Section against section, vocals against piano and other contrasting elements that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Part of what I mean by this is that she adds so much juxtapositioning. Every piece Galas plays has enormous amount of musical tension. These songs as well as other standards are given Galas’ cryptic treatment. On that album are “Round Midnight” by Thelonious Monk and “The Thrill is Gone” written by Lew Brown and Ray Henderson which was made a hit by B.B. She kept things the vain of All the Way which is a collection of covers. Almost every piece she did expressed profound melodramatic sorrow. The songs that she selected all had a deep emotional connection, truely beautiful melodies with interesting harmonic structures. It seemed to me that most of what she did that evening were interpretations of great songs. That being said, I’m going to try to describe this wonderful listening experience as someone unfamiliar with the set list. After all isn’t Galas about hearing something you haven’t heard before? If you are an attentive listener you don’t need to know her material to enjoy it. I was familiar with and a fan of some of her well known works like The Litanies of Satan and Masque of the Red Death, but not last night’s repertoire. I had given the album a listen beforehand and I thought it was superb. I must confess that there was only one number I was really familiar that she did that night,“Pardon Me, I’ve Got Someone to Kill,” written oddly enough by country western singer Johnny Paycheck which is on her new album All the Way. The rest of the evening wasn’t as visual as I expected, this show was about the music. As the drama developed a strobe light was added to her eerie spectacle. At the opening number the house lights went down and the stage was lit in red and black. There was only just a little bit of the theatrical spectacle she is known for. It’s in neighborhood has been a cultural hub for some time now. it is inside The Union Temple of Brooklyn, an old synagogue practically across the street from the Brooklyn Museum and the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. Murmrr is a small auditorium, much like you would find in a school. I was blessed to see Galas at the murmrr performance space in Brooklyn, New York on Halloween night. She raises awareness of the issue with her dark and dantesque compositions. Galas had lost her brother to AIDS many years ago and since then she has been very active in the fight against AIDS. She did an album with John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin called The Sporting Life in 1994 also. Her music was used in several big Hollywood movies including The Serpent and the Rainbow, Natural Born Killer s, and The Ring II.
If you are not familiar with Galas, here is a brief overview: her music has gotten attention for the last three decades or so and she is one of the few avant garde experimental composer/performers to make the cross over into the mainstream. Galas did such a heart wrenching rendition of the song and the proof is in the tears.
It has all the beauty and charm of a torch song but has had a controversial history. Composed in 1933 “Gloomy Sunday” by Hungarian Composer Rezső Seress is a song about about suicide, sometimes referred to as “The Hungarian Suicide Song” and was recorded by the likes of Paul Robeson and Billy Holiday. After at least two standing ovations, as Diamanda Galas did her final encore there was a man sitting directly behind me who was so moved by her performance that he was driven to tears.
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