Le Triomphe de l’amour
Sandrine Piau; Les Paladins;
Jerome Correas
Naïve OP 30532

The recorded repertoire of the soprano Sandrine Piau is extensive; it also covers a remarkably wide field, from Purcell and Biber in the 17th century to Frank Martin and Benjamin Britten in the 20th. It is, however, as an interpreter of baroque music, both opera and oratorio, that Piau is best known and it is French baroque opera, from Lully and Charpentier in the 1680s to Sacchini in 1783, which forms the subject matter of the disc under review.

As the title suggests, the arias are all about love: about desire, about jealousy, about grief for the death of the beloved. Piau has an agile and expressive voice. She displays an impressive coloratura in the disc’s opening aria from Grétry’s L’amant jaloux and even more so in the fearsome passage work of the extract from Sacchini’s Renaud. Her technique is, however, never offered for its own sake. This is best heard in the sadness and the passion of the aria from Campra’s Idomenée and in the long sustained lines of the arias from Charpentier’s David et Jonathas and from two Rameau operas: Les paladins and Les indes galantes. There are also several instrumental tracks; of these the dance sequence from Rameau’s Les fêtes de Ramire is especially attractive.

We can look forward to Piau’s appearance with Tafelmusik early in the new year. Meanwhile we have this disc, which I recommend with enthusiasm.

Sogno Barocco
Anne Sofie von Otter; Sandrine Piau; Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea; Leonardo Garcia Alarcon
Naïve V 5286

The mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter has never been known as an early music singer, in the limiting sense of that term, but she has sung in some very fine recordings of early music. The CD under review is a very welcome addition to her repertoire: it both begins and ends with Monteverdi; in between there is music by Cavalli, Rossi and Provenzale. The first Monteverdi item is the solo madrigal, Si dolce è ‘l tormento, which has in the past been recorded by other fine singers, notably Janet Baker, Montserrat Figueras and Philippe Jaroussky, as well as by von Otter herself. There are two duets from L’incoranazione di Poppaea, in which von Otter sings Nero to Sandrine Piau’s Poppaea, while the concluding piece is Penelope’s great lament in Il ritorno di Ulisse in patria. Of especial interest too is Rossi’s lament by the Queen of Sweden on hearing the news of the death of her husband Gustavus Adolphus on the battlefield. It is complemented by Provenzale’s parody of that lament.

Von Otter is in great voice throughout the recording, which I recommend with enthusiasm. The three duets with Piau are especially fine. We shall be able to hear Piau in concert with Tafelmusik in the new year; von Otter last sang in Toronto in February 2011, but I remember her from a much earlier occasion, when she did a fabulous recital at the George Weston Recital Hall. When shall we hear her again?

Massenet – Don Quichotte
Jose Van Dam; Orchestre symphonique et choeurs de la Monnaie; Marc Minkowski
Naïve DR 2147

One of the last operas of Jules Massenet, a moving incarnation of an “impossible dream” and the inevitable reality of old age, is celebrating its 100th anniversary, performed to perfection at the Royal Opera House of Belgium. A grand event attended by the Queen who contributed to the show by financing four new young singers. It also became a farewell performance for José van Dam, who dazzled the world in the title role for decades. He was also a vocal coach for the young singers; an inspirational figure indeed.

As to what was involved to realize this magnificent occasion there exists an excellent long, exhaustive documentary. It shows the almost superhuman painstaking efforts step by step from the directorial concept, the rehearsals, the building of the scenery with millions of sheets of paper, the coaching of the choir and the tireless efforts of the young assistant conductor. Finally the godlike arrival of conductor Marc Minkowski and the mercurial presence of le directeur, Laurent Pelly, whose enormous contribution this video increasingly demonstrates.

Because of the very difficult task of coping with a huge, episodic novel, the composer decided to select a few key episodes, like the iconic windmill adventure and came up with a dramatically cohesive structure with one of the most moving endings in opera. José van Dam is ideally suited for Don Quixote, a role originally written for Chaliapin. As a Frenchman would, Massenet expanded the role of the woman in the story into a sophisticated, tempestuous and beautiful femme fatale (Cervantes’ Dulcinea was never like this!). The role is exquisitely sung and acted by Silvia Tro Santafe, a Spanish mezzo with a spectacular vocal range. And we mustn’t forget the third principal, Werner van Mechelen, a Belgian baritone who made Sancho Panza his own.

A joy to watch, never boring, much laughter and touching tenderness make this a very rewarding evening’s entertainment.

Mercadante – Don Chisciotte
alle nozze di Gamaccio
Ugo Guagliardo; Domenico Colaianni; Laura Catrani; San Pietro a Majella Chorus, Naples; Czech Chamber Soloists, Brno; Antonino Fogliani
Naxos 8.660312-13

Cervantes’ huge, epoch making novel from 1605, the first “novel” ever written, has inspired more than one musical treatment not to mention the magnificent tone poem by Richard Strauss, but there is one curiosity just recently emerged. At the well established and respected Rossini in Wildbad Festival, a totally forgotten opera (not performed in the last 150 years!) was unearthed. The composer was Saverio Mercadante (1795-1870), a contemporary of Rossini and Donizetti, an Italian who did much of his work in Spain. His music is much under the influence of Rossini with some originalities explained competently in the liner notes.

To me the interesting thing is how each composer approached this enormous novel. Massenet compressed the work into a few significant scenes, but Mercadante chose an entirely different venue by selecting only one episode, the 20th chapter, where Don Quixote prevents a forced marriage of a farm girl to a wealthy suitor instead of her poor lover. The music is delightful throughout with all-pervasive Spanish rhythms, but the opera really takes off when Don Quixote (Ugo Guagliardo) enters the scene. The entry of the powerful basso profundo voice with vocal acrobatics and strong characterization turns the opera into the extraordinary, much like what Rossini did in his Maometto Secondo. Laura Catrani, the country girl and her lover Hans Ever Mogollon (tenor) are beautiful fresh voices and there is no weakness in the supporting roles either. Rossini specialist Antonino Fogliani conducts with a strong impulse and forward momentum to draw a thunderous ovation.

Les Gouts Accordes
Esteban La Rotta; Jivko Georgiev; Margaret Little; Katelyn Clark
ATMA ACD2 2673

Louis XIV wanted to bring ethnic cohesion to his western European mini-empire. Realising culture would play a part in this, he brought Italian-born Giovanni Battista Lulli to his court and rebranded him as Jean-Baptiste Lully. This CD brings us Lully and Robert de Visée (who actually was French-born) and others such as Jean-Baptiste Barrière who composed in the Sun King’s wake.

Barrière’s second and sixth trio sonatas bring out a rich resonant quality in the theorbo. This continues in the allegro movements with a part for viola da gamba which plays the spritely gigue that ends both sonatas. The theorbo is, above all, given a chance to showcase itself with de Visée’s A Minor theorbo suite. Here, the incorporation of more lively dance-based movements, the gavotte and rondeau, enhance the enjoyment of the suite and Esteban La Rotta’s dexterity manifests itself.

Finally, there is a theorbo solo where de Visée arranges the “Ritournelles des Fées” from Lully’s opera Roland. In the hands of La Rotta the solo underlines just how versatile the theorbo was at a time when it was being challenged in every area of performance by the harpsichord. Indeed, it also demonstrates how effective the combination of Lully and de Visée was in forming a cohesive French musical tradition.

Busoni – Clarinet Concertino; Flute Divertimento; Rondo alecchinesco
Giammorco Casani; Laura Minguzzi; Gianluca Terranova; Orchestra Sinfonica
di Roma; Francesco La Vecchia
Naxos 8.572922

The Italian maestro Francesco da Vecchia, who favoured us last season with an ambitious new recording of Busoni’s gargantuan Piano Concerto, continues his championing of the music of Ferruccio Busoni (1866-1924) with a generous sampling of shorter orchestral works by this sorely underrated composer whose inimitable compositions have long been overshadowed by his towering reputation as a legendary performer. The centrepieces of the present disc are two single movement wind concertos. Giammarco Casani is the exceedingly suave soloist in the Clarinet Concertino while Laura Minguzzi provides an appropriately sprightly interpretation of the mercurial Divertimento for flute and small orchestra. My only grievance with these interpretations is that they are engineered with the soloists forced unrealistically forward in the sonic mix.

An additional quartet of purely orchestral works presents a broad chronological overview of Busoni’s stylistic development, commencing with the bustling neo-classical Comedy Overture of 1897, the moody, otherworldly Song of the Spirit Dance with its striking aboriginal references inspired by Busoni’s foray to America, followed by the sardonic Rondò arlecchinesco (both from 1915) and concluding with Busoni’s last orchestral work, the Viennese-accented Tanzwalzer of 1920.

In an unusual practice for Naxos, there are two different sets of liner notes, the usual prosaic English version by the ubiquitous Richard Whitehouse and, as best as I can tell, a considerably more insightful Italian essay by Tommaso Manera.

10
tenThing
EMI Classics 088326 2

A few months ago I reviewed the CD Storyteller by Norwegian trumpeter Tine Thing Helseth with orchestra and piano accompaniment. Now she is back with a ten member all woman brass ensemble called tenThing. This group, in instrumentation and sound, more closely resembles an enlarged brass quintet that a small brass band. The group consists of four trumpets, three tenor trombones, one bass trombone, one French horn and one tuba. The opener is a rousing version of a Carmen Suite arranged for the group by Roger Harvey. The group’s precise articulation comes to the fore in their rendition of Asturias by Albéniz. It’s not just the trumpets; the trombone and tuba always come through crisp and clean.

For me, a welcome inclusion is a seven movement suite from Kurt Weill’s Threepenny Opera. The trombone playing in particular captures the spirit that Weill would have wanted; Mack the Knife and Polly come to life. Two impressionistic works by Astor Piazzolla add a bit of Latin flavour, and a spirited rendition of Mozart’s Rondo alla Turca provides the real fiery component of this compilation.

There is no attempt to showcase the leader or any other member on this recording. Throughout, Helseth and her cohorts are members of the tight ensemble. The recording quality is top notch with 68 minutes of varied listening pleasure. Unfortunately, the disc is devoid of any biographical information, which is particularly annoying for the lesser known figures such as Dutch composer Jan Koetsier, who gets no mention although his three movement Brass Symphony, Op.80 and another shorter work are included.

Baroque specialist Rachel Podger is in magnificent form on a new 2-CD set of Vivaldi’s La Cetra – 12 Violin Concertos Op.9, with matching support from the Holland Baroque Society (Channel Classics CCS SA 33412). Podger is technically superb in all respects in concertos which demand a very high level of playing, managing to make them sound effortless but never empty and crystal clear and precise without ever lacking warmth. The outstanding accompaniment is lively, bright and full of dynamic contrast, with a continuo group consisting of organ and two lutes in addition to the usual cello and harpsichord sounding particularly effective in the solo violin passages. There’s the usual Vivaldi display of seemingly endless circles of fifths, scale and arpeggio passages and sequences, of course, plus the false familiarity — there are moments when you could swear you’ve put the Four Seasons on by mistake — but these are concertos that have enough variation to easily hold your interest throughout the two discs.

Recorded in Amsterdam, the wonderful sound quality adds to the enjoyment of a marvellous issue; this is simply one of the best Vivaldi sets you are ever likely to hear.

t’s been a long time since any string quartet CD had an impact on me to equal that of the latest issue from the Barcelona-based Cuarteto Casals, but stunning performances of the Schubert String Quartets D.87 and D.877 (harmonia mundi HMC 902121) left me quite lost for words.

Despite his tragically short life — or maybe because of it — Schubert managed to plumb depths in his later music that few composers have ever matched, let alone exceeded. The two quartets on this CD are from opposite ends of his career: the E-Flat Major D87 is the work of a 16-year-old who regularly played quartets at home with his family members, while the G Major D887 is Schubert’s final quartet, written in 1826 just two years before his death. The string quartet genre hadn’t really been around all that long at the time — only 50 or 60 years or so — but the emotional and technical distance that Schubert traveled in the 13 years that separate the two works is simply remarkable. The e-flat quartet is a charming and interesting work that owes much to Haydn and Mozart, but the g major is a worthy contemporary of the late Beethoven quartets. And what an astonishing work it is! — powerful, turbulent, full of wonderful theatrical and symphonic effects, and given a rich, fully committed performance by the Cuarteto Casals, whose passion and dynamic range perfectly match the emotional range of the music. Their wonderful playing is beautifully recorded, with perfect balance and just the right amount of resonance. A simply outstanding disc.

I’m sure most of us have a favourite composer whom we feel is unjustly neglected or underperformed. One such for me is the Belgian-born Guillaume Lekeu, who was just establishing himself in Paris after studying with César Franck and Vincent d’Indy when he died suddenly of typhoid fever the day after his 24th birthday in 1894. ATMA has released a CD of his Trio et Quatuor avec piano (ACD2 2651) featuring the Canadian Trio Hochelaga with the TSO principal violist Teng Li. Both works are very much of their time and clearly in the same style as those of Franck and d’Indy. The Piano Trio is the larger work, and the only completed one of the two; the Piano Quartet was unfinished at Lekeu’s death, and needed an additional few bars from d’Indy to make the second movement performable. It’s a shame it’s incomplete: Lekeu was a late starter, despite his early demise, and it’s clear that a more personal voice was beginning to emerge in this work. The Trio Hochelaga — violinist Anne Robert, cellist Paul Marleyn and pianist Stéphane Lemelin — give full-bodied and committed performances, although I found the violin vibrato to be a bit too wide and heavy at times, threatening to compromise the intonation and making the unison runs with the cello sound a bit out of synch. Overall, the feeling here is not so much one of masterpieces all too few, but more one of future masterpieces unfulfilled and of huge promise cruelly cut short.

It’s interesting to note how, in recent years, a good deal of contemporary composition in the U.S. appears to have swung back to works with a strong tonal base, often with a strong cinematic feel to them. A recent Naxos CD (8.559723) in their excellent American Classics series features performances by the London Symphony Orchestra under JoAnn Falletta of five works by Kenneth Fuchs, who was born in 1956. This is actually the third Naxos album of Fuchs’ works by this team — Falletta and Fuchs have been collaborating for over 25 years — and it shows a lyrical composer with great imagination and a fine ear for orchestral colour. Two orchestral works — Atlantic Riband and the overture Discover the Wild — open and close the disc. Falletta is joined by her Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster, the outstanding Michael Ludwig, for American Rhapsody (Romance for violin and orchestra) and by the LSO’s Paul Silverthorne for Divinum Mysterium (Concerto for viola and orchestra), which was written for the performer. Both soloists are in top form, with Ludwig’s beautiful tone again fully evident. The Concerto Grosso for string quartet and string orchestra completes the CD. Despite the occasional suggestion of an English influence — Britten’s Sea Interludes in the Atlantic Riband and the Divinum Mysterium, for instance, or Vaughan Williams’ Lark Ascending in the Rhapsody — this is music firmly in the American mainstream tradition. There are more than a few hints of Copland and the American pastorale; at times, though, you could be forgiven for thinking that you were listening to music for a major motion picture or a top level television news or sports program.

OPUS 1 (Azica ACD-71274) is the impressive debut recording by the Israeli Chamber Project, a group of distinguished young Israeli musicians that was founded in 2008. All of the six members featured on this CD — Itamar Zorman (violin), Shmuel Katz (viola), Michal Korman (cello), Tibi Cziger (clarinet), Sivan Magen (harp) and Assaff Weisman (piano) — are established and experienced performers in their own right, with very impressive backgrounds and résumés. The playing, not surprisingly, is of the highest quality throughout a varied but always interesting program. The Saint-Saëns Fantasie for Violin and Harp, Op.124 from 1907, is one of several pieces that the composer wrote for the harp; it’s a simply lovely work that beautifully illustrates his understanding of the instrument. Martinů’s Chamber Music No.1, written only five months before his death in 1959, is the only work to use all six players. It’s full of folk rhythms, with a slow movement reminiscent of Bartòk’s “night music.” Matan Porat’s Night Horses was commissioned for, and dedicated to, the Israeli Chamber Project, who specifically requested the instrumentation of clarinet, violin, cello and piano to match that of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour le fin du temps. This is its first recording. Sivan Magen arranged Debussy’s 1915 Cello Sonata for cello and harp in 2010, and it works extremely well. Again, this is a premiere recording. A spirited performance of Bartòk’s Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano rounds out an excellent disc. 

Vagn Holmboe – Chamber Symphonies
Lapland Chamber Orchestra;
John Storgårds
DaCapo 6.220621

Danish composer Vagn Holmboe (1909 –96) composed three chamber symphonies over the span of his career. Holmboe described his compositional approach as “metamorphosis technique,” a concept he developed from his close relationship with nature — the liner notes state he planted 3,000 trees himself over his lifetime! The subtle changes in say, for example, a blade of grass, did not go unnoticed by him. He expanded this metamorphosis idea into his music. Each symphony abounds with subtle tone colour shifts, while a short melodic (aka a blade of grass) idea will be transformed by instrumentation, harmony and rhythm.

Chamber Symphony No.1, Op.53 (1951) is the most “classical” sounding of the three. The music develops within a more traditional harmonic framework. In Chamber Symphony No.2, Op.100 “Elegy” (1968), the turmoil in the composer’s life appears as short ideas and motives. Still tonal, it is the independent instrumental lines that never quite coincide, and a dramatic and unexpected pause in the middle of the third movement that makes this the strongest work here. Chamber Symphony No.3, Op.103a “Frise” (1969–70) is a curious six movement work. Each movement seems like an independent score with the witty percussion part adding to the rhythmic vitality. The unexpected appears as a quiet tone at the work’s conclusion.

Conductor John Storgårds achieves a detailed and colourful performance with the Lapland Chamber Orchestra. The string section especially is tireless in its execution of whirling lines and ensemble precision. A very enjoyable world premiere recording!

Ernst Krenek – Complete Symphonies
NDR Radiophilharmonie; Alun Francis; Takao Ukigaya
cpo 777 695-2

Ernst Krenek’s orchestral music receives loving attention from Takao Ukigaya on this four disc package recorded 1993–2006. The Viennese composer’s atonal language connects to Schoenberg and Berg; he tries to inherit the symphonist mantle of his fiancée Anna’s father, Gustav Mahler. His Symphony No.1 in nine linked movements is a wide-ranging exploration departing from previous symphonic concepts. Krenek’s orchestration is idiomatic; solo winds and strings of the Hanover Radio Symphony shine particularly in the third movement. The composer’s predilection for counterpoint is especially clear in the eighth movement, as is his quirky side in the final movement’s disintegration into Webernesque whispers.

Ukigaya and the Hanoverians deliver a masterful performance of the sprawling Symphony No.2 (1922). Krenek’s own metaphor for this work is of a giant trying to get out of a cage. (Perhaps the “giant” was the 22-year-old Krenek himself, struggling with his teacher, the more conservative Franz Schreker!) The Third Symphony (also 1922) is more economical; Krenek parodically sneaks in a popular march-like melody, foreshadowing the eclectic Potpourri Op.54 (1927) also on this disc. The last two symphonies composed in the late 1940s develop logically from the earlier works. The Symphony No.4 disc is conducted by Alun Francis; both it and Krenek’s Concerto Grosso No.2 are given capable readings, with beautiful pacing in the processional of the latter’s Adagio leading to its moving climax.

That’s What I Do
Barbra Lica
Triplet TR-1016-2
www.barbralica.com

“She has a voice that would scarcely reach the second storey of a doll’s house” is what the New Yorker music critic Whitney Balliet once wrote about the jazz singer, Blossom Dearie. Anyone who, like me, was a fan of the 60s icon will find the comparison inescapable when listening to Barbara Lica’s debut CD That’s What I Do. And it’s not just the light, girlish vocal quality that invites comparison but also her ability to deliver a song with clarity, wit and deftness. Perennially upbeat, all the songs on That’s What I Do have a sheen of positivity even when delving into what could be dark topics, like being a starving artist, as she does on her own composition Scarlett O’Hara. Many of the strongest songs on the disc — and the least jazzy — are the originals, which Lica wrote mostly with her partner and guitar player Colin Story. Bass player Paul Novotny also contributes much as producer and arranger, injecting new, sophisticated life into the bossa nova standard Quiet Nights and a fun Parisian jazz-meets-reggae feel to the Billy Joel pop hit Vienna. Lica does a lovely job on the older standards like P.S. I Love You and Young At Heart, which totally suit her style. The affection she obviously has for these songs is infectious and will put a smile on any listener’s face.

George Shearing At Home
George Shearing; Don Thompson
Jazzknight Records 001

Just a few jazz musicians have become household names while managing to retain their artistic integrity. Dave Brubeck, largely due to Take Five and Duke Ellington aided by Satin Doll reached that level of recognition, as did Mr. Shearing helped along by his Lullaby Of Birdland — but although each of these three pianists reaped some reward from the success of having a composition recognised by anyone interested in popular music, they remained true to their ideals.

I’ve seen George Shearing many times over the years and he always managed to bring a certain intimacy to his performance whether it was in a small club or a large concert hall. Well, this CD has to be the ultimate in intimacy in that it was recorded in his own living room. With him is his close friend and musical partner, Don Thompson Together they have created a little gem.

From the opening bars of I Didn’t Know What Time It Was, played at a lovely loping tempo, you know that you are in for a musical treat. There are 14 selections on the album ranging from ten superior standards to a Don Thompson original, Ghoti via The Skye Boat Song and a couple of bebop lines by Charlie Parker and Lee Konitz.

An interesting point for me is that six of the numbers come in around the three minute mark, a pleasing reminder of the days of 78s when you had to tell your story within a limited time frame — lovely musical stories these two masters spin.

Highly recommended and well worth adding to your collection.

Vibraphonist Peter Appleyard played a 1974 Carnegie Hall date with Benny Goodman and thought the line-up, a one-time group, was extraordinary. Scheduled to play at Ontario Place the next night, he somehow managed to bring most of the band with him. A late-night recording session resulted in The Lost Sessions 1974 (Linus 270135). It’s the incarnation of swing, some of the very best musicians playing a shared repertoire of standards with sublime warmth and grace. An opening Ellington Medley — with solos in turn by Appleyard, tenor saxophonist Zoot Sims, cornetist Bobby Hackett, pianist Hank Jones and trombonist Urbie Green — sets a very high standard, each musician clearly delighted by the challenge of matching the others. As good as the solos are (Hackett’s legato phrasing is stunning), it’s the collective spirit, fed constantly by drummer Mel Lewis and bassist Slam Stewart, that’s most memorable.

The Shuffle Demons long ago demonstrated that modern jazz could be both fun and popular, chanting songs about Toronto’s Spadina bus and unruly cockroaches over R&B rhythms and manic post-bop saxophone solos, then making witty videos about them. The band is back with ClusterFunk (Linus 270152), channelling Charles Mingus and Frank Zappa on their first CD of new material in 17 years. The instrumentals here are consistently good, like alto saxophonist Richard Underhill’s Earth Song and drummer Stich Wynston’s Fukushima. The songs are more uneven — ranging from clever post-modern laments about big box stores and sifting through trash for refunds to All about the Hang, which, perhaps intentionally, goes on too long. The riffing power of the saxophones — Richard Underhill, Kelly Jefferson and Perry White — and the high funk quotient of Wynston and bassist George Koller generally keep things lively.

Guitarist Michael Occhipinti has a knack for expanding the repertoire available to jazz, having previously explored the work of folksinger Bruce Cockburn and the songs of his own Sicilian heritage. With the group Shine On (regulars from his own bands and a collection of Toronto singers) he takes on The Universe of John Lennon (True North TND566), exploring songs as immediate as Don’t Let Me Down and as elusive as Across the Universe. There’s a slightly dream-like, inevitably nostalgic aura here, but a few vocals manage to convey Lennon’s darker facets, like Elizabeth Shepherd on Working Class Hero and Denzal Sinclaire on Girl. Occhipinti’s arrangements create effective counter-melodies and fresh rhythms and there are fine solos by trumpeter Kevin Turcotte as well as the leader.

Le Quatuor de Jazz Libre du Québec, formed in 1967, was a signal event in Canadian jazz history, its members connecting the incendiary free jazz style then associated with American Black Nationalism to an incipient Québecois nationalism. 1973 (Tenzier TNZR051 www.tnzr.com) is a previously unissued studio session from well into the band’s career, now available as a limited issue LP. The music largely eschews composed heads for collective improvisation, consistently demonstrating the kind of committed intuitive work achieved through the long and close interaction of the quartet: saxophonist and flutist Jean Préfontaine; trumpeter Yves Charbonneau; drummer Jean-Guy Poirier; and bassist Yves Bouliane. Each of the four tracks has a distinct mood and texture, ranging through urgent, tumultuous musical riot (Sans Titre) to dirge (Une minute de silence) to exotic soundscape (Studio 13, le 13 mai 1973) to detailed and earnest conversation.Maïkotron Unit is an equally distinctive Québecois band, but with a 30-year history. The trio is distinguished by two qualities: they’re consummate musicians — the rhythm section of bassist/ cellist Pierre Côté and drummer Michel Lambert can swing with an ease matched by few, while reed player Michel Côté is both a master of traditional jazz forms and a clarinettist with great facility. They’re also wildly inventive: “maïkotron” refers to a family of bizarre home made instruments on which the two Michels double, compounds of brass and reed parts that are devised for both extraordinarily wide ranges and microtones — sounding like quarter-tone bassoons, euphoniums and tubas. On Effugit (Rant 1243 www.rantrecords.com), there are 16 tracks in 56 minutes and you never know what you’re going to get — the kinetic swing of Liberum, the classical grace of Sawah, the floating tenor saxophone of Effugit or the mad maïkotron adventure of Sous la Canopée — except that it will be different, usually brief and as well-played as it is imaginative.

Sylvain Leroux — a former Montrealer now based in New York — has studied African music extensively and supplements his standard flute and alto saxophone with an African lute and flutes. On Quatuor Créole (Engine e046), he explores a host of exotic rhythms from Africa and the Caribbean as well as chanting and playing flute simultaneously on pieces like Notis. The emphasis is on dense rhythmic grooves here, with Leroux more likely to play lute than flute. The veteran vibraphonist/pianist Karl Berger, Leroux’s former teacher, also solos at length, clearly celebrating the percolating rhythms created by Haitian percussionist Sergo Décius and bassist Matt Pavolka. There’s plenty of world music tonal color here and the grooves are complex and liberating. Leroux also touches on an earlier influence, playing alto saxophone with a raw lyricism on Monk in Paradise. 

When New York’s now justly famous Vision Festival first took place in 1996 committed jazz fans greeted the event as if they were witnessing a full-fledged musical resurrection. So many advanced players of unbridled free form and experimental sounds were involved that the annual festival soon became a crowded week-long summer happening. Ironically — which was one reason for the Fest’s popularity — these probing sounds and its players were supposed to have vanished after the revolutionary 1960s, superseded first by jazz-rock pounders’ simple melodies and then jazz’s young lions who aped the sounds and sartorial choices of the 1950s — both of which had major record label support. Still, asbassist/composer/bandleader William Parker’s Centering: Unreleased Early Recordings 1976–1987 (NoBusiness NBCD 42-47 www.nobusinessrecords.com) aptly demonstrates, experimental sounds never vanished; they just went underground. As the 24 often lengthy tracks that make up this 6-CD set of hitherto unreleased material substantiates in its breadth of performances, sonically questing players were improvising and composing during those so-called lost years. But it took the founding of the Vision Festival by Parker and his wife, dancer/choreographer Patricia Nicholson, to provide the proper medium for this work. Major stylists such as saxophonists Charles Gayle and David S. Ware, vocalist Ellen Christi and trumpeter Roy Campbell, all of whom are represented in the set, would go on to mentor a multiplying groundswell of younger rule stretchers and future Vision Fest participants. Also, despite being professionally recorded, the conservative climate of the times, plus the cost of producing and distributing LPs, left the tapes used for these CDs stacked in performers’ apartments. Now the belated release of Centeringfills in a blank in jazz history, equivalent to what coming across a cache of unreleased John Cage or Morton Feldman recordings would do. Included in the package is an attractively designed 66-page paperback book with vintage photos, posters and sketches along with essays discussing the background of the sessions, the musicians’ experiences and the New York scene.

From a historical perspective the most valuable artifacts are those which feature Parker playing alongside saxophonists who are now major influences in the international avant garde. From 1980 the bassist and alto saxophonist Daniel Carter are involved in musical discussions which make up for their lack of nuance with brilliant and mercurial playing, eviscerating every timbre and tone that could be sourced from their instruments. As Parker’s chunky rhythms hold the bottom while simultaneously rubbing and stopping strings to produce unique interjections, Carter ranges all over his horn. On Thulin, for instance, multiphonic split tones, triple tonguing, barks and bites are just the beginning of the saxophonist’s agitated interface. Working his solo into a fever pitch of altissimo cries and freak notes, he often sounds as if he’s playing two reed instruments. Eventually Parker’s juddering percussiveness grounds the track, angling the two towards a finale, but not before an extended a cappella passage by the bassist, where his multi-string sinewy strokes expose timbres that could be created by a string quartet. Contrast that with the beefy pedal point Parker uses on the two 1987 tracks with tenor saxophonist Gayle. After the reedist’s almost continuous overblowing exposes snarling altissimo or nephritic guttural tones, Parker asserts himself on Entrusted Spirit with tremolo strums and slaps which echo sympathetically alongside Gayle’s expansive multiphonics. Finally the saxman’s pressurized snarls and mercurial split tones are muted to an affiliated moderato tone by smooth pizzicato lines from Parker, bringing wood tapping and top-of-range angling into the mix.

Equally instructive, tenor saxophone Ware and Parker, who would become one half of Ware’s celebrated quartet in the 1990s, recorded with drummer Denis Charles in 1980 as the Centering Dance Music Ensemble. Unlike earlier Parker compositions on this set performed by string or vocal-based ensembles to back up Nicholson’s choreography that seem overly notated and more distant, the Ware-Parker-Charles creations are vibrant free jazz that may have caused repetitive strain injuries among dance company members. Highpoint is the inclusive and contrapuntal Tapestry. Here the saxophonist’s juddering smears and expansive reed vibrations, Parker’s focused slaps and Charles’ bass drum thumps are individually showcased then smartly combined into a tremolo vamp that descends into satisfying cohesion. Edifyingly demonstrating that the so-called avant-gardists celebrated the tradition is One Day Understanding. With a dirge-like middle section where Ware directly quotes an Albert Ayler head, the exposition and conclusion allow the saxman full range for glossolalia, spinning split tones and fervid overblowing effectively honouring saxophone titans like John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman by inference. Parker’s sputtering spiccato slices relate to Henry Grimes’ and Jimmy Garrison’s liberation of the bass role; while Charles, whose military-style rebounds and hard backbeat helped define free jazz in the late 1950s, just plays himself.

Even more germane to contemporary experimenters who frequently amalgamate into large-scale improvisational ensembles are two other Parker-led groups. Both 1979’s eight-member Big Moon Ensemble and 1984’s 13-person Centering Big Band are links between Coleman’s Double Quartet and Coltrane’s Ascension band and today. Vaulting between inchoate and inspired, the Big Moon tracks are polyrhythmic, polytonal and polyharmonic with the instrumental tessitura stretched to make room for thundering solos from the likes of Carter and Campbell plus trumpeter Arthur Williams and altoist Jameel Moondoc. On tunes such as Hiroshima Part Two and Dedication to Kenneth Patchen the cumulative effect of the multi-colored free-form cascading is intensified by aboriginal war whoops and unbalanced screams from the band members as they play. Tremolo triplets from Campbell meet Williams’ capillary flutter tonguing on Patchen, as Moondoc’s juddering split tones contrast with Carter’s leaping glossolalia. With Charles and Rashid Bakr both thrashing percussion, Parker and fellow bassist Jay Oliver stroke manfully to finally downshift the collective cascading, only to have it revive with increased ferocity on Hiroshima. Stacked horn parts encompassing stop-time screaming and pressurized vibratos are strung out during this nearly 50-minute piece as each musician seems to be trying to outdo the other in ferocity. Instructively the bassist’s later experiments with world music improv are adumbrated in a protracted sequence when his string strumming and the percussion work sound as if they’re emanating from a koto and a taiko drum.

There’s no mistaking the jazz inflections on the five big band selections however. But their modernity is apparent in the resourceful balance among intense riffs from the five saxophones, Parker’s time-keeping plus percussionist Zen Matsura’s cymbal clanks and press rolls as well as stacked and cascading vocal interchange from Christi and fellow vocalist Lisa Sokolov. Intense, heraldic triplets from trumpeters Campbell and Raphe Malik add to the churning excitement of tunes like Munyaovi, as first the snorting reeds then the brass section’s triplet expansion match the vocalists in staccato invention. The overall effect isn’t unlike Count Basie’s band at full force playing a swing riff. Space is furthermore made throughout for comforting trombone slurs, twanging rhythmic sequences from Parker and, on Tototo, an alluring balladic line from Moondoc. That piece climaxes with a polyphonic entanglement of the drummer’s harsh ruffs and flams, screaming penny whistle-style brass shrills and guttural baritone sax honks, completed by a slithery sax line that coalesces with harmonized voices.

The big band selections were taped at the 1984 Kool Jazz Festival, one of Parker’s rare high-profile gigs. It may have taken another dozen years to organize the Vision Festival and find the multiplicity of gigs and recordings Parker and his associates now participate in, but this momentous box set confirms that all along experimental music’s foundation was being cultivated slightly out of the public eye.

Saeculum Aureum
Band of the Royal Regiment of Canada
www.band.rregtc.ca

2012 marks the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the Royal Regiment of Canada. To commemorate this anniversary the Band of the Royal Regiment (BRRC) has produced a 2-CD set of recordings tracing the history of the regiment and its band. From Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance Military March No.4 and Holst’s First Suite in E-Flat Major through Gershwin and Ellington to Mancini and The Beatles, this recording spans a broad spectrum of genres in the concert band style. The title track, Saeculum Aureum (Golden Age), was written for the band by Major Paul A. Weston, formerly of the Royal Marines, now Associate Director of Music of the BRRC.

For most aficionados of concert band music, no CD of this sort would be complete without one or more marches reflecting the traditions of the modern band. This set includes two excellent marches with a Canadian connection which are rarely heard. The first is Vimy Ridge, written in 1921 by British composer Thomas Bidgood to commemorate that great battle of April 1917. My father survived that battle, and I have memories of playing a 78rpm version of this march which had been recorded in England during WWII The second, lesser known march is Men of Dieppe. This has an even stronger connection to the regiment. The composer, Stephen H. Michell, was one of several hundred members of the Royals captured and taken prisoner when the regiment stormed the Dieppe beaches. This march was composed during his time in a prison camp.

On a few selections, the band is joined by collaborators from many performances over the years. These include vocalist Danielle Bourré, the Pipes and Drums of the 48th Highlanders and Thomas Fitches at the keyboard of the organ of St. Clement’s Anglican Church. All of the numbers on the first CD are recent recordings under the direction of director of music, Captain W. A. Mighton or associate director, Major P. A. Weston. Most of those on the second CD are from the past 50 years conducted by three previous conductors.

For the most part the recording quality is excellent. However, there are a few selections on the second CD, included for historical purposes, where the recording quality is not up to the same standard. One such number is Alford’s Standard of Saint George. In this case the previously unreleased recording has been taken from the sound track of a 16mm film, The Trooping of the Colour, produced in 1962.

For those interested in the origins of the music, combined with the history of the regiment and its bands over the years, the 20-page booklet contains excellent commentary on every selection and historical connections where appropriate. It also includes information on the soloists and guests.

Available from: R Regt C Band, Fort York Armoury 660 Fleet St. W., Toronto, Ontario M5V 1A9 (www.band.rregtc.ca).