Michel Doneda / Frédéric Blondy / Tetsu Saitoh

While it’s macabre to note and fraught with superstition, the tolling piano chords which Frédéric Blondy sounds frequently during the CD’s first selection may augur the death knell that could have sounded three years later when master bassist Tetsu Saitoh finally succumbed to cancer. In practice though, it’s merely one embedded tone among the multitude created by the Japanese bassist and his French partners, Blondy and saxophonist Michel Doneda. Spring Road is the unusual title used by Saitoh, who also composed for philharmonics and improvised with many other Japanese and Europeans, used for his duo with the saxophonist. The 16 is because this concert took place in 2016. The pianist, known for his membership in Hubbub, had worked in a trio with the others a decade earlier.

Assembled around Saitoh’s constantly swelling bass line, the tolling is a connective and concordant motif used by the pianist along with inner string plucks. This varied approach locks in with rugged pops and sul ponticello slices on bass strings plus reed sucks, ascending squeaks and widening trills from the saxophonist during “No End Road Pt 1”, building up to spectacular timbre-stretching on the lengthier “Part 2”.

While piano tones still toll, transition is marked with bass string gallops in counterpoint with squawking and whistling sopranino split tones that become progressively thinner as they stretch chromatically. Thickening bass string stops and keyboard rumbles serve as a backdrop to Domeda’s high-pitched circular breathing until melodic snatches are unearthed as the three textures are layered into a near-electronic drone for maximum ambulation. This interlude doesn’t preclude augmented reed biting, key clipping or string thumps, but it’s still a prelude to the cohesive finale. Torquing the pace to allegro and staccato, spiccato bass string tapping and pointed reed peeps join buzzing internal piano strings to reach a climax of discordant stretched, screeched and pummeled timbres expelled simultaneously.

Sadly Saitoh only lived to be 63. But happily this meeting with respected colleagues is another sonic triumph to add to his discography.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. No End Road Pt 1 2. No End Road Pt 2

Personnel: Michel Doneda (soprano and sopranino saxophones); Frédéric Blondy (piano) and Tetsu Saitoh (bass)