jazz

CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Coltrane and Dolphy – Evenings at the Village Gate (CD Review)

Evenings at the Village Gate

John Coltrane with Eric Dolphy

McCoy Tyner, piano; Reggie Workman and Art Davis, bass; Elvin Jones, drums

Impulse! Records

 

Evenings at the Village Gate is a rarity that was curated by the New York Public Library. It is taken from test recordings of the Village Gate’s sound system by producer Richard Alderson. Recorded on a single ribbon microphone, it documents eighty minutes of John Coltrane’s 1961 residency at the venue, performed by the all-too-briefly united quintet lineup that augmented Coltrane’s quartet with multi-reed performer Eric Dolphy. Bassist Jimmy Garrison is absent, replaced by Reggie Workman and, on the only live recording of “Africa,” the addition of Art Davis to make a two bass grouping. Pianist McCoy Tyner and drummer Elvin Jones complete the group.

 

Hearing Coltrane and Dolphy soloing on “My Favorite Things” is an inspiring listen, the former’s breathless phrasing on soprano saxophone and the latter’s flute jabbing at melody notes, juxtaposed with fleet arpeggiations. Dolphy and Jones create a polymetric construction that buoys the tune’s excitement. Coltrane played “My Favorite Things” many times. Later in 1961 he would record iconic renditions at the Village Vanguard. However, the version from the Gate finds his response to Dolphy’s artistry giving the tune an entirely different flavor.

 

Dolphy plays the melody on “When Lights Are Low,” on bass clarinet and explores the upper register of the instrument with impressive control. Likewise, Coltrane’s solo pulls melodic variations out of the stratosphere and brings them down to earth with lightning fast scales. Tyner takes an imaginative solo that explores extended harmonies and variations on the tune. Tyner’s solo on Impressions is also a standout, punctuating the rhythms that Jones emphasizes with short motives as well as virtuoso filigrees and seamless octaves.

 

With the rhythm section laying down a rock solid groove, “Greensleeves” starts with florid elaborations from Coltrane, only later revealing the Dorian tune with fewer adornments, Dolphy interjecting bass notes at its conclusion. Tyner takes an extensive, well-developed solo, once again saving the tune for last. Dolphy’s solo plays with an angular tune that he develops in multiple registers, moving to the melodic refrain and then howling high notes. Coltrane matches these with altissimo shredding of his own. The two then join in a colloquy of blindingly fast arpeggios and overblowing. Coltrane takes the tune one last time, followed by a decrescendo from the rhythm section to conclude. Dolphy’s addition to the proceedings is felt profoundly.

 

The recording of “Africa” apparently is the only live rendition extant. This is the only tune from the Village Gate sessions on which Coltrane plays tenor saxophone. In addition to the upper register playing and quicksilver scales he already displayed on soprano, his playing here also involves long melodic lines and low register punctuations. Workman and Davis trade off arco and pizzicato playing, remaining two distinct voices in the music. Jones drops out to allow them the chance for an extended duet. Tyner performs trills, chord solos, and repeating soprano register patterns. Jones is exuberant in exploring tremendously syncopated rhythms, particularly in his own solo turn. Coltrane and Dolphy create a contrapuntal duet to close the tune, rhythm section roaring beside them. It seems a pity that more live versions of “Africa” have yet to be uncovered, as this is certainly a highlight of the recording.

 

Evenings at the Village Gate is a treasure trove that provides a different perspective on 1961, a pivotal year in Coltrane’s development of an extended approach to live performance. Had Dolphy lived longer, one imagines he could have played an integral part in Coltrane’s later ensembles and recordings. For now, we must content ourselves with what is here, which is quite substantial and essential listening.

 

-Christian Carey

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Chet Baker – Blue Room (CD Review)

Chet Baker

Blue Room: The 1979 Vara Studio Sessions in Holland

Jazz Detective 2xCD

 

A double CD (or limited edition vinyl, if you prefer) set of unreleased sessions from 1979 displays Chet Baker in fine form, both as a trumpeter and vocalist. These recordings were originally made at Vara Studio in Holland for Dutch radio broadcast. Baker is joined on Disc 1 by pianist Phil Markowitz, bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse, and drummer Charles Rice; the trio had been touring with him fairly regularly. They provide  impeccable support. A particular standout is Rassinfosse, whose walking lines and soloing are creative contributions. Markowitz’s playing is distinguished as well, with tasty chord voicings and ebullient solos that provide a strong foil to Baker. Disc 2 includes two groups of supporting personnel: the group from Disc 1 on some of the tracks, and pianist Frans Elsen, bassist Victor Kaihatu, and drummer Eric Ineke on others. The latter group does stalwart work, but clearly have not had the benefit of significant musical acquaintance. 

 

Disc 1 opens with “Beautiful Black Eyes,” by Lou McConnell and Wayne Shorter. Baker plays a florid solo. Markowitz responds with a chord solo that finishes with flourishes that resemble Baker’s lines. Markowitz’s solo on “The Best Thing for You” is a standout, boisterous and virtuosic. Baker and Rice trade fiery fours before the trumpeter repeats the tune to close. “Oh You Crazy Moon,” by Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen, is an ideal vocal vehicle for Baker, who sings and plays with exquisite phrasing and effortless high notes for good measure. 

 

“Blue Room” is a well-loved Rodgers and Hart song,  recorded multiple times by Baker (Madeleine Peyroux has also made a lovely recording of it). The ballad is played with a graceful cast, with both Baker and Markowitz embellishing the tune with chromatic extensions and playing with a cool demeanor. The Miles Davis composition “Down” is played by Baker with fleet scalar passages and peppery blues scales. The rhythm section keeps up a muscular groove, with Markowitz playing a forceful solo. 

 

On Disc 2, Baker stretches out on his original “Blue Gilles,” creating a suave solo that takes its time percolating, but is filled with expressive playing that ultimately reconnoiters the upper register in faster note values. Markowitz also takes a gradual approach, ending an ostinato passage with a flourish. Rassinfosse then begins pressing forward in his solo turn, providing a good contrast to the others. Baker’s final cadenza begins with bits of riffs and ends with a long held line.

 

The Miles Davis tune “Nardis” follows. Baker presents a West Coast version of the tune. Markowitz puts a little bit of bite in his comping. Rassinfosse and Rice too are quite assertive.“Luscious Lou” is a medium swing instrumental  on which Baker exercises his high notes and leans into blues thirds. 

 

“Candy” is a vocal number, written by Mack David, Alex Kraimer, and Joan Whitney. Baker would record it again in a trio date released in 1985. His signature croon imitates the swinging solo to follow. “My Ideal” is also a vocal, here the singing more reserved than the ensuing trumpet solo. 

 

The recording concludes with a show tune, “Old Devil Moon” from Finian’s Rainbow by Yip Harburg and Burton Lane. The most uptempo tune on the dates, it is given a bit of bebop swagger in an extended solo by Baker. 

 

These sessions feature some of Baker’s favorite songs, but in fresh and often inspired renditions. 

 

-Christian Carey

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Improv, jazz

James Ilgenfritz – #entrainments (CD Review)

James Ilgenfritz

#entrainments

Infrequent Seams

Angelika Niescier, saxophone; Nathan Bontrager, cello; James Iglenfritz, bass; Gerry Hemingway, drums

 

Ecstatic jazz/free improv bassist James Ilgenfritz underwent brain surgery just months before being back in the studio to record #entrainments, the fiftieth release on the Infrequent Seams label. The recording makes reference to this traumatic event in some of its titles, such as “#frontmatter” and “#scarequotes.” 

 

This  is the first recording to employ Ilgenfritz’s modular improvisation system #entrainments, a term also reflecting the bassist’s work to repair his cognitive abilities. The body and brain have an extraordinary capacity to heal, especially when one is as dedicated to returning to their musical passion as Iglenfritz clearly is. 

 

If one didn’t know of Ilgrenfritz’s tremendous health challenges, they certainly wouldn’t guess when hearing him play. The bassist is in fine form, creating imaginative solos and intricate supporting lines. His countermelody on the opening tune “#frontmatter” is fleet and sonorous. His collaborators are equally estimable. Saxophonist Angelika Niescier and cellist Nathan Bontrager are regular collaborators of Ilgenfritz. Drummer Gerry Hemingway, an extraordinary talent with an ample discography of his own, is new to the bassist’s quartet. He provides support on the opener. Bontrager plays searing sul ponticello lines and Niescier’s solo skates through scalar passages at lightning speed. 

 

“#frontmatter” features a duel with Niescier versus Hemingway, who plays freely but with metric articulations. Likewise, Bontrager and Ilgenfritz have an extended contrapuntal fray. The whole group figures in the next section, which breaks it up into varying duet textures. 

 

“#scarequote”s is aptly named. Niescier plays multiphonics and then a dodecaphonic solo, accompanied by forceful fills from Hemingway and open-string chords from the strings. “#facepalm” has a more jocular cast, with a syncopated riff as tuneful as it is buoyant. Niescier fires off fast sheets of runs in her solo. Ilgenfritz’s solo combines the riff with slinky interspersed passages, only to lead the group into a morphed version of the initial tune which swiftly leads the proceedings home. 

 

Ilgrenfritz has long been a favorite musician of mine. I am moved, however, by his indomitable spirit and continued musicality. #entrainments is both a celebratory document of Infrequent Seams’s continued relevance, and one of Ilgenfritz’s healing and questing journey. Recommended. 

Christian Carey 

 

by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Cecilia Smith Celebrates Mary Lou Williams

Cecilia Smith

The Mary Lou Williams Resurgence Project, Vol. 1: Small Ensemble Repertoire

Cecilia Smith, vibraphone, Lafayette Harris, Jr. & Carlton Holmes (piano/organ), 

Kenny Davis (bass), Ron Savage (drums), Carla Cook (vocals)

Self-released

 

Mary Lou Williams was an extraordinarily gifted jazz pianist and composer, particularly prominent during the Swing band era, but also rightly held in esteem for her late modern jazz work “Zodiac Suite.” Among her accomplishments, she played with Benny Goodman and arranged for Duke Ellington. Vibraphonist Cecilia Smith has decided to commemorate her legacy with the recording The Mary Lou Williams Resurgence Project, Vol. 1: Small Ensemble Repertoire. Smith has been at work on Williams’s repertoire since 2000 and the Resurgence project has been granted an NEA American Masterpiece Award. 

 

Smith incorporates material by Williams into her own original “Truth be Told for mlw,” in which she exchanges chord solos, and a puckish riff doubled by organ, with drum fills. Partway through, the quick phrases are juxtaposed with a slow blues drag. The uptempo time then returns, with ebullient solos from Cecilia Smith and pianist Carlton Holmes. The tune ends with the chordal soloing alternating with the phrases of the blues section. 

 

Composed by Williams in honor of the philanthropist Doris Duke, “D.D.” features an elaborated blues progression built in chromatic seconds played midtempo. Smith’s solo exploits a variety of dense scalar patterns and then builds in syncopated substitutions on the tune’s original patterning. Harris’s piano solo reveals the underlying blues framework of the tune. After a brief turn by bassist Kenny Davis, the tune returns to complete the performance in traditional fashion.

 

Standards associated with Williams as a performer and arranger also feature prominently. A suave rendition of “Body and Soul” is a standout, as is Smith’s playing on “St. Louis Blues.” My favorite is the rendition of Dr. Billy Taylor’s “It’s a Grand Night for Swinging,” a tune to which over the course of her career Williams frequently returned. Here, the whole band plays the head in effusive fashion, with Carlton Holmes’s organ added to Harris’s piano-playing to fill out the rhythm section. Harris’s solo recalls Taylor’s voicings and fragments the melody into small subsections that then are developed. Smith cools things down a bit at the beginning of her solo, with repeated quarters succeeded by swinging eighths. It eventually becomes faster moving and more intricate, perfectly paced. Holmes’s succeeding solo is slinky, with a number of blues thirds complicating his melodies. Davis plays his ostinato riff solo. The return to the head trades fours and repeats to finish. 

 

The recording’s last track is a second version of “Miss D.D.” This one is a couple minutes longer, allowing the group members to stretch out on their respective solos. Organ is more prominent and Davis’s bass riff more elaborate. 

 

Smith’s first installment of The Mary Lou Williams Resurgence Project honors Williams with a sampling of her repertoire and further develops her material into stirring originals. I look forward to hearing what Smith does with a larger ensemble.

 

-Christian Carey

 



by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, Guitar, jazz

Dominic Miller – Vagabond on ECM Records (CD Review)

Dominic Miller

Vagabond

Dominic Miller, guitar; Jacob Karlzon, piano, keyboard; Nicolas Fiszman, bass; Ziv Ravitz, drums

ECM Records

 

Vagabond is guitarist Dominic Miller’s third recording for ECM Records. Apart from bassist Nicolas Fiszman, Miller has assembled a new group of collaborators: keyboardist Jacob Karlzon and drummer Ziv Ravitz join him in a quartet setting. Miller composed most of Vagabond’s eight originals while living in the South of France. He has suggested that nature and the small towns and buildings he passes on long walks supply him with inspiration. The guitarist’s Argentinian roots may be a bit further out of the limelight, but they too are an abiding part of his composing and playing technique. 

 

The track “Vagines,” named after a small French town, epitomizes this. Miller plays delicate melodies, sometimes doubled in octaves, that contain a hint of Francophone aesthetic. Here as elsewhere, he plays a classical guitar that is judiciously amplified. Fiszman and Ravitz deftly punctuate his phrasing. Karlzon joins with a scalar solo that embellishes the tune. On “All Change,” the band is more assertive, creating a buoyant backdrop to Miller’s single line solos.

 

Miller has likened himself to an “instrumental songwriter,”  and on “Cruel but Fair,” one can readily hear the ballad’s song-like construction. Chord-melody and single guitar lines are accompanied by economic comping from Karlzon. Add lyrics to this, and several others on Vagabond, and one could readily imagine them ready to sing. 

 

“Open Heart” is one of the highlights of Vagabond. It features a syncopated ostinato underneath a minor-key tune. The longest composition on the album, it introduces the material slowly, with Miller playing  in a solo context. The other musicians enter and develop the material in rebuttal. Karlzon’s fetching solo retains the tune’s diaphanous contours while extrapolating from its changes. The piece’s denouement features splash cymbals that announce Miller’s return and the reprise of the tune’s head, with a decrescendo to close. 

 

“Altea” begins with sumptuous chord voicings that quickly adopt the Latin rhythms of Miller’s Argentianian roots. His colleagues revel in this context,  both Fitzman and Ravitz providing syncopations in ebullient fashion. There is a tangy solo by Karlzon, and all of a sudden the tune ends with rolled chords by Miller. “Lone Waltz” closes the album with Miller playing a jazz tune in triple time to an arpeggiated accompaniment. Karlzon is at his most virtuosic here, and the rhythm section allows room for the Miller-dominated arpeggiated sections while playing with zest during the piano solos. Once again, the group performs a gradual denouement, with brief melodies from Miller, performed over the piano’s arpeggios, sending the record to a quiet conclusion.

 

Vagabond is Miller’s most versatile project yet, and has several memorable compositions. Miller gels well with this band. Although he tends to change collaborators between projects, one could readily see these musicians sticking around for a while.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
Brooklyn, CD Review, Contemporary Classical, Festivals, File Under?, jazz, Piano, Twentieth Century Composer

Ethan Iverson Curates Sono Fest; Han Chen’s Ligeti

Ethan Iverson by Keith Major.

Ethan Iverson Curates Sono Fest; Han Chen’s Ligeti

Like many listeners, I first became acquainted with pianist Ethan Iverson via The Bad Plus recording These are the Vistas, which contained strong originals and a jaw-dropping rendition of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Several albums later, Iverson moved on from The Bad Plus to a variety of projects. His blog Do the Math outlines his work as an educator (at New England Conservatory) and a variety of interests that, unsurprisingly, focus on jazz, but also encompass twentieth and twenty-first century concert music. Starting next week, he brings his omnivorous musical instincts, and significant talents as a pianist, to bear, curating Sono Fest from June 6-23rd at Soapbox Gallery (636 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238l).  

Timo Andres by Michael Wilson.

Iverson’s newsletter has been a veritable feast of material previewing the festival (sign-up is free). He doesn’t just plug events, but gives detailed discussions of the programmed music and featured artists. Essays on Timo Andres, Miranda Cuckson, and Judith Berkson are all revealing.

Miranda Cuckson, violin
Judith Berlson.

 

My favorite of the posts is about Ligeti, which discusses the piano etudes and includes a link to an interview by Benoît Delbecq with Ligeti included on DTM. Pianist Han Chen isn’t playing any Ligeti on Sono Fest, but his recital on June 17th looks tantalizing, with pieces by Berg, Corigliano, Adès, and Ravel.  

 

__

Han Chen’s new Naxos recording (8.574397) is a sterling document of the Ligeti Etudes. Iverson is voluble in praising it and I will add my own acclamations. The pieces themselves are one of the finest collections of the twentieth century, abundant in variety and virtuosic in demands. Ligeti’s early modern and postmodern concerns are updated by his late career interests in minimalism, Asian, and African music. There are a number of fine recordings of the etudes, but Han Chen’s is a welcome addition. 

The pianist is tremendously fluent in the plethora of dynamics and articulations required by Ligeti. His execution of formidable polyrhythms and hairpin transitions are uniformly excellent. The first etude from Book 1, “Désorde,” in which the left hand has complex scalar patterns and the right spiky, syncopated progressions, is performed at a breakneck pace. “Galamb borong,” from Book 2, in which a gently percussive opening, evoking Balinese gamelan, gradually builds to thunderous chords, with a denouement at its close, is equally stirring. Directly following this is a rhythmically incisive performance of the polyrhythmic “Fém.” The diaphanous diatonicism of Book 3’s “White on White” is performed with superbly controlled delicacy. Its ebullient coda is a welcome surprise. Han Chen’s Ligeti CD shows that there is plenty of room to reinterpret the composer, particularly during his centennial year.

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Taka Kigawa

 

Sono Fest Schedule

 

Tickets are $25 in-person, or $15 for the live-stream, available at SoapboxGallery.org.

 

Tuesday, June 6 – Ethan Iverson and Miranda Cuckson

Wednesday, June 7 – Ethan Iverson and Chris Potter

Thursday, June 8 – Miranda Cuckson

Friday, June 9 – Taka Kigawa

Saturday, June 10 – Timo Andres

Sunday, June 11 – Sam Newsome

Monday, June 12 – Momenta Quartet

Tuesday, June 13 – Judith Berkson

Wednesday, June 14 – Marta Sánchez

Thursday, June 15 – Aaron Diehl

Friday, June 16 – Scott Wollschleger

Saturday, June 17 – Han Chen

Sunday, June 18 –Robert Cuckson (set 1); Ethan Iverson (set 2)

Friday, June 23 – “Coda Concert:” Mark Padmore, Sarah Deming, and Ethan Iverson

Mark Padmore by Marco Borgrevve.



by Christian Carey
CD Review, Contemporary Classical, File Under?, jazz

Rochford and Downes on ECM (CD Review)

Sebastian Rochford, Kit Downes

A Short Diary

ECM Records 

 

“This short diary (of loss), offered as a sonic memory,

  created with love, out of need for comfort.”

-Sebastian Rochford

 

When Sebastian Rochford’s father, the Aberdeen poet Gerard Rochford (1932-2019) passed away, the drummer decided to create a recording in his memory. He composed most of the music after his father’s death, and enlisted pianist Kit Downes as a collaborator. Downes is actually a musical switch-hitter; he is also an accomplished organist. “This Tune Your Ears Will Never Hear” opens the album mid-tempo with thick chords and snare in rhythmic unison, only to give way to a slower rendering of the tune, juxtaposed with enigmatic harmonies. “Communal Decisions” has a wayward, modal melody that becomes an overlapping duo, finally filled out with Debussyian harmonies. “Night of Quiet”  consists of slow-paced chords in intricate changes, parallel planing, and filigree phrase endings. “Ten of Us” has an ambling melody and chromatic chord progressions that recall Rimsky-Korsakov. Considerable development follows, with a floating texture that arpeggiates some of the preceding material and shares new melodic variations. The last section includes a chordal ostinato reinforced by Rochford that slows into an emphatic minor key cadence.

 

“Love You Grampa” is one of the most fetching of the collaborations here, with Rochford creating a lullaby rhythm behind the drum kit and Downes playing the composition’s winsome melody with delicacy and poignant phrasing. In a shuffling rhythm and with a pentatonic melody, “Silver Light” recalls folk music. “Rochford’s playing is often economical, even restrained. Yet the textures and punctuations he provides always enhance the proceedings. 

 

The last piece on the recording, “Even Now I Think of Her,” is in a sense co-composed by Sebastian and his father, who sang the melody to his son, suggesting it for a piece. The drummer in turn shared the melody with Downes via cell phone. It is quite an intricate tune, rendered as a folk-like ballad with warmly voiced harmonies and gentle drum fills. Bringing the project full circle to Gerard Rochford is a fitting and touching conclusion to a compelling and inspired project.

 

-Christian Carey 


by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz, LPs

Pharaoh Sanders – Karma LP Reissue

Pharoah Sanders – Karma (Impulse, 2023 reissue)

 

Karma is one of saxophonist Pharoah Sanders most important releases. Recorded in 1969, it was his third as a leader, and featured a long suite, “The Creator Has a Master Plan,” that was in part an homage to the recently deceased John Coltrane, with whom Sanders had performed and recorded. Coltrane’s own extended suite, “A Love Supreme,” is quoted during “Karma,” and the use of a vocal refrain and free jazz solos on top of modal harmonies also hearken back to “A Love Supreme.”

 

Impulse has reissued the recording as a lushly appointed 180-gram vinyl LP and the sonic upgrade is significant. Despite the welter of musical activity in frequently thick textures, one can hear the distinct instruments well, from the lowest notes of the bass to the mingling of improvisations in the upper register. The presence of the piano is particularly noteworthy, revealing modal comping that was recessed on my older copy of the recording. 

 

The supporting musicians on Karma are strictly A-list. Leon Thomas lends howling vocals and percussion. James Spaulding plays the flute. Nonstandard in a free jazz context is the French horn, but Julius Watkin’s forceful playing fits right in. The pianist is Lonnie L. Smith Jr. Three bassists appear – Richard Davis, Reggie Workman and, on the final track, Ron Carter. Nathan Bettis contributes percussion, and William Hart and Frederick Waits play the drums. Sanders’ playing is poetic, sculpted from melodic inventions and altissimo shrieks, it has a clear sense of trajectory and is abundantly expressive. 

 

The suite lasts a side and a half of the LP. There is an additional cut, “Colors,” which features impassioned and soulful, rather than shouted, vocals from Thomas. The two bassists create overlapping duets. For the most part, Sanders lets Thomas have the spotlight, providing elegant melodic responses to his singing.

 

Karma serves as a template for many of the musical and spiritual topics that would occupy Sanders throughout much of his career. It is excellent to have such a generous-sounding and visually attractive reissue made. Snatch one up!

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

The Song is You – Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch on ECM (CD Review)

The Song is You

Enrico Rava and Fred Hersch

CD/LP

ECM Records

 

ECM Records has begun resuming production of their releases as vinyl LPs. This is the first I am reviewing. As one expects from ECM, its sound quality is superlative. Those who remember ECM’s vinyl releases in the pre-CD era will welcome this return. In addition to production values, another aspect of ECM’s curation ethos is bringing together artists from their roster to make music together. Both trumpeter Enrico Rava and pianist Fred Hersch have created memorable releases for ECM. Pairing them is an inspired choice. The Song is You features songs by each artist, improvisation, and several standards. 

 

“Retrato em Branco e Preto,” by Antonio Carlos Jobim, is given a rhythmically pliant rendering, with Rava’s solo swinging in sultry fashion and Hersch providing a subtle outline of the Bossa Nova, comping with generously attired harmonies and playing  a solo cut from the same cloth as the trumpeter’s. When Rava rejoins, the dance picks up slightly and he crafts a solo built out of mid-register melodies. 

 

An improvisation follows, with Rava playing dissonant lines with trills while Hersch creates treble register material, single lines, glissandos, and tremolos. Rava deftly deconstructs the pianist’s material. The final section is spacious, with piano jabs and sixteenths in the trumpet slowly moving to a final, held harmony. George Bassman and Ned Washington’s “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You” continues the musical contest. Once again, one is struck by how quickly both players can assimilate each other’s material and craft an overarching idea. “The Song is You,” by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, begins with overlapping cascades of melody. Howling upper register playing from Rava is responded to by Hersch with alternate scales in the upper register; whole tone, the diminished scale, and dissonant tremolos. After this exploration, the two take up the tune in traditional ballad form. The coda returns to the former, outside, demeanor. 

 

Two originals follow. Hersch’s “Child’s Song” is a Latin ballad with a gentle melody. Rava plays it with fetching lyricism, then takes a slow solo. The piano notes outline the tune just behind the trumpet, and then take up a limpid minimal ostinato. Midway through, Rava and Hersch perform a chromatic descent, followed by a disjunct trumpet cadenza. Gradually there is a return to the ballad texture, a countermelody appearing in Hersch’s left hand, followed by thick chords and a single line melody. Hersch’s own cadenza slows the tune down and accompanies it with mixed interval chords. Rava rejoins for a final chorus that gently brings the piece to a close. Rava’s “The Trial” is begun by Hersch with punchy two-voice counterpoint. Rava enters, taking up the main melody, which juxtaposes nicely with Hersch’s invention. All too soon, the duo complete the piece with a mischievous cadence. 

 

Hersch takes a long solo on Thelonious Monk’s “Misterioso,” using its undulating lines to craft a sinuous solo. Rava joins, bringing out the blues quality of the tune. Hersch responds in kind, comping to give the trumpeter room. Eventually the two split up the tune, creating a pendulum of melody. The closer is another Monk tune, “Round Midnight.” Hersch approaches the tune playfully, warping the tempo, playing trills, and crafting imaginative chord structures. At the end, Rava once again brings the tune back down to earth to finish.

 

Rava and Hersch are a simpatico pairing. One could envision them continuing in a duet context or adding some more of ECM’s roster to the activities. Hooray for vinyl.

 

-Christian Carey



by Christian Carey
CD Review, File Under?, jazz

Marc Ducret Plays Time Berne (CD Review)

Palm Sweat: Marc Ducret Plays the Music of Tim Berne
Marc Ducret, guitar/arranger
Out of Your Head CD/DL

This is no ordinary jazz guitar album. Saxophonist/composer Tim Berne and guitarist Marc Ducret are longtime collaborators. After receiving a stack of compositions from Berne, Ducret set out to arrange them for overdubbed guitars, brass choir, voices, percussion, and cello (played by his son). Ducret knows Berne’s own style well, and while celebratingnd 2 it places his own stamp on this collection of work.

“Curls/Palm Sweat/Mirth of the Cool” begins the recording. An eleven-minute long suite, in it Ducret comes on heavy, with overdubbed, distorted guitars, panning between speakers. I didn’t previously associate Berne’s music with power chords, but Ducret rocking out is in some ways analogous to Berne’s Snake Oil band at full fury. “Stutter Step” begins with a long drone, over which an extended solo of angular lines, complete with whammy bar vibrato, create a fractious demeanor. There are then a series of harmonic arpeggiations alongside brass choir. The layering of instruments is adroit and the result, once again, faithful to Berne’s musical language. “Shiteless 1 and 2” are a study in contrasts, the first exploring noise and then adding horns to the mix, and the second overlapping harp-like arpeggios and a clean guitar sound.

Not all the compositions feature amplification. “Rolled Oats 1” and “Rolled Oats 2” feature a more traditional jazz sound, without effects or extreme amplitude. They are lithe standouts among the recording’s walls of sound, and a welcome respite that features Ducret’s playing in a gentler vein.

Palm Sweat is a fascinating translation by Ducret of Berne’s works. Recommended.

-Christian Carey

by Christian Carey