New classical music single

from distinctly odd records

River Rhapsody

Another “immersive jazz” performance from Canadian pianist and classical music composer Rufus Lin, River Rhapsody takes its time, allowing the listener to savor the shifting sonorities and reverberations of the piano, now sudden, now gradual. In this latest release, as with the previous efforts, Rufus Lin’s extemporization skills are in full flourish, with familiar pianistic expressions blending seamlessly with new sounds, new harmonic movements, and new musical turns of phrase. Once again, it is clear from the music on this album that his classical and jazz background combine to yield compositions and improvisations that have a far stronger classical music orientation than the work of many current neoclassical composers, who more often than not incline toward cinematic or spa mood music, with a focus on ambience and repetition rather than traditional notions of form, harmony, timbre and, above all, memorable melodies. This album is available on all streaming platforms.