Got Your Tickets…to the Goat Rodeo?

Yo-Yo Ma, who is arguably the world’s best-recognized cellist, has been around the block a few times. With sixteen Grammy awards to his name and a decades-long career that has touched every base from standard repertoire with the world’s greatest orchestras to appearances on “Sesame Street,” Ma has seemingly done it all. The classical music public knows too well how this kind of stardom can sometimes go–a player reaches the pinnacle of achievement, then rests on his laurels. This has never been the case with Ma, who seems to be growing in creativity as his career continues.

Crossover music, as we touched on in last week’s Daily Bow, is a phenomenon that is by now ingrained in the classical music aesthetic. Perhaps no other high-profile classical musician has been more at the forefront of this kind of work than Yo-Yo Ma has been–with albums ranging from Argentinean Tango to Brazilian music to Appalachian-inspired fiddle music, Ma has run the gamut from one end to the other. He’s back now with another album, a collaboration again with super-star bassist Edgar Meyer. The album, entitled “The Goat Rodeo Sessions,” was released October 24th and features eleven tracks of collaboration between Ma, Meyer, Stuart Duncan, and Chris Thile. The tracks, mostly of original material, display the group’s talents in bluegrass music–and especially showcases the astonishing versatility of Yo-Yo Ma. He says of his work on the album,

“The cello, as usual, can do a number of different roles. Sometimes I’m trying to match the violin, the bass, the mandolin. I shift around a little bit – sometimes we’re equal voices, sometimes we’re particular roles.”

Thanks in part to Ma and Meyer’s well-received Appalachian-fiddle-type collaborations with violinist Mark O’Conner, the concept of classical musicians in bluegrass isn’t hard to understand. The title of the album, though? Different story. The expression “Goat Rodeo” is used to describe an event in which thousands of things must do exactly the right thing at the right time in order to work. If it sounds a little bit like your life in the practice room, you’re not alone. Either way, though, it seems that all events are in order for Ma’s latest album–it’s available now and certainly worth a listen.

Check out the Billboard article on the album!