Review by Mosi Reeves, THE WIRE (UK) Sept 2020

TED HEARNE & SAUL WILLIAMS: Place

New Amsterdam CD/DL

Ted Hearne and Saul Williams’s Place is a collaboration that examines the causes and effects of gentrification. Directed by Patricia McGregor, the oratorio premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in October of 2018; national dates were scheduled this year before the rise of the coronavirus pandemic upended life in the US. In response, the trio premiered a live stream edition for WNYC and the 9 June broadcast showed the vocalists restlessly pacing their homes and furtively walking outdoors, masks on faces (it can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEeCxIzzhSY).

Even without the stagecraft that the indefinitely postponed concert edition promised, it’s worth viewing to see the body language illustrate the tumultuous feelings that underline Williams’s libretto (thought Williams understandably plays a different role here, it’s frustrating that this terrific vocalist doesn’t participate in the performance save for a brief cameo at its end).

As a purely aural experience Place can’t convey the delight of seeing lively vocalists like Sol Ruiz illustrate her role with facial tic sand dramatic physical turns. But it coveys how communities are ripped apart as waves of gentrification, white flight and land grabs rip them top ieces. After the first half dedicates itself to the guilt and personal pain of wealthy residents, largely through the voices of Steven Bradshaw and Josephine Lee, the second half begins with Ruiz feigning mock sympathy. “Awww! It is okay to say…. awwww?” she retorts stridently. “Is it OK to say white supremacy in white spaces?”

Hearne’s arrangements shift uneasily from sharply tuned electronic strings and Auto-Tuned effects to melancholy downtempo tones with occasional turnable-like scratches, the latter of which feel like pens scratching on paper. “What About My Son” incorporates the lyric and melody of Sade’s “Is It A Crime” but the line “This may come as some surprise, but I miss you” is reinterpreted as a lament for personal space. Eventually, the seven voices clash against each other like opponents at a city council meeting. The final track, “Colonizing Space” swirls around Isaiah Robinson singing “They will call it an improvement and price you out”. As they all give voice to the spiritual pain and trauma of unhinged capitalism, few solutions are offered save for a whisper: “We need to talk.”