Larks, They Crazy

Another photo of Robin Holcomb singing during the performance of Larks, They Crazy at the Seattle Art Museum last month.

Robin Holcomb’s playing and singing were a special treat during the Earshot jazz festival as I was lulled and then moved in some of the more stirring pieces. The pianist/composer/singer performed a reprise of her 1989 landmark Sound Aspects release, Larks, They Crazy. The album featured many of the top-working musicians in New York, including Horvitz, Previte, Marty Ehrlich, Doug Wieselman, and David Hofstra. Like Todos Santos, the album gathered much attention upon its release. Featuring some truly ambitious music, the drama of her compositions well deserves revisiting. Mark Dery of The New York Times wrote: “Ms. Holcomb has done something remarkable here: she has created a new American regionalism, spun from many threads – country rock, minimalism, Civil War songs, Baptist hymns, Appalachian folk tunes, even the polytonal music of Charles Ives. The music that results is as elegantly simple as a Shaker quilt, and no less beautiful.”
Holcomb was joined on stage here by the expansive, irrepressible Skerik on tenor saxophone, old New York friend Doug Wieselman on alto, D’Vonne Lewis on drums, and Geoff Harper on bass.