Claude Tchamitchian Quartet

Referencing the times carnivals and circuses vibrantly created festive events during his childhood and beyond, veteran French bassist Claude Tchamitchian has composed a nine-part suite which mines memory without mawkishness. Featuring a drum-less quartet, the bassist who has worked with everyone from Joe McPhee to Tom Rainey imbued the tunes with a formalist sophistication added by an experienced Gallic trio: clarinetist Catherine Delaunay, who has recorded with Hélène Labarrière among others; alto/soprano saxophonist Christophe Monniot who leads his own bands and pianist Bruno Angelini who has recorded with Sakina Abdou

Modest enough to avoid pushing himself forward, Tchamitchian usually limits himself to thick pizzicato string slaps, stops or smacks to preserve the linear flow, often alongside Angelini’s keyboard comping. The one exception is the title tune where the bassist’s sliding arco drone introduces, underscores and then widens the exposition that moves from andante to allegro to presto as the horns squeal and flutter.

Otherwise the majority of the tracks are driven by reed work, most often in tandem, with vamps dividing into Delaunay’s clarion flutters and Monniot’s mid-range slurs. This is sometimes intensified as when note bending trills from the clarinetist and saxophone squawks bring forth a collection of harsh keyboard pounding from the pianist.

The focal point of the session and also where Angelini gets to express his combination of formalism and freedom in narrative advances are on the extended “The L’âme Du Limonaire” and the following “Les Rêves Demeurent…” On the first track the pianist’s precise chording soon gives way to percussive pumps and ripples as the stop-time exposition is further toughened with chunky bass string slaps and the reeds’ circular call-and-response. A dramatic pause at the three-quarter mark of “The L’âme…” leads to an unaccompanied piano interlude where lyricism is defined by inner string vibrations and strums. Elevated keyboard tinkling slips into the second tune where measured concerto-like sweeps and pressure are latterly joined by irregular reed bites and vibrations from the two horns. Keyboard stops and stabs cement the narrative are completed with a defining piano gallop to a final stop.

With Vortice Tchamitchian may have aimed to replicate the freedom and sparkle of a childhood Jour de Fête. Instead he’s accomplished much more: a suspended tone poem that melds cheerfulness with comprehensive musical extensions.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Les Manèges De L’aube 2. Attraction Céleste 3. L’ivresse Du Galop 4. L’âme Du Limonaire 5. Seuls Les Rêves Demeurent… 6. Infanzia 7. Vortice 8. La Strada Stellata

Personnel: Catherine Delaunay (clarinet); Christophe Monniot (alto and soprano saxophones); Bruno Angelini (piano) and Claude Tchamitchian (bass)