Cue Sheets II

These beautiful and evocative cues were originally written for a series of films and television shows ranging from a black and white film on William Blake to a television show about fishing. Drawing from the jazz, classical, and European traditional music genres, these pieces are perfect in their crystalline brevity. Their shortness allows them to become charming little morsels of the style to which they are playing tribute without descending into mimicry or repetition. The stunningly talented musicians who were recruited for this project also do a lot to make it work well. Sax player Tony Coe, violinist Alex Balenescu, and percussionist Mark Sanders are among the musicians who anchor this project. They do an excellent job of keeping the energy high. Like the other albums in Tzadik's film music series, Cue Sheets manages to inject a dose of innovation into a genre that suffers both from shoddy work and a conservatism that strangles the creative voice.