RALPH ALESSI AND MODULAR THEATRE

Hissy Fit
(Love Slave Records lvslv 102)

There's a thin line between self-confidence and self-indulgence and Ralph Alessi crosses it often on this less-than-stellar release.

Trumpeter Alessi, one of the younger "downtowners", who in the past has done excellent work on Uri Caine's live Mahler project (on Winter & Winter), seems to think that everything he and his band does is worth preserving. Thus this record of a gig at Rochester, N.Y.'s Bop Shop, which tellingly includes no audience applause.

Most of the tunes, while affable enough, are certainly not memorable and soon degenerate into aimless riffs -- when they're allowed to develop that is. Five out of seven are saddled with the banal prose/poetry of one Carl "Kokayi" Walker. Walker whose nickname may be pronounced like that of Ed "Kookie" Burns, another arbitrator of the hip (1950s beatnik version) in his 77 Sunset Strip incarnation.

Walker is no David Budbill or Steve Dalachinsky, to take two examples of poets who successfully recorded with jazzers because they understand the cadences of musical improvisation. Instead he sounds like nothing so much as vocalist Kurt Elling in his most grating pseudo hipster pose. Trouble is "Kokayi" not only lacks Elling's vocal talents, but his feeble imagery, dribbled over the tracks in a mumbled monotone, probably wouldn't cut it in high school poetry contest. On "Ice Man," for instance, his interjections ruin what could be a quite interesting solo cello piece from Roberts.

Of course Walker can't receive all of the blame for this misfire. "Litost", an all-instrumental track, seems to be no more than a collection of fanfares that goes nowhere fast. Meanwhile "Ornette's Advice" with its classic OC quartet head, degenerates into a string of solos. Alessi should know that Ornette's real advice was to construct simple, tight melodies, with no room for showboating.

Additionally the rest of the production "compliments" the music. The CD cover picture, showing a young woman grimacing, is probably an attempt to illustrate the title track (or gain unsophisticated indie rock sales); plus the liner notes include a pointless essay linking music and honey bees by Steve Coleman.

And while there's room for all that as well as a large picture of a germinating flower in the booklet, no one seems to have bothered to list which members of the saxophone family Epstein plays. (Best guess: alto and tenor).

One hates to be excessively negative, but this CD shows that not everything played deserves to be preserved and -- more to the point -- not every sideman is ready to be a leader.

-Ken Waxman

Ralph Alessi (trumpet); Peter Epstein (saxophones [sic]); Hank Roberts (cello); Shane Endsley (drums/trumpet); Carl "Kokayi" Walker (voice)

1. Irony 2. My Worst Habit 3. The Mentor 4. Ice Man 5. Litost 6. Ornette's Advice 7. Irony (reprise)

Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici

Jugendstil
ESP-Disk ESP 4048

Mike Westbrook

Westbrook-Rossini

hatOLOGY 661

Uri Caine

The Othello Syndrome

Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2

Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer

Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001

Notated Music and Improvisation: Extended Play

So-called classic music and jazz have had an uneasy relationship since the beginning of the last century. Notated musicians yearned for jazz’s rhythmic and improvisational freedom, while jazzers coveted orchestral colors and financial support.

Until the late 20th century, most adaptations of each other’s music by jazz or classical players were misguided attempts at popularity. Now a new generation of musicians is comfortable in both idioms. On the improvised music side – as these CDs indicate – performers subtly subvert notated themes producing statements that draw from both strains while adding something extra.

Interestingly, three of the discs here – Mike Westbrook’s Westbrook-Rossini hatOLOGY 661, Uri Caine’s The Othello Syndrome Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2 and Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer’s Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001 – were commissioned by European festivals eager for original takes on traditional themes. The third – Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici’s Jugendstil ESP-Disk ESP 4048 includes a five-part suite influenced by Elliott Carter, who turns 100 December 11.

Reminiscent of the composer’s clear-textured chamber works, the “Carter Variations” played by clarinetist Chris Speed, saxophonist Chris Cheek and bassist/composer Stephane Furic Leibovici replicate Carter’s complex counterpoint. Surging on carefully modulated, well-spaced lines, the program hitches intertwining woodwind harmonies with the bass’s chromatic percussiveness. With organized dissonance expressed by shrilling diaphragm vibrato and adagio glissandi, string pops keep the presentation on even keel.

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre is another influence, as “Three Kinds of Folk” salutes his chamber-jazz. With Leibovici producing guitar-like arpeggios, the tonal centre shifts constantly throughout the exposition, development and recapitulation. Even more impressive is “Les Nuits de la Chapoule”, a clarinet and tenor saxophone concerto. Lustrous and liquid, the composition encourages Cheek’s altered pitch vibrations.

More elaborate is Westbrook-Rossini, performed by two saxophones, two brasses, drums, vocalist Kate Westbrook, and the leader/arranger playing piano and tuba. Someone who composes for classical ensembles, big bands and theatre companies, Westbrook took Gioacchino Rossini’s opera William Tell, as his source material – five versions of the “William Tell Overture” are featured. He then contorted others of the composer’s works into the project.

“The Barber of Seville Overture” for instance, finds Peter Whyman shading the his alto saxophone tone as if playing a musette, while the cascading theme displays such dance rhythms as the gigue, the hora and the cha-cha. “L’amoroso E Sincero Lindoro” uses heraldic trombone tones, parade-ground drumming and high-frequency piano chording to introduce Kate Westbrook’s vocals, backed in double counterpoint by rumbling tubas. After swelling harmonies back Whyman’s spiky reed bites and Westbrook’s strummed chords, the track concludes with Kate Westbrook growling syllables in concert with piano syncopation. The most notable “William Tell Overtures” utilizes tuba pumps, sopranino saxophonist Lindsay Cooper’s stop-time Dixieland breaks and slapping drum beats.

An affectionate parody, Pierrot Lunaire plays up the melodramatic and cabaret roots of Arnold Schoenberg’s Expressionist cycle of recitations with music. Sometimes sounding like an adults-only Peter and the Wolf, the two woodwinds, three strings, piano and percussion are as prominent as the satiric yet harrowing narration by male soprano Markus Weiser. Switching from first to third persons and modulating his voice so it resembles a yearning lover, a crotchety elder or a sinister villain, Weiser’s theatricalism personalizes the German lyrics. Along the way his bel canto tone vibrates or stutters contrapuntally along with Maurice de Martin’s vibraharp strikes, Frank Gratkowski’s coloratura clarinet timbres and Friedl’s slapped piano keys. With sporadic pauses as well as cooing orchestral cries, Zeitkratzer’s version honors a composer who stated that in a valid performance “the tone color means everything and the notes nothing”.

Most elaborate of the discs is Othello, created for the 47th Biennale di Venezia. Featuring trumpet, clarinet, violin, drums, guitar, bass, electronics, four vocalists and Caine on keyboards, it’s a idiosyncratic take on Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Segueing from one interlude to another this Syndrome is conveyed through ever-shifting orchestrations and Caine’s pianism, sequentially tremolo and jazzy or chromatic and dramatic.

Enveloping traditional material from soprano Josefine Lindstrand as Desdemona and lyrical violinist Joyce Hammann, the suite includes a dense electronic soundscape; a street-wise recitation by Julie Patton; and a stop-time “Drinking Song” conveyed by guitarist Nguyên Lê’s amp-distorted licks, plunger breaks from trumpeter Ralph Alessi and Achille Succi’s laughing clarinet lines. “The Lion of Venice” references New Orleans, with a jerky Second Line beat, vamping horns and lavish piano flourishes.

R&B songwriter/vocalist Bunny Sigler assays Othello with emotional verve. Pitch-sliding over trumpet obbligatos, slippery clarinet vamps or chunky beats, his new English lyrics transcend language, while his tessitura expresses yearning and anguish at suitable interludes.

Each of these projects confirms that the jazz-classical rapprochement exists by intricately crafting new forms.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #4

December 3, 2008

Uri Caine

The Othello Syndrome
Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2

Mike Westbrook

Westbrook-Rossini

hatOLOGY 661

Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer

Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001

Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici

Jugendstil

ESP-Disk ESP 4048

Notated Music and Improvisation: Extended Play

So-called classic music and jazz have had an uneasy relationship since the beginning of the last century. Notated musicians yearned for jazz’s rhythmic and improvisational freedom, while jazzers coveted orchestral colors and financial support.

Until the late 20th century, most adaptations of each other’s music by jazz or classical players were misguided attempts at popularity. Now a new generation of musicians is comfortable in both idioms. On the improvised music side – as these CDs indicate – performers subtly subvert notated themes producing statements that draw from both strains while adding something extra.

Interestingly, three of the discs here – Mike Westbrook’s Westbrook-Rossini hatOLOGY 661, Uri Caine’s The Othello Syndrome Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2 and Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer’s Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001 – were commissioned by European festivals eager for original takes on traditional themes. The third – Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici’s Jugendstil ESP-Disk ESP 4048 includes a five-part suite influenced by Elliott Carter, who turns 100 December 11.

Reminiscent of the composer’s clear-textured chamber works, the “Carter Variations” played by clarinetist Chris Speed, saxophonist Chris Cheek and bassist/composer Stephane Furic Leibovici replicate Carter’s complex counterpoint. Surging on carefully modulated, well-spaced lines, the program hitches intertwining woodwind harmonies with the bass’s chromatic percussiveness. With organized dissonance expressed by shrilling diaphragm vibrato and adagio glissandi, string pops keep the presentation on even keel.

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre is another influence, as “Three Kinds of Folk” salutes his chamber-jazz. With Leibovici producing guitar-like arpeggios, the tonal centre shifts constantly throughout the exposition, development and recapitulation. Even more impressive is “Les Nuits de la Chapoule”, a clarinet and tenor saxophone concerto. Lustrous and liquid, the composition encourages Cheek’s altered pitch vibrations.

More elaborate is Westbrook-Rossini, performed by two saxophones, two brasses, drums, vocalist Kate Westbrook, and the leader/arranger playing piano and tuba. Someone who composes for classical ensembles, big bands and theatre companies, Westbrook took Gioacchino Rossini’s opera William Tell, as his source material – five versions of the “William Tell Overture” are featured. He then contorted others of the composer’s works into the project.

“The Barber of Seville Overture” for instance, finds Peter Whyman shading the his alto saxophone tone as if playing a musette, while the cascading theme displays such dance rhythms as the gigue, the hora and the cha-cha. “L’amoroso E Sincero Lindoro” uses heraldic trombone tones, parade-ground drumming and high-frequency piano chording to introduce Kate Westbrook’s vocals, backed in double counterpoint by rumbling tubas. After swelling harmonies back Whyman’s spiky reed bites and Westbrook’s strummed chords, the track concludes with Kate Westbrook growling syllables in concert with piano syncopation. The most notable “William Tell Overtures” utilizes tuba pumps, sopranino saxophonist Lindsay Cooper’s stop-time Dixieland breaks and slapping drum beats.

An affectionate parody, Pierrot Lunaire plays up the melodramatic and cabaret roots of Arnold Schoenberg’s Expressionist cycle of recitations with music. Sometimes sounding like an adults-only Peter and the Wolf, the two woodwinds, three strings, piano and percussion are as prominent as the satiric yet harrowing narration by male soprano Markus Weiser. Switching from first to third persons and modulating his voice so it resembles a yearning lover, a crotchety elder or a sinister villain, Weiser’s theatricalism personalizes the German lyrics. Along the way his bel canto tone vibrates or stutters contrapuntally along with Maurice de Martin’s vibraharp strikes, Frank Gratkowski’s coloratura clarinet timbres and Friedl’s slapped piano keys. With sporadic pauses as well as cooing orchestral cries, Zeitkratzer’s version honors a composer who stated that in a valid performance “the tone color means everything and the notes nothing”.

Most elaborate of the discs is Othello, created for the 47th Biennale di Venezia. Featuring trumpet, clarinet, violin, drums, guitar, bass, electronics, four vocalists and Caine on keyboards, it’s a idiosyncratic take on Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Segueing from one interlude to another this Syndrome is conveyed through ever-shifting orchestrations and Caine’s pianism, sequentially tremolo and jazzy or chromatic and dramatic.

Enveloping traditional material from soprano Josefine Lindstrand as Desdemona and lyrical violinist Joyce Hammann, the suite includes a dense electronic soundscape; a street-wise recitation by Julie Patton; and a stop-time “Drinking Song” conveyed by guitarist Nguyên Lê’s amp-distorted licks, plunger breaks from trumpeter Ralph Alessi and Achille Succi’s laughing clarinet lines. “The Lion of Venice” references New Orleans, with a jerky Second Line beat, vamping horns and lavish piano flourishes.

R&B songwriter/vocalist Bunny Sigler assays Othello with emotional verve. Pitch-sliding over trumpet obbligatos, slippery clarinet vamps or chunky beats, his new English lyrics transcend language, while his tessitura expresses yearning and anguish at suitable interludes.

Each of these projects confirms that the jazz-classical rapprochement exists by intricately crafting new forms.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #4

December 3, 2008

Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer

Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation
Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001

Mike Westbrook

Westbrook-Rossini

hatOLOGY 661

Uri Caine

The Othello Syndrome

Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2

Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici

Jugendstil

ESP-Disk ESP 4048

Notated Music and Improvisation: Extended Play

So-called classic music and jazz have had an uneasy relationship since the beginning of the last century. Notated musicians yearned for jazz’s rhythmic and improvisational freedom, while jazzers coveted orchestral colors and financial support.

Until the late 20th century, most adaptations of each other’s music by jazz or classical players were misguided attempts at popularity. Now a new generation of musicians is comfortable in both idioms. On the improvised music side – as these CDs indicate – performers subtly subvert notated themes producing statements that draw from both strains while adding something extra.

Interestingly, three of the discs here – Mike Westbrook’s Westbrook-Rossini hatOLOGY 661, Uri Caine’s The Othello Syndrome Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2 and Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer’s Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001 – were commissioned by European festivals eager for original takes on traditional themes. The third – Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici’s Jugendstil ESP-Disk ESP 4048 includes a five-part suite influenced by Elliott Carter, who turns 100 December 11.

Reminiscent of the composer’s clear-textured chamber works, the “Carter Variations” played by clarinetist Chris Speed, saxophonist Chris Cheek and bassist/composer Stephane Furic Leibovici replicate Carter’s complex counterpoint. Surging on carefully modulated, well-spaced lines, the program hitches intertwining woodwind harmonies with the bass’s chromatic percussiveness. With organized dissonance expressed by shrilling diaphragm vibrato and adagio glissandi, string pops keep the presentation on even keel.

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre is another influence, as “Three Kinds of Folk” salutes his chamber-jazz. With Leibovici producing guitar-like arpeggios, the tonal centre shifts constantly throughout the exposition, development and recapitulation. Even more impressive is “Les Nuits de la Chapoule”, a clarinet and tenor saxophone concerto. Lustrous and liquid, the composition encourages Cheek’s altered pitch vibrations.

More elaborate is Westbrook-Rossini, performed by two saxophones, two brasses, drums, vocalist Kate Westbrook, and the leader/arranger playing piano and tuba. Someone who composes for classical ensembles, big bands and theatre companies, Westbrook took Gioacchino Rossini’s opera William Tell, as his source material – five versions of the “William Tell Overture” are featured. He then contorted others of the composer’s works into the project.

“The Barber of Seville Overture” for instance, finds Peter Whyman shading the his alto saxophone tone as if playing a musette, while the cascading theme displays such dance rhythms as the gigue, the hora and the cha-cha. “L’amoroso E Sincero Lindoro” uses heraldic trombone tones, parade-ground drumming and high-frequency piano chording to introduce Kate Westbrook’s vocals, backed in double counterpoint by rumbling tubas. After swelling harmonies back Whyman’s spiky reed bites and Westbrook’s strummed chords, the track concludes with Kate Westbrook growling syllables in concert with piano syncopation. The most notable “William Tell Overtures” utilizes tuba pumps, sopranino saxophonist Lindsay Cooper’s stop-time Dixieland breaks and slapping drum beats.

An affectionate parody, Pierrot Lunaire plays up the melodramatic and cabaret roots of Arnold Schoenberg’s Expressionist cycle of recitations with music. Sometimes sounding like an adults-only Peter and the Wolf, the two woodwinds, three strings, piano and percussion are as prominent as the satiric yet harrowing narration by male soprano Markus Weiser. Switching from first to third persons and modulating his voice so it resembles a yearning lover, a crotchety elder or a sinister villain, Weiser’s theatricalism personalizes the German lyrics. Along the way his bel canto tone vibrates or stutters contrapuntally along with Maurice de Martin’s vibraharp strikes, Frank Gratkowski’s coloratura clarinet timbres and Friedl’s slapped piano keys. With sporadic pauses as well as cooing orchestral cries, Zeitkratzer’s version honors a composer who stated that in a valid performance “the tone color means everything and the notes nothing”.

Most elaborate of the discs is Othello, created for the 47th Biennale di Venezia. Featuring trumpet, clarinet, violin, drums, guitar, bass, electronics, four vocalists and Caine on keyboards, it’s a idiosyncratic take on Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Segueing from one interlude to another this Syndrome is conveyed through ever-shifting orchestrations and Caine’s pianism, sequentially tremolo and jazzy or chromatic and dramatic.

Enveloping traditional material from soprano Josefine Lindstrand as Desdemona and lyrical violinist Joyce Hammann, the suite includes a dense electronic soundscape; a street-wise recitation by Julie Patton; and a stop-time “Drinking Song” conveyed by guitarist Nguyên Lê’s amp-distorted licks, plunger breaks from trumpeter Ralph Alessi and Achille Succi’s laughing clarinet lines. “The Lion of Venice” references New Orleans, with a jerky Second Line beat, vamping horns and lavish piano flourishes.

R&B songwriter/vocalist Bunny Sigler assays Othello with emotional verve. Pitch-sliding over trumpet obbligatos, slippery clarinet vamps or chunky beats, his new English lyrics transcend language, while his tessitura expresses yearning and anguish at suitable interludes.

Each of these projects confirms that the jazz-classical rapprochement exists by intricately crafting new forms.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #4

December 3, 2008

Mike Westbrook

Westbrook-Rossini
hatOLOGY 661

Uri Caine

The Othello Syndrome

Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2

Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer

Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001

Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici

Jugendstil

ESP-Disk ESP 4048

Notated Music and Improvisation: Extended Play

So-called classic music and jazz have had an uneasy relationship since the beginning of the last century. Notated musicians yearned for jazz’s rhythmic and improvisational freedom, while jazzers coveted orchestral colors and financial support.

Until the late 20th century, most adaptations of each other’s music by jazz or classical players were misguided attempts at popularity. Now a new generation of musicians is comfortable in both idioms. On the improvised music side – as these CDs indicate – performers subtly subvert notated themes producing statements that draw from both strains while adding something extra.

Interestingly, three of the discs here – Mike Westbrook’s Westbrook-Rossini hatOLOGY 661, Uri Caine’s The Othello Syndrome Winter & Winter W&W 910 135-2 and Reinhold Friedl/Ensemble Zeitkratzer’s Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation

Zeitkratzer Records ZKR 001 – were commissioned by European festivals eager for original takes on traditional themes. The third – Speed/Cheek/Furic Leibovici’s Jugendstil ESP-Disk ESP 4048 includes a five-part suite influenced by Elliott Carter, who turns 100 December 11.

Reminiscent of the composer’s clear-textured chamber works, the “Carter Variations” played by clarinetist Chris Speed, saxophonist Chris Cheek and bassist/composer Stephane Furic Leibovici replicate Carter’s complex counterpoint. Surging on carefully modulated, well-spaced lines, the program hitches intertwining woodwind harmonies with the bass’s chromatic percussiveness. With organized dissonance expressed by shrilling diaphragm vibrato and adagio glissandi, string pops keep the presentation on even keel.

Clarinetist Jimmy Giuffre is another influence, as “Three Kinds of Folk” salutes his chamber-jazz. With Leibovici producing guitar-like arpeggios, the tonal centre shifts constantly throughout the exposition, development and recapitulation. Even more impressive is “Les Nuits de la Chapoule”, a clarinet and tenor saxophone concerto. Lustrous and liquid, the composition encourages Cheek’s altered pitch vibrations.

More elaborate is Westbrook-Rossini, performed by two saxophones, two brasses, drums, vocalist Kate Westbrook, and the leader/arranger playing piano and tuba. Someone who composes for classical ensembles, big bands and theatre companies, Westbrook took Gioacchino Rossini’s opera William Tell, as his source material – five versions of the “William Tell Overture” are featured. He then contorted others of the composer’s works into the project.

“The Barber of Seville Overture” for instance, finds Peter Whyman shading the his alto saxophone tone as if playing a musette, while the cascading theme displays such dance rhythms as the gigue, the hora and the cha-cha. “L’amoroso E Sincero Lindoro” uses heraldic trombone tones, parade-ground drumming and high-frequency piano chording to introduce Kate Westbrook’s vocals, backed in double counterpoint by rumbling tubas. After swelling harmonies back Whyman’s spiky reed bites and Westbrook’s strummed chords, the track concludes with Kate Westbrook growling syllables in concert with piano syncopation. The most notable “William Tell Overtures” utilizes tuba pumps, sopranino saxophonist Lindsay Cooper’s stop-time Dixieland breaks and slapping drum beats.

An affectionate parody, Pierrot Lunaire plays up the melodramatic and cabaret roots of Arnold Schoenberg’s Expressionist cycle of recitations with music. Sometimes sounding like an adults-only Peter and the Wolf, the two woodwinds, three strings, piano and percussion are as prominent as the satiric yet harrowing narration by male soprano Markus Weiser. Switching from first to third persons and modulating his voice so it resembles a yearning lover, a crotchety elder or a sinister villain, Weiser’s theatricalism personalizes the German lyrics. Along the way his bel canto tone vibrates or stutters contrapuntally along with Maurice de Martin’s vibraharp strikes, Frank Gratkowski’s coloratura clarinet timbres and Friedl’s slapped piano keys. With sporadic pauses as well as cooing orchestral cries, Zeitkratzer’s version honors a composer who stated that in a valid performance “the tone color means everything and the notes nothing”.

Most elaborate of the discs is Othello, created for the 47th Biennale di Venezia. Featuring trumpet, clarinet, violin, drums, guitar, bass, electronics, four vocalists and Caine on keyboards, it’s a idiosyncratic take on Giuseppe Verdi’s opera. Segueing from one interlude to another this Syndrome is conveyed through ever-shifting orchestrations and Caine’s pianism, sequentially tremolo and jazzy or chromatic and dramatic.

Enveloping traditional material from soprano Josefine Lindstrand as Desdemona and lyrical violinist Joyce Hammann, the suite includes a dense electronic soundscape; a street-wise recitation by Julie Patton; and a stop-time “Drinking Song” conveyed by guitarist Nguyên Lê’s amp-distorted licks, plunger breaks from trumpeter Ralph Alessi and Achille Succi’s laughing clarinet lines. “The Lion of Venice” references New Orleans, with a jerky Second Line beat, vamping horns and lavish piano flourishes.

R&B songwriter/vocalist Bunny Sigler assays Othello with emotional verve. Pitch-sliding over trumpet obbligatos, slippery clarinet vamps or chunky beats, his new English lyrics transcend language, while his tessitura expresses yearning and anguish at suitable interludes.

Each of these projects confirms that the jazz-classical rapprochement exists by intricately crafting new forms.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For Whole Note Vol. 14 #4

December 3, 2008

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg
Red Toucan RT 9332

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Kartet

The Bay Window
Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

James Carney Group

Green-Wood
Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup

Red Toucan RT 9331

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Carl Ludwig Hübsch

Primordial Soup
Red Toucan RT 9331

Kartet

The Bay Window

Songlines SGL SA 1560-2

James Carney Group

Green-Wood

Songlines SGL SA 1566-2

Alberto Braida/Wilbert de Joode

Reg Erg

Red Toucan RT 9332

Butcher/Muller/van der Schyff

Way Out Northwest

Drip Audio DA 00272

By Ken Waxman

Music transcends borders, and so does music distribution in the Internet age. Couple this with the maturation of the Canadian improvised music scene and a new phenomenon is visible: CDs recorded elsewhere, but released by Canadian labels for international distribution.

This set of recent CDs recognizes the situation. Reg Erg and Primordial Soup, respectively recorded in Milano and Köln are on Montreal’s Red Toucan label. The Bay Window and Green-Wood, recorded in Paris and Brooklyn are products of Vancouver’s Songlines imprint. Way Out Northwest characterizes a similar trend. With Canadian musicians operating at high standard, foreign players come here to record. This CD captures London-based saxophone explorer John Butcher at a Vancouver gig with German bassist Torsten Muller, a British Columbia resident since 2001 and local drummer Dylan van der Schyff.

Free improv at its finest, Way Out Northwest highlights the simpatico interaction among the three that extends to mirroring of each other’s timbres. During the unbroken improvisation you wonder if certain sounds arise from the saxophonist’s sibilant vamps, the drummer’s friction against unyielding surfaces or the bassist’s sul ponticello movements.

While van der Schyff’s smacks, rebounds and struts evolve in parallel with Muller’s unconventional tuning that makes bass movements agitato and contrapuntal, Butcher uses tongue slaps, continuous breathing and glottal punctuation for a spiky reed recital. Multiphonics arise from both soprano and tenor saxophone, as key percussion and constricted snorts pushed through his horn’s body tube meld with the bassist’s wood-bending multiple stops and the drummer’s smacks and bounces. Although a composition like “magiC CloCk maCHine” evolves as a polyphonic cloud of cymbal slaps, multiple bass stops and a humongous sax vibrato, the three conclude this recital with a legato romp encompassing pulsating bass lines, press rolls and sibilant growls.

Expanding the musical palate by adding a piano, The Bay Window deals with shorter, less atonal compositions. North American connections exist for this Paris-based band as well. Pianist Benoît Delbecq recorded his solo CD in Vancouver, while bassist Hubert Dupont and Chander Sardjoe are in a quartet with New York saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa.

Over 14 tracks, each member of the quartet impresses, with Dupont’s melodious note placement and tolling stops establishing the mood. Clattering and pumping cymbals, cowbell, snare and toms, the drummer keeps the saxophonist and pianist’s romanticism in check. Sequential organization makes “Chrysalide/Imago” a notable admixture of rondo and rhythm, as the saxman’s a capella intro gives way to the pianist’s impressionistic flourishes. “Y” proves how piano chording decorated with rolling cadences, note clusters and unexpected voicing can intersect with slices of flutter-tongued reed power.

Halving the personnel, but doubling the interplay, Italian pianist Alberto Braida and Dutch bassist Wilbert de Joode are equally expansive on Reg Erg. De Joode has recorded with van der Schyff. Braida, recorded with Canadian bassist Lisle Ellis and plays with Butcher. Both have manifold technique that negates this reduced instrumentation, as their 10 duets show them systematically following each others’ impulses with radar-like communication.

On one nocturne for instance, Braida assembles low-frequency note clusters as de Joode bows intermittent tremolo runs; on another, thick bull fiddle intensity causes the pianist to octave jump into the darker textures of his instrument. Elsewhere Braida exposes key clipping and flowing arpeggios, while the bassist constructs solos from rubber band-like plucking or by tightening and loosening his strings.

Reg Erg’s climax is “Wadi”, where the pianist escalates from pedal-muted single notes to fanning chords that emphasize the instrument’s back frame and dampers. Compatible, de Joode’s buzzing arco lines are shaped sul ponticello so that his splayed, staccato dynamism meets Braida’s near-kinetic runs.

There’s no bass or piano on Primordial Soup. Instead this potage contains ingredients from four German improvisers – trumpeter Axel Dörner, reedist Frank Gratkowski, tubaist Carl Ludwig Hübsch and percussionist Michael Griener. Compositions snake from dodecaphonic to Dixieland with variations in-between.

Take “NCG 2270 Terrier”, for instance. Painted in broad strokes, it’s a half-Swing-half-march with a sharp tempo that features Gratkowski’s clarinet riding atop Hübsch’s pedal-point blasts, while Griener rattles and slap. Dörner’s legato counterline prods Hübsch to speed up the tempo until the reverberating line descends into cymbal resonation, trumpet grace notes and chalumeau reed slithers.

Collective and organic, the quartet’s massed improvisations occasionally foreshadow later tune development – with breaths, whines, pops, growls, crackles and brays on display. Gratkowski’s alto saxophone performs tongue jujitsu, while Dörner’s half-valve reverberations create double counterpoint with the reedist or peeping contrast to the drummer’s nerve beats.

Occasional cymbal raps and sandpaper-like scrapes from Griener enliven “NGC 2276 Inspektion”. Rubato and abstract, the composition surges rhythmically due to subterranean burps from Hübsch. Although the other horns appear to be vibrating underwater textures without valve or key movements, metallic cymbal friction and low-brass rumbles solidify the tune’s airiness.

Standing apart is keyboardist James Carney’s CD. The only American session, it features the largest band – a septet – and is the most committed to melody.

Coherent and episodically thematic, there’s also sameness to the eight tunes. Dependent on looping interface and head recapitulation, many call for a tough backbeat from drummer Mark Ferber, buttressed with Latin motifs. Some display an overabundance of California cool, especially when the sweetness of Peter Epstein’s soprano saxophone lacks contrast. Moving among acoustic and electric pianos and analog synthesizer, Carney’s versatility sometimes detracts. At points he key clips, at others outputs legato pianism or gospel-like runs. His comping is fine, if anonymous, but his voicing on electric piano, leans towards instrumental rock.

With his playing sometimes masked by tutti horns, bassist Chris Lightcap is prominent when he plucks excessively powerfully. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby’s chesty runs are put to their best use on the aptly named “Power” and “Half the Battle”, whereas trombonist Josh Roseman’s extended glissandi enliven “Willwaw”, making common cause with thumping bass and Carney’s piano, rife with short runs and trailing left-handed jumps

A microcosm of all that’s good and bad about Green-Wood is encapsulated on the melancholy “It’s Always Cold When You’re Leaving”. Trumpeter Ralph Alessi brings understated emotion to his solo, while Roseman’s chromatic plunger tones and strengthening piano chords force Ferber to apply calming cymbal expansions. Before the vamping horns introduce the climax, Carney’s light touch alters the theme with elongated or contracted notes, scrambling the original syncopation, without straying from tonality.

-- For Whole Note Vol. 13 #7

April 1, 2008

Rêve D’éléphant Orchestra

Lobster Caravan
W.E.R.F.

Simone Guiducci/Gramelot Ensemble
Dancin’ Roots
Felmay/Newtone

By Ken Waxman
March 21, 2005

Matching improvisation with different sounds has been a defining factor in what we call jazz from its beginnings. As approximations of the sound stretch further afield the combinations became more unique and varied, especially when culture was taken into consideration.

Not all cultures and musics meld comfortably with jazz-inflected improvisations. Some match-ups are more noteworthy than others and often only parts of the union work. This becomes apparent when listening to the two European combos featured on these CDs.

Built around the talents of two Michels: drummer and percussionist Michel Debrulle and tuba and trombonist Michel Massot, the Belgian Rêve D’éléphant Orchestra mixes into its music aspects of jazz, rock, brass bands, African tints, broad humor and a few local references. On Lobster Caravan it creates an ambitious session that seems to call on early Frank Zappa, Duke Ellington’s Jungle Music, Henry Threadgill’s Very, Very Circus band and Kip Hanrahan’s mix’n’match recorded projects.

Led by acoustic guitarist Simone Guiducci, the Italian Gramelot Ensemble is even more determined to expand its foundation. With the leader’s guitar and Fausto Beccalossi’s accordion as major voices, Dancin’ Roots aims for nothing less than an admixture of local traditional music and jazz. Upping the ante for the later part of the equation is the presence of three North Americans -- clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Ralph Alessi -- known for his lead work with pianist Uri Caine -- and on one track, former Steve Coleman pianist, Canadian Andy Milne.

While acceptable, neither CD quite makes it to first rank. Reasons are varied, but what both share in common is too many tracks -- 10 on Dancin’ Roots and 14 [!] on Lobster Caravan -- plus the feeling that all the strands haven’t been knit into a whole cloth.

Rêve D’éléphant or “elephant’s dream” Orchestra is made up of some of the most impressive this-side-of-mainstream Belgian jazz talents. Debrulle, has given solo drum concerts, participated in the contemporary music projects of composer Henri Pousseur among others and in American trombonist Garrett List’s big band, La Grande Formation, and worked in French saxophonist/clarinet player Laurent Dehors big band Tous Dehors.

Massot, who has played in a trio with Debrulle from their earliest days, also works in Dehors’ band as with other stylists as different as French clarinetist Louis Sclavis and Canadian flugelhornist Kenny Wheeler.

Trumpeter and flugelhornist Laurent Blondiau teaches trumpet at the Ghent Conservatory, leads his own quintet and has been featured in other large formations like the Brussels Jazz Orchestra and Octurn. Flautist and guitarist Pierre Bernard has played with Renaissance and Baroque ensembles, Irish violinists, Bulgarian rebec players, Cuban and African percussionists. Seoul-born Etienne Plumer who plays tablas, drums and percussion here, has been a member of several brass bands.

You get an idea of the band’s versatility by comparing “Kasamée”, with its Africanized triple-timing percussion and kazoo-like buzzing with the three numbers that follow it. “Célestin” and “545” parts one and two, all seem to have a baroque spirit. The first especially resembles an invention with ground bass supplied by Massot’s tuba, framed by Blondiau’s heraldic trumpet and the chirping mini tones from Bernard’s flute.

“Célestin” is also one of the tunes where only the three cited band members are present; the whole band is on deck for the two versions of “545” however. Starting with close harmony of muted flugelhorn and trombone, a baroque-like contrapuntal section develops on top of gentle drumming, which soon opens up to full back beat, completed by electric guitar flanges. Heavy-breathing flute tones, a plunger trumpet blast and a roistering counterlines from the tuba recall early Dixieland’s call-and-response pattern.

Final track, “Les arganiers de Bassoko” begins with steel-string stretching wavering phaser-like tones from one guitarist and C&W chromatic licks from the other, as the trumpet and peeping flute lines pulsate on top of an unvarying Afro-Cuban conga beat. Four minutes of silence follow swaying Hawaiian guitar licks, with the postlude after the pause featuring smoky nightclub ambiance, filled out by mumbled vocals on top of comping piano, guitar fuzztones and a finale of scraped strings.

That contrasts nicely with the title track where an individualized trumpet line precedes a mounting increment of rolls, paradiddles, flams and ruffs from hand and stick percussion, as snaky guitar reverb, in both treble and bass range, cuts through every so often. With all these tones ping-ponging every which way here and elsewhere, the feeling on many of the tracks is claustrophobic.

Those looking for a nationalistic take on improv may be disappointed as well. “Pop stoemp” honors the Flemish dish that mashes potatoes and vegetables into a ball and servers it with savory sausage. But the concoction cooked up here seems to consist of Jaco Pastorius-like thumb pops from the bass guitar, a Milesian muted trumpet lead, a steady back beat from drums and the horns carrying the melody in Dutch brass band fanfare tradition. As music it isn’t as filling as stoemp is as a meal.

Unlike the éléphant Orchestra, the Gramelot Ensemble tries to saturate its tunes with local roots music. But because the lead voices are usually Beccalossi’s accordion, Guiducci and the reeds of either Byron or clarinetist Achille Succi, the output ends up sounding more like flamenco or bal musette than anything particularly Italian.

Turin-born Guiducci, who was part of saxist Mauro Negri’s band and worked with other folkloric-jazz experimenters like multi-reedist Gianluigi Trovesi, literally overpowers many of the tunes here. It seems that a number can’t be concluded without him pulsating a few chromatic licks. Admittedly the accordionist’s genuine folkloric tint adds new colors to many of the tunes, but it’s often overused. As for Succi -- the mostly self-taught clarinet and bass clarinet veteran of bands led by percussionist Tiziano Tononi as well as the Nexus and Italian Instabile Orchestra -- holds his own with Byron. But considering he, the guitarist and the accordionist already make up a Django-style trio, some of his work may be a little too comfortable.

Overall, the ensemble is most impressive when the sounds are unexpected. That happens on the final selections, “Maestro di sogni” and “Nedah”. Percussion, guitar and squeezebox textures on the first sound as if they’re coming from sitar, tabla and tambura -- playing a spaghetti Western theme. On the later, Beccalossi’s accordion tones sound more Tex-Mex than Tucson-Mediterranean. When he hums along in falsetto with his lines, the purred, then open horn flutters from Alessi provide distinctive counterpoint.

Both “La Tur dal Sucar” and “Come dici” could be termed jazzy tarantella, with the latter floating on repeated horn riffs, double-tongued reeds and guitar fills. Again pride of place go to Beccalossi’s rubato and rococo accordion polyphony and sprawling triplets from Alessi.

The former tune, which slides from tarantella to tango rhythms, is a mixture of good and bad. The trumpeter and a slap-tongued clarinetist (Byron?) add some excitement at the end trading fours and eights. And while Guiducci may impress by flailing notes up his guitar neck, he unfortunately accompanies that with some Keith Jarrett-like hums and mumbles.

Earlier “Canzone per Miranda” turns from a mellow ballad to sprawling fingerpicking showcase with memories of José Feliciano at his most trite, and Pat Metheny at his kitschiest. Strummed guitar overindulgence weaken “Chorale no. 2”. While the horns do as promised in the title, adding obbligatos to some low frequency cadenzas from Milne, the pianist somehow creates notes that could be defined as coming from upper class [!] blues.

Although there are echoes of “Frère Jacques” in the accordion line on “Blanc”, it fits with bowed spiccato bass from Salvatore Maiore and cascading trumpet timbres. Perhaps this mixture works so well because the composition is the second shortest piece on the CD.

Dancin’ Roots has its moments, but it doesn’t live up to more profound improv-folkloric mixes produces by the likes of Sclavis or Trovesi. Meanwhile Lobster Caravan could have been better if its composers had a better sense of self.

Still, all the main players on both CDs are young. That gives everyone hope for more innovative music in the future.

March 21, 2005

FRED HERSCH

Fred Hersch Trio + 2
Palmetto Records PM 2099

Back in 1977, as a change of pace, pianist Bill Evans added saxophonists Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh to his trio of the time for CROSSCURRENTS, a Fantasy LP that amplified and enhanced his usual sounds.

Fred Hersch, who is arguably Evans’ heir in subtle inventiveness, does almost the same thing on this CD. The results are outstanding, giving an added robustness to the pianist’s compositions, which have a tendency to be overly fragile and prosaically mainstream in other situations.

Hersch, who has played with everyone from Stan Getz to Gary Burton, taught jazz at several schools and received honors from organizations such as the French Academie du Jazz and the National Endowment for the Arts, doesn’t change his style in any way here. Yet he doesn’t prevent brassman Ralph Alessi, who has done lots of work with pianist Uri Caine and saxist Tony Malaby, who works in bassist Mark Helias’ trio, from adding the sort of smears and bent notes they would play in other circumstances. Backing all this is his longtime rhythm section of bassist Drew Gress and drummer Nasheet Waits.

The pieces that are most impressive are those which aren’t Trio + 2, but definite quintet conceptions, with the zenith probably reached with “Miss B.” and “Lee’s Dream”. The latter -- dedicated to Konitz, incidentally -- is based on the chord changes of “You Stepped Out of a Dream”, with Malaby’s tenor taking on light, breathy almost alto-like tones. The resulting timbres sound midway between Konitz’s alto and Marsh’s tenor with a spiky, POMO fillip. For his part, Hersch strums and pumps piano lines that finally resolve themselves into bouncy, accented chording.

Wriggling with energy, the former tune contrasts chromatic tones from Alessi and buzzing slurs from Malaby with right-handed piano chording that turn into a dance of descending arpeggios and double-timed metronomic timekeeping. The tenorist then adds some smears and double tonguing, the trumpeter held notes and high register squeals, and the piece ends with a hearty thwack from Waits’ drumstick.

If Hersch has become more open over the years, his friend and dedicatee of “Down Home”, guitarist Bill Frisell, appears to have gone in the opposite director. In truth the stride piano and honky-tonk echoes the pianist adds to his solo here sound a lot more “down home” then the countrypolitan licks Frisell displays on his more recent CDs. With Waits’ cross stocking out a shuffle beat, Malaby honking and Alessi sounding high-pitched triplets, this turns the piece into a light finger snapper. Incredibly enough as well, Hersch appears to be sounding out completely different lines with either hand. Eventually he impels the tune back to a stroll and ends it with in tinkling crescendo.

Other tracks lack these high standards, though not one is any less than professional and technically immaculate. Along the way, Malaby proves that he can be play as coolly as any 1950s West Cost saxist; Gress walks with aplomb; Waits amazes with his percussion restraint; and on the gentle but gloomy “A Lark” -- dedicated to Kenny Wheeler -- Alessi proves that low-key flugelhorn can perfectly replicate the sound of that British resident, Canadian brassman.

Hersch’s collection of awards and reputation as a straightahead master player shouldn’t drive away more adventurous listeners. This CD proves that in the right circumstances and with the right input, he can loosen up and cook.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. A Riddle Song 2. And I Love Her 3. Miss B. 4. Black Dog Pays A Visit 5. A Lark 6. Down Home 7. Rain Waltz 8. Marshall’s Plan 9. Lee’s Dream 10. The Chase

Personnel: Ralph Alessi (trumpet and flugelhorn); Tony Malaby (tenor saxophone); Fred Hersch (piano); Drew Gress (bass); Nasheet Waits (drums)

June 7, 2004

URI CAINE

Gustav Mahler - Dark Flame
Winter & Winter 910-095-2

Newest chapter in pianist Uri Caine’s POMO recasting of the works of the so-called Great Composers, DARK FLAME showcases an almost total vocal program.

Based on lieder composed by Austrian Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), the musicianship and inventiveness here are at the same high standard as Caine’s earlier meditations on the work of J. S. Bach, Richard Wagner and other Mahler projects. But with 14 selections rearranged over 77 minutes, there are times the variations move from novelty to gimmickry. Mahler’s oeuvre heard in gospel, Klezmer, rock or mainstream jazz variations is engaging; but linking it to turntable tricks, Oriental sounds, overwrought poetics or cocktail jazz works less well.

Caine, who still sometimes functions as a straight jazz pianist, shows that he’s lost none of his facility as a player or arranger on tracks like “When My Sweetheart”. In its middle section he and clarinetist Don Byron make like Tony Scott and pre-1973 Herbie Hancock, creating a brief, but potent, double-time bebop motif. This contrasts with whistling tremolos from violinist Mark Feldman and a vocal from cantor Aaron Bensoussan that is more freylach than Teutonic folk song. It’s also one of the times when the varied sounds from DJ Olive’s turntable provide a memorable fillip to the piece.

“Song Of The Prisoner In The Tower” showcases the same sort of antithetical coupling, except this time the clarinet and piano approximate 19th Century chamber music. In opposition to that, drummer Jim Black pounds out a hard rock rhythm that is amplified by distorted guitar reverb from David Gilmore. In conjunction with the rockers, actor Sepp Bierbichler spits out the harsh Germanic lyrics; backed by the chamber group, poet Julie Patton provides an English translation filled with homonyms, puns and onomatopoeia.

Then there’s “In Praise of Lofty Judgement”, where gospel singer Barbara Walker’s melisma and glossolalia turns a secular song of praise into a sacred one, despite -- or perhaps because -- of backing by the Kettwiger Bach Choir. Sounding as if she was feeling the spirit during the whole performance Walker suggests a match-up between gospel diva Shirley Caesar and any overwrought, classical vocal choir.

“St. Anthony of Padua Preaches To The Fishes”, which may have had more resonance for Mahler, who converted to Catholicism from Judaism than Caine, who hasn’t abandoned his ethnic identity, is treated as a full-on, light instrumental performance. Although it takes on a modern cast, from the allegro fantasia created by the pianist, some of the other tracks here are a little too precious, especially those which include Feldman’s caprices and sweeps and what sounds like Baroque trills from trumpeter Ralph Alessi.

Other recreation shortcomings include Sadiq Bey’s street poetry addendum to the lyrics of “Labor Lost”, which grates against the chamber recital accompaniment. Plus those times hen traditional Chinese instruments like the hammered dulcimer and end-blown flute and translating Mahler’s words into Mandarin, which happens a couple of times here, doesn’t successfully move his music from Bohemia to Beijing.

“Two Blue Eyes” and the title tune, two of the most ambitious and longest tracks also point out the pitfalls in this mix-and-match treatment. On the former, Bensoussan’s synagogue-trained voice initially meshes with Caine’s recomposition and arrangement of the composition. That is until a finger-snapping, swinging jazz variation has the trumpet, clarinet and violin voiced so that they sound like larger string and brass sections. This is then followed by Shulamith Wechter Caine reciting the words in hesitant Hebrew and dramatic English. Finally, Byron solos in what only could be described as a jazzbo MittleEuropean style, ending the piece with a sort of tango rhythm supplied by the acoustic instruments and turntables. Is mishmash a German or Hebrew word?

Additionally, Patton’s actorly mode almost betrays the intent of the words on the 11-minute “Dark Flame”. That’s because her recitation seems to flow in a tone usually reserved for children’s stories. As Ur-Romantic fiddle vibratos and legit clarinet tones meet a tinkling Ahmad Jamal overlay from Caine’s piano, you start to wonder how the band meandered into a cocktail lounge. From then on the piece scene shifts back and forth from Romantic chamber music-backed recitation to the jazz club, with Black’s drums provide hearty accents on one hand and Feldman lets loose with tremolo shuffling on the other.

A CD that will likely be welcomed by Caine’s fans eager to see what new classical mutations he has envisioned, DARK FLAME is an interesting session, but because of its overly-POMO stance, unfortunately weaker than earlier efforts in this genre.

Here’s an idea. Now that Caine has proven he can reinterpret composed material, maybe its time for him to put together a jazz combo and record an all -improvised jazz session. Some have been waiting for him to do so since 1995’s exceptional TOYS.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Dark Flame^& 2. Only Love Beauty& 3. In Praise of Lofty Judgement+ 4. Two Blue Eyes*~ 5. Shining Trumpets 6. The Lonely One In Autumn@% 7. Song Of The Prisoner In The Tower+^ 8. When My Sweetheart* 9. Labor Lost$ 10. On Youth%! 11. Rhinelegend+ 12. When Your Mother Comes In The Door+ 13. St. Anthony of Padua Preaches To The Fishes 14. Only Love Beauty

Personnel: Ralph Alessi (trumpet [except 2, 6, 10, 12]) Don Byron (clarinet [except 2, 6, 10, 12]) Uri Caine (piano [except 2, 6, 10]); Mark Feldman (violin[except 2, 6, 10, 12]); David Gilmore (guitar); Michael Formanek (bass [except 2, 6, 7, 10, 12]); Bao-Li Zhang! (erhu); Yi Zhou! (pipa); Sisi Chen (yanquin)%; Tao Chen (dizi)%; Jim Black (drums [except 2, 6, 10, 12, 14]); DJ Olive (turntables, electronics)#; Barbara Walker& or Sepp Bierbichler+ or Aaron Bensoussan* (vocals); Kettwiger Bach Choir with Wolfgang Klasener (conductor)&; Sadiq Bey$ or Julie Patton^ or Shulamith Wechter Caine~ or Tong Qiang Chen@ (voices)

March 24, 2004