William Dart looks at familiar Pete Seeger songs, inventively and resourcefully dressed up for 2020 by Kronos Quartet and friends on the new album, Long Time Passing.
Photo: AFP (file)
In 2017, Kronos Quartet's album Folk Songs had a New Horizons to itself.
The concept behind the album looked promising with four singers, Sam Amidon, Rhiannon Giddens, Olivia Chaney and Natalie Merchant each singing two ballads. At the time, however, I found it a little too sedate, perhaps overburdened by its uncompromised good taste. Yet, I find myself returning every so often to the Rhiannon Giddens tracks. Her Factory Girl ballad for instance, the longest on the CD, is the equivalent of an un-put-downable book.
In 2020, Kronos Quartet still has folksong in its sights with a new album titled Long Time Passing, tributing one of the greatest voices and spirits of American social protest.
Pete Seeger’s interest in music started at the age of 8 in the 1920s, when his composer mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, gave him his first ukulele. He soon progressed to guitar and banjo, using them to accompany himself in some of the pivotal political ballads of the twentieth century.
In the 15 tracks of Long Time Passing, the Kronos Quartet and their friends are proud to celebrate Seeger’s music, "rejoicing in the spirit, inspiration and fearlessness inherent in his life’s work".
Music Details
'Song title' (Composer) – Performers
Album title
(Label)
'Waltz for Debby' (Evans) – Kronos Quartet
Music of Bill Evans
(Landmark)
'Purple Haze' (Hendrix) – Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
(Nonesuch)
'Perfidia' (Dominguez) – Kronos Quartet
Nuevo
(Nonesuch)
'Chavosuite' (Beethoven et al) – Kronos Quartet
Nuevo
(Nonesuch)
'Mini Skirt' (Esquivel) – Kronos Quartet
Nuevo
(Nonesuch)
'I Only Have Eyes for You' (Warren, Dubin) – Wesla Whitfield, Kronos Quartet
September Songs
(Highnote)
'Factory Girls' (Trad) – Kronos Quartet, feat Rhiannon Giddens
Folk Songs
(Nonesuch)
'Waist Deep in the Big Muddy' (Seeger) – Pete Seeger
Waist Deep in the Big Muddy and other Love Songs
(Columbia)
'Waist Deep in the Big Muddy' (Seeger arr Garchik) – Kronos Quartet
Long Time Passing
(Smithsonian)
'We Shall Overcome' (Seeger et al arr Garchick) – Kronos Quartet
Long Time Passing
(Smithsonian)
'Kisses Sweeter than Wine' (Seeger et al arr Garchick) – Kronos Quartet
Long Time Passing
(Smithsonian)
'Storyteller' (Garchik) – Kronos Quartet
Long Time Passing
(Smithsonian)
'Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram' (Trad arr Kronos Quartet) – Kronos Quartet
Long Time Passing
(Smithsonian)
'Mbube' (Linda' (Solomon Linda
Great Black Music Roots 1927-1962
(Frémeaux)
'Mbube' (Linda arr Garchik) – Kronos Quartet
Long Time Passing
(Smithsonian)
