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A Sweet Quasimodo Charlemagne Palestine
Charlemagne Palestine- piano, voice, brandy snifter |
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Charlemagne Palestine has never moved me. His brand of minimalism has been of such an extreme sort that it has seemed almost inert. But I feel differently about him now after hearing this live concert recorded in Berkeley. After a brief and effective preparatory section where Palestine wordlessly vocalizes while rubbing his wet fingers on a brandy snifter, he launches into about 35 minutes of solo piano. A long, slowly building performance is marked by several gradually developing ascending, descending, curling, and arching lines. These improvisations have a diamond-like sculptural quality- glittering, light-filled and hard, making for pared-down, aristocratic minimalism. The structure of Palestine’s lines is clear and open, ready for the ear and mind to examine and revel in. A few days after listening to this I was in a building where, a couple of floors down, a man was tuning a piano. He spent over forty-five minutes going slowly up the keyboard from the low to high keys. The tuner exhausted the patience of every listener in the building except me and maybe himself. It sounded to me like a beautiful, meditative act and I think this is largely due to how Palestine opened up my ears to the detail a piano can offer in the right hands, even in the hands of a tuner. (Incidentally, for the first time I heard Palestine’s speaking voice on this record, where he introduces and makes concluding remarks about the concert and various things. I was surprised to find out that he sounds much like Truman Capote).
Cold Blue CB 0025
Richard Grooms
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