Tiziano Tononi/Emanuele Parrini

Zingaro/Lonberg-Holm/Madeira/Parrinha
Enleio
4 DaRecord 4 DR CD 017

Assimilating a violin – and other arco playing strings – into an improvised music group can be a conundrum. Should it be treated the same way as a front-line horn or enhance its identity by integrating it in a string ensemble. These mostly European bands answer both questions positively with equally impressive results. Curiously each band also features a vising American, trombonist Steve Swell with the otherwise all-Italian group on Other Interactions, and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm with three Portuguese players on Enleio. Not that it makes much of a difference since all have the same sort of experience. Swell is part of numerous New York groups and Lonberg-Holm in many US and international bands. Meanwhile the Italians, percussionists Tiziano Tononi, violinists Emanuele Parrini , soprano saxophonist Roberto Ottaviano and bassist Andrea Grossi have been featured in groups like the Italian Instabile Orchestra and Nexus; while the Portuguese, violinist Carlos Zíngaro, bass clarinetist Bruno Parrinha and bassist João Madeira are all part of Lisbon’s creative music gestalt.

Other Interactions’ co-leaders Parrini , who composed five tracks, and Tononi, who wrote three others, create similar highly rhythmic and Blues-based lines that show off each players strong points. The percussionist is more political however, with his tunes celebrating different figures from the 1970s American Black Power movement.

There is little difference when all are played though, since program never supersedes performance. The violinist’s “PeeWee’s Corner” for instance fully integrates his harsh sweeps and glissandi into a highly rhythmic piece with Mingusian echoes. Ottaviano provides a nasal obbligato, Grossi thick thumps and Swell whistles, slurs and double and triple tonguing. The contrapuntal forward motion is underlined and extended with Tononi’s shaking rat tat tats and ruffs.

Similarly Tononi’s “For Mumia Abu-Jamal” rather than being program music or a percussion display vibrates with the same sort of  methodical cadences. As drum pops and double bass pulse holding down the bottom, the stop time projections are usually based around contrapuntal challenges when trombone slurs meet spiccato stops, frenetic spawls and swift rappels down the strings by the violinist. Climax comes with a polyphonic expression from all.

Interestingly enough the most extended example of the drummer’s rhythmic sophistication is on Parrini’s “Another Corner”. After the violinist’s introduction of the Bluesy theme is amplified by pinched reed lines and portamento brass expression, Swell and Parrini explore squeaky and sliding variations in various directions as Tononi produces a barrage of fiery thumps, rolls, pumps and rumbles which amplify rather than obfuscates the theme.

As a break from the boisterousness, the drummer’s “For all the Dead Panthers” is a simple threnody where rugged drum drubbing and cymbal shatters in a pseudo-martial beat underline the emotional exposition made up of harmonized saxophone flutters and swelling brass plunger tones.

The other CD’s integration of the violin in a FreeBop vein is one variation of fiddle acceptance. Another is making it part of the Chamber-Improv. Besides the unusual instrumentation it would be difficult to imagine the super-fast spiccato, sul ponticello pressure and animated stops prominent in Zingaro’s improvising would fit standard forms.

One of the pioneers of Portuguese Free Music with experience with everyone from Joëlle Léandre to Urs Leimgruber Zingaro leads by example, setting up a layered interactions with violin on top, double bass on the bottom and the bass clarinet and cello floating in-between.

Key track is the more than 18½ minute “Nervos”  where prestissimo expositions make common cause with harmonized interludes that preserve horizontal expression. Mixing stretched string animation with bleats, growls and tongue stops from Parrinha, Madeira’s consistent pumps and Lonberg-Holm’s cello swirls stretch the narrative even further with early harmonies dependent on clarion reed trills and tandem string stretches. However Lonberg-Holm’s rapid plinks and Zingaro’s strident stabs prevent a romantic interface from ascending too far. Finally a group connection establishes the cushioning theme which is then as carefully fragmented with reed snorts, spiccato snaps and arco judders.
Despite the violinist’s prominence no one plays second fiddle during the performances. Madeira’s measured pulse keeps the narrative linear as well as adding buzzing affirmation to others’ expansions; Lonberg-Holm distinguishes “Liames” with an interlude of guitar-like twangs and strums from his instrument; and Parrinha’s creative clarion puffs, mid-range pushes and basement-pitched wallows bring cadenced attention to what otherwise would be a string overload. When not carefully paced the cello and bass can also express sequences of  stretched almost wood-splintering excitement; and the cellist and violinist also challenge one another with col legno slaps.

Fiddle fanciers and string supporters of many stripes should be attracted to these discs  as well as those who want music with a tinge of Bop as well as those committed to free improv.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Other: 1. Tre Momenti Allusivi 2. PeeWee’s Corner 3. For Mumia Abu-Jamal 4. For Assata Shakur 5. For all the Dead Panthers 6. Hibaku 7. Another Corner 8. Altri Momenti Allusivi

Personnel: Other: Steve Swell (trombone); Roberto Ottaviano (soprano saxophone); Emanuele Parrini (violin); Andrea Grossi (bass) and Tiziano Tononi (drums, percussion and gongs)

Track Listing: Enleio:  1. Trama 2. Nervos 3. Liames 4. Enleio

Personnel: Enleio: Bruno Parrinha (bass clarinet); Carlos Zíngaro (violin); Fred Lonberg-Holm (cello) and João Madeira (bass)