Children, they say, will change a person – even a drummer.
Respected New York stick-wielder Ari Hoenig is a natural improviser and one of the few drummers who dares to give solo performances, so when his kids reached a certain age, he started improvising their bedtime stories.
The Pauper and the Magician is the soundtrack to those tall tales, five Hoenig originals (and a joyously twisted cover of You Are My Sunshine) that would keep the sleepiest child awake all night.
The tunes have the cinematic, narrative quality you would expect, but they are also launch pads for drummer’s more-then-capable group, which includes guitarist Gilad Hekselman and pianist Shai Maestro, who stretch out into the spaces they’re offered and twist even further the leader’s knotty compositions.
