Beverly GlennCopeland

★★★★ Transmissions TRANSGRESSIVE. CD/DL/LP Songs from across 40 varied years of former Sesame Street writer’s music. In the 2018 live version of Deep River included here, BGC invites us to sing along to the chorus and I’m reminded of the pleasure in seeing GlennCopeland in London last year – trying to get to grips with the “Wala-lala-lala wala-layyy oh-layyyyy wala-lay” and being taught once again the unfailing power of communal play. It’s a modern spiritual, based on the beloved original, that begins in Copeland’s lone voice, settles into a snaky and determined drum beat and leads us up into the joy of that chorus. Like the rest of this album, from meditative Sunset Village to Durocher to La Vita (a soaring beauty of a track to make you weep), it strikes a gorgeous balance of humour and grace; musical greatness carried without pomp.