Simone Dinnerstein Tift Merritt
Album: Night
Label: Sony Classical
Tracks: 14
Website: http://www.simonedinnerstein.com/

On the face of it, this is a rather unlikely musical collaboration between two artists from very different musical backgrounds. Readers of these pages will doubtless be familiar with the work of Tift Merritt as a singer-songwriter who has made some excellent country-soul albums, including her latest "Traveling Alone".

Unless you are a classical music fan, you may be less familiar with the work of Simone Dinnerstein. Simone is a Julliard-trained classical pianist who is, perhaps, best known for her recordings of Bach, particularly the Goldberg Variations.

Simone and Tift first met in 2008 when they took part in an interview for Gramophone magazine. They started working on the material for "Night" in 2010 and recorded the 14 tracks, for Sony Classical, at the Academy of the Arts and Letters in New York with producers Adam Abeshouse and Ryan Freeland.

The album is called "Night" and much of the material has, unsurprisingly, a dark, nocturnal feel to it. The 14 tracks cover a wide range of styles. We have 4 of Tift's own songs; 3 classical pieces [by Schubert, Purcell and Bach]; 2 traditional folk songs; a Billie Holiday song; 2 new songs written specially for this project by Brad Mehldau [ I Shall Weep At Night] and Patty Griffin [Night]; a solo piano piece commissioned by Simone [The Cohen Variations by Daniel Felsenfeld] and, finally, Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly". An eclectic selection, indeed.

As befits its subject matter, the music is generally quite stark, with just Dinnerstein's piano and Merritt's voice, guitar and harmonica. There is no additional embellishment, which is a good thing because it would have detracted from the subtlety of the interaction between the solo instruments and Tift's superb vocals.

The rather sombre mood is set by the opening "Only In Songs" which leads into "Night and Dreams" by Franz Schubert, a gorgeous melody, beautifully played by Simone, with stunning vocals by Tift. The real surprise comes when Tift starts playing harmonica, which some might think is a little incongruous in a piece by Schubert but it does, however, work.

"Don't Explain" is a heart-rending song when performed by Billie Holiday but the version here is, if anything, even more dark and melancholy than the original. Tift's vocals are superb, giving just the right amount of sorrow and resignation. The mood of sadness and loss continues with Henry Purcell's "Dido's Lament"[ otherwise known as "When I Am Laid In Earth" from Dido and Aeneas] and then into Brad Mehldau's "I Shall Weep At Night", which is a brilliantly atmospheric piece, full of drama, with some stirring playing by Simone.

The doleful mood is lifted [ very slightly] by the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" on which Tift gives a compelling solo performance. This is followed by Simone's solo piece, Bach's Prelude in B minor which, as ever, is played superbly.

This gives way to Tift's song "Still Not Home", which she also recorded on her most recent album "Traveling Home". It is a great song and would be perfect for Emmylou Harris to cover.

On the traditional ballad "I Will Give My Love An Apple", Simone forsakes her piano's keys and plucks its strings like a dulcimer to great effect. She continues this on another great song by Tift, "Colors".

The aforementioned "Cohen Variations" is a solo piano performance by Simone and is based on Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne". The piece also explores the melodic similarities between "Suzanne" and Jimmy Webb's "MacArthur Park".

Patty Griffin wrote "Night" specially for this project and it is full of evocative imagery. The combination of voice and piano puts me very much in mind of Joni Mitchell's "Blue" period.

After the all the dark, nocturnal imagery, there is light at the end of the night. This comes in the form of Johnny Nash's "I Can See Clearly Now"- " Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind, It's gonna be a bright,bright sunshine-y day".

As I wrote at the top of this review, the musical pairing of Tift and Simone might seem a little unlikely. The truth is, it works brilliantly as this is work of real beauty and depth.

Peter Cowley