calls himself a "venture culturalist," and he's got the proof to back it up. He's reached out to a broad range of musicians (and Muppets) to play not just Bach and Beethoven, but also Brazilian samba, Argentine tango, jazz, songs from Sesame Street and a smorgasbord of Asian music with his Silk Road Ensemble. American roots music also figures into Ma's melting pot: He teamed up with double-bass master and fiddler 15 years ago for the gentle new-grass album Appalachian Waltz.
Ma's newest Americana adventure is called The Goat Rodeo Sessions, and Meyer is again along for the ride, but this time with two other string virtuosos: mandolinist (of and ) and veteran bluegrass fiddler Stuart Duncan, who each helped him write the new album. All four players dropped by the NPR Music offices this past Halloween to play a few cuts for an overflowing and appreciative crowd.
The Goat Rodeo music fits right into Ma's mash-up aesthetic. It's grounded in bluegrass, but with touches of funk, jazz-like solos and Celtic excursions — all constructed with the rigor of serious classical music. Don't try to compartmentalize it.
"Quarter Chicken Dark" runs on Thile's chucka-chucka beat (and a few hot-dogging solos), along with Duncan's elegant bowing, plus a touch of funk in Meyer's bass-line burps. In "Attaboy," Ma makes the most of the wistful theme, which gets cycled through a sweet mandolin filigree, an Irish jig in Duncan's fiddle and storms of thunderous jamming. The set ends with "Here and Heaven," a bluegrass-style song in which Aoife O'Donovan (from ) and Thile's voices join in harmony haunting enough to recall those old-fashioned Appalachian murder ballads.
Through it all, you may just wonder what's up with the name "Goat Rodeo." Some define it as a kind of chaotic situation on which order can't be imposed, and that's exactly how these musicians sometimes view their own hectic, music-stuffed lives. Yet to make the album, they all came together in a converted barn, sat in a circle and recorded the music without fancy isolation booths and overdubs.
And, of course, that's just how they did it here. So enjoy our own little "Goat Rodeo" session, with a lot of jokes and laughs, a broken mandolin string, a little retuning, and some terrific music that's fun, intricately built and — thankfully — impossible to pigeonhole.
Set List
Credits
Mito Habe-Evans, Michael Katzif, Becky Lettenberger, Claire O'Neil (cameras); edited by Michael Katzif; audio by Kevin Wait; photo by Cristina Fletes/NPR
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