#4511: With Caroline Shaw and Eric Cha-Beach of So Percussion

Sample music in the zone between classical and pop by vocalist/composer Caroline Shaw and the musicians of So Percussion from their collaborative album Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part.

The quartet So Percussion and composer/vocalist/violinist Caroline Shaw have known each other since their student days. Building on ideas they had put to tape during their collaboration on the record, Narrow Sea, they were set free to experiment in a studio for three days of gratis time. With inspiration ranging from the Sacred Harp hymn book and James Joyce’s Ulysses to the gospel tune “I’ll Fly Away,” and the cryptic sugary pop of ABBA, the new album sits firmly in no category at all, but perches near pop, classical music, roots music, and the playful and experimental. The title of the Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part stems from a welcoming creative environment where everyone was encouraged to bring their own influences, experience, and talents to nurture musical seeds of ideas to grow into a magnificent series of collaborative works. (Hence the album art...)

Shaw, who has produced for Kanye West and Nas, won a Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for her Partita for 8 Voices, which was written for and performed with Roomful of Teeth; she also teaches at NYU. So Percussion is a force of music and noise-making whether their four members are precisely beating stuff, cranking air raid sirens, generating drones, or converting household objects, building materials, and/or hardware into instruments. Caroline Shaw makes her solo vocal debut with these wide-ranging playmakers of So Percussion on Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part (Nonesuch). Hear some of the tunes as presented by So Percussion’s Eric Cha-Beach and Caroline Shaw, who join John Schaefer for a chat about the making of the album.  -Caryn Havlik

#4511, with Caroline Shaw and Eric Cha-Beach of So Percussion (First Aired 7/06/2021)

ARTIST: So Percussion, Dawn Upshaw, Gilbert Kalish
WORK: Wayfaring Stranger, arr. Caroline Shaw [1:00]
RECORDING: Caroline Shaw: Narrow Sea
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: sopercussion.bandcamp.com

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion
WORK: To the Sky [4:00]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion
WORK: The Flood is Following Me [2:58]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion
WORK: ABBA: Lay All Your Love on Me [4:32]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion
WORK: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part [4:38]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion, with Travis LaPlante
WORK: Cast the Bells in Sand [4:45]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion
WORK: A Gradual Dazzle [4:10]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Caroline Shaw and So Percussion
WORK: Some Bright Morning (I'll Fly Away) [5:57]
RECORDING: Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
SOURCE: Nonesuch Records 
INFO: http://smarturl.it/letthesoil

ARTIST: Attacca Quartet
WORK: Caroline Shaw: Valencia [3:20]
RECORDING: Orange
SOURCE: Nonesuch/New Amsterdam 
INFO: carolineshaw.bandcamp.com | nonesuch.com