Lara Downes & Friends: New Day Begun
Rising Sun Music

On her many recordings, pianist Lara Downes has demonstrated remarkable versatility. Yet while she's devoted album projects to Leonard Bernstein, the Schumanns, and others, she's never seemed more at home, so to speak, than on New Day Begun. Featuring material by Black composers spanning nearly two centuries, its fifteen settings draw from jazz, blues, gospel, and hymns and collectively captivate for being empowering and inspirational. A perfect alliance between composition and interpreter is achieved on this transformative hour-long statement.

With Downes joined on different tracks by violinist Regina Carter, bass-baritone Davóne Tines, oboist Titus Underwood, violist Jordan Bak, PUBLIQuartet, and the Tonality vocal ensemble, the album combines newly recorded pieces with selections from the four monthly digital EPs issued since the early 2021 launch of the Rising Sun Music series (six pieces world premiere recordings, too). One thing that separates Downes from her peers is the way she brings the sophistication of classical playing to the performance of concise, song-length works that extend beyond the genre into other areas. In her rendering of a gospel song, for example, she retains the natural feel that's so critical to the form yet at the same time invests her performance with an elegance that develops naturally from formal training.

A true trailblazer, Downes not only performs and records but is a dynamic catalyst for change and a mentor to many a young artist. Drawing upon her personal background and the experience of the American people, her music has become a balm to the souls of many. Rather than choose despair, she sees the state of things as promising change, the sentiment expressed directly in the inclusion of Sam Cooke's “A Change is Gonna Come” and Lettie B. Alston's “Variations on Lift Every Voice and Sing” on the release. In Downes' own words, “When millions of us come together—out of isolation, despite pandemic—to march for justice; when we vote, standing in line for as long as it takes; when we focus on our everyday actions, no matter how small; when we lift every voice; we enact change.”

The solo piano pieces offer one fulsome reward after another. As her magnificent reading of “A Change is Gonna Come” illustrates, Downes has that inimitable gift for achieving the perfect balance in a performance, her playing hardly minimal yet never tainted by excess. The song's melody rings out majestically in this blues-inflected interpretation, a treatment dramatic and also abundant in feeling. Whereas solemnity is part of its makeup, Alvin Singleton's “Changing Faces,” William Grant Still's “Summerland,” and Nkeiru Okoye's “When Young Spring Comes” sparkle with unbridled optimism. Elsewhere, Eubie Blake's “Love Will Find a Way” and Hazel Scott's “Peace of Mind” benefit from the pianist's intimate approach, and the ease with which Downes settles in to such material is beautiful to behold.

Her generosity of spirit extends to the guests' appearances, with almost every instance presenting the ‘friend' as the soloist and the pianist embracing the supporting role. PUBLIQuartet's strings add sweetness and lustre to a heartfelt rendition of Ellington's “Come Sunday” and amplify the yearning conveyed fervently by Daniel Bernard Roumain in “Prayer.” Bak delivers one of the album's most moving performances when his viola veritably sings throughout H. Leslie Adams' “The Ecstasy of Love,” and Tines likewise elevates Margaret Bonds' hymnal “When the Dove Enters In” with a soulful vocal that's emotionally expressive but not overwrought. As oboist Underwood gracefully voices the melodies in Florence Price's “Adoration,” you also might find yourself struck by the material's Satie-like tone. It's fitting that an album so themed would end with Tonality voicing hope in Andre J. Thomas's “I Dream a World.”

August 2021