Third Coast Percussion: Philip Glass: Aguas da Amazonia
Rockwell Records

With Aguas da Amazonia, the Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion ensemble presents a brilliant treatment of a Philip Glass work earlier recorded by the Brazilian outfit Uakti. The TCP arrangement is so inspired a re-imagining, however, that it feels like an entirely new creation, and, further to that, registers as a near-perfect rapprochement between composer and performer. Adding significantly to the group's rendition, the recording augments Sean Connors, Robert Dillon, Peter Martin, and David Skidmore with flutist and Ensemble Dal Niente member Constance Volk, whose terrific contributions amplify the work's haunting character. TCP crafted the new arrangement in collaboration with the Twyla Tharp Dance troupe, who, with the musicians, are presenting the work on a current tour celebrating TCP's twentieth-anniversary season (interestingly, the material performed by Uakti originated as a commissioned score for the Brazilian dance company Grupo Corpo in the ‘90s.)

With pulsation running through many of his works, Glass's material is a natural fit for a percussion ensemble, but melody is as critical to Aguas da Amazonia, and to that end listeners familiar with his music will recognize lyrical themes that later emerged in his opera La Belle et la Bête and other works. While TCP is without question a percussion outfit armed with an exhaustive arsenal of drums and mallet instruments, the group augments it with synthesizer, melodica, and others to serve the work's melodic needs. Adding dramatically to the album's soundworld, the group also plays a marimba made of glass, another made of red oak planks, a set of chromatically tuned PVC pipes, a sun drum, and djembe. Time after time, the group shows itself to be a superb conduit for Glass's music and keenly attuned to his sensibility.

While TCP's version builds on the one by Uakti, the Brazilian ensemble's was itself a re-imagining of Glass's original piano composition. Aguas da Amazonia lends itself especially well to such transformations, much as does Terry Riley's equally amenable In C. An unlimited number of treatments of such scores is possible without the identity of the work getting lost in the process. As its title intimates, Aguas da Amazonia was composed by Glass as a suite whose nine pieces are named after rivers in South America's Amazon Basin. Easing the work slowly into being is “Amazon River,” animated by a signature Glass organ pattern that gradually gains in velocity as the arrangement expands, the rhythmic thrust intensifies, and Volk's swooping flute casts the first of many potent spells. Deep entrancement carries over into “Purus River” when her flute nimbly dances across a sparkling motorik base fashioned by the quartet.

“Japurá River” proves bewitching for the dense percussive tapestry generated by the percussionists but also for the bold breath flourishes and sweeping runs Volk adds to the performance. The acrobatic flurries she drapes across a thrumming foundation makes “Negro River” as beguiling a listen. Glass's signature gift for melody is well-accounted for in the haunting, two-part “Madeira River,” but as exquisite is the key modulation that occurs midway through to lift the music skyward. The soundworlds that emerge throughout the album mesmerize for their unusualness and the novelty of the arresting timbres TCP produces with its custom-built instrumentation.

At thirty-six minutes, Aguas da Amazonia is modest by CD standards, and thus a second work could easily have fit onto the disc. That said, the recording feels complete and wants for nothing, and in this instance a compact presentation works excellently for the material in question. Laid down over three August days in 2024, the recording shows the musicians to be completely in sync with the composer, the result a bonafide must-have for Glass aficionados.

February 2025