Quite a few artists of African American background issue recitals of familiar material by Black composers, but violinist Randall Goosby's Roots is something different on several counts, and it's a fresh outing. First of all, Goosby mixes works by African American composers with those simply influenced by African American music, a seemingly simple idea, but how often does one hear Gershwin bumping up against William Grant Still? Second, his choices are not the obvious ones. Sure, there are some hits here, most prominently ...
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Quite a few artists of African American background issue recitals of familiar material by Black composers, but violinist Randall Goosby's Roots is something different on several counts, and it's a fresh outing. First of all, Goosby mixes works by African American composers with those simply influenced by African American music, a seemingly simple idea, but how often does one hear Gershwin bumping up against William Grant Still? Second, his choices are not the obvious ones. Sure, there are some hits here, most prominently the excerpts from Gershwin's Porgy and Bess arranged by Jascha Heifetz. Goosby, a student of Itzhak Perlman, among others, nails these, but most of the music is not so common. The rapidly emerging Florence B. Price is represented by two works. William Grant Still's Suite for violin and piano is one of his most African American-inflected works, with a gorgeous slow movement. Perhaps the biggest find here is a contemporary piece, Blue/s Forms, of Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson (who is named...
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