Windham Hill Artists - An Evening With Windham Hill Live (1983)

An Evening With... was a star-studded 'live sampler' album issued by Windham Hill in their first flush of major success.  From the liner notes: "On October 9th, 1982, a group of ten Windham Hill musicians gathered for two shows at the Berklee Performance Center, Boston, Massachusetts. It was during those two shows that these recordings were made."

It's a treat to hear all these great musicians out of the studio and on stage, even if just a fleeting spotlight falls on each of them.  Michael Hedges is up first with a superb Rickover's Dream from Aerial Boundaries, the live solo performance showcasing his extrodinary talent to an even greater extent than the original.  Not to be outdone, Alex De Grassi turns in nine minutes of rolling loveliness in Turning: Turning Back, then is heard in a group format on another of his pieces, Clockwork.  That odd sound you hear is a lyricon, the first ever electronic wind controller; the player here, the late Chuck Greenberg, was one of the co-engineers of the instrument.

Hedges returns to kick off the album's second half, again playing a track from Aerial Boundaries, Spare Change.  Dedicated to Steve Reich, the piece is backed up by Liz Story on piano and bassist Michael Manring, and displays just how much the early Windham Hill stable owed to the classic ECM sound.  Next in the spotlight is Windham Hill founder William Ackerman to play two of his pieces.  Visiting has more lyricon from Greenberg and bass from Manring, then Hawk Circle is a guitar duet with Hedges while George Winston backs them on piano.  And it's Winston who closes the album, in a solo medley of Reflections and John McLaughlin's Lotus Feet.  Absolutely gorgeous music from start to finish.

link
pw: sgtg

Windham Hill at SGTG:
Piano Solos | Autumn | December (Winston)
Solid Colors | Unaccountable Effect (Story)
Southern Exposure (De Grassi)
Aerial Boundaries (Hedges)

Alex De Grassi - Southern Exposure (1983)

Solo fingerpicked steel guitar with folk and jazz influences, from Japan-born American guitarist Alex De Grassi.  This was De Grassi's fourth album for his cousin William Ackerman's Windham Hill label - must have been handy to have a relative running a growing enterprise with a cornerstone of Fahey/Kottke-style guitar.

Ackerman and De Grassi were of course destined to sit in the very long shadow cast by WH's most legendary guitarist Michael Hedges, but on this evidence De Grassi had much to offer on his own merits.  Southern Exposure starts with the all too brief Overland, a bubbling spring of sparkling melody, before settling in for the more reflective Blue And White.  After that, great tunes keep coming, worming their way into your subconscious with every listen: 36, Street Waltz, Subway, the short and sweet title track - to name just a few.  And it all sounds fantastic - in the sleevenote detail typical of early Windham Hill, this was all "recorded live to two-track digital using a Sony PCM 1600". 

original LP cover

link
pw: sgtg