Descriptions and samples of John Teleska's music albums and how to buy them.
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Descriptions and samples of John Teleska's music albums and how to buy them. |
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Follow the Moon John Teleska 1989Playing Time: 48:09
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Description Guitarist Teleska's second album, a blend of blues, jazz, Celtic, and classical influences, mostly ensemble pieces. Composed, arranged and produced by Teleska. With George Sessum on fretless bass, Michael Ives on vibes, Jan Rhody singing scat unison and harmony with Teleska's slide guitar on You Should Know, Kathy Leigh Johnson vocals on Lauda, Jeff Beal, flugelhorn on Women of the Heart, and Bill Cahn, Ed Marris, Kristen Shiner and Ward Hartenstein on percussion. Contains two solo tracks—Tug Hill Creek and the lyrical Song for a Dancer, both played on 12-string. Also contains New Song, familiar to WXXI and WJZR listeners as storyteller Jay Stetzer's intro and outro music. |
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Listen to Samples To hear a song sample, click on the linked song titles below. All songs © 1989 John Teleska unless otherwise noted.
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Reviews -Steve Messenger, Star Record, Texas 1989 John Teleska, Follow the Moon His ease at traversing disparate musical genres and uniting their elements into his own vision is all the more astounding as he switches musical gears. Floating from an etheral bossa nova (Women of the Heart) into a percolating collaborative reverie, Big Ben, Teleska's howling slide guitar demonstrates a wealth of technique and a large measure of foresight. Dream Fire begins like a Robert Johnson possession, with 12-string and electric bass "doing the dozens." George Sessum's Jaco Pastorius-like excursions are inebriating, allowing both intruments to take a giant step beyond their roots. Throughout it all, Teleska's supporting musicians (Jeff Beale: flugelhorn, Michael Ives: vibes; Kristen Shiner: marimbas, percussion; and Sessum) attack the music with a common dream. The last cut, Song for a Dancer, might just qualify as one of the five prettiest songs ever written for the guitar, with Teleska playing on heartstrings instead of the usual steel. To offer the listener such a variety of sound is not just uncommon; it is the stuff of which dreams are made. Unself-conscious virtuosity like Teleska's is the stuff that makes people want to learn to play the guitar in the first place. Teleska listens to what he plays and realizes that the listener is listening, too. -Jack Garner, Democrat and Chroncile, 1989 John Teleska's new album is a blend of sounds Teleska, who has developed a reputation for sensitive, thoughtful New Age compositions, here opens the door to elements from other musical idioms, including jazz, slide-guitar blues, and even 15th-century Italian Renaissance music. The amalgam is a joy to hear. While his first album, Heartland, was a polished solo effort, solidly in the New Age mode, Follow the Moon expresses much broader ambitions, which he shares with a small, but talented ensemble of players. In a few of the songs, he also gets an ensemble feel through tasty double tracking. The most enjoyable exchanges on Follow the Moon, however, are between Teleska and Rochester bassist George Sessum, who contributes smooth, melodic statements on electric bass. Sessum, who is known for his work with Cabo Frio, here demonstrates a strong sympatico to Teleska's meticulous, yet lyrical playing. The album's highlight, in fact, is You Should Know, a medium-tempo, bluesy excursion, with Teleska on slide, electric and acoustic guitars, underscored by Sessum's bass, Bill Cahn's restrained percussion, and Jan Rhody's slide-like scat singing. Other special pleasures include Laughing Blues, a fast-picking acoustic solo in the Leo Kotke/Mason Williams tradition which really isn't a blues at all; and Big Ben, a textured sonic excurion that blends Teleska's chord changes with Sessum's rhythmic bass, and the melodic accompaniment of Sonam Targee on recorder and Kristen Shiner on marimba. |
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