Album

The "…and friends" identifier usually indicates a failing creative impulse; a veteran artist typically goes this route when he/she enters a fallow period and wants to juice up sales by dropping big names. So it's all the more pleasing to be able to report that violinist Joshua Bell has turned the genre inside out. For one thing, this album is not called Joshua Bell and Friends, but Joshua Bell: At Home with Friends, and if one is to believe his introductory note in the booklet it grew from actual soirees in the violinist's New York apartment. These events were not typical chamber music read-throughs, but eclectic meetings of musical minds that might include anything from established classical repertory to bluegrass. Both of those genres show up on the album (and Bell is to be commended for recognizing the fabulous talents of progressive bluegrass mandolinist Chris Thile), along with Latin jazz, Italian film music, pop, rock (from Regina Spektor, Bell is definitely treading into new territory here), Indian classical music (in a duet with Anoushka Shankar), tango, John Dowland as interpreted by Sting, Italian music, and classic Broadway sounds. What makes all of this work is Bell's fearless experimentation in inserting his violin into these various types of music. The album is not universally successful; Sting's contribution in Dowland's "Come Again," which he recorded more naturally on his own disc of Dowland's music, sounds phoned in even if it was recorded in a single take. But this is in the nature of experimentation, and other tracks, unexpectedly including the Spektor original "Left Hand Song" and the Frankie Moreno version of "Eleanor Rigby," resemble nothing that's been done in the past with a violin. A curveball is on hand with the use of the Zenph Re-Performance software to create a duet between Bell and Sergey Rachmaninoff in the second movement of Grieg's Violin Sonata No. 3, and an unexpected synergy surfaces between Bell and Kristin Chenoweth in "My Funny Valentine" (track 6). In the main, you have absolutely no idea what's going to happen next, and the album lives up to the expectations Bell has set for himself as a classical artist with a unique connection to the surroundings of popular music. A very fine crossover release.

© James Manheim, All Music Guide

CD 1
George Gershwin Composer Porgy and Bess (opera)...Porgy and Bess (opera; arr. violin, trumpet, and jazz ensemble) Work Joshua Bell Violin, Chris Botti Trumpet
1	I Loves You Porgy	4:13			$0.99
John Dowland Composer 17.Come again, sweet love doth now invite Work Sting Vocals, Joshua Bell Violin
2	17.Come again, sweet love doth now invite (arr. voice and violin)	3:57			$0.99
Astor Piazzolla Composer Oblivion, tango for chamber ensemble Work Joshua Bell Violin, Carel Kraayenhof Bandoneon
3	Oblivion, tango for chamber ensemble	3:54			$0.99
Ennio Morricone Composer Cinema Paradiso, film score Work Joshua Bell Violin, Josh Groban Vocals
4	Theme (arr. voice and violin)	4:27			$0.99
Traditional Composer Para ti (arr. violin and Latin jazz ensemble) Work Tiempo Libre Jazz Ensemble, Joshua Bell Violin
5	Para ti (arr. violin and Latin jazz ensemble)	3:45			$0.99
Richard Rodgers Composer Babes in Arms, musical...Babes in Arms (arr. voice, flute, violin and piano) Work Kristin Chenoweth Vocals, Joshua Bell Violin
6	My Funny Valentine	5:45			$0.99
Edgar Meyer Composer Maybe So, for violin, mandolin, guitar and bass Work Edgar Meyer Double Bass, Joshua Bell Violin, Sam Bush Mandolin, Mike Marshall Mandolin
7	Maybe So, for violin, mandolin, guitar and bass	4:50			$0.99
Edvard Grieg Composer String Quartet No.2 in F, EG 117 (incomplete) Work Joshua Bell Violin, Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninov Piano
8	2.Allegro scherzando	6:41			$0.99
John Lennon & Paul McCartney Composer Eleanor Rigby Work Joshua Bell Violin, Frankie Moreno Vocals
9	Eleanor Rigby	3:58			$0.99
Sergey Vasilyevich Rachmaninov Composer 6 Songs, Op.4 Work Joshua Bell Violin, Nathan Gunn Baritone
10	4.Georgian Song (Sing Not to Me, Beautiful Maiden; arr. voice, violin, and piano)	4:12			$0.99
Luis Enríque Bacalov Composer Il Postino (The Postman), film score Work Joshua Bell Violin, Carel Kraayenhof Bandoneon
11	Theme	3:42			$0.99
Regina Spektor Composer Left Hand Song Work Regina Spektor Vocals, Joshua Bell Violin
12	Left Hand Song	2:45			$0.99
Antonio Carlos Jobim Composer Chovendo na Roseira (Rain in the Rose Garden), for choro ensemble Work Dave Grusin Piano, Joshua Bell Violin
13	Chovendo na Roseira (Rain in the Rose Garden), for choro ensemble	3:27			$0.99
Diane Warren Composer Look Away Work Chris Thile Mandolin, Edgar Meyer Double Bass, Joshua Bell Violin
14	Look Away	4:16			$0.99
Ravi Shankar Composer Variant Moods, for violin and sitar Work Anoushka Shankar Sitar, Joshua Bell Violin
15	Variant Moods, for violin and sitar	9:02			$0.99
Richard Rodgers Composer Two Tickets to Broadway (film) Work Joshua Bell Violin, Marvin Hamlisch Piano
16	Manhattan	3:26			$0.99