Kronos Quartet

★★★★ Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet And Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS. CD/DL/LP San Francisco string quartet salute the music and politics of the late folksong legend. At first glance this might look a respectful collection with a whiff of the predictable by the eclectic and right-on quartet. Recruiting sympathetic vocalists – Sam Amidon, Aoife O’Donovan and more – they cover Seeger’s big protest hits: Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, If I Had A Hammer, We Shall Overcome, etc. But the project is done with imagination and a lot of love. The Kronos, who have sawed through scores from Henryk Górecki to Jimi Hendrix, enlarge Seeger’s clawhammer banjo licks into colourful but authentically folksy arrangements. In the midst comes a 16-minute sound collage, Storyteller, on which the players respond to archive clips of Seeger talking and singing. With the music switching from hoedown to lament and back, it’s the moving and poignant standout here.