Music CD: Triumph of Spirit by Jeffrey Fisher

Triumph of Spirit by Jeffrey Fisher, released under the label of Two Bird Flying / Healing Music of the Southwest, is an orchestral study in sound of the painting created by Taos, New Mexico artist Charles Collins. The cover art, by Collins is pure beauty. It is meant to celebrate the Oneness of all.

A collaboration of this type is very uncommon, perhaps even unprecedented. The unique concept offers a means of visualizing art through sound in such a way that even a blind person could see, in their minds, how the paintings may appear.

I must admit that the music is a bit to orchestral for my tastes. However, I am not a fan of classical or orchestral music, so I must admit my bias in this area. If you love neo-classical orchestral sounds, you will really enjoy the album. For me, I think it would tend to be something I used to put myself to sleep on a restless night or as background music during a dinner party. Fortunately, most of the world does not share my bias about musical genres.

There are clearly spiritual tones and many layers to the orchestration of the work. With five cuts, each one tonally depicts the artists works of Charles Collins’ Between Worlds collection of painting. As one of the more celebrated New Mexican artists, the techniques employed using ancient glazes make this art collection one to see and explore along with the music of Jeffrey Fisher.

Triumph of Spirit developed from Jeffrey Fisher’s long musical experience. For his very first birthday, he was given a drum on which he developed his early skills. In school, he learned the trumpet, French horn, drums, bassoon, saxophone, euphonium, percussion and was ready to fill in with whatever instrument was needed at any time. He even studied piano. With this wealth of musical expertise, composing orchestral music was simply a further step in his long musical career. He played with the band Dope Wash in 1969 and began a 10 year study of the blues genre.

In 1995-96 Jeffrey Fisher composed a series of six neo-classical healing and massage background music. He also taught T’ai Chi and practiced various very natural healing modalities including acupressure and reflexology. He has written a book on Chinese philosophy and martial arts as well as poetry and has several other books in the work.

While I can not in honesty say that Jeffrey Fisher’s Triumph of Spirit will be among my most played albums, you might well find that it will become one of your favorites. Forgive me but I’ll take the music of Elvis Costello, John Prine, and other obscure artists over neo-classical any day so you have to give me a little slack for my unique and sometimes quirky tastes in music. In the case of Fisher’s Triumph of Spirit, the best test if to click the following link at Amazon and listen for yourself and determine how you feel about it.

To listen online, visit Amazon > Triumph of Spirit Music CD by Jeffrey Fisher