REVIEW: Meridian Arts Ensemble, Anxiety of Influence /

_Smart Went Crazy (Channel Crossings) / Margaret

Leng Tan, The Art of the Toy Piano (Point Music/Polygram)

- Jon Steltenpohl

For those familiar with the strangeness of Frank Zappa and John Cage, the music of Meridian Arts Ensemble and Margaret Leng Tan is certainly nothing surprising. But for the general population, the avant garde sounds of these musicians are unsettling at first. Still, these Julliard schooled musicians know what they are doing, and their impeccable quality allows them to be listened to by a normal person without too much confusion.

Meridian Arts Ensemble is a brass band composed of trumpets, horns, trombone, and tuba accompanied by drums and piano. Most of their repertoire is 20th century music including Frank Zappa, Stephen Barber, Billy Strayhorn, and Jimi Hendrix. Many of the pieces, Frank Zappa's in particular, were produced with the direct collaboration of the composer. The music is warm and glowing, but at the same time, purposely off kilter and humorous.

Much of there work impresses me the same way that Zappa's does. Sure, it's artistically impeccable and very interesting, but at the same time, it's not music you can just sit and listen to. Take the Zappa piece, "Little House I Used to Live In", you have a brass band interrupted with a drum solo and then augmented with the guys singing their parts in little chirpy voices. This is Picasso music. Take all the parts, chop them into pieces, throw them in the blender, and then reconstruct it. All of the parts are still there, but everything is different.

Margaret Leng Tan has been described by The New Yorker as "the diva of the avant garde." Tan claims John Cage as her mentor, and as such, takes on two different themes. One is to use non-traditional instruments along side traditional instruments, and the second is to blend an appropriate amount of distortion and cacophony into the mix. Tan does both elegantly. "Eleanor Rigby" is typically de- and re-constructed into a discordant chatter of toy piano chimes and the clatter of the hammers and levers.

Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata is included as an ode to the Peanuts' character Schroeder. "East Broadway", a track written by Julia Wolfe for Tan, is a noisy, blasting contraption of toy piano and a cheap toy boombox that plays cheesy, "on demand" rap beats. In addition to the boombox, The Art of the Toy Piano also features toy accordions, cap guns, and empty cat food tins at various points. But, the most beautiful and accessible piece is the closing track for piano and toy piano. It's a lullaby by Erik Satie called "Gymnopedie No. 3", and the marriage of the two instruments will draw you in.

Unfortunately, the bulk of this music isn't for everyone. The tracks on these albums are presented as pieces of work to be pondered rather than songs to be enjoyed. Like Picasso, Zappa, or Cage, either you get it or you don't. If you do happen to get avant garde music, then I highly recommend any of these albums. You will be delighted by the presence of melody and structure behind a frame that seems disconnected on the surface.

(You can visit Meridian Arts Ensemble at http://www.pi.net/~fg.)