WomanChild
Cecile McLorin Salvant
Justin Time JTR 8580-2
justin-time.com

When the American singer Cécile McLorin Salvant won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2010, the buzz around her was massive. Relatively young and coming seemingly out of nowhere, she impressed the judges with her poise and talent. The praise then and since has been effusive (on a recent cover of Jazz News she was referred to as simply “The Voice”) and it’s all well deserved.

The sounds of many legendary jazz singers can be heard in Salvant’s voice — most apparently Sarah Vaughan — in particular in the pure, horn-like quality that is one of the hallmarks of a great vocal talent. Confident and sure-footed in both traditional and modern styles, she gets basic and loose on the bluesy St. Louis Gal and the New Orleans-style Nobody, then edgy and outside the box on the title track, WomanChild, her own composition. Her sophistication quotient goes up even a few more notches when she sings easily and naturally in French on Le Front Caché Sur Tes Genoux.

The overall feeling of the album is masterful and that owes a lot to Salvant’s band mates. She has chosen to work with some very experienced players — like Rodney Whitaker, bass, Herlin Riley, drums, and James Chirillo, guitar and banjo — who bring a steady hand to the mix, while piano player Aaron Diehl is, like Salvant, a rising star in the jazz world. For fans who may worry about the art form’s future, this album is a sign it’s in very good hands.

Our Second Set
John MacLeod & His Rex Hotel Orchestra
Independent
johnsjazz.ca

Further proof — if indeed it is needed — of the astonishing quality of musicians in Toronto can be found on this, the second CD by this orchestra, recorded January 3 and 4, 2013, at the Humber College recording studio. The arrangements, all by John MacLeod except for Melancholy Baby which is by Rick Wilkins, are works of art and the program is a comfortable mix of standards and originals.

The standards are a high energy Indiana, a richly textured arrangement of Everything Happens To Me, what MacLeod describes as a “mash up” arrangement of O Pato and Take The A Train and the lovely Wilkins arrangement of Melancholy Baby mentioned above. The originals are beautifully played by what can truly be described as an all-star gathering.

The musicianship throughout is exemplary, the soloists are at the top of their respective games and I would hardly be able to single out any one of them. Having said that I would be remiss if I didn’t take my hat off to leader John MacLeod who is the catalyst providing the chemistry that brings it all together. Running a big band involves a lot of time and effort, especially if you are also doing the bulk of the writing.

If you like big band jazz you need to add this recording to your collection.

—Jim Galloway

Da Bang!
Billy Bang
Tum Records TUM CD 034
tumrecords.com

Billy Bang came of age amidst the Civil Rights movement and free jazz. Having studied violin as a child, he returned to the instrument after combat duty in Vietnam, a harrowing experience later revisited in recordings like Vietnam: Reflections. From his first recordings in the late 70s, he emerged as the most compelling jazz violinist of his day, combining the robust swing of 1930s violinists like Stuff Smith and the visionary power of John Coltrane.

Bang recorded this final session in Finland in February 2011, two months before his death from lung cancer. The repertoire includes two very familiar tunes, Miles Davis’ All Blues and Sonny Rollins’ calypso-fuelled St. Thomas, but even that emphasizes Bang’s originality in mating musicians and material. The front line of Bang’s eerily thin violin sound and Dick Griffin’s robust trombone is very distinctive, emphasizing the combination of frailty and force that gives Bang’s work a special intensity.

The band sounds as if Bang assembled it for maximum authority, creating a powerhouse rhythm section of pianist Andrew Bemkey, bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Newman Taylor-Baker. They work in a largely received tradition, but Bang extends it in stunning ways: in his unaccompanied introduction to Don Cherry’s Guinea, pentatonic patterns and microtones link vernacular violin sounds — a Vietnamese đàn gáo, a Kenyan orutu — to early traditions of African-American fiddling, suggesting a unique perspective on the expressive depths and possibilities of jazz. Da Bang! is a powerful final testament.

Red Hot
Mostly Other People Do The Killing
Hot Cup HC 125
hotcuprecords.com

Trumpeter Peter Evans, who along with drummer Weasel Walter, bassist Tom Blancarte and pianist Charity Chan is featured at a punk-jazz-improv concert at the Arraymusic space on September 4, has quickly become one of jazz’s most in-demand and versatile brass men. Proficient elsewhere playing atonal music, this CD by an expanded version of the co-op group Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDtK) finds the New York-based brass man helping to create a respectful but sophisticated take on early jazz. That Evans has mammoth chops is without question, and you can note that on Zelienople, where following a wood-block [!] break from drummer Kevin Shea, Evans’ open-horn exposition is bird-song sweet at one instance and growly as a warthog by the next. Meanwhile on Orange is the Name of the Town, he fires off triplet patterns after triplet patterns with aplomb.

While classic jazz fanciers probably won’t be offended, sardonic Red Hot is no by-rote Dixieland-recreation. For a start, MOPDtK bassist Moppa Elliott composed the nine selections, and each draws on a conservatory full of influences. On the title track for instance, there are echoes of sci-fi-like electronic processing plus clunking banjo twangs, both created by Brandon Seabrook. Meanwhile the two-step melody is extended by pianist Ron Stabinsky’s ragtime-styled pumps, and climaxes when Jon Irabagon’s C-Melody sax wails pierce the connective four-horn vamp.

Atmospherically (post) modern and good time music in equal measure, the CD demonstrates clearly how many avant-garde tropes like broken-octave sax peeps or squeezed and hectoring brass tones actually have a long history. It also shows how top-flight music can be made up of many inferences. Elliott, for instance, begins Turkey Foot Corner not with Trad Jazz bass string slaps but spiccato plucks, that while undoubtedly modern, blend seamlessly into a two-beat band arrangement that emphasizes bass trombone guffaws from David Taylor.

In the spirit that jazz is increasingly an international language, this month’s collection of CDs emphasizes that dialogue, from American guests turning up on Canadian musicians’ CDs to Canadian expatriates who are members of a global community.

Montreal tenor saxophonist Chet Doxas has just released Dive (Addo AJR 015 addorecords.com), a well-conceived successor to his JUNO-nominated 2010 release Big Sky. Doxas has put together a New York-based rhythm section, though it includes Canadian expatriates, Toronto-born guitarist Matthew Stevens and Montreal-born bassist Zack Lober, as well as drummer Eric Doob. The music is in a contemporary idiom (Doxas also co-leads Riverside, a band that includes Dave Douglas and Steve Swallow), and Doxas delights in cleverly constructed pieces that he and the band negotiate with ease, creating playful engaging music. Doxas’ light tenor sound is made for mobility and everything here contributes to quick, spontaneous reactions. Stevens’ processed guitar sound contributes much to the overall feel: it’s at once glassy and opaque, shimmering and muted, and the abstracted clarity of his work comes to the fore on the elusive Mysteries.

A native of Williams Lake, BC, now based in Toronto, tenor saxophonist Ryan Oliver studied in the celebrated Jazz Program at Rutgers University in New Jersey where he got to know veteran New York drummer Victor Lewis, the two exploring rhythmic concepts in weekly duet sessions. Lewis appears on Oliver’s Strive! (ryanoliver.ca) and brings Oliver’s John Coltrane influence into sharp focus, from the turbulent dialogue of the opening title track, so evocative of Coltrane’s duets with Elvin Jones, to the elegiac Thousand Miles, Oliver’s impassioned high notes framed by Lewis’ ceremonial cymbals. There are still elements of Coltrane’s harmonic conception on the funk of Eddie and Crescent City Stomp but the back beats open the door to Oliver’s soul-jazz side and also provide openings for the rest of the band — pianist Gary Williamson and bassist Alex Coleman — to shine. While Oliver may lack originality at this point, he makes up for it in conviction and skill.

There’s more imported propulsion on the Cory Weeds/Bill Coon Quartet’s With Benefits (Cellar Live CL 091812 cellarlive.com), a terrific session in which Vancouverite tenor saxophonist Weeds and guitarist Coons enjoy the estimable support of the New York rhythm team of bassist Peter Washington and drummer Lewis Nash. They are all masters of a modern jazz mainstream defined in the 1950s, but they speak it as a personal idiom, whether it’s Weeds’ hard-edged lyricism or Coon’s lightly sparkling lines. Coon’s compositions make up half of the program, distinctive tunes that range from the superb balladry of Sunday Morning to the hard bop of Cory’s Story. The group dialogue is never better, though, than on the standard East of the Sun, a feature for Weeds’ warm balladry.

Like Weeds and Coon, bassist Clyde Reed is an essential part of the Vancouver scene, a stalwart presence in free jazz and improvising groups like the NOW Orchestra and Ion Zoo. One of his longest running affiliations is with the Oregon-based tenor saxophonist Rich Halley whose elemental music is one with the Pacific Northwest: his Crossing the Passes (Pine Eagle 005 richhalley.com) consists of compositions inspired by a hike across Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains, an outcropping of the Rockies. Halley’s compositions can be as jagged as a series of peaks, as varied as the terrain and there’s clear empathy with trombonist Michael Vlatkovich, who supplies the same emotion and force that characterize Halley’s own lines. Reed is a bulwark of empathy and form, whether providing rapid propulsion with drummer Carson Halley on Duology or coming to the fore with warm pizzicato and arco solos.

Drummer Greg Smith went to Europe with Toronto’s Shuffle Demons in the mid-90s and decided to stay there, taking up residence in Holland. Among his current projects is a Rotterdam-based band called Lama with Portuguese trumpeter Susana Santos Silva and bassist Gonçalo Almeida. The group expands to Lama + Chris Speed with the addition of the New York saxophonist and clarinettist for Lamaçal (Clean Feed CF 275 cleanfeed-records.com), a live performance from the Portalegre Jazz Festival. This is lively creative music that delights in detailed close interaction amid a mix of unusual sonic textures: suggestions of village brass bands, Middle-Eastern scales, electronic loops and whale sounds abound. It even combines old-fashioned New Orleans polyphony with atonality. Smith’s boppish composition Cachalote is highlighted by a duet between the drummer and the mercurial Speed.

Pianist Kris Davis has followed a path from Calgary to Toronto and on to Brooklyn where she has established herself as one of the most creative improvisers of her generation. She appears on bassist Eric Revis’ City of Asylum (Clean Feed CF 277 cleanfeed-records.com) in a piano trio completed by the veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille. The studio session marked the first meeting of the three musicians, but there’s no sense that they’re feeling one another out. There’s aggressive creative interplay in the freely improvised pieces, with a special attention to momentum, the three sometimes developing tremendous swing while pursuing independent rhythms. A playful approach to Thelonious Monk’s Gallop’s Gallop and a reverent one to Keith Jarrett’s Prayer reveal something of the trio’s range and affinities. 

Twenty years after its modest beginning, the Guelph Jazz Festival (GJF), which this year takes place September 3 to 8, has grown to be one of this country’s major improvised music celebrations. Unlike many other so-called jazz fests which lard their programs with crooners masquerading as jazz singers, tired rock or pop acts, or so-called World or C&W performers who make no pretence of playing jazz, the GJF continues to showcase committed improvisers in sympathetic settings including during the fourth installment of the dusk-to-dawn Nuit Blanche.

Perhaps the most celebrated innovator at the GJF is trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. His Golden Quartet, which shares a double bill at the River Run Centre (RRC)’s main stage September 7, performs a variant of his classic Ten Freedom Summer suite, shortlisted for this year’s Pulitzer Prize in music. Part of that program was recorded with an orchestra, and you can get an idea of Smith’s structural blending listening to Occupy The World (TUM CD 037-2 tumrecords.com) as the 21-piece TUM Orchestra (TUMO) interprets another Smith composition. The selections’ intricate arrangements serve not to frame Smith’s muted brass flurries, which bring Miles Davis-like ballad mastery into the 21st century, but open up to the talents of the mostly Finnish orchestra. You can hear that on the title track when the trumpeter’s tale told through rubato grace notes and squeezed triplets is matched with tom-tom-like passages from TUMO’s three percussionists, followed by massed polyphony pierced by legato strings, a tremolo harp sequence and Smith’s conclusive brassy and heraldic tones. The Golden Quartet’s bassist John Lindberg is soloist on Mount Kilimanjaro, where his magisterial double and triple stopping establish a staccato pantonality which encourages the five-person string section to abandon legato thrusts for stirring sweeps, and despite being performed at warp speed, encourages a satisfying orchestral mosaic. Leaving space for split-second sonic blasts from the entire band, before the warm and welcoming conclusion, Lindberg joins the other tremolo strings for a sequence of scrubs and sweeps. Incidentally, Swedish tenor saxophonist Fredrik Ljungkvist, part of the Atomic band, which is at the RRC’s Co-operators Hall September 4 during the GJF, is one stand-out on Queen Hatshepsut when his bravura churning and almost vocalized tenor saxophone lines make a perfect pantonal contrast to pointillist smears from accordion and piano.

Balancing a delicate outer shell with a steely core, American flutist Nicole Mitchell is another major improv figure whose Indigo Trio plays St. George’s Church’s Mitchell Hall September 5. A similar configuration with bassist Joshua Abrams and drummer Frank Rosaly expands with additional colours on Aquarius (Delmark DE 5004 delmark.com) when the three and vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz make up the Ice Crystal band. What Herbie Mann’s combo could have sounded like if he had ignored rock-pop blandishments, even Mitchell’s blues and Latin tunes trade simplicity for sophistication as four-mallet, bell-like tones from the vibist and her gruff tremolo gusts are as linear as they are lyrical. Other pieces such as Above the Sky reflect mood rather than linearity, borne on metal-bar smacks and swooping flute flutters. Another standout, Sunday Afternoon has a pastoral title, yet adds Chicago grit to become a straight-ahead swinger, following Abrams’ stentorian solo that expands into string multiphonics while maintaining a steady pulse. Meanwhile the rhythmic adaptability of Rosaly is succinctly showcased on Adaptability. He proves that a program of rim shots, rolls and pops doesn’t retard the beat but instead underlines the metallic origin of the other instruments Adasiewicz and Mitchell transform with extended techniques, to soar and bounce as well as peep and resonate. 

Another inventive figure is pianist Satoko Fujii, whose French-Japanese Kaze Quartet is at the RRC’s Co-operators Hall on the morning of September 7. Kaze trumpeter Natsuki Tamura is also featured on Time Stands Still (NotTwo MW 897-2 nottwo.com) along with Fujii, bassist Norikatsu Koreyasu and drummer Akira Horikoshi as the quartet Ma-Do. Anything but Orientalist, except for some taiko-like thumps from Horikoshi and Koreyasu’s erhu-like patterning during the appropriately titled Broken Time, Fujii’s concepts are closely aligned to bedrock jazz plus inferences from so-called classical music. That tune accelerates to a layered swinger with strummed chords and glissandi from the pianist plus a Gabriel-like open-horn trumpet solo. Relaxed excitement is the touchstone of North Wind and the Sun on the other hand, where Tamura’s moderated linear exposition turns to sibilant lip bubbling as Fujii’s double pumping and circular chording plus sweeping bass lines engender friction but never break the chromatic line. In contrast Set the Clock Back is almost formalist with Chopinesque keyboard touches and legato note construction from the trumpeter. Outstanding and more experimental are Koreyasu’s a cappella string shakes which redirect the tune so that following his solo, when the head reappears, it too is more tremolo and agitated.

Outstanding double bass work from closer to home is on tap during a free Market Square afternoon concert that same day when Montreal bassist Jean Félix Mailloux performs his compositions from Bomata – Arômes d’allieurs (Malasartes mam 016 malasartesmusique.com) with his associates, percussionist Patrick Graham and Guillaume Bourque playing clarinet and bass clarinet. A trio which has internalized “scents from elsewhere” – the translation of the CD title – Bomata’s unhurried performances reference various ethnic styles without becoming subservient to any. A fine instance of this mixing is Cardamome when cross pulses from Graham and second drummer Phillippe Melanson move contrapuntally alongside a walking bass line, providing a trembling rhythm to Bourque’s mid-range, Klezmer-like overlay. The reedman’s mercurial high-note skill is on display on Shaman, with the bass taking on a slinky oud-like resonance and guest frame drummer Ziya Tabassian adding hard thwacks to toughen the beat. Yet as intense as the bassist’s and clarinettist’s improvisations become neither disrupts the basic thematic flow. Pianist Jérôme Beaulieu, who joins Bomata on a couple of tracks, is a little too decorous, creating a crystallite Nordic feel which clashes with Bourque’s ney-like sound on Nuit Blanche. Although with 13 tracks, sameness sets in at points, most performances argue well for the band’s continued evolution from this 2012 CD. Chinoiseries could offer one path, with the arrangement open enough to allow the reedist some altissimo smears even as the theme stays linear, with the end product suggesting both Eastern European concertina-like riffs plus a swinging jazz-like interface.

Broadsway – Old Friends
Heather Bambrick; Julie Michels;
Diane Leah
Broadsway BWCD001
thebroadswayshow.com

Three broads sing it their way: meet Broadsway, an explosively talented trio. The versatile voices of Heather Bambrick and Julie Michels are paired with acclaimed pianist/musical director Diane Leah, who in this context sings, plays and arranges exquisitely. Charmingly, the project started out by accident, when Michels, accompanied by Leah, invited Bambrick to sit in on what turned out to be a fantabulous version of Moondance (find it on YouTube!) in November of 2008. Turns out these three women have more in common than curly hair: incredible musicality, electric stage presence and, central to the group, a mutual respect and admiration for one another. Nearly five years after that first “Moondance,” they’ve turned their innate musical sisterhood into a sublime, polished cabaret act.

Likely the only group in the world to perform Puccini, Lady Gaga and Thelonious Monk in the same set, Broadsway can do seemingly anything, but most of their material comes from musical theatre and film. Highlights of this recording include Take Me or Leave Me from Rent, I Know Him So Well from Chess, a testament to songwriting genius in the Broadsway Bacharach medley and a contagiously joyous romp through the challenging Lambert, Hendricks & Ross vehicle Cloudburst. Balancing the wild spontaneity of a given moment with years of friendship, there will never be another Broadsway. And while there is no substitute to seeing these ladies in concert, this CD comes highly recommended.

—Ori Dagan

Concert Note:Broadsway performs on September 6 and 7 at the Flying Beaver Pubaret at 488 Parliament St.

Benjamin Bitten: The Complete Works.
Limited Edition of 3,000 copies world-wide.
Benjamin Britten, conductor, pianist.
DECCA 4785364 The deluxe boxed set of 65 CDs, one DVD
includes a 208 page, 6”x 8” illustrated hard cover book.

Of all the omnibus anniversary sets and innumerable artist-driven collections that have arrived recently, none has been more eagerly anticipated in this house than this Benjamin Britten collection. Now it is here in a limited edition of 3,000 copies worldwide in a deluxe boxed set of 65 CDs, with a DVD and a 208-page 6˝×8˝ illustrated book and there is not one whit of disappointment.

My first awareness of Britten (1913–1976) came on recordings of a handful of his arrangements of British folk songs from HMV with Britten accompanying Peter Pears: The Foggy Foggy Dew; The Ploughboy; Come you not from Newcastle?; Oliver Cromwell; The Sally Gardens and some others. I found them very pleasing and looked for more Britten in the record shops. One piece led to another, evolving into a continuing interest in Britten’s other works. Even more enticing was that he was alive then and there would be more to come. And there certainly was!

The Complete Works is divided into four groups: The Operas (CDs 1-20); Stage and Screen (CDs 21-32); Voices (CDs 33-48) and Instruments (CDs 49-61). There are four extra discs described below.

In Voices, discs 46, 47 and 48 contain 100 songs and folksong arrangements, including the above and all the others of that era (1945–47) plus later recordings, including six settings of W.H. Auden sung by Pears, Philip Langridge and Felicity Lott with various accompanists. This group includes the War Requiem, recorded in 1963, with soloists Galina Vishnevskaya, Pears and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, plus three choirs, organ, the Melos Ensemble and the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Britten (CD 33).This compelling work was commissioned for the consecration of the rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in 1962 for which Britten, who had a completely free hand, chose the traditional Latin text from the Missa pro defunctis juxtaposed with nine poems by Wilfred Owen, who was slain in the last days of the First World War. Other works in Voices are the Spring Symphony; Cantata Academica; Saint Nicholas; A Boy was Born; A Ceremony of Carols; Rejoice in the Lamb; Missa Brevis; The Serenade for tenor, horn and strings (with Barry Tuckwell); Les Illuminations; The Five Canticles; The Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo; and all the others including the shorter works.

Until 1945 Britten was widely thought of, particularly in the older British music circles, as clever but superficial ... that was until June 7, 1945. That date marked the first performance of his second opera, Peter Grimes. The audience went wild as did critics and the British music establishment. Britten had emerged as an overnight, international success. He was now a composer of stature, lauded by all and sundry. In the premiere, the wronged, anguished Grimes was superbly realized by Pears, as he was on the 1948 recording of an abridged performance conducted by Reginald Goodall (EMI) and a decade further on in the 1959 complete recording conducted by Britten (CDs 3&4). Once a listener tunes in to Pears’ unmistakable timbre and the emotional depth of his performance, it is very easy to understand why Britten so vehemently disliked Jon Vickers in the role.

With the exception of the brilliant A Midsummer Night’s Dream (CDs 15&16), central to Britten’s operas is a misunderstood, injured and/or offended character who is also something of an innocent. The lonely and misjudged Peter Grimes is a perfect example, but none more deeply touching than Aschenbach in Death in Venice (CDs 19&20), based on Thomas Mann’s well-known story and the last of Britten’s operas. They are all here including Gloriana (CDs 11&12), conducted by Charles Mackerras in 1993. I am particularly fond of The Rape of Lucretia (CDs 5&6) which followed one year after Peter Grimes. Reginald Goodall conducted the Royal Opera House Orchestra with Pears and Joan Cross in 1947 in a truncated version (HMV) that sold me on the work but under Britten in 1971 with Pears (the male chorus) and Heather Harper (the female chorus), plus Janet Baker, Benjamin Luxon and others we have the definitive version.

As there is little space left to muse upon the many more works that continue to attract, let me direct you to the Decca website (deccaclassics.com) where there is a detailed list of the complete contents.

The last four discs (CDs 62 to 65) are unique to this edition. They are: Making Music with Britten — a documentary with singers, instrumentalists, orchestral musicians and producers recalling their experiences with Britten; rehearsal excerpts of the War Requiem recording sessions; historic recordings from 1944 to 1953 — four recordings including the 1948 Serenade for tenor, horn, and strings with Britten, Dennis Brain and the Boyd Neel Orchestra and also the Four Sea Interludes with Eduard van Beinum and the Concertgebouw; and supplementary recordings from 1955 to 1989. The extra disc is a DVD of the Tony Palmer video of the recording of The Burning Fiery Furnace.

The recordings heard are mainly from Decca, who also drew upon the archives of EMI, Virgin, Warner Music, Onyx, Bis and 14 other labels. It is of no consequence, except to pedants, that some very early works and film music are not included.

Earnestly recommended and a must see for those who might be interested is Benjamin Britten: The Hidden Heart, a DVD from EMI (509992 165719). Subtitled A Life of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, this 78-minute film produced in 2001 contains interviews and quotes from their associates, friends and relatives together with rare archival footage of significant performances. This is not an apologia but an appreciation and recognition of their symbiosis.

To paraphrase Clara’s lullaby in Porgy and Bess, summertime and the listening is easy. How much easier and “cool” could it get than listening to the original performances of the legendary Modern Jazz Quartet, particularly their early recordings from 1956 through 1960? The group came together in 1952 with pianist and leader John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Percy Heath and (from 1955) percussionist Connie Kay. Their complete Atlantic recordings can be found a new four-disc set for about the price of one CD (Enlightenment EN4CD 9008). The 52 tracks include some 20 popular ballads, many jazz classics and original material. The first CD is monaural, the rest in stereo.

Fuelled by innovation rather than nostalgia, composers and arrangers continue to utilize the sonic parameters of larger ensembles to help tell their stories in the most expansive way possible. Whether it’s exposing individual original compositions or organizing the sessions into a thematic whole, these vital CDs demonstrate why a big band is still favoured as an expressive vehicle for both free-form improvisation and tightly plotted compositions.

For an example of the latter you don’t have to go much further than Brooklyn Babylon (New Amsterdam Records NWAM 048 newamsterdamrecords.com), a mythical and cinematic narrative created by Vancouver-born Darcy James Argue as part of a multi-media presentation by Croatian-born visual artist Danijel Zezelj. Argue, who also lived in Montreal and received his degree in composition in Boston, has been in Brooklyn since 2003 and composed the multi-part Brooklyn Babylon as a fable, reflecting his adopted hometown’s storied past, cultural multiplicity and ambitious future. Conducted by the composer, Argue’s 18-piece Secret Society band performs the suite’s eight interlocking themes and seven brief interludes. Calling on the talents of a band featuring the interlocked groove of drummer Jon Wikan and bassist Matt Clohesy, the storytelling understatement of several reed soloists, and the alternately plunger excitement and mellow narratives of fellow Canuck trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, Argue directs a sound picture with enough expansive exposition to make the CD the equivalent of aural Technicolor. Reflecting present-day currents of New York`s second borough, the sequences in Argue’s suite blend and contrast vamping big-band section work; heavily rhythmic rock-music-like grooves; gentle folkloric and impressionistic sound pastels from flute, soprano sax and flugelhorn soloists; plus interludes that replicate brass band marches, Balkan ballads, a touch of electronic processing and the pre-recorded sounds of the borough’s streets. One standout is Missing Parts when the rest of the band members play hand percussion backing Josh Stinson’s free-form baritone sax lines and a mellow trombone interlude from James Hirschfield. Another is The Tallest Tower in the World, which reaches its heights through brassy trumpet triplets and soprano sax squeals. Keyboardist Gordon Webster holds components together not only with sharp piano cadenzas but also with near-vocalized melodic sweeps. If the program does have a weakness it probably lies in its movie soundtrack-like surround sound expressiveness. With piccolo peeps and French horn lowing heard more often than tuba burps or guitar note shredding, the selections often retreat to overly pleasant background sounds lacking the authoritative ingredients that would define them as completely individual. But Argue is still developing. Maybe he’ll soon compose a piece to reflect his homeland.

Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Tierkreis

Bruno Heinen Sextet

Babel Label BDV 13119 (babellabel.co.uk)

Perfect sounds for those who think Karlheinz Stockhausen’s music is difficult is Tierkreis (1974-75), initially composed for 12 music boxes reflecting the signs of the zodiac, and then adapted for any number of instruments. With the sanction of the composer’s son, British pianist Bruno Heinen, whose parents were Stockhausen associates, has created a jazz-improv variant of the suite for bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, trumpet, double bass, drums, his own piano and, on certain tracks, five music boxes, bookending the performance as the composer demands, with an identical melody reflecting the session date’s star sign.

Rameau - Les Amants Trahis
Philippe Sly; Hélène Guilmette; Clavecin en Concert; Luc Beauséjour
Analekta AN 2 9991

Rameau was always supremely confident of his instrumental compositions, yet opera remained his key challenge. His quest for excellence is demonstrated in this CD. In some short extracts from Thétis, bass-baritone Philippe Sly sings an attractive prélude Muses, dans vos divins concerts, demonstrating Rameau’s mastery of airs and récitatifs. More complex are the pieces selected from Les Amants Trahis: Hélène Guilmette and Sly are almost polyphonic in Ma bergère a trahi sa foi, carefully interpreting the moods of the duo. In fact, it is difficult to decide which are the more enjoyable, the duos or the airs – the compilers offer us no fewer than 30 tracks to help us make up our minds!
 
Les Amants Trahis, with 12 tracks selected, dominates this anthology, but let us not forget Aquilon et Orithie. The air Servez mes feux à vôtre tour features not only some spirited singing but also a vigourous violin accompaniment. Le Berger Fidèle’s Faut-il qu’Amarillis périsse? is an excellent vehicle for Guilmette’s skills, stately and pensive as is the air in question.
 
Finally, there is the conducting from the harpsichord by Luc Beauséjour, who brings out the best in his continuo. All demonstrate the importance of Rameau whether to opera or to French music.

Pergolesi - La Salustia
Vittorio Prato; Serena Malfi; Laura Polverelli; Accademia Barocca De I Musici Italiani; Corrado Rovaris
ArtHaus Musik 101651

Pergolesi - L’Olimpiade
Raúl Giménez; Lyubov Petrova; Yetzabel Arias Fernández; Academia Montis Regalis; Alessandro De Marchi
ArtHaus Musik 101650

Pergolesi - Il Flaminio
Juan Francisco Gatell; Laura Polverelli; Marina De Liso; Accademia Bizantina Orchestra & Chorus; Ottavio Dantone
ArtHaus Musik 101653

Of Pergolesi's operas only the intermezzo La Serva Padrona is now at all well known, although I once saw another intermezzo, Livietta e Trascollo. But in his short life (he died at the age of 26), Pergolesi wrote a number of full-length operas, both serious and comic. The opera house in Jesi, Pergolesi's birthplace, has performed several of them in recent years.

Of the three recordings under review, that of La Salustia is the least satisfactory. The opera is set during the reign of the third-century Roman Emperor Alexander Severus and presents the rivalry between his mother and his wife. The best performance comes from Serena Malfi as the emperor's much abused wife but all of the singers are technically very competent. The main drawback is the acting which is either rudimentary or grossly exaggerated. Attempts at baroque gesture are unsuccessful. I also thought it was a mistake to cast a countertenor as the emperor. I am not saying this because I disapprove of the use of countertenors in 18th century opera (unhistorical though it is). A singer with a stronger voice like Philippe Jaroussky would certainly have managed it very well.

The libretto for L'Olimpiade is by Pietro Metastasio. It was set by dozens of composers, beginning with Caldara in 1733. There is a CD set issued by Naïve which uses the complete text of the Metastasio arias but uses music by 12 different composers (it was reviewed in the July 2012 issue of The WholeNote). Pergolesi's version dates from 1735 and was written for Rome. It features a tenor, a baritone and four singers with high voices. Since women were not allowed on the stage in Rome, the higher parts would have been performed by castrati. Here they are sung by women, a sensible decision, and the singers are very good indeed, particularly Sofia Soloviy and Jennifer Rivera, in trouser roles. I am not wild about the production which makes no attempt at creating any theatrical illusion and does nothing with the important pastoral element of the work.

While the two operas discussed above are opere serie, Il Flaminio is a comedy or, as it was known in Neapolitan dialect, a commedia pre musica. It incorporates popular melodies as well as jokes about language. The maid Checca is from Pisa, she makes fun of the Neapolitan dialect spoken by her boyfriend and complains that he mispronounces her name as Cecca. He then attempts, unsuccessfully, to address her in Tuscan. The production does not start well: the baritone overacts and the tenor is not much better but the women are excellent. Laura Polverelli gives a magnificent performance of an opera seria aria in Act I (it is the context which makes it a parody) and there is a delightful impersonation by, again, Serena Malfi as a gauche but ultimately successful suitor.

To sum up: I cannot recommend the production of La Salustia but I liked the other two, despite some reservations.

Rossini - Il Barbiere di Siviglia
Cecilia Bartoli; David Kuebler; Gino Quilico; Carlos Feller; Schwetzingen SWR Festspiele; Gabriele Ferro
ArtHaus Musik 102 305

Useless Precaution. Believe it or not, this was how this opera was called at its premiere. Since the Barbiere had already been written by the older, well established Paisiello, Rossini had to choose a different title. Opening night the Teatro Argentina in Rome was filled with Paisiello fans and this new opera by a “young upstart” was booed and whistled off the stage, but now, almost 200 years later where is Paisiello?

This wonderful production from Cologne just proves how successful a performance can be without any directorial updating, added “relevance” or other nonsense that has ruined so many present day productions. Although traditional, it is brilliantly directed by veteran Michael Hampe, but it is the principal singers who make this production unforgettable. The star mezzo, Cecilia Bartoli has distinguished herself as a true Rossini diva both as a dramatic actress (e.g. Desdemona) and here as a delightful comedienne singing with virtuoso brilliance and conquering Rossini’s hair-raising fioraturas with supreme ease. Underneath she has a mischievous trait and hidden fire par excellence so essential for a Rossini heroine.

Her counterpart as Count Almaviva, American tenor David Kueblerwreaks havoc in some hilarious scenes (especially as a drunken soldier), his voice perfectly suited for Rossini’s difficult tessituras. No less successful is Canadian baritone Gino Quilico(Figaro) who proves to be a worthy son of his famous father, with a velvety, resilient and acrobatic lyrical baritone. A wonderful bonus in the basso department is the eminent, now regrettably late Robert Lloyd, incomparable as Don Basilio, but Carlos Feller certainly doesn’t disappoint as the hilarious though pitiful Dr. Bartolo either.

Mahler - Orchesterlieder
Christian Gerhaher; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal; Kent Nagano
Analekta AN 2 9849

Kent Nagano’s initial collaboration with the splendid German baritone Christian Gerhaher and the OSM in a Sony recording of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde drew qualified admiration from me in 2009. This new recording of Mahler’s vocal works on the Analekta label is a patchwork from two January evenings during the inaugural season of the OSM’s new concert hall in 2012. As before, the main attraction is Gerhaher’s exceptional voice and sensitive interpretation of the three major song cycles: the youthful Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the ruminative Kindertotenlieder, and the variegated settings of the Rückert Lieder. (Gerhaher also released a sensational Deutsche Grammophon recording of Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra in 2010.)

Nagano is an attentive collaborator and handles tempo fluctuations adroitly, though the dynamic contrasts and drama of the music are decidedly underplayed. The recorded sound has considerable presence which is both a blessing and a curse as this is one of the noisier live performance pick-ups I’ve heard. Beyond the usual muffled coughs from the audience, odd thumps and strange mutterings occasionally infest the stage as well. (This is the downside of making recordings on the cheap without the contribution of an engaged producer in proper studio conditions.) Gerhaher’s finely modulated voice and excellent diction set a new standard for future interpreters of Mahler lieder. Thankfully this time (unlike the OSM Das Lied release) full French and English translations of the German texts are provided.