I was thrilled to receive a lovely favorable review in The Washington Post for my recent performance with the 21st Century Consort on February 1, 2025 at the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Below is a quote from the review. The full review can be read HERE.
Johnson’s “Ton yo han mek fashan” opened the night with a squawk and a trill, the work of Paul Cigan on bass clarinet and Lee Hinkle on marimba. Over the following 13 minutes, Cigan and Hinkle would be in rapt conversation, the clarinet digging earthen low notes and sounding snarling calls that could have come from thetreetops. Johnson’s selection of instruments refers back to the Mento bands of his native Jamaica, with Hinkle’s marimba evoking the rumba box or marimbula, described in the program as similar to “a large thumb piano.”
Hinkle’s light and lithe touch yielded bouncy rhythms with a radiant timbral glow (like a steel drum at a great distance), a perfectly odd coupling to Cigan’s burly warbles. It was exciting listening to the two instruments find different ways to relate and transform — as when Hinkle doubled his mallets with a pair of shakers, an unexpectedly evocative rhythm section appearing from nowhere. This was the second chance I’ve had to hear the consort present work by Johnson (like all of their performances, January’s “Singular Beauty” program is available to watch on YouTube), and, frankly, I’m hooked.
