Celestial Harmony Anselm Walters, Felix Roach and other artists

Review

Celestial Harmony
Anselm Walters, Felix Roach and other artists (Sanch CD9603)

Here is a truly unexpected album from Trinidad and Tobago — though it shows something of the sheer breadth of music-making in that rhythm-soaked land. It’s a collection of light religious numbers in an easy, sentimental style, offered in a spirit of devotion and contemplation. Schubert’s Ave Maria is here, Massenet’s Meditation, Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus, Franck’s Panis Angelicus. The other tracks are religious “pops” — The Holy City, The Lord’s Prayer, My Tribute, How Great Thou Art, He Touched Me. Let There Be Peace On Earth finds a place; so does the Londonderry Air. The arrangements highlight piano and violin: Felix Roach is a skilful and fluent pianist, whose local nickname is Sugarfingers; Anselm Walters is a violinist in a country almost devoid of string players. They work regularly together at the Trinidad Hilton, sometimes including the other musicians on this album — Gerald Charles (bass), guitarists Patrick Gouveia and Anthony Walters, pannist Hayden Ifill. But it is Roach’s playing that holds these performances together. Perhaps this is the Caribbean’s answer to Chant, Adagio and the other meditative chart-busters of the semi-classical world. [JT – Caribbean Beat]