Night

Classically trained pianist Simone Dinnerstein and singer/songwriter/guitarist Tift Merritt met when the latter interviewed the former for a magazine. The pair discovered a creative compatibility that resulted in this rewarding project. Presented like one of the duo\'s concerts, the album jumps from classical pieces such as Schubert’s “Night and Dreams” and traditional songs like “Wayfaring Stranger” to jazz standards (Billie Holiday’s “Don’t Explain”) and four Merritt originals. Dinnerstein performs Bach’s “Prelude in B Minor” before Merritt gives a vocal and acoustic guitar delivery of her own “Still Not Home.” The two shared arranging duties on four numbers and used established arrangements on others, including violinist Jenny Scheinman’s for the sublime Patty Griffin–penned title track. “The Cohen Variations” was commissioned by Dinnerstein and is Daniel Felsenfield’s solo piano interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.” *Night* closes perfectly with a quietly uplifting rendition of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now.”

This is an unusual album on a lot of levels, born of the unlikely pairing of North Carolina folksinger and songwriter Tift Merritt (whose father taught her to play by ear) and Brooklyn classical pianist Simone Dinnerstein (Juilliard-trained), and given that it's a song cycle or symphony of sorts dedicated to night, and the deepest part of night at that, it would seem to be the perfect recipe for dreary pretension and artful pontifications.

There was a time during the sixties when progressive rockers mixed all sorts of different musical styles together.