''Earthbeat'' is a landmark album by saxophonist

Paul Winter Paul Winter (born August 31, 1939) is an American saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. He is a pioneer of world music and earth music, which interweaves the voices of the wild with instrumental voices from classical, jazz and world music. The ...

. Recorded and released in 1987, the album was a joint project between the

Paul Winter Consort The Paul Winter Consort is an American musical group. Bassist Eliot Wadopian has been a member. Discography Films *''Canyon Consort'' (1985) References External linksLiving Music- Paul Winter's record label {{Authority control American ...

and the

Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble The Dmitri Pokrovsky Ensemble () was founded by Dmitri Pokrovsky (1944–1996) together with his wife and lifelong partner, Tamara Smyslova, in Moscow in 1973 as an experimental singing group under folk Commission of the URSS Сomposers Union ...

from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, then the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

Background

The Paul Winter Consort first met the Pokrovsky Ensemble during a tour of the Soviet Union in September 1986 when they performed together during a concert at

Moscow University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, and six branches. Al ...

. Immediately inspired by their performance, the two groups communicated, through interpreters, the idea of making more music together. After obtaining permission from the Russian music label

Melodiya Melodiya () is a Russian record label. It was the state-owned major record company of the Soviet Union. History Melodiya was established in 1964 as the "All-Union Gramophone Record Firm of the USSR Ministry of Culture Melodiya" in accordance wi ...

, the Consort began their collaboration with the Ensemble. The album was recorded in both

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The two groups combined their musical styles to create an entirely new sound. The result was a melding of Russian circlesongs and folk melodies with Brazilian and African drums and harmonies, along with the western jazz harmonies implemented by the Winter Consort.

Release and reception

The album is considered monumental, as it was the first album of original music created by Americans and Russians together. It received good reviews and was praised by other musicians, notably

Pete Seeger Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American singer, songwriter, musician, and social activist. He was a fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s and had a string of hit records in the early 1950s as a member of The Weav ...

and

Dave Brubeck David Warren Brubeck (; December 6, 1920 – December 5, 2012) was an American jazz pianist and composer. Often regarded as a foremost exponent of cool jazz, Brubeck's work is characterized by unusual time signatures and superimposing contrasti ...

. The album was nominated for a Grammy in 1988.

Uses in other media

Russ Landau Russ Landau is an American composer of film and television scores and themes including '' seaQuest 2032'', ''Survivor'', ''Fear Factor'', and '' Pirate Master'' for which he won an Emmy in 2008. He is an alumnus of the University of Bridgeport cla ...

, a former bassist for the

, was asked to write music for the American TV show ''

Survivor Survivor(s) may refer to: * one who survives Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Survivors, characters in the 1997 KKnD series#Armies, ''KKnD'' video-game series * ''The Survivors'', or the ''New Survivors Foundation'', a fictional ...

''. Landau used portions of the first track on this album, "Kurski Funk", to create what became the theme song for the show. Paul Winter then sued the creators of Survivor, accusing them of using his music without his permission. According to Winter, Landau had asked to use music from Earthbeat, and Winter had only granted him permission to use recordings that did not make the final cut, and did not appear on the album.

Track listing

# "Kurski Funk" (Trad. Kursk, Halley, Castro-Neves, Winter) # "The Horse Walked In The Grass" (Trad. Don, Halley, Freisen, Winter) # "Kyrie" (Halley) # "Steambath" (Trad. Pskov, Halley, Freisen, Winter) # "Song For The World" (Trad. Kursk, Halley) # "Down In Belgorod" (Trad. Belgorod, Castro-Neves, Freisen, Winter) # "The Lake" (Halley) # "Epic Song" (Trad. Caucasus, Castro-Neves, Winter) # "Green Dreams" (Trad. Belgorod, Halley, Freisen, Winter) # "Garden Of The Earth" (Trad. Russia, Halley, Winter)

Personnel

Paul Winter Consort *

- soprano sax *

Eugene Friesen Eugene Friesen (born 1952) is an American cellist and composer. Early life Friesen was born in 1952 to Russian Mennonite parents. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Music. Career Friesen has been a member of the Paul Winter Consort since ...

- cello *

Paul Halley Paul Halley (born 1952 in Romford, England) is a Grammy Award-winning composer, choral conductor, and organist. He is perhaps best known as being a member of and composer for the Paul Winter Consort. Halley is currently the Director of Music o ...

- keyboards *

Oscar Castro-Neves Oscar Castro-Neves (May 15, 1940 – September 27, 2013), was a Brazilian guitarist, arranger, and composer who is considered a founding figure in bossa nova. Biography He was born in Rio de Janeiro as one of triplets and formed a band with his ...

- guitar *

- bass *

Ted Moore Ted Moore, (7 August 1914 – 1987) was a South African-British cinematographer known for his work on seven of the James Bond films in the 1960s and early 1970s. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Fred Zinnemann's ...

- percussion *

Glen Velez Glen Velez (born 1949) is a four-time Grammy winning American percussionist, vocalist, and composer, specializing in frame drums from around the world. He is largely responsible for the increasing popularity of frame drums in the United States an ...

- percussion *Neil Clark- percussion Dimitri Pokrovsky Ensemble *

Dmitri Pokrovsky Dmitri Viktorovich Pokrovsky (, 3 May 1944 – 29 June 1996) was a Russian folk music researcher and musician, best known for his efforts to rediscover authentic, and often near extinct rural musical traditions, from many different regions of Russ ...

*Maria Nefadova *Alexander Donilov *Elena Sidorenko *Sergei Zhirkov *Tamara Smyslova *Arthur Partosh *Anna Knoukhova *Andrei Kotov *Nina Savistskaya *Dimitri Fokin *Vladimir Teplov *Irina Ponomaryova *Sergei Grigoriev

References

"Earthbeat." Living Music.
#http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1493961.stm {{Authority control 1987 albums Living Music albums Paul Winter albums