Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn
WU FEI AND ABIGAIL WASHBURN

CD £12.00 Exc VAT: £10.00
  • SKU: SFW40236CD
  • UPC: 0093074023624
  • Release Date: 03 April 2020

Description

Label Review.

2020 album also availble on Vinyl.

Our Overview.

First collaborative album by GRAMMY Award winning American banjo player Abigail Washburn and Chinese guzheng master Wu Fei. Produced by Bela Fleck, it’s a testament to the connective power of music across seemingly disparate cultures. Abigail Washburn and ’s Wu Fei duo project is as unlikely, perhaps, as it was inevitable--a manifest sonic consequence of politics and vibrations commingling across continents. There is a directness in the musical duo format that makes it such a good vehicle for melodic conversations between close friends who obviously listen to each other with an athletic respect matched by their respective virtuosity. For the listener, it means a gift of unhurried music drawn freely from streams of raised consciousness, waves which met from halfway across the world to find they shared the same shake.

Merging American old-time music and Chinese folksong, Wu Fei & Abigail Washburn features gorgeous, impressionistic renditions of traditional material from the hills of Appalachia to the prairies of Xinjian province, each tune flowing seamlessly into the next. The effervescent resonances of Wu’s guzheng zither dance around Washburn’s expressive banjo playing, their voices intertwining English and various Chinese dialects. This album recasts “world music” as music of our shared world, highlighting our shared humanity and the transformative power of song.

Wu Fei and Abigail Washburn’s duo is a musical resolution to their specific and differing issues about home. For Fei, it means an opportunity to assimilate elements of her musical argot—Chinese classical, folk and opera—into song forms while leaving room for the free associative tendencies she developed in the practice of free improvisation. In short, it marks a return to a thrown-out rule book with a changed perspective. For Abigail, it means musical collaboration with a sister from another Mister who speaks all the same languages. Someone with whom she can create brave, intimate music.

“[Washburn is] something of an unofficial musical ambassador to China. She constructs cultural bridges, one note at a time.” - CBS Sunday Morning

“A daring, definite talent, whose feel for the folk idiom results in moving material. Soulful is the word.” - Wall Street Journal

Trackslisting: Water Is Wide / Wusuli Boat Song / Four Seasons Medley: Four Seasons / Dark Ocean Waltz / Ping Tan Dance / Banjo Guzheng Pickin’ Girls / Who Says Women Aren’t As Good As Men / The Roving Cowboy / Avarguli / Weaving Medley: Busy Weaving / Julianne Johnson / Open Little Hand / Back Step Cindy / Bu Da Da / Ho Hey / Cluck Old Hen / Pretty Bird

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