'Still Time' is entertaining me - Still!
Johnny Freud | Boston, MA USA | 11/21/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"'It's a forest of trees' alright! I hadn't expected Jeff Flaster's Symphony for Chorus 'Still Time' to be such a wholly entertaining affair. So much so that, after a few listens to the CD, I found myself scanning through the lyrics to catch some particularly amazing bits of 'poetry'. Clearly, Flaster breaks all the rules. Doing away with the conventions of instrumentation, he's chosen to write pieces for voice only. The songs are performed by Flaster and Jennifer Brown, a versatile vocalist who handles the Soprano and Alto with a 'you go girl' zest. In the tradition of light American opera that has influenced Flaster, we are treated to an unusual coupling of sugar and spice that leaves the mind arrested by the wrestling between intricate melodies, and these said melodies expressed through unusually (and deceptively?) 'traditional' lyrics. For Flaster, life is about choices. In 'Come Up the Mountain' we hear, 'Heaven is not in the heavens above./ Heaven is here./ Heaven is here when we choose to live this life.' Additionally, in the song 'Good Enough For Today', '...I realized, by and by, I'd chosen you completely./ Now I know it's how it has to be.' But this is only one of many themes that circle and cascade through 'Still Time.' There are moments when Flaster restates the obvious and irrefutable nature of life, in a way that seems completely new to us: 'The clock is ticking,/ Time marches on...', 'It's a forest of trees...', 'Stop! Don't you make that mistake...' Then there is the humor that shines through nearly every piece. The same lyric above from 'Come Up the Mountain' ends with the linguistically daring couplet: 'Stop! It will cost you to persue love/ With someone who doesn't do love.' Flaster describes every side of experience that most people would see.
I've found 'Still Time' is a group of songs best listened to with a friend - comparing notes about the lyrical meanings, piecing one's way through the melodies and counter-melodies that fuse together to create this challenging opera - even singing along - a kind of 'laptop' CD (as I like to call it): something that you'd bring 'up the mountain' with a friend for many minutes of entertainment.
If you haven't yet purchased this Symphony, don't worry - there's 'Still time.'"
Track Listings (9) - Disc #1