Rondi Charleston/Fred Hersch – “Suspended In Time – A Song Cycle”
We’ve reviewed singer Rondi Charleston‘s album “Resilience” back in October 2017, a brave and vulnerable work of art which came out on her own label, Resilience Music Alliance, which is also the home of her new album “Suspended In Time – A Song Cycle” with music of the great Fred Hersch. Since Rondi now has diminished lung capacity due to Long Covid, the singer asked some of her peers to sing the songs she wrote during the pandemic. And on the album opener, the wonderful voice of Kate McGarry can be heard on the very poignant and graceful title track where she is accompanied by the heartfelt playing of the Crosby String Quartet. The collaboration is like magic.
Gabrielle Stravelli, who has more of a Broadway, musical theater kind of voice, is next on “Sea Of Eyes”, once again with the string quartet and some very deep clarinet playing by Bruce Willliamson. There is a very personal and intimate “Lullaby”, written for Rondi’s mother while she was in isolation during the Covid period. It is both sad and optimistic at the same time, with Fred’s simple yet effective playing adding the right touches to the story. Rondi can actually be heard on one song here; the spoken-word “Fever Dreams” deals with the longing of being around people again after such a long time. It’s a bold step I think, not being able to sing properly and thus, coming up with telling her story in spoken words. And yet, this longing feeling is still there but this time, it is the longing to hear her singing voice again.
There is a lot of joy and positivity on “Awakenings”, where Kate exudes all the warmth and ebullience needed to describe “the essence of spring”. The song was written at the time when the vaccine was discovered. Fred swingingly rouses through the tune with great percussion work by Rogerio Boccato and drums by Kush Abadie. Gabrielle is back with “Patience”, a smooth and tender song about “holding your breath”. It’s another proof that here is a serious songwriter at work, capturing truths and hopes. And there is so much of it on the album closer, the beautiful “Here We Are”, “here we are to create a new story” and “burning the page on a chapter”. There is more truth in her conclusion that “I feel that the artist’s job is not only to capture what’s going on in the world around her, but to reflect on what’s going on; to try to make sense out of chaos. Hopefully, I can also entertain, inspire, and leave audiences with a feeling of hope for the future. My challenge is to write music and lyrics that do all three.” “Suspended In Time – A Song Cycle” is also available on vinyl.
