New York composer-pianist Amy Rubin writes chamber music spiked with blues, jazz, African drumming patterns, and Latin dance rhythms. Sometimes she packs too many idioms into one piece. “Cry of the Mothers”, for example, vacillates between a plaintive jazz ballad and a Latin dance. “Hallelujah Games” for marimba and piano is inspired by the drumming patterns Rubin learned in Ghana (not surprisingly, it resembles Steve Reich’s Ghana-influenced hocketing music), and the “games” involve performer choices. As pianist on this album, Rubin proves herself to be the best advocate of her own music. Her intricate passagework spins out like a nimble improvisation, and her playing sometimes manages to wield more power than the compositions themselves. Soprano Christine Schadeberg, flutist Kathleen Nester, and marimba player William Trigg join her as magnificent partners. Rubin’s music is appealing and often playful, and if she occasionally veers toward sentimentality, she’s not the first composer to succumb to tonal ardor when expressing political concerns.
