Alesandro Sacha Caiani

Effecto Ludico
Silta Records SR0904

The Remote Viewers

To The North

RV8

Blending a saxophone choir plus a rhythm section has been a popular method of producing multiphonic textures ever since the Swing Era. Extending the interaction to encompass atonality and polyphony resulted when bands such as the World Saxophone Quartet and ROVA worked with rhythm sections. Effecto Ludico and To the North are notable examples of European bands adapting and altering the style. Main mover in both ensembles is a tenor saxophonist, Milan-based Alesandro Sacha Caiani on Effecto Ludico and London’s David Petts on To The North. However the end results contain as many differences as similarities.

Caiani, who has done everything from working with American multi-reedman Sabir Mateen to writing for dance companies, has put together a suite of 10 compositions, designed to showcase the talents of his band. Most of its members are leaders on their own, having worked in situations ranging from adaptations of the sound-painting concept of live conduction (tenor and soprano saxophonist Biagio Coppa) to membership in ensembles such as the Italian Instabile Orchestra, or those led by pianist Uri Caine or drummer Zeno di Rossi (alto saxophonist and bass clarinettist Achille Succci). Furthermore, novel intonations are added to the tracks by sound designer Xabier Iriondo, who manipulates a shahi baaja or electrified Indian zither, fitted with typewriter keys to create pitch variations; and a mahai metak, which is a multi-string electric invention complete with control knobs and coiled pick up.

Veteran of Punk-Jazz aggregations such as B Shops for the Poor, Petts over the years has expanded and modified the initial all-saxophones Remote Viewers – always with his B Shops associate Adrian Northover along playing soprano saxophone – to now include one of British Improv’s most accomplished rhythm sections: bassist John Edwards and drummer Mark Sanders. Unlike Effecto Ludico, which flirts with sonic portraiture à la Ellington, To The North is more of a group effort, with fewer solos. Made up of seven asides and intermezzos the CD’s distinctive strengths are fully expressed by the ensemble itself, which also includes saxophonists Sue Lynch and Caroline Kraabel – the latter, like Edwards and Northover, a stalwart of the London Improvisers Orchestra – with Sanders and Rosa Lynch-Northover on marimba providing the unusual percussive textures, a variant of what Iriondo and percussionist Cristiano Calcagnile create on the other CD.

As necessary for group structure as the other players, bassist Silvia Bolognesi’s prowess on Effecto Ludico helps define the extended “On The Beat”, nominally a saxophone showcase, in addition to personalizing “Silvia”, a Succi composition named for the bull fiddler. On that track, her thumps, plucks, stops and slaps delineate the portrait which also includes a meandering tenor saxophone line plus hissing breaths and vibrating oscillations from the mahai metak. Later on, the drummer’s rolls and drags plus near-onomatopoeic bass clarinet runs frames Caini’s tough reed biting and bell-muting.

The tripartite “On The Beat” extrapolates cascading woodwind lines into a near-rondo, as tones are harmonically distributed among a snorting tenor saxophone ostinato and altissimo squeaks and peeps from the other horns. This lasts until the second section when Bolognesi’s double-stopping resonations presage bluesy low-pitched tenor trills and contrapuntal, blended horns spetrofluctuation. Resolution happens at an accelerated pace in the third part, as electronically shaped curves and distorted bleeps contrast with the thickened pedal-point.

Not to be outdone, Iriondo distinguishes himself on both his unusual instruments. At one point the shaahi baaja’s distinctive twangs are matched with stacked and vibrating reed tones; at another shimmering, sharply outlined flanges from the mahai metak meet Bolognesi’s scrubbed strings and Caini’s screechy altissimo. The mahai metak’s distinctive motor-driven pulse also complements Calcagnile’s rim shots and maracas shakes. After an episode of tonal hide-and-seek, the theme on the concluding “A Song” bounces between near-clichéd Italian lyricism and squealing staccato time-shifts until the horn-heavy band defines itself with a sandwich of stacked reed timbres. Spiky yet blended, each saxophonist’s lick is angled so it complements the others’.

A similar expression of reed multiphonics is expressed on To The North with a band of four, rather than three woodwind players. Taken to its logical conclusion on a piece such as “The Memorial”, the stretched saxophone timbres accelerate to a crescendo of polyphonic reed smears and split tones. Associated accompaniment takes the form of drum pops, shakes and flams propelled by body English plus atonal bell clangs.

Earlier, with the echoes of rock beats and the hint of processed field recordings poking out among concentrated reed harmonies, distinctive solos arise more readily from Edwards’ walking or pressurized twangs and Sanders’ click-clacking drum beasts than from individual horn players. Only occasionally does a chorus of squeaky, diaphragm-vibrated timbres from Northover, some jagged R&B vamps from Petts, or slick, spittle-encrusted vibrations from Kraabel assert themselves.

The concentrated reed harmonies on this CD are sympathetically arranged so that each timbral tincture is apparent, with little loss of spontaneity. Caiani’s compositions and arrangements are a bit looser. Taken on their merits nonetheless, each ensemble has created a notable multi-woodwind-and rhythm document.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: North: 1. Journey to the Border 2. The Lure of Heresy 3. Saturation Bombing 4. All the Conspirators 5. The High Place 6. To the North 7. The Memorial

Personnel: North: Adrian Northover (soprano saxophone); David Petts and Sue Lynch (tenor saxophones); Caroline Kraabel (alto and baritone saxophones); John Edwards (bass); Mark Sanders (drums) and Rosa Lynch-Northover (marimba)

Track Listing: Effecto: 1. Trio Starting 2. Duo Starting 3. A Storm 4. On the Beat 5. Achille 6. Biagio 7. Silvia 8. C.S.A. 9. X.B. 10. A Song

Personnel: Effecto: Achille Succi (alto saxophone and bass clarinet); Alessandro Sacha Caiani (tenor saxophone); Biagio Coppa (tenor and soprano saxophones); Xabier Iriondo (mahai metak and shaahi baaja); Silvia Bolognesi (bass) and Cristiano Calcagnile (drums and percussion)

April 13, 2011

Dimitri Sillato Playground

Periferiche Sospese
El Gallo Rojo 314-26

Scoolptures

Material Umano

Leo Records CD LR 546

Although his own sessions as leader aren’t that numerous, Modena-born saxophonist and clarinetist Achille Succi seems to be the go-to guy when adventurous Italian composers want to add professional zing to their projects. These two notable CDs, for instance – merely a sampling of Suicci’s many recording sessions – pinpoint his skills as he adapts to the widely differing ideas of two leaders.

Mainly self-taught, although he now teaches at the Conservatory of Ferrara and the Siena Jazz summer workshop, Succi is ironically put in the centre of neo-classical pieces by pianist/violinist Dimitri Sillato on Periferiche Sospese. Multi-instrumentalist Sillato had extensive formal training on both his instruments in Bologna and Parma conservatories. As a matter of fact there are episodes during the course of the eight originals here that Sillato’s playing appears to be listing towards the formalist piano style of Bill Evans or the even-more-restrained technique of so-called classical pianists. The other Playgrounders here are multi-instrumentalists as well. Alessandro Altarocca was originally a pianist, and on bull fiddle has backed everyone from drummer Keith Copeland to saxophonist Tino Tracanna. Meanwhile on this CD, Giancarlo Bianchetti plays both guitar and drums, although not simultaneously.

As different as Sun Ra is from Son House, Materiale Umano is made up of 13 instant compositions, where everyone with the exception of Succi – who adds shakuachi textures to his usual bass clarinet and alto saxophone lines here – utilizes some form of live electronics. Scoolptures is the brainchild of Nicola Negrini, a native of Alba, who plays metallophone and electronics as well as double bass. Negrini, who in the past has been involved in theatre pieces as well the likes of saxophonist Javier Girotto and pianist Rita Marcotulli, says the band concept comes from meditations on “faces, deaths, love, births, streets travel, psychiatry and philosophy”. Sound sculpture generation and sine wave expression on this CD come from Udine’s Antonio Della Marina; with Philippe Garcia contributing his talents on drums, voice and live electronics as well.

At points sounding as if it’s sonically illustrating an earlier Negrini-affiliated band, the Alien Army Collective, this “human material” encompasses many actions and textures that are irregular, disconnected, looped and pulsed – with intense reed burbles plus drum rolls and ruffs adding to discontinuity produced by electronic circuitry. Each composition includes the suffix “slice”. Does it mean that each is designed as a slice of life?

A track such as “Liverslice”, for instance begins with diffuse electronics buzzing discontinuously as if a switch is being turned on and off. Soon moderato bass clarinet lows are matched with ring-modulator signals overlaid on a military drum beat. Eventually Succi’s squeaking and vibrating reed bites identify the narrative as do steel-pan-like strokes and blurry electronic interfaces.

“Skinslice” on the other hand has an exposition that is almost harmonious, with sweet clarinet trills, bell-like pings and drum rolls that are only gradually enveloped by ganulized pitches. As the wave-form undercurrent buzzes and blurs with distant whooshes and squealing oscillations, harsh clarinet split tones and tongue flutters not only accelerate but also become densely concrete as well. Soon high-pitched flattement and feline yowls join body-tube yelps and clouds of interlocking drones and flanges. Crossing and re-crossing one another from multiple outputs, the timbres finally connect in an echoing finale. Elsewhere there’s Succi’s whiny and otherworldly shakuachi puffing matched with equivalent dragging string resonation; as well as sections when upwards alto saxophone slurs, cries and tongue flutters exacerbate crashing cymbal abrasions in the middle of a piece.

Most characteristic of Scoolptures’ strategy however may be the resolution into percussive oil-drum-like strokes, steady sine-waves pulsations and grainy, emphasized double-tonguing on “Chunkslice”. This follows a nearly soundless exposition and climaxes with patched reflections of the initial super-loud alto saxophone squeals which balance the harsh repetitive sine-wave loops.

Electric-affiliated compositional forays and formulations are absent from Periferiche Sospese which comes across as contemporary chamber improv with an edge. That is if the proper translation of the title is “peripheral suspension”. These aren’t teeth-jarring sounds however. It appears that the permutations available with three of four players double, leads to strategies that are legato more often then staccato. “Lines for Pigs” for instance, has a title rowdier than the performance. Mostly ambulatory, it follows a formula of low-frequency piano riffs matched contrapuntally with reed glissandi and cascading guitar licks. When Sillato eventually asserts himself with key ringing and portamento patterning, he’s joined by scraped vibrating surfaces, down-stroking guitar twangs and a slinky line from the bull fiddle. But these soon give way to the reedist’s snorting undertones. A lyrical saxophone obbligato is mated with airy finger-style guitar licks elsewhere, whereas harmonically popping strings contrasts with slide-whistle like reed peeps on another track.

Perhaps “Hidden Doors” is closest to Sillato’s heart however, since his impressionistic patterning and fulsome note clusters root in Bill Evans-like-territory as Bianchetti on drums plays familiar jazz licks and Succi’s interlude is melodiously trilling.

What then can be made of Masnada (Omaggio a John Zorn)? Despite the purposeful (?) misspelling of Masada, this jolly finale is firmly in Zorn’s avant-klezmer style. It begins with a freylah-like head pumped out by fiddle and guitar, and its resolution involves both plinking string strokes, drags and pops from the drums and a liquid glissando from Succi. The reedist may be flutter-tonguing in a classically accepted way, but the melody itself isn’t too far from the ghetto – which come to think of it is an Italian concept.

Both these CDs confirm that Succi is a musician of many identities and styles, in-demand to help expose the creativity of his contemporaries. Preference for one over the other depends on listeners’ comfort level with experimentation and electricity.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Periferiche: 1. Gastone 2. Lines for Pigs 3. A Ora Do Diabo 4. Hidden Doors 5. Continuo 6. Il Silenzio Che Viene alla Fine 7. Fermorestando 8. Masnada (Omaggio a John Zorn)

Personnel: Periferiche: Achille Succi (clarinet and bass clarinet); Dimitri Sillato (piano and violin); Alessandro Altarocca (bass) and Giancarlo Bianchetti (guitar and drums)

Track Listing: Materiale: 1. Brainslice 2. Bellyslice 3. Tactslice 4. Chunkslice 5. Liverslice 6. Lipslice 7. Breathslice 8. Hipslice 9. Lungslice 10. Nerveslice 11. Lostslice 12. Tumslice 13. Skinslice

Personnel: Materiale: Achille Succi (bass clarinet, alto saxophone and shakuachi); Nicola Negrini (bass, metallophone and live electronics) Philippe Garcia (drums, voice and live electronics) and Antonio Della Marina (sine waves and live electronics)

May 22, 2010

Scoolptures

Material Umano
Leo Records CD LR 546

Dimitri Sillato Playground

Periferiche Sospese

El Gallo Rojo 314-26

Although his own sessions as leader aren’t that numerous, Modena-born saxophonist and clarinetist Achille Succi seems to be the go-to guy when adventurous Italian composers want to add professional zing to their projects. These two notable CDs, for instance – merely a sampling of Suicci’s many recording sessions – pinpoint his skills as he adapts to the widely differing ideas of two leaders.

Mainly self-taught, although he now teaches at the Conservatory of Ferrara and the Siena Jazz summer workshop, Succi is ironically put in the centre of neo-classical pieces by pianist/violinist Dimitri Sillato on Periferiche Sospese. Multi-instrumentalist Sillato had extensive formal training on both his instruments in Bologna and Parma conservatories. As a matter of fact there are episodes during the course of the eight originals here that Sillato’s playing appears to be listing towards the formalist piano style of Bill Evans or the even-more-restrained technique of so-called classical pianists. The other Playgrounders here are multi-instrumentalists as well. Alessandro Altarocca was originally a pianist, and on bull fiddle has backed everyone from drummer Keith Copeland to saxophonist Tino Tracanna. Meanwhile on this CD, Giancarlo Bianchetti plays both guitar and drums, although not simultaneously.

As different as Sun Ra is from Son House, Materiale Umano is made up of 13 instant compositions, where everyone with the exception of Succi – who adds shakuachi textures to his usual bass clarinet and alto saxophone lines here – utilizes some form of live electronics. Scoolptures is the brainchild of Nicola Negrini, a native of Alba, who plays metallophone and electronics as well as double bass. Negrini, who in the past has been involved in theatre pieces as well the likes of saxophonist Javier Girotto and pianist Rita Marcotulli, says the band concept comes from meditations on “faces, deaths, love, births, streets travel, psychiatry and philosophy”. Sound sculpture generation and sine wave expression on this CD come from Udine’s Antonio Della Marina; with Philippe Garcia contributing his talents on drums, voice and live electronics as well.

At points sounding as if it’s sonically illustrating an earlier Negrini-affiliated band, the Alien Army Collective, this “human material” encompasses many actions and textures that are irregular, disconnected, looped and pulsed – with intense reed burbles plus drum rolls and ruffs adding to discontinuity produced by electronic circuitry. Each composition includes the suffix “slice”. Does it mean that each is designed as a slice of life?

A track such as “Liverslice”, for instance begins with diffuse electronics buzzing discontinuously as if a switch is being turned on and off. Soon moderato bass clarinet lows are matched with ring-modulator signals overlaid on a military drum beat. Eventually Succi’s squeaking and vibrating reed bites identify the narrative as do steel-pan-like strokes and blurry electronic interfaces.

“Skinslice” on the other hand has an exposition that is almost harmonious, with sweet clarinet trills, bell-like pings and drum rolls that are only gradually enveloped by ganulized pitches. As the wave-form undercurrent buzzes and blurs with distant whooshes and squealing oscillations, harsh clarinet split tones and tongue flutters not only accelerate but also become densely concrete as well. Soon high-pitched flattement and feline yowls join body-tube yelps and clouds of interlocking drones and flanges. Crossing and re-crossing one another from multiple outputs, the timbres finally connect in an echoing finale. Elsewhere there’s Succi’s whiny and otherworldly shakuachi puffing matched with equivalent dragging string resonation; as well as sections when upwards alto saxophone slurs, cries and tongue flutters exacerbate crashing cymbal abrasions in the middle of a piece.

Most characteristic of Scoolptures’ strategy however may be the resolution into percussive oil-drum-like strokes, steady sine-waves pulsations and grainy, emphasized double-tonguing on “Chunkslice”. This follows a nearly soundless exposition and climaxes with patched reflections of the initial super-loud alto saxophone squeals which balance the harsh repetitive sine-wave loops.

Electric-affiliated compositional forays and formulations are absent from Periferiche Sospese which comes across as contemporary chamber improv with an edge. That is if the proper translation of the title is “peripheral suspension”. These aren’t teeth-jarring sounds however. It appears that the permutations available with three of four players double, leads to strategies that are legato more often then staccato. “Lines for Pigs” for instance, has a title rowdier than the performance. Mostly ambulatory, it follows a formula of low-frequency piano riffs matched contrapuntally with reed glissandi and cascading guitar licks. When Sillato eventually asserts himself with key ringing and portamento patterning, he’s joined by scraped vibrating surfaces, down-stroking guitar twangs and a slinky line from the bull fiddle. But these soon give way to the reedist’s snorting undertones. A lyrical saxophone obbligato is mated with airy finger-style guitar licks elsewhere, whereas harmonically popping strings contrasts with slide-whistle like reed peeps on another track.

Perhaps “Hidden Doors” is closest to Sillato’s heart however, since his impressionistic patterning and fulsome note clusters root in Bill Evans-like-territory as Bianchetti on drums plays familiar jazz licks and Succi’s interlude is melodiously trilling.

What then can be made of Masnada (Omaggio a John Zorn)? Despite the purposeful (?) misspelling of Masada, this jolly finale is firmly in Zorn’s avant-klezmer style. It begins with a freylah-like head pumped out by fiddle and guitar, and its resolution involves both plinking string strokes, drags and pops from the drums and a liquid glissando from Succi. The reedist may be flutter-tonguing in a classically accepted way, but the melody itself isn’t too far from the ghetto – which come to think of it is an Italian concept.

Both these CDs confirm that Succi is a musician of many identities and styles, in-demand to help expose the creativity of his contemporaries. Preference for one over the other depends on listeners’ comfort level with experimentation and electricity.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Periferiche: 1. Gastone 2. Lines for Pigs 3. A Ora Do Diabo 4. Hidden Doors 5. Continuo 6. Il Silenzio Che Viene alla Fine 7. Fermorestando 8. Masnada (Omaggio a John Zorn)

Personnel: Periferiche: Achille Succi (clarinet and bass clarinet); Dimitri Sillato (piano and violin); Alessandro Altarocca (bass) and Giancarlo Bianchetti (guitar and drums)

Track Listing: Materiale: 1. Brainslice 2. Bellyslice 3. Tactslice 4. Chunkslice 5. Liverslice 6. Lipslice 7. Breathslice 8. Hipslice 9. Lungslice 10. Nerveslice 11. Lostslice 12. Tumslice 13. Skinslice

Personnel: Materiale: Achille Succi (bass clarinet, alto saxophone and shakuachi); Nicola Negrini (bass, metallophone and live electronics) Philippe Garcia (drums, voice and live electronics) and Antonio Della Marina (sine waves and live electronics)

May 22, 2010

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

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

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

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

Zeno De Rosi Shtik

Me’or Einayim
El Gallo Rosso 314-12

Fred Katz

Folk Songs For Far Out Folk

Reboot Stereophonic RSR 007

What constitutes Jewish music is a concept best left to Talmudic scholars with perfect pitch; Hitlerian bureaucrats filling quotas pro or anti; or perhaps John Zorn. Yet the influence of Jews on music – especially in the 20th century – is immeasurable.

Besides the numerous Jewish composers of so-called serious music, Jews have been involved in every facet of popular and improvised music from early Jazz and Vaudeville through Broadway and Hollywood musicals, the Swing Era, Bop and Free Improvisation as well as Rock, Rap and their derivatives. Along the way Jewish composers wrote many of the songs now considered standards. But is Jewish music, music written by Jews, music played by Jews, or is it sounds given a Jewish inflection, which Cole Porter for one said he strived to reach?

To move from academic philosophy to the here-and-now, that question, along with the catch phrase of the late 20th Century, “appropriation of voice” becomes germane when dealing with these notable CDs. Folk Songs For Far Out Folk is a reissue of a long out-of-print 1958 LP by Fred Katz, which features jazz-inflected arrangements of African, American and Hebraic folk songs. Katz, now 86, is best-known to jazzers as the cellist in the original Chico Hamilton Quintet of the 1950s. However during that same era he was also an arranger, songwriter and conductor for pop music sessions and a little later on scored such films as the original Little Shop of Horrors. Katz, who is a secular Jew, part-time Zen Buddhist and a Kabbalist, arranged and adapted each of the nine tunes here. He doesn’t play on the disc, although the three different sessions that were recorded include a clutch of top West Coast studio cats/jazz players, some of whom are Jewish.

Then there’s Me’or Einayim by Zeno de Rossi’s Shtik. It’s an 11-track CD led by the Verona-based drummer and featuring almost the same number of top-flight young Italian improvisers as Katz’s CD features American Cool Jazz men. Besides lines by Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Enrico Morricone, there are Harnick-Bock tunes from Fiddler on the Roof; one song partially credited to Molly Picon, a star of the Yiddish theatre; plus other pop-Jewish melodies such as “Hava Nagila”, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” and even “My Yiddishe Momme”[!].

The astonishing fact is that neither de Rossi nor any of his sidemen are Jewish. One of the most versatile of modern Italian percussionists, over the years de Rossi discovered that many of his favorite artists were Jewish. Figuring ethnic culture was the common ground linking artists ranging from Woody Allen and Lou Reed to Bob Dylan and Stan Getz; he organized Shtik to honor this cultural connection.

De Rossi, who has recorded with American reedist Chris Speed and accordionist Ted Reichman along with many improvisers from his own country, says he “worships” Shelley Manne, the late West Coast drummer, whose 1962 Contemporary record My Son The Jazz Drummer (reissued as Steps to the Desert) was like Folk Songs For Far Out Folk, one of the first jazz sessions to feature improvisations on Jewish themes. Shtik recreates a couple of those Jazz Drummer tunes as well.

Interestingly enough, Fiddler On The Roof has a jazz lineage as well, since a Cannonball Adderley-led group recorded a version of the score in the early 1960s. De Rossi and company do a bit more with that material. “Chavalah” for instance, balances on a modified march beat from the drummer, plus double-time comping and glissandi from pianist Alfonso Santimone. With the song recorded with a full five-man horn section, bass clarinetist Achille Succi is the standout here, using a twisted vibrato and lowing slurs to deconstruct the melody. “Tradition” includes a sample of Zero Mostel emoting in the original play, split-tone vibrato and snorts from tenor saxophonist Francesco Bigoni and an interpolation of the musical’s main theme. “Sabbath Prayer”, with American trumpeter Kyle Gregory blowing in the style Rafael Mendez – or perhaps Herb Alpert is a better comparison – sounds like what would happened if that Broadway tune was arranged by Moricone, who is actually saluted on Me’or’s first track.

Schmaltz saturates “My Yiddishe Momme”, which also seems to have migrated musically to the Italian boot. Here Klezmer-like lines echo from the harmonized brass and reeds as guitarist Enrico Ferragnoli downstrokes Neapolitan melodies and Bigoni’s vibrato is more reminiscent of the styling Fausto Papetti brought to his swinging bachelor pad records than Albert Ayler.

Instructively enough, the Taylor and Coleman tunes fit into the mélange with straight-time polyphonic turns revealing their melodiousness. Meanwhile, vibist Pasquale Mirra jumps and swings on “Hava Nagila” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” as impressively as Victor Feldman did on Manne’s versions of the tunes. Overall, as well, with Italians’ overwhelming love of the song form also comes through.

More to the point is the treatment of the final two compositions. By osmosis it seems that Molly Picon’s theatricism has somehow affected the band’s dramatic reading of her simple tune as it now contains low-frequency, gentling octave runs from Santimone and the drummer popping, banging, tick-tocking and rummaging for sounds along his kit’s rims while bouncing what sounds like rubber balls on his drum tops. Latterly, “My Heart Belongs To Daddy” come across as perfect 1960s Bar Mitzvah party music with de Rossi playing a Twist backbeat, the guitarist clinking a counter line and tenor saxophonist Daniele D’Agaro making like a honky, breathy King Curtis.

Tradition, talent and entertainment intersect here.

The same could be said for Folk Songs For Far Out Folk, although the musicianship involved in the three ensembles is actually the prototype for the tradition di Rossi et all are often lovingly burlesquing on the other CD. Furthermore, despite the presence of a few “real Jews” (sic) on site, the two Hebraic melodies aren’t any “jazzier” than the other material.

As a matter of fact, both “Rav’s Nigun” and “Baal Shem Tov” mix Impressionistic classicism among the Yiddishkite courtesy of Jules Jacobs’ oboe and Juston Gordon’s bassoon plus the flute currents of Buddy Collette and Paul Horn, who successively played with Katz in the Hamilton Quintet. Unfortunately the flute playing from each is a little too legit, with the swing content mostly resulting from Mel Pollen’s bass thumps or Horn’s snaky fralicher phrases on alto saxophone.

The treatment of the American and African folk songs also lacks consistency. Still, years before so-called Americana became a roots music catchphrase, Katz’s arrangements work hard to squeeze the sentimentality out of these pop ballads. The briefer two though really only avoid lugubriousness due to guitarist Billy Bean’s powerful southwestern-style picking and vibist Gene Estes’ near Swing-Era rhythmic resonations.

Even the gentle swing of “Old Paint” with its call-and-response patterns and double counterpoint from the guitarist and pianist John Williams is more reminiscent of the George Shearing Quintet in the Hollywood Hills than the Watson Family band in the Appalachian Mountains. Again Estes’ toy xylophone-like taps stand out. His shadowing of Williams’ soppy low frequency arpeggios and clinking piano keys are also the saving grace of “Foggy, Foggy Dew”. Williams, who would go on to score standard Hollywood fare like Jaws and Star Wars is a little too low key here and appears to be itching – or is this projection – to shoehorn the “Wouldn’t It be Loverly” melody into the performance.

Soundtrack echoes even affect the African tunes. Bongo-flailing Jack Constanzo and four other percussions – including Estes and Larry Bunker – plus five brass men are allowed by Katz to almost push “Mate’ka” into Peter Gunn territory.

“Chili’lo (Lament)” and “Manthi-Ki” are more satisfying however. Each cements the Afro-American linkage with what sounds like log drums added to the percussion display. Polyrhythmic, the second tune makes use of layered, antiphonal themes that encompass horn slurs, slapping and pinging conga timbres, marimba reverberations and a crescendo of hand clapping. The first buttresses the bottom with tympani thumps, concussive bongos and bass trombone snorts, while the upper lines include music box-like delicacy from the vibes, punching trumpet triplets and what could be someone buzzing comb-and-tissue paper.

Probably viewed as far-out when it was first released, Folk Songs For Far Out Folk now sounds reassuringly conventional, with its then-odd touches part of today’s common musical language. Whether it qualifies as Jewish music is a moot point. But it, along with My Son The Jazz Drummer, Terry Gibbs’ Jewish Melodies in Jazz Time – as well as the discs of bongo-bashing Irving Fields and comedian/bandleader Mickey Katz – paved the way for notable, non-sectarian though unabashedly Jewish sounds of contemporary players and composers like trumpeter Frank London, pianist Anthony Coleman, Zorn and Me’or Einayim.

-- Ken Waxman

.

Track listing: Folk: 1. Mate’ka 2. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child 3. Been in the Pen So Long 4. Chili’lo (Lament) 5. Rav’s Nigun 6. Old Paint 7. Manthi-Ki; 8. Baal Shem Tov 9. Foggy, Foggy Day.

Personnel: Folk: American Folk Tunes: Johnny T. Williams (piano); Billy Bean (guitar); Gene Estes (vibes); Mel Pollen (bass); Jerry Williams (drums). Hebrew Folk Tunes: Paul Horn (flute and alto saxophone); Buddy Collette (flute); Jules Jacobs (oboe and clarinet); George Smith (clarinet); Mel Pollen (bass) African Folk Tunes: Pete Candoli, Irving Goodman and Don Fagerquist (trumpets); George Roberts, Harry Betts and Bob Enevoldsen (trombones); Larry Bunker and Gene Estes (drums) and Jack Constanzo, Carlos Mejia and Lou Singer (percussion)

Track listing: Me’or: 1. Unused Theme from C’era Una Volta in America 2. Tradition 3. Chavalah 4. I Heard it Over the Radio 5. My Yiddishe Momme 6. Little Lees (Louise) 7. Sabbath Prayer 8. Hava Nagila 9. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen 10. I’ll Always Be Yours 11. My Heart Belongs to Daddy

Personnel: Me’or: Kyle Gregory (trumpet); Piero Bittolo Bon or Nicola Fazzini (alto saxophone); Achille Succi (alto saxophone, bass clarinet); Francesco Bigoni (tenor saxophone); Daniele D’Agaro (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Giorgio Pacorig, or Alfonso Santimone (piano); Enrico Ferragnoli (guitar); Alessandro “Asso” Stefana (pedal steel guitar); Danielle Gallo or Stefano Senni (bass); Pasquale Mirra (vibes) and Zeno di Rossi (drums)

November 13, 2007

Fred Katz

Folk Songs For Far Out Folk
Reboot Stereophonic RSR 007

Zeno De Rosi Shtik

Me’or Einayim

El Gallo Rosso 314-12

What constitutes Jewish music is a concept best left to Talmudic scholars with perfect pitch; Hitlerian bureaucrats filling quotas pro or anti; or perhaps John Zorn. Yet the influence of Jews on music – especially in the 20th century – is immeasurable.

Besides the numerous Jewish composers of so-called serious music, Jews have been involved in every facet of popular and improvised music from early Jazz and Vaudeville through Broadway and Hollywood musicals, the Swing Era, Bop and Free Improvisation as well as Rock, Rap and their derivatives. Along the way Jewish composers wrote many of the songs now considered standards. But is Jewish music, music written by Jews, music played by Jews, or is it sounds given a Jewish inflection, which Cole Porter for one said he strived to reach?

To move from academic philosophy to the here-and-now, that question, along with the catch phrase of the late 20th Century, “appropriation of voice” becomes germane when dealing with these notable CDs. Folk Songs For Far Out Folk is a reissue of a long out-of-print 1958 LP by Fred Katz, which features jazz-inflected arrangements of African, American and Hebraic folk songs. Katz, now 86, is best-known to jazzers as the cellist in the original Chico Hamilton Quintet of the 1950s. However during that same era he was also an arranger, songwriter and conductor for pop music sessions and a little later on scored such films as the original Little Shop of Horrors. Katz, who is a secular Jew, part-time Zen Buddhist and a Kabbalist, arranged and adapted each of the nine tunes here. He doesn’t play on the disc, although the three different sessions that were recorded include a clutch of top West Coast studio cats/jazz players, some of whom are Jewish.

Then there’s Me’or Einayim by Zeno de Rossi’s Shtik. It’s an 11-track CD led by the Verona-based drummer and featuring almost the same number of top-flight young Italian improvisers as Katz’s CD features American Cool Jazz men. Besides lines by Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman and Enrico Morricone, there are Harnick-Bock tunes from Fiddler on the Roof; one song partially credited to Molly Picon, a star of the Yiddish theatre; plus other pop-Jewish melodies such as “Hava Nagila”, “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” and even “My Yiddishe Momme”[!].

The astonishing fact is that neither de Rossi nor any of his sidemen are Jewish. One of the most versatile of modern Italian percussionists, over the years de Rossi discovered that many of his favorite artists were Jewish. Figuring ethnic culture was the common ground linking artists ranging from Woody Allen and Lou Reed to Bob Dylan and Stan Getz; he organized Shtik to honor this cultural connection.

De Rossi, who has recorded with American reedist Chris Speed and accordionist Ted Reichman along with many improvisers from his own country, says he “worships” Shelley Manne, the late West Coast drummer, whose 1962 Contemporary record My Son The Jazz Drummer (reissued as Steps to the Desert) was like Folk Songs For Far Out Folk, one of the first jazz sessions to feature improvisations on Jewish themes. Shtik recreates a couple of those Jazz Drummer tunes as well.

Interestingly enough, Fiddler On The Roof has a jazz lineage as well, since a Cannonball Adderley-led group recorded a version of the score in the early 1960s. De Rossi and company do a bit more with that material. “Chavalah” for instance, balances on a modified march beat from the drummer, plus double-time comping and glissandi from pianist Alfonso Santimone. With the song recorded with a full five-man horn section, bass clarinetist Achille Succi is the standout here, using a twisted vibrato and lowing slurs to deconstruct the melody. “Tradition” includes a sample of Zero Mostel emoting in the original play, split-tone vibrato and snorts from tenor saxophonist Francesco Bigoni and an interpolation of the musical’s main theme. “Sabbath Prayer”, with American trumpeter Kyle Gregory blowing in the style Rafael Mendez – or perhaps Herb Alpert is a better comparison – sounds like what would happened if that Broadway tune was arranged by Moricone, who is actually saluted on Me’or’s first track.

Schmaltz saturates “My Yiddishe Momme”, which also seems to have migrated musically to the Italian boot. Here Klezmer-like lines echo from the harmonized brass and reeds as guitarist Enrico Ferragnoli downstrokes Neapolitan melodies and Bigoni’s vibrato is more reminiscent of the styling Fausto Papetti brought to his swinging bachelor pad records than Albert Ayler.

Instructively enough, the Taylor and Coleman tunes fit into the mélange with straight-time polyphonic turns revealing their melodiousness. Meanwhile, vibist Pasquale Mirra jumps and swings on “Hava Nagila” and “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” as impressively as Victor Feldman did on Manne’s versions of the tunes. Overall, as well, with Italians’ overwhelming love of the song form also comes through.

More to the point is the treatment of the final two compositions. By osmosis it seems that Molly Picon’s theatricism has somehow affected the band’s dramatic reading of her simple tune as it now contains low-frequency, gentling octave runs from Santimone and the drummer popping, banging, tick-tocking and rummaging for sounds along his kit’s rims while bouncing what sounds like rubber balls on his drum tops. Latterly, “My Heart Belongs To Daddy” come across as perfect 1960s Bar Mitzvah party music with de Rossi playing a Twist backbeat, the guitarist clinking a counter line and tenor saxophonist Daniele D’Agaro making like a honky, breathy King Curtis.

Tradition, talent and entertainment intersect here.

The same could be said for Folk Songs For Far Out Folk, although the musicianship involved in the three ensembles is actually the prototype for the tradition di Rossi et all are often lovingly burlesquing on the other CD. Furthermore, despite the presence of a few “real Jews” (sic) on site, the two Hebraic melodies aren’t any “jazzier” than the other material.

As a matter of fact, both “Rav’s Nigun” and “Baal Shem Tov” mix Impressionistic classicism among the Yiddishkite courtesy of Jules Jacobs’ oboe and Juston Gordon’s bassoon plus the flute currents of Buddy Collette and Paul Horn, who successively played with Katz in the Hamilton Quintet. Unfortunately the flute playing from each is a little too legit, with the swing content mostly resulting from Mel Pollen’s bass thumps or Horn’s snaky fralicher phrases on alto saxophone.

The treatment of the American and African folk songs also lacks consistency. Still, years before so-called Americana became a roots music catchphrase, Katz’s arrangements work hard to squeeze the sentimentality out of these pop ballads. The briefer two though really only avoid lugubriousness due to guitarist Billy Bean’s powerful southwestern-style picking and vibist Gene Estes’ near Swing-Era rhythmic resonations.

Even the gentle swing of “Old Paint” with its call-and-response patterns and double counterpoint from the guitarist and pianist John Williams is more reminiscent of the George Shearing Quintet in the Hollywood Hills than the Watson Family band in the Appalachian Mountains. Again Estes’ toy xylophone-like taps stand out. His shadowing of Williams’ soppy low frequency arpeggios and clinking piano keys are also the saving grace of “Foggy, Foggy Dew”. Williams, who would go on to score standard Hollywood fare like Jaws and Star Wars is a little too low key here and appears to be itching – or is this projection – to shoehorn the “Wouldn’t It be Loverly” melody into the performance.

Soundtrack echoes even affect the African tunes. Bongo-flailing Jack Constanzo and four other percussions – including Estes and Larry Bunker – plus five brass men are allowed by Katz to almost push “Mate’ka” into Peter Gunn territory.

“Chili’lo (Lament)” and “Manthi-Ki” are more satisfying however. Each cements the Afro-American linkage with what sounds like log drums added to the percussion display. Polyrhythmic, the second tune makes use of layered, antiphonal themes that encompass horn slurs, slapping and pinging conga timbres, marimba reverberations and a crescendo of hand clapping. The first buttresses the bottom with tympani thumps, concussive bongos and bass trombone snorts, while the upper lines include music box-like delicacy from the vibes, punching trumpet triplets and what could be someone buzzing comb-and-tissue paper.

Probably viewed as far-out when it was first released, Folk Songs For Far Out Folk now sounds reassuringly conventional, with its then-odd touches part of today’s common musical language. Whether it qualifies as Jewish music is a moot point. But it, along with My Son The Jazz Drummer, Terry Gibbs’ Jewish Melodies in Jazz Time – as well as the discs of bongo-bashing Irving Fields and comedian/bandleader Mickey Katz – paved the way for notable, non-sectarian though unabashedly Jewish sounds of contemporary players and composers like trumpeter Frank London, pianist Anthony Coleman, Zorn and Me’or Einayim.

-- Ken Waxman

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Track listing: Folk: 1. Mate’ka 2. Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child 3. Been in the Pen So Long 4. Chili’lo (Lament) 5. Rav’s Nigun 6. Old Paint 7. Manthi-Ki; 8. Baal Shem Tov 9. Foggy, Foggy Day.

Personnel: Folk: American Folk Tunes: Johnny T. Williams (piano); Billy Bean (guitar); Gene Estes (vibes); Mel Pollen (bass); Jerry Williams (drums). Hebrew Folk Tunes: Paul Horn (flute and alto saxophone); Buddy Collette (flute); Jules Jacobs (oboe and clarinet); George Smith (clarinet); Mel Pollen (bass) African Folk Tunes: Pete Candoli, Irving Goodman and Don Fagerquist (trumpets); George Roberts, Harry Betts and Bob Enevoldsen (trombones); Larry Bunker and Gene Estes (drums) and Jack Constanzo, Carlos Mejia and Lou Singer (percussion)

Track listing: Me’or: 1. Unused Theme from C’era Una Volta in America 2. Tradition 3. Chavalah 4. I Heard it Over the Radio 5. My Yiddishe Momme 6. Little Lees (Louise) 7. Sabbath Prayer 8. Hava Nagila 9. Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen 10. I’ll Always Be Yours 11. My Heart Belongs to Daddy

Personnel: Me’or: Kyle Gregory (trumpet); Piero Bittolo Bon or Nicola Fazzini (alto saxophone); Achille Succi (alto saxophone, bass clarinet); Francesco Bigoni (tenor saxophone); Daniele D’Agaro (tenor saxophone and clarinet); Giorgio Pacorig, or Alfonso Santimone (piano); Enrico Ferragnoli (guitar); Alessandro “Asso” Stefana (pedal steel guitar); Danielle Gallo or Stefano Senni (bass); Pasquale Mirra (vibes) and Zeno di Rossi (drums)

November 13, 2007

Tiziano Tononi & the Ornettians

Peace Warriors Vol. 1
Black Saint

Adamo/Corbini/Maier
Playing with Eric
Splasc (H)

By Ken Waxman
October 16, 2005

Yin and yang of Free Jazz’s first generation of alto saxophonists, the authority and innovation Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman both brought to the music makes them often celebrated figures, despite Dolphy’s untimely death 41 years ago, and Coleman’s quirky and infrequent public appearances.

Because of fusion and neo-con indifference, though, many jazzers haven’t really noticed just how different Coleman and Dolphy are and were. On these CDs however, an Italian trio of a pianist, a violinist and a double bassist confirm Dolphy’s innate progressive conservatism with Playing with Eric; while percussionist Tiziano Tononi’s sextet substantiates the ongoing challenge of Coleman’s compositions on its Peace Warriors, Vol. 1.

Although the two saxophonists recorded together on Coleman’s epoch Free Jazz LP of 1960, Dolphy ultimately, was a brilliant player content to operate in a post-bop or free-bop atmosphere. An in-demand sideman for a variety of groups, both in California and during his New York breakthrough, had he lived beyond 1964, Dolphy likely would have become someone like Archie Shepp – producing unique variations on the classic jazz tradition.

Jazz’s most cerebral primitive, Coleman on the other hand, invented his version of Free Music in isolation then spread it with Messianic commitment, first in Los Angeles than New York. Restlessly innovative, by the time Dolphy died in 1964, Coleman was already playing violin and trumpet as well as saxophone; and within the next few years he would formulate his harmolodic concept and work with the back-up of electric instruments.

During his short time in the international spotlight, Dolphy recorded only once with pianist Bill Evans on Blues and the Abstract Truth and never with a Swing violinist like Stéphane Grapelli. But during the course of the three originals and eight Dolphy lines that make up Playing with Eric, violinist Rino Adamo, bassist Giovanni Maier and Sergio Corbini on piano, accordion and electronics, recast his tunes as a combination of mainstream and gypsy jazz. Even when Stefano Franceschini adds his alto clarinet for Corbini’s “17a Ouest”, a variant of the American saxophonist’s “Seventeen West”, the piece never takes on a freer coloration. After all, Dolphy’s second axe was bass, not alto, clarinet.

Leveling the American reedist’s rough edge isn’t surprising when you examine the players’ backgrounds. Corbini, who teaches piano and ensemble improvisation in Siena, is a pan-European, who has recorded themes based on the works of Kurt Weil, Steve Swallow and Italian and French compositions from the 14th century. Adamo, conservatory trained, has played so-called gypsy violin and has been first violinist of the Orchestra Utopia and the Italian String Trio. He and Franceschini together are part of a Thelonious Monk project.

This history suggests men most comfortable with a less pointed jazz tradition, often reflected here in the pianist’s impressionistic Evans-like styling. For instance, “Seventeen West” – also performed on the CD – is the only time Corbini turns away from languid romanticism. But his model then appears to be the low-key swing of Ahmad Jamal, rather than the angular set up of Dolphy’s pianists of choice, Jaki Byard and Mal Waldron.

Similarly, Adamo, who is capable of skittering vamps as on “Mister Eric”, not to mention double-stopping and spiccato interface as on “Mandrake”, prefers to mostly play languendo and zart. His resolutely tonal harmonics and portamento lines metaphorically push nearly every one of Dolphy’s themes out from the night club and into the recital hall.

Adding electronics and accordion, as Corbini does for counterpoint with Adamo on a variation-then-theme, low-frequency version of “GW” doesn’t do much either. This is novelty not interpretation. The question of why the three chose to cast Dolphy’s oeuvre as manouche remains a puzzle. It’s different all right, but so would be playing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on kazoos.

Another puzzle is the involvement of Maier. From Trieste, his usual recording is with musical explorers such as American altoist Tim Berne and drummer Zeno de Rossi as well as a membership in the Italian Instabile Orchestra (IIO). His association with Milanese percussionist Tononi also goes back a decade, and he’s one of the two bassists on Peace Warriors, with most of the other players fellow IIOers.

However walking bass lines and unobtrusive patterns are his contribution to Playing with Eric, except for the anomaly that is its final track. Arranged by Adamo, it suddenly seems to move the three into the realm of Arnold Schoenberg’s Klangfarbenmelodie. Dense electronic-based pulses from Corbini and swelling sul tasto variations from Maier mutate into irregularly spaced textures and silences as the fiddle’s menacing postlude includes strings that scream with the shrillness of V-8 bombs.

Ironically enough, the first sound on Peace Warriors is that of a screechy spiccato fiddle tone sharply sliding down the strings. But what Emanuele Parrini brings to this tune is the style he exhibits during all nine compositions: a personal melding of the advances of Coleman – as a violinist – and Billy Bang.

Both Parrini and alto saxophonist Achille Succi, who plays exaggerated, irregularly pitched solos here, have gigged with jazz manouche combos, the later as a clarinetist, but the idea of turning Coleman into Jimmy Dorsey doesn’t seem to have occurred to them.

Of course the reorientation of the American multi-instrumentalist’s compositions relates mostly to Milan-born Tononi, who plays drums, percussion and gong, and contributes his own “Ode to the Master Drummers of Harmolidia” to the 11 Coleman compositions covered on the other eight tracks. A conceptualizer as well as a thoroughly schooled percussionist, this homage to the Texas-born alto man is the latest in an ongoing series of salutes. Earlier discs honored Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Albert Ayler.

On board for those outpourings, and another player whose slurred overblowing and pummeling reed shattering makes an impression here, is tenor saxophonist Daniele Cavallanti. Also a Milan native, he and Tononi have also co-lead the Nexus combo for about 20 years. No Grapelli or Evans replication appears on this CD. But tunes like “The Empty Foxhole” and “Sadness” welcome Ayler inflections in the former and Charles Mingus suggestions in the later.

That too is no surprise, considering two basses – Piero Leveratto is the other – are involved. Featuring abrasive sul ponticello runs from the dual bull fiddlers that evolve into bowed harmony, the appropriately poignant theme is moved along by the saxes’ serpentine slurred tones, as the percussionist contributes ratcheting rhythms and rattling bell tree and tam tam clangor. Rumbling ruffs and rebounds then pilot the head through bugling and shrilling horns and tearing catgut fiddle slices.

Ayler’s “Ghosts” haunts this recreation of “The Empty Foxhole” as a contrapuntal theme, but most of the action takes place in the string section. Harmonized and sonorous, the basses harden arco pitches, while pizzicato they sound harsh banjo-like clangs. Final variation involves the horns limning the melody at half-speed as the drummer decorates it with rattling paradiddles.

“Feet Music” takes on the character of military bands as Tononi batters a martial beat. With the fiddle repeating the theme over and over, using broken chording and double stopping, the percussionist once again puts things on even footing by muting the violinist’s splayed and yelping counter rhythms with a marching band tattoo.

If Parrini relates to Bang and Cavallanti, Ayler, then the drummer sometimes surprises with his time-keeping allusions. Charles Moffett, Billy Higgins, Denardo Coleman and Ed Blackwell – the Texas altoist’s favored drummers – are all there, but when he solos on “Peace Warriors/Africa is the Mirror of all Colours”, the cross patterning and curved rhythms that emerge reference Max Roach’s polyrhythms more than any Coleman drummer. Power percussion is called for here since Maier and Leveratto are pummeling their strings lockstep as if they were operating a single eight-string monster bass, and the tenorist is pumping out one of his beefy, blubbering and slurring solos.

Perhaps the main difference between the Tononi treatment of Coleman and Adamo/Corbini/Maier’s of Dolphy comes on “A Girls Named Rainbow/School Work”. Featuring the familiar strain which most know as “Dancing In Your Head”, the sextet takes this blues-ballad through sudden tempo changes and turnarounds. As Succi’s altissimo wails and vibrato slurs coat the melody, both basses scurry up and down their strings like busy squirrels. Lead by the drummer’s double press rolls, the horns then reprise the initial theme languidly, then super-fast, breaking it into components. Meanwhile Parrini is outputting a Billy-Bang-as-country-fiddler variant, expanding the composition and making it more diffuse. Finally everyone slows to adagio and a single violin lick completes the thematic circle.

Unlike neo-cons, these Italian improvisers know that the jazz canon can be interpreted in a variety of fashions and still be legitimate. Not every idea works however, as Adamo, Corbini and Maier show. On the brighter side, Peace Warriors’ subtitle is Vol. 1, so Tononi and crew will undoubtedly turn out another reworking of Coleman material. If the Adamo, Corbini and Maier trio did the same with all the Dolphy tunes recast as they did “Red Plant”, a second CD of Playing with Eric could be worthwhile as well.

October 16, 2005

DRUMHELLER

Drumheller
Rat-Drifting R-D 9

SAMO ŠALAMON SEXTET
Ela’s Dream
Splasc(h) Records CDH 869.2

Contemporary efforts that lope along smartly, these combo show that intelligent, original music is accepted by audiences world-wide despite the retrogressive efforts of the neo-cons.

Recorded live in August 2004, Drumheller is a quintet featuring five of Toronto’s busiest non-mainstream musicians – alto saxophonist Brodie West, who has recorded with drummer Han Bennink; former rock guitarist Eric Chenaux; bassist Rob Clutton who has been in the Neufeld-Occhipinti Jazz Orchestra; drummer Nick Fraser who was in This Moment band with Clutton; and trombonist Doug Tielli who was in The Draperies with Chenaux. Compositions are divided among the band members.

ELA’S DREAM was recorded four months before that at the Ljubljana Jazz Festival. Based around the compositions of Slovenian guitarist Samo Šalamon, the sextet is decidedly international. Maribor-born Šalamon has studied and recorded in New York with bands featuring bassist Mark Helias, drummer Tom Rainey and alto saxophonist Dave Binney, the last of whom is also present here. Sharing the front line is Indianapolis-born, Verona-resident trumpeter Kyle Gregory, who is also in baritone saxophonist Alberto Pinton’s Clear Now group, and alto saxophonist and bass clarinetist Achille Succi, who plays in a variety of bands including The Italian Instabile Orchestra. Bassist Paolino Dalla Porta is one of the busiest accompanists in Italy, while fellow percussionist Zlatko Kaučič is a well-traveled Slovenian, who works throughout Europe and recorded an interesting duo session with reedist Mauro Negri.

Drumheller’s episodic and march-like compositions are very much of a piece, leading to a certain sameness in execution – but not one that offends. In contrast, perhaps because of festival excitement, Šalamon’s pieces, which are invested with high spirits as those on RAT-DRIFTING, are allowed to run on a little too long. Twenty minutes more lengthy than the other CD, ELA’S DREAM could have been far superior with judicious self-editing on the stand.

As it is, with the exception of “Broken Windows”, which is less than 10½-minutes in length, all the other tracks read out at more than 15 minutes each, with the title track nearly 20 on its own. Unfortunately much of the skill exhibited by different band members is dissipated at the beginning of “Ela’s Dream” when Kaučič’s blunt and reverberating solo stretches past five minutes, having started to wear out its welcome at the four-minute mark. Although his ratamacues, rumbles and ruffs have subsided into focused accompaniment by then, the light-hearted scampering theme doesn’t really put things on an even keel.

After that, to darting bass accompaniment, Binney begins flutter tonguing a theme variation which soon works its way to side slipping spetrofluctuation, split tones, squeaks and smears. Kaučič’s flashy flams segment another variation, after which the saxman’s repetitive four-note phrase turns to carefully splayed grace notes, backed by melodious double-stopping from the bass. Bugle-like crescendos from the trumpeter, plus double counterpoint from Binney’s alto and Succi’s sonorous bass clarinet lead to sweeping licks from Šalamon with a finale of altissimo and tremolo passages from all the horns.

“There's Still Dog Food Left In It” suffers from similar solo excess, although this time it’s the rubbed and struck rhythmic output of Dalla Porta that is over-extended. Showcasing his skill for over eight minutes can only impress bass-playing fan boys. This excess seems to have affected the others as well, since the harmonics used by the trumpeter and guitarist to take out the piece have an unfortunate resemblance to lines played by pop-jazz bands of the 1970s.

Much more palatable are the other tunes, including “Coffee With A Girl”, which probably by the virtue of opening the program, is memorable almost throughout its 18¼-minute length. Deliberately episodic and influenced by Ornette Coleman’s later style, its motion is refocused rather than slowed by contributions from all the band members.

Its expository theme stated by trumpet squeaks, alto smears and extended double picked guitar lines, Šalamon’s chording frenzy is soon cut by bass clarinet snorts and brassy trumpet flares. A new variation turns the theme from andante to allegro, as the guitarist’s quick figures turn to crunches and snaps. Using his effects pedal, Šalamon’s line upturns to rock-like interface, accompanied by stentorian banging from Kaučič, as if the two of them were Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton in their Cream prime, turning their hands to jazz improvising.

Not that the other musicians mark time however. Binney’s alto saxophone turns from double tonguing and snorting in its lower registers to moving forward with accented trills and repeated arpeggios, to explode into fizzy and overblown pitch vibrato backed by bounces from the drummer. Subsequently, Succi’s appropriately tonal bass clarinet lines, backed by a steady walking pace from Dalla Porto ratchet up to altissimo reed-biting squeaks, then modulates down to Dolphy-like phrasing. Counter lines from the other horns bring forward another theme variation and the piece climaxes with elliptical buzzes from Succi, sprightly grace notes from Gregory and an ending that’s mostly polyphonic counterpoint

Performed with enough polytonality, elastic time sense and extended techniques to be 21st century modern, the rhythmic and melodic implication of Šalamon’s tunes recall classic well-constructed anthems. He’s no Gigi Gryce or Benny Golson, but the combination of his supple lines and first -class blowing makes most of the work here memorable.

Commendable as well, but with the blowing trimmed to bypass excesses are the 11 compositions on DRUMHELLER. Although each player has written for the project, a consistency in vision and execution remains. Moreover, while the Drumhellers pride themselves on being some of Toronto’s most experimental musicians, carefully listening reveals that they know their jazz history.

Chenaux’s “It Must Be So Easy” manages to sound both like post-rock and a mutant Ellington small group. As the guitarist uses his wah-wah pedal throughout, Fraser’s rickety-tick drums and Clutton’s slap bass shuffle along and West’s vibrato makes his solo sound closer to Pete Brown, then, say, Rob Brown. Following a Swing Era style drum break you start to wonder if the piece is a contrafact of “Ain’t Misbehaving”.

Fraser’s “Again” is more of the same, with Tielli’s Dicky Wells-like harmonics adding to West’s avant-retro take. Clutton’s bass line maintains the pace, allowing enough room for the guitarist to explore tremolo distortion below the bridge and some chicken picking. Coda finds the horns riffing a stop-and-start chorus that could have come from one of Archie Shepp’s 1960s LPs.

This light-hearted streak can also be discerned in pieces like West’s “To Live” and the guitarist’s “Am I Lonely.” The former moves from a burlesque of a TV detective show theme with chirping alto lines and lively drum beats, to a section with sharp, resonating guitar notes. The later includes effects pedal pops from Chenaux, slinky vibrato from West and Roswell Rudd-like chromatic trills from Tielli. A walking bass solo then gives way to sliding treble scratches from the guitarist who seems to be almost turning his axe inside-out to procure the proper echoing metallic flanges. Finally the theme is recapitulated by harmonized ‘bone and alto, as Clutton continues slapping behind them.

Throughout, the bassist’s steady, unprepossessing work keeps the compositions grounded. On “Beach House”, the longest – at slightly more than 10 minutes – tune, the moderato theme harmonized by the horns opens up for saxophone and trombone solos with Fraser’s intricate cantilevering provides a proper foundation. Here the horns toss phrases, notes and octaves at one another in double counterpoint, with West often in high-pitched squeak mode and Tielli’s grace notes are amplified by stentorian slides. Before the finale, Chenaux sneaks in some wavering echoes that almost sound as if they come from an accordion or organ.

Anyone interested in testing out the scene in Toronto, Italy or Slovenia, should enter the names of the musicians here into their iPod database. Both CDs provide notable listening experiences, with DRUMHELLER gaining the edge through brevity.

-- Ken Waxman

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Track Listing: Ela’s:1. Coffee With A Girl 2. Emotional Playground 3. There's Still Dog Food Left In It 4. Ela’s Dream 5. Broken Windows

Personnel: Ela’s: Kyle Gregory (trumpet); Dave Binney (alto saxophone); Achille Succi (alto saxophone and bass clarinet); Samo Šalamon (guitar); Paolino Dalla Porta (bass); Zlatko Kaučič (drums and percussion)

Track Listing: Drumheller: 1. Quartet Theme 2. Sketch #3 3. Am I Lonely 4. For the (Cosmic) Whistler 5. Again 6. Beach House 7. It Must Be So Easy 8. Shrinkwrap 9. To Live 10. Duck Duck Goose 11. Wormbird

Personnel: Drumheller: Doug Tielli (trombone); Brodie West (alto saxophone); Eric Chenaux (guitar); Rob Clutton (bass); Nick Fraser (drums)

September 12, 2005