself the audio engineering know-how needed to be able to make such a clean, spacious recording.
It all begins with the folk-ethnic-chamber jazz of the light but exploratory “Songs From The Breastbone Drum” where she alternates between thematic sections and improvisational sections. Lee has been compared to the seminal world jazz group Oregon, and on here (as well as elsewhere on the album), she pays explicit debt to their groundbreaking sound. Her acoustic guitar even approximates Oregon guitarist Ralph Towner‘s rich, harmonic quality, and for this song she tosses in some painstakingly programmed oboe and piano solos.
There are stretches of serenity in this recording, and it wouldn’t rise much above your basic new age/soft jazz fare if it didn’t have some abrasive elements and shifting rhythms; Lee sprinkles in plenty of those moments throughout the record. For instance, for “Fire Naked Prelude,” she strums and picks around on a very detuned guitar, leading into the bass-anchored, Indian-percussed sparse acoustic guitar ruminations of “Fire Naked Boom.”
Other selections are parts of suites, like the austere synth washes of “Ballad of the Forgotten.” The second part of this suite is actually a cover, the traditional English folk ballad “Scarborough Fair” made into an enduring hit by Simon and Garfunkel. Lee reconstructs the harmony enough that it allows her to take her guitar further out than a strict interpretation, but you will recognize the song as she lets a virtual oboe lazily state the melody. Other suites include the “new” music new-age and classical dual pieces contained in “The Shape Shifter,” which feature pleasing timbres and interesting arrangements. “Even The Outsider” suite is a return to Oregon territory.
Right in the midst of all this carefully arranged and conceived music, Lee cuts loose with “The Story So Far,” a space age post bop track number could have been a leftover track from Allan Holdsworth’s The Sixteen Men Of Tain. You might think that this is where Lee trades in her self-described “$200 throwaway budget acoustic guitar” for some sleek, expensive tricked-up electric, but you’d be wrong. She gets all the same tonality from that budget guitar via the creative use of tube amplifier simulation plug-ins.
This album is truly one that’s best listened to as a whole; while many songs have their own character, they flow from one to another like chapters of the same book. Technology has made Songs From The Breastbone Drum possible, but it is resourceful, out-the-box thinking from Domina Catrina Lee that really drives this record.
Songs From The Breastbone Drum, Lee’s third, is available electronically from bandcamp.com. The great thing about this site is that you can sample complete streams of every track of the album before making the purchase. Adventurous music seekers should find plenty to like in these streams to convince them to download a copy.
Purchase: Domina Catrina Lee – Songs From The Breastbone Drum
- Luca Gelli Organ Trio – ‘Shorter Notes’ (2024) - December 28, 2024
- Joe Fonda Quartet – ‘Eyes On The Horizon’ (2024) - December 27, 2024
- Ingebrigt Haker Flaten (Exit) Knarr – ‘Breezy’ (2024) - December 26, 2024
4 years and still going damn strong!
I like reading views of other peoples on web regarding music and mayne your writing always striked me as of high value, judging by the ease with which I absorbed it. Thumbs up, and keep it going!
Thanks for the kind props! We plan to keep it going for a long time.
I wish to give my breastbone drum roll to Pico for his excellent coverage of my latest digital album, "Songs From The Breastbone Drum"
While in general agreement with many of his assessments of this visionary new music, I would like to add that other listeners have noted the influences of classical composers like Debussy, Ravel, Lou Harrison, and even Steve Reich in these pieces. The jazz fusion reviewer at ProgArchives tells me he rates SFTBBD as among the Top Four (his words) jazz fusion albums of 2010, and imagines it as not unlike a new Pat Metheny Group release.
These comparisons are definitely highly complimentary, the most accurate being made by Robert Bush at AllAboutJazz when he writes that while one could refer to all these great artists while listening to my album, one is most aware that Catrina has forged a new personal voice fusing many subgenres of jazz and modern music. (paraphrased)
Once again my deepest gratitude for telling the discerning, intelligent and heart-filled music listening world about this new and largely unknown (AND financially unsupported) struggling artist.
Blessings,
Domina Catrina Lee
Thanks for your comments, Catrina. I read Mr. Bush's review at AAJ after I wrote mine and I thought he did a thorough job assessing your record. It was apparent to me that he listened very closely to it, broke it down and made some perceptive observations about it. I'd recommend anyone needing more affirmation about Songs From The Breastbone Drum to check out his review here: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=37744
A NEW ANNOUNCEMENT:
It is a good thing I am doing, starting this RocketHub Project, what is it? Please read further…
Please do not misunderstand- this is not charity or asking for anything, it is fair trade
Please go read and lend a hand and tell people about it too!
Need all the help I can get! Make this album a real CD!
http://www.rockethub.com/projects/778-make-domina-catrina-lee-s-songs-from-the-breastbone-drum-album-into-a-real-cd
January 12, 2011: Only nine days to go before the RocketHub Fund Raiser to make 'Songs From The Breastbone Drum" available in the CD medium's deadline. At 9% of target achieved in all likelihood the needed funds will not be raised.
Lack of album sales, coupled with rampant illegal downloading of my work from Bandcamp, Youtube and other online sites where my work is displayed is forcing me to take drastic action. Come 21st Jan (RocketHub deadline) and the project ends-fails, I will have no choice but to withdraw ALL my music from every website it is currently on. Persons interested in purchasing any of my albums or are offering funding or sponsorship may contact Pico who will then contact me. Thank you to SomethingElse! for listening to my music with an open mind and helping 'this unknown kid'.
I inadvertently forgot to leave Pico my contact. It is stated here also for those interested individuals who wish to purchase my recordings after the 21st of Jan 2010, after which they will not be publicly available.
I may be contacted at [email protected]
I have actually finished one half of two concurrent albums at the time of this writing. Possible completion dates targeted for the end of 2011.