Edgar Meyer can’t imagine listening to just one kind of music.
For the string bassist, who performs this weekend with the Colorado Symphony, music of the past and present is a limitless smorgasbord. He returns to it again and again, constantly finding inspiration in the new and different.
No one on his instrument is better-known in the classical world. Yet the Tennessee resident is equally at home in bluegrass and other old-time music, regularly performing with the likes of mandolin players Sam Bush and Mike Marshall.
His listening tastes are even more eclectic, ranging from Johann Sebastian Bach to Stevie Wonder to Shakti.
“Music fulfills a lot of different functions for a lot of different people,” he said from Nashville, Tenn. “And really exploring it in depth and in detail doesn’t seem to be for everybody.
“Obviously, for me, it’s pretty much the center of my life.”
Such devotion and versatility are undoubtedly among the reasons the MacArthur Foundation named Meyer a 2002 recipient of one of its prestigious “genius grants.”
In advance of his Denver appearance as soloist for his Double Bass Concerto No. 2 (Did we mention that Meyer is also a respected composer?), The Post asked the bassist to name five albums that had a major impact on him and his music.
His picks:
John Coltrane, saxophone, jazz, “Giant Steps” (1960)
“For John Coltrane, it was just an essence of something that I don’t think occurred to me before him – that one could be earthy and raw and sophisticated and accomplished all kind of in one person, in one musical voice.”
“In ‘Giant Steps’ he’s beginning to try and stretch harmonically in ways that he continued, but at the same time he’s still playing the blues with the same kind of primal quality that really has never been matched.
“And all of it somehow combined into this one voice, and you don’t need to hear much of it to hear what it is and what is so powerful about it. So, a real ability to kind of distill things into an essence there.”
Glenn Gould, pianist, “Goldberg Variations,” Johann Sebastian Bach, classical music, (second version, 1981).
“Bach is my favorite musician, and ‘Goldberg’ is one of his most striking creations, if it’s possible to be comparative at that level.
“Among the things I like about it is that when he (Gould) wants to be rigidly in time, he is. Very unusual for a classical player how strong the rhythm is in his playing. It makes certain relationships in the Bach more apparent than they might be otherwise.
“It’s a record that appeals on the surface and way below the surface also. As you get deeper beneath the surface, Bach gets more and more credit and, on the surface, maybe Gould gets more.”
Ricky Skaggs, mandolin, Tony Rice, guitar, bluegrass,”Skaggs & Rice” (1980).
“It’s not really a cornerstone bluegrass record the way that Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs are, but it’s a lot easier listening. It’s smoother. It’s one of the best records made by that generation of bluegrass artists.
“They really tied together the past and the future very beautifully in that. The future would be how technically perfect they play and sing and also in very surprising ways how sophisticated their harmony singing is – quite beautiful and not always obvious.
“But the past – it’s primarily repertoire that would have been sung by, for example, Bill and Charlie Monroe. It’s primarily older songs done with a lot of respect for the past but with a real eye toward what bluegrass has become now, with people like Alison Krauss.”
Stevie Wonder, keyboards and vocals, pop, “Fulfillingness’ First Finale” (1974).
“I know people were doing it in pop music previously, but this is a beautifully composed record that really listens from top to bottom, kind of the opposite of a lot of little individual pieces. There’s a balance to the 10 pieces on the record that’s not easy to achieve.
“The imaginative use of a synthesizer at that time was very striking. Even with the relatively primitive instruments, he probably got more color and did more things that help move the music along than people seem to be able to accomplish now with much more sophisticated machines.
“The singing is completely unique and one of the most imitated ever. At lot of singers would say that actually, technically, he sings quite badly in some ways, but no one ever achieved what he was able to do in terms of making it always sound expressive and always just like that one voice.
“And as a bass player, I have to point out that the synthesizer bass line to ‘Boogie On Reggae Woman’ for most professional bass players is one of the top 10 recorded bass lines of all time.
“So he’s not a one-trick pony.”
John McLaughlin, guitar, and Shakti, world music “Natural Elements” (1977).
“It’s the last record that that band did as a group. In a way, it’s the most kind of arranged and commercial, the least improvised, of all their records. I had just been getting to know their music, and that music has a lot of melodies and it’s just very, very appealing.
“L. Shankar is probably, for me, along with Mark O’Connor, the most remarkable voice that emerged on violin, at least outside classical music. Shankar may not be well known, and he also stopped playing acoustic violin after some point, but the voice that he has on the instrument, I’ve never heard anyone else achieve.
“This is the first real world-music fusion band, and I still I wish that that was the standard. The way these guys played was a complete marvel.”
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
Colorado Symphony, Edgar Meyer, double bass, Jeffrey Kahane, conductor
CLASSICAL MUSIC:
Program including Meyer’s Double Bass Concerto No. 2 and Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” with pianist Jon Kimura Parker |Boettcher Concert Hall, Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets; 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday|$15-$67.50|303-623-7876 or coloradosymphony.org.
