Gabriel Kahane performs in Aspen

Friday August 17, 2012

The Aspen Times

Gabriel Kahane performs in Aspen
By Stewart Oksenhorn

Cycling through songs, Ives, theater, guitar, etc.

ASPEN — In his solo performance Thursday at Belly Up Aspen, Gabriel Kahane plans to perform what he calls a “survey of songs” — tunes by the 18th-century Viennese composer Franz Schubert and the current rapper Cee Lo Green, by the early 20th-century Broadway writer Jerome Kern and the current producer and songwriter Van Dyke Parks, whose list of collaborators includes the Beach Boys, Fiona Apple and Bonnie Raitt. Kahane isn’t out to prove how wide-ranging his tastes and talents are, but something like the opposite; he intends to illuminate connections among the composers of different times and places.

“It’s almost like a live mix tape at the piano, to demonstrate how these songs relate to one another, whether they were written in Austria in the 1820s or in 1972 in Los Angeles. It’s as diverse a repertoire as possible and seeing how these go together,” Kahane said.

Last summer, when he performed in Harris Hall as part of the Aspen Music Festival, Kahane’s concert featured his 2006 song cycle “Craigslistlieder,” with text taken from ads on Craig’s List; songs he had written more in a singer-songwriter style; and “Dichterliebe,” the prominent song cycle by Schumann. At the time, Kahane said something similar about wanting to highlight the comonalities between music of different eras.

“I think you connect right from ‘Dichterliebe’ to Bright Eyes,” he said, referencing the contemporary indie rock band led by singer-songwriter Conor Oberst.

Read the full article here.

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