Bobby Previte—Rhapsody | Album Review

Bobby Previte
Rhapsody
(RareNoise Records)

One of the great joys of being tasked with writing record reviews is discovering new music you may not have found on your own. Hudson-area percussionist Bobby Previte’s new disc, Rhapsody—chapter two in a planned trilogy of “travel” albums—is, quite simply, an amazing journey. I can’t stop playing this record. It’s an all-star acoustic outing featuring contributions by Nels Cline, John Medeski, Zeena Parkins, Jen Shyu, and Fabian Rucker, and featuring Previte’s first work as a lyricist. Rhapsody flashes on Dagmar Krause-era Henry Cow, largely due to Shyu’s exquisite vocalizing; David Cross-era King Crimson, due to Shyu’s erhu and Previte’s penchant for Fripp-like ostinatos from any number of instruments; and Alice Coltrane’s more filigreed work, thanks to Parkins’s mastery of the harp. But really Rhapsodyis its own brilliant, obsessive, and, as I said, amazing thing. I can’t stop playing this record. .

This article appears in October 2018.