Song Cycle: THIS BE HER VERSE (2020)
By Kathleen Tagg & Lila Palmer . Recorded by Golda Schultz & Jonathan Ware for ALPHA RECORDS: 2022
“The album’s title is from a new song cycle by Tagg, to texts by Lila Palmer. Commissioned by Schultz, they are deft, upbeat, sharp and true, a celebration of the single bed and clean sheets.”
Fiona Maddocks: The Guardian
“This be her verse, a three-poem cycle marked by skillful vocal writing, percussive effects for the piano (and not just on the keyboard) and poetry reflecting lived contemporary female experience, proved a highly fruitful commission, and should furnish not only Schulz but other sopranos with a bracing repertory staple.”
Opera News
“Composer Kathleen Tagg and poet Lila Parmer’s vibrant This Be Her Verse provides a welcome contemporary account of female experience. Commissioned by the performers themselves, the cycle riffs on Philip Larkin’s famous poem and fizzes with black humour and percussive energy, and Schultz’s voice by turns soars and stings…This Be Her Verse is an outstanding album: expertly programmed and performed with terrific verve.”
Kate Wakeling: BBC Magazine
“witty musical-like songs in the manner of Stephen Sondheim, which revolve around the question of what it means to be a woman in the 21st century.”
Frederik Hanssen: Tagesspiegel
”…the finest fit is Kathleen Tagg’s “This be her verse,” a commission for the program that, in addition to strummed piano strings, calls for suspended, ethereal high notes and carefree charm.”
Joshua Barone: New York Times
“This Be Her Verse provided the recital’s title and whipped up a suitable climax. To lyrics by Lila Palmer, the verses delve into aspects of a modern American woman’s life. The first song, ‘After Philip Larkin’, reflects on how demands from others may keep her from her own ambitions. The centerpiece, ‘Wedding’, commiserates with a bride left waiting outside her COVID-limited wedding by the groom and his best man. The finale, ‘Single Bed’, declaims an anthem for a defiant, intentionally unmarried woman.
While I was noticing how the music became more complex and varied as we moved forward in time from the mid-nineteenth century, and how it brought out more aspects of Schultz’s gifts, the evening had a more profound effect on my wife. She responded viscerally to the songs’ insights into how women can face the world differently from men, especially those by Tagg and Palmer. She is, like them, a modern woman.”
Harvey Steiman: Seen and Heard International
MAZEL TOV COCKTAIL PARTY REVIEWS (2022)
Mazel Tov Cocktail Party is a breath of fresh air, an incentive to dance to klezmer music, (Krakauer's favorite playground); but also to polka, Romanian hora, calypso, Quebec square dance... "In the face of the overwhelming negativity and alarming rise of hatred and intolerance in today's world," let's breathe and dance together, Krakauer & Tagg proclaim in chorus. More than a suggestion, an injunction.
Patrick Labesse: LE MONDE
Do you want an amazing and nice mix? Like putting a Mentos in Coke... You take a rapper, some specialists in sampling and electro, a mad clarinet and you entrust everything to DAVID KRAKAUER and KATHLEEN TAGG. Listening to this music is a real outlet, spiritual and festive. A Calypso and a Polka come to visit us as curious little animals. Or the Mississippi Blues is crossed with a Middle Eastern Oud. ...Traditional tunes are passed through the mill of rock, rap and jazz creating a music of cartoons under strobe effects... Can make you addicted...
Pascal David: JUKE BOX DETOX
An informal cocktail party typically lasts a few hours, and this one ends all too soon. Clap your hands, do-si-do and allemande right to the urban beat, Krakky’s clarinet and the band’s fascinating rhythms. And when everyone shouts “Mazel Tov!”, as the title cut cues up, “Toda” (meaning "Thank You") would be our appropriate response.
Joe Ross: ROOTS MUSIC REVIEW: 5/5 Stars
Rhythmically it goes around the world: Square Dance-Polka-Calypso-Hora and back. Iranian drums and electronic beats, harmonica and sampler, jew's harp and bass, guitar and oud – the mixture can hardly be more colorful and yet nothing slips into complacent arbitrariness here. The focus is clearly on the slogan "Party!". Because: "It's been a really hard two years, and we need to move together. We wanted to make new tunes that got people up and dancing. It's a party, and you're all invited!" So let's go! Mazeltov!
Karsten Zimalla: WESTZEIT
Going from the electro beats and funky scratches of "Jammin' With Socalled", to the title track (where you would swear to hear Funkadelic and the Pointer Sisters jamming with Jimi Hendrix and Rabbi Jacob), through the cover of the Appalachian bluegrass classic "I'm A Poor Wayfaring Stranger" (.....transposed here in Ottoman mode), this album embraces multiple and crossed cultural heritages. Coming from an ecumenicisme, which is as much salutary as is crucial in our troubled times; this festive record actually does good where it hurts.
Patrick Dallongeville PARIS-MOVE
The latest in a production as varied as it is multiple, this festive album once again brings together New York clarinetist David Krakauer and South African pianist, arranger and composer Kathleen Tagg. After a magnificent 1st album in duo released at the end of summer 2020, D. Krakauer and K.Tagg create the Mazel Tov Cocktail Party Orchestra. This project, positive and bright, ..... is intended, in contrast to the deadly explosiveness of a Molotov cocktail, to illuminate the world with hope and joy. It is.....a very beautiful invigorating opus open to the world and life that David Krakauer and his accomplices give us there to whom we can only say: Mazel Tov! François Saddi: 5PLANÊTES
New York clarinetist David Krakauer has always been a wily fox who's never missed a trick. On the new joint work with his partner Kathleen Tagg, he ignites the next stage of his multicultural Yiddish party music. Each piece is smashed with a fervor and conviction, as if one had found the ultimate brew. In terms of amusement, the album can hardly be surpassed. However, the compilation of the songs and genres alone also reveals a cosmopolitanism that can be understood as a gift to the whole of humanity.
Wolf Kampmann, Jazz thing 143
BREATH & HAMMER RECORD REVIEWS (2020)
New Sounds on WQXR Radio April 30, 2020 by John Schaefer
“This record is kind of remarkable, you almost have to take their word for it when they tell you it’s nothing but clarinet and piano….A duo record- although it never sounds like just two players…”
MezzoTV: September, 2020
Top Jazz Album of September 2020
From David Harrington, Kronos Quartet, May 2020
”‘Breath and Hammer’ is a masterful and joyous journey that rewards and delights the listener every moment of the way. I was beaming through the entire album, reinvigorated by the energy and imagination of each track and so happy to know that David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg have made a musical adventure that pulls us out of the static isolated silence of our fraught time. They have found a way to give music a huge refreshing burst of energy only true explorers are able to give. They bound to ecstatic heights of fantasy and show us a new bright path forward.”
Paris-Move: David Krakauer & Kathleen Tagg - Breath & Hammer June 18, 2020 by Thierry Docman
‘Indispensable’ rating.
“A musical alchemy is the key word of this superb album…” (translated, orig. French)
Télérama: Quadruple forte (ffff) rating (top rating possible), September 2020 by Anne Berthod
Bandcamp: Best Jazz of May 2020 on Bandcamp Jun 19, 2020 by Dave Sumner
“The most compelling thing about this project from clarinetist David Krakauer and pianist Kathleen Tagg is the way three different sources culminate in one convergence. The influences of klezmer, modern jazz, and classical find any number of meeting points…The compositional influence of a wide array of different musicians, as focused through the singular lens of Krakauer and Tagg, leads to new visions of older perspectives.”
Transglobal World Music Chart:
Album #28 out of top 40, September 2020; Album # out of top 40, October 2020; Album # out of top 40, November 2020
Le Monde: Albums September 11, 2020 by Patrick Labesse
”Joyeux, malin, truffé de clins d’œil et de fantaisie, ce pas de deux clarinette-piano pétille de légèreté, même dans ses moments plus introspectifs. De la musique klezmer? Oui, sans doute mais bien plus encore. Pendant que le clarinettiste David Krakauer régale de ses notes suraiguës ou tendres, Kathleen Tagg, pianiste new-yorkaise née en Afrique du Sud, joue la brisure, la cassure impromptue, martèle ou effleure ... Excellent.”
B! Ritmos: CD Recommendation September 3, 2020 by Candido Querol
”You come back relaxed after the summer period and the first thing you find in your musical novelties is this time bomb… When listening to the album, the first thing that surprises you is the large number of different sounds even though they only use two instruments, clarinet and piano… don't ask me how Tagg gets those percussions because I don't understand it either … An album that is already making people talk and a live show (as you can see in the video) that with the effects of the sound artist Jesse Gilbert should be quite an experience. Unfortunately, once again, the promoters of this country have escaped.” (translated, orig. Spanish)
JazzAround September 18, 2020 by Diane Cammaert
“Jazz, classical music and klezmer collide to offer music that transcends all stylistic and cultural boundaries.
This album will give you only one desire: to continue your wandering in search of their music as well as that of their companions. In short, a real electro-acoustic performance that will make you travel far beyond the confines of your living room. We are far from confinement …” (Translated, orig. French)
Amina Magazine Nov/Dec 2020 by Luigi Elongui
“The harmonies of jazz and the creative impulse of the experimental join with classical tunes and the indescribable aromas of central European nostalgia: an original, unique repertoire that is the charm of this duo, clarinetist David Krakauer and classical pianist South African Kathleen Tagg … intense colors, with unfathomable evocations and furtive escapades. All in the astonishing synergy of the two performers who share the same quest: a borderless journey in search of new sounds, illuminated by the heritage of two enormous musical movements.” (translated, orig. French)
NPR Classical May 21, 2020
“The genre-fluid clarinet genius David Krakauer joins pianist Kathleen Tagg for “The Geyser,” an appropriately titled outburst that kicks off their new album 'Breath and Hammer.'”
Citizen Jazz: Chronique, 28 June 2020 by Gilles Guajarengues, June 28, 2020
“it's the feverishness, and a kind of frenetic effervescence, that characterizes the album…” (translated, orig. French)
Keyboard Recording Home Studio Magazine Sept. / Oct. 2020 issue by Abel Durand
“David Krakauer, on clarinet, and Kathleen Tagg, on piano and “piano orchestra”, offer us an album where the musical alchemy is evident. These two outstanding musicians juggle between klezmer, jazz, and classical music.
Telerama Sortir: Review November 2020
“Sur la scène de ce concert berlinois, le clarinettiste américain et la pianiste sud-africaine jouent derrière des cloisons transparentes: un détail amusant quand on connaît les pratiques décloisonnées de ces deux concertistes. L’un a débridé son jeu aux avant-postes du swing yiddish, l’autre á la pointe de la musique contemporaine. Or, les projections vidéo de leurs avatars quasi holographiques amplifient justement l’effet de leurs audacieuses déconstructions: des thèmes brillamment réarrangés façon jeu de Kapla, dans un superposition complexe, remuante, mais non moins lyrique de sons trafiqués à la vue du public jusque dans la ventre du piano. Entre danzón cubain et lamento moldave, le charme puissant des mélodies demeure.”
MINYAN : FULL-LENGTH FEATURE FILM (2020)
Hollywood Reporter: 'Minyan': Film Review | Berlin 2020 Feb 22, 2020 by David Rooney
”He also benefits from strong collaborations with composers David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg, whose score brings rich cultural specificity, and with accomplished cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland (Judy), who shoots the film in wintry tones that in retrospect feel almost like black and white.”
Indiewire: Minyan’ Review: A Brighton Beach Boy Finds His Tribe in Elegant Gay Drama Feb 24, 2020 by Jude Dry
"It’s just across the street, but may as well be a world away. At least, that’s what the zany klezmer score Steel uses to weave his disparate narratives together seems to be saying. Almost every transition is eased by the kelp of a dizzying clarinet solo or lilting violin riff. It’s a neat trick, but it works."
Movable Fest: Berlin Film Fest 2020: A Community Makes a Man in “Minyan” Feb 22, 2020 by Stephen Saito
“One knows from McCann’s restless turn and the competing clarinets in David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg’s wonderfully docile score that David has yet to reconcile who he is internally, making his unease in any number of worlds that he’s naturally been assigned a place in particularly pronounced.”
Indiewire: 15 Must-See Films at the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival Feb 19, 2020 by David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn, Anne Thompson, Kate Erbland, Jude Dry
”There are a lot of moving parts in “Minyan,” glued together by a hauntingly frenetic klezmer score, but it ensures the film never courts cliche.”
Screen Daily: ‘Minyan’: Berlin Review 23 Feb 2020 by Wendy Ide
”Gentle rhythms and motifs are woven into the narrative: the covert draining and refilling of the ‘best’ vodka; the inspiring literature class; the score, klezmer infused jazz which anchors David’s story to the traditions of his family.”
The Arts STL: NewFest 2020 | Report 6 October 22, 2020 By Sarah Boslaugh
”Minyan is a leisurely film, running almost two hours, but it’s never boring thanks to the strength of the performances, the cinematography by Ole Bratt Birkeland, and especially the klezmer-inflected score by David Krakauer and Kathleen Tagg.”
PIANIST
Downbeat Magazine on a performance at LPR, New York Feb 16, 2016 by Bill Milkowski
”At the peak of their conversation, Krakauer sailed through virtuosic passages before taking off on a passionate, soul-stirring improvisation…Throughout their compelling duo set, Tagg joined prepared piano to electronics in increasingly brilliant applications."
San Francisco Classical Voice: Jewish Music Festival Review
“While pianist Kathleen Tagg did much to reflect the composer’s religious ecstasy in the middle with saintly chords, it was the bookends that were the reality: shrieks and wails on Krakauer’s clarinet, glissando screams on Haimovitz’s cello, and scary harmonics on Kay Stern’s violin.”
CUE Magazine: Review July 7, 2016 by Jeffrey Brukman
“The Tagg-Krakauer duo took the Beethoven Room by storm as they presented one of the most remarkable concerts I have ever attended anywhere in the world. Each work on the programme was arranged or composed by either Tagg or Krakauer and this added a personal dimension to their performance, as creation and recreation elided in an astonishing display of indescribably stunning, mesmerising musicianship…Opening with Syrian clarinettist and composer Kinan Azmeh’s November 22nd – a work epitomising the essence of Middle Eastern aesthetics – Tagg and Krakauer embarked on what Krakauer termed “a multicultural journey”. It was far more than that; it entered into the heart of humankind exploring connective artistic tissues while teasing out and celebrating the differences... this was a phenomenal performance that stood at the heart of multicultural musicianship. This was music-making at its best: joyful abandonment without a trace of inhibition.”
London Jazz Times: Review of Where Worlds Collide with Andre Petersen November 23, 2017 by Jon Turney
" An open-minded mix of traditions, and the bravura technique they also share. The results are reflective and exuberant, by turns, and enormously enjoyable throughout."
What’s On In Cape Town: Review March 2016 by Marie Stines
“Both Krakauer and Tagg elicited astonishing tones from their instruments by what can only be described as unorthodox methods. Tagg used cloth and metal jewellery to manipulate the piano’s sound, and even stood up during her performance to pluck its strings, which had the audience in awe.”
Voice of America: Review by Darren Taylor
“…This is music as a reflection of man’s madness. It is pleasure verging on pain. It is not to be listened to, it is to be felt, touched and eaten…It is Soul of Fire, one of the most remarkable musical productions yet to have emerged from South Africa…their art drowns their audiences in deluges of sound and emotion, as they wage war against the musical predictability that would corrode their work and extinguish the blaze of their souls…”
CUE Festival Newspaper of the South African National Arts Festival
"It is Tagg, the ever consummate professional that emerges as the real star of the show. Her artistic integrity and musical reliability remain undimmed throughout as she coaxes an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colour from the piano where languidly sensuous moments intertwine with flashes of tempestuous fire and eloquently spaced silences. Grippingly executed martellato passages, offset against arpeggio flourishes and chord punctuations display Tagg’s complete mastery of the flamenco idiom."
CUE Magazine
“Tagg’s inventive, magical appropriation of musical atmosphere made this one of the highlights of the programme… her setting of De Falla’s Nana displaying the full extent of her provocative musical imagination”
Die Burger
“Tagg successfully combined her outstanding technique with deep musicality and safe memory, and played the three movements expressively, evocatively and nimbly… beautifully coloured tonal variations created striking dynamic contrasts… the night before last’s interpretation convinced with more than enough brilliance…”
New York Concert Review: New York Debut Recital: Carnegie Hall
“This is a superbly turned out artist, a performer broaching scant detour between conception and delivery, and a musician of such grand endowment that I can only add a complimentary hey-ho of underlining the great industry, unsparing discipline with which she honored her natural gift and therefore the music she plays and the public she plays to…We have here a pianist who has true independence of the fingers, the virtue about which we hear more spoken than demonstrated. Tagg’s sound was clean, vocal/instrumental, balanced, carefully pruned of heaviness…
This artist with her well-honed ability to maintain contrapuntal clarity though endless stretches of linear writing and also create vertical masses of non-contrapuntal sound when called for (think of the best efforts of Botticelli and Tiziano combined in one person), brought lilt and poise and a charming softness…”
What’s On in Cape Town: Review by Mary Stines
If you have happened upon the term virtuoso before, I suggest you fold it away neatly when in the “closet blues” presence of duo Kathleen Tagg and Zanne Stapelberg. Words will fall short… an untamable, and unforgettable, venture…”
The Argus: Review July 14, 2016 by Gabi Falanga
”…a musically expressive and atmospheric performance by Kathleen Tagg…”
Die Burger
”Die wisselende stemming- speels, uitbundig, stormagtig an teer- is deur Tagg raak in klank geskilder. Hopelik kry sy dikwels kans om in haar land te speel…”
COMPOSER
Volksblad
“...Each is a little work of art of imaginative sounds and poetic lyrics. I would not be surprised if many of the songs are not included later in the Afrikaans song treasury...Kathleen Tagg evidences again in this second collaboration with Stapelberg that she has a gift for music in translating word nuances. Each song is a showpiece of its ingenious intercourse with a colorful palette of sound…”
PRODUCER:
LA Times
“The program proved a fascinating parade of works.”
The Argus
“…You have to have substance that will hold the attention and blend that with music that rocks the soul. They certainly did that..."
Darren Taylor, Voice of America
“One of the most remarkable musical productions yet to have emerged from South Africa…”