Holly Burke, Bill Runge, & Linda Lee Thomas: Dreamride
Self-released
Though it didn't happen overnight, the stars eventually aligned for the creation of Dreamride, a collaborative project involving Vancouver-based composers Holly Burke and Bill Runge and pianist Linda Lee Thomas. After struggling with post-concussion syndrome, Burke found herself three years ago improvising at the keyboard and experiencing a resurgence of creative energy. Sharing newly hatched sketches and themes with her long-time collaborator Burke, the two developed the base material into twenty solo piano pieces and then recruited Thomas to formally document them.
Burke and Runge are not only writers. He's a multi-instrumentalist who's worked on many Juno Award-winning projects and released recordings as a leader; as a saxophonist, he also performs alongside her in the sextet Holly Burke & The Naturals, Burke on saxophones and the leader on flute and vocals. Like him, she's worked on a diverse array of projects, not only music-related but ones for TV and film. Thomas's credits are likewise impressive: she's been the principal pianist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra since 1972 and has released a number of albums, most reflecting her passion for Argentinean Tango. She formed the trio Tangissimo in 2001 and a year later issued the group's debut Tangissimo Live and four years after that Chasing the Tango High. Her first solo piano album, 2008's Tango Magic might be seen as something of a precursor to Dreamride, even if the latter doesn't focus on one style only. There are, however, pieces on it that are tango-flavoured, including the rousing “Lindo” and the Piazzolla-inspired “Amoroso.”
In addition to being enticingly melodic and stylistically varied, the twenty pieces are almost all vignettes, all but one weighing in at one to three minutes in duration. Pushing past five, the outlier, “Manny's Arms,” seems positively epic in this context. Animated by a seductive 6/8 lilt, the scene-setting “New” draws you in right away, especially when Thomas's elegant piano playing resounds so sweetly. Contemplative by comparison, “Butterfly” subtly evokes the splendour of a carefree summer's day; another mini-concerto, “Minerva's Owl,” written in dedication to Bill's father Stanley, tickles the ear with a plaintive trilling figure that stays with you long after the song's over, and the lyrical settings “Daphne” and “First Snow on Cypress” are as memorable. Highlights are plentiful when each piece distinguishes itself in one way or another: “Lily Pond” offers two replenishing minutes of serenity and stillness; “Exegesis" cleverly nods to Bartók's Mikrokosmos series; and “Music for Maple” caps the release with a touching waltz dedicated to a family pet. As elegiac as sober pieces like “Elysium” and “Fall” are, the composers aren't averse to letting a lighter side seep in, as evidenced by the child-like playfulness of “Bill & Bob's Big Adventure” and mischievous swing of “Monkey Puzzle Blues.”
Don't bother trying to label the material as classical, jazz, or anything else for that matter—think of them instead as self-contained, eloquent miniatures grounded in melody and distinguished by refined writing and playing. Burke and Runge are clearly fortunate to have had Thomas in the performer's chair, considering how unfailingly solid her presentation of their material is. Like a box of exquisite chocolates, each piece is a tasty morsel ready to be lovingly ingested and savoured.February 2023