Live at The Rex
The Uncertainty Principle
Independent (andrewboniwell.com)

With the release of pianist and composer Andrew Boniwell’s second CD with his stellar ensemble, The Uncertainty Principle, he has once again established himself as one of the most creative, non-Euclidian, improvisational jazz musicians on the scene today. For this live recording (expertly engineered by Neil MacIntosh at Toronto’s Rex Hotel and Jazz and Blues Bar), he has once again coalesced the considerable talents of Richard Underhill on alto saxophone, Kevin Turcotte on trumpet, Artie Roth on bass and Mike McClelland on drums. Boniwell serves as producer here, and has written all but one of the compositions. He is also fluent in what is possibly the only universal language – mathematics – and although the sophisticated quantum concepts that are integral to his music may not be readily understood, the exciting and unpredictable aspects of it certainly communicate the plasticity of space/time, as well as the thrilling idea of participating in a perfect, unexpected and unplanned moment of creation.

Boniwell’s opening salvo, Getting Higgy With It, Part #1 is a dream-like piano and percussion exploration which segues into the evocative Sleeping Giant, which features superb work from Underhill and McClelland. Another standout is Probability Wave #1 / HUP Poem, in which a superb bass solo and profound trumpet work lead the ensemble into a free flight of beauty and majesty punctuated by a stirring, hip, thought-provoking spoken word sequence by Boniwell. Winding up the CD are two exceptional tracks, Suite 60, where Underhill’s alto and Turcotte’s muted trumpet cling together like particles attracting, and Monk’s Well, You Needn’t, re-imagined with Latin underpinnings. Both are triumphs, as is the entire recording.

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True Stories
Mike Field
Independent MFJCD 1801 (mikefieldjazz.com)

Following three previous award-winning CDs, trumpeter/composer/vocalist Mike Field presents a heady blend of his actual diverse, peripatetic road experiences expertly merged with compelling bits of pure fantasy. Field serves as composer here, as well as co-producer/co-arranger with noted guitarist Dominic Mancuso. In order to bring his eclectic concept into reality, Field has assembled a cast of fine musicians, including Mark Camilleri on piano/organ, Russ Boswell and George Koller on bass, Davide Direnzo on drums, Rosendo “Chendy” León on percussion, Mancuso and Tony Zorzi on guitar and Jerry Caringi on accordion.

The project kicks off with Mechanic, a hard-rocking anthem, replete with burning horns, face-melting guitar and impassioned vocals by Field that tell the story of a lonely, travelling space mechanic. Following immediately is another standout, The Hotel by the Mansion, which features a klezmer-like arrangement about a very peculiar circus act, starring a woman with fire in her hair (the kind of act that you can only do once!) Field soars on Tu vuo’ fa’ l’americano – a lusty reworking of Carosone and Salerno’s Neapolitan classic, most recently heard in the film, The Talented Mr. Ripley, replete with a bombastic accordion solo from Caringi.

Also of note are Magnolia, a swinging, jazz-like tune that features not only a fine vocal by Field, but also a dynamic trumpet solo, and the lyrical closer, Autumn Lovesong, which is a tender reflection on love, life, family, the turning of the seasons and the inevitable passage of time. Field sings deeply and emotionally, in symbiosis with gorgeous piano work by Camilleri.

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No Codes
Benjamin Deschamps
Independent (benjamindeschamps.com)

Put these four gentlemen together in the warmth of an acoustically perfect room and you instantly have a heavyweight quartet bursting forth from bar one, then continuing to carve out a niche for itself. No Codes suggests allegiance to no single style within the realm of jazz but there is certainly a reference to the rippling boppish groove that soon unfolds into music with tantalizing angular melodies couched in complex tempi and abruptly changing rhythms.

Alto saxophonist Benjamin Deschamps, playing his heart out, shows that he can hold his own with his veteran colleague tenor saxophonist Frank Lozano. Bassist Sébastien Pellerin and drummer Louis-Vincent Hamel frame the broodingly percussive rhythm section but every now and then they come forth from playing in the pocket to ring in the changes in mood, structure and tempo. All of this makes for a highly interesting program, from the blistering bop runs of Rules of Compression that lift the lid on this pressure-cooker atmosphere around the band to the loose and funky swagger of Cool Cats and the tart, party-time thrills and spills of Double Meaning and My Steps.

There is a considerable degree of balance and integration of melody, harmony and rhythm from this piano-less quartet. This is touching and toe-tapping music in equal measure. Again, composition and improvisation, exploration, individuality and tradition are all impressively maintained throughout, which makes No Codes a disc to absolutely die for.

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Wander Wonder
Allison Au Quartet
Independent AA-18 (allisonau.com)

The Allison Au Quartet has been together since 2009 and their first album, The Sky Was Pale Blue, Then Grey (2013) was nominated for a JUNO. The second album, Forest Grove, won a JUNO in 2016 for Best Jazz Album of the Year: Group. Wander Wonder is their third release and is a thoughtful and subtle work with each musician contributing their technique and inspiration to Au’s complex and layered compositions. For example, the group’s casual precision is demonstrated during the drum solo which ends Force Majeure: Fabio Ragnelli plays with abandon while Todd Pentney (piano) and Jon Maharaj (bass) lay down an understated and contrasting, repeating chordal vamp. Throughout the album, Au’s alto saxophone is light but intense and reminds me a little of Paul Desmond but leaner; it fits well with her writing where solos are interspersed with ensemble sections and melodic fragments.

Highlights include Looking Up which begins with Ragnelli’s subtle drum intro. Then Au plays a beautiful looping melody over clever rhythmic punctuation, an ostinato bass pattern interrupts before the melody returns and leads into an elegant piano solo. Red Herring begins with a syncopated minor melody over funky and jagged beats. As the piece progresses, Pentney’s Prophet Rev2 adds an ominous texture for some additional tension. The piece winds its way down a number of genre alleys (as its title suggests) and is ultimately satisfying and not at all misleading. Wander Wonder is an exquisite album that balances introspection with some terrific solos.

Autoschediasm
Karoline Leblanc; Ernesto Rodrigues; Nicolas Caloia
Atrito-Afeito 010 (atrito-afeito.com)

Autoschediasm (the term indicates something improvised, offhand or casual) presents a three-segment collective improvisation created by Montreal-based pianist Karoline Leblanc and bassist Nicolas Caloia and Portuguese violist Ernesto Rodrigues. All are accomplished improvisers, but each brings different threads: Leblanc’s background stresses the classical avant-garde; Caloia’s career emphasizes free jazz; Rodrigues, who leads several distinct improvising orchestras in Lisbon, has championed free improvisation for over 30 years, appearing on scores of CDs.

While the title suggests something casual, the music sounds appropriate to its Conservatoire de Musique de Montréal setting, the trio bringing a high modernist discipline and precision to the work. The opening movement flows with an energy that is dense and light. Sparked initially by LeBlanc’s imaginative keyboard flights, in its later stages it settles into a churning rhythmic pattern that ignites Rodrigues’ radical virtuosity, resulting in a flurry of microtonal lines that sometimes create their own counterpart. Offhand? Casual? The only thing that distinguishes it from composed music is the challenge of writing it down.

The second movement takes a contrasting approach, developing little sounds, arising discreetly, sometimes pointillist, at times muffled, at others percussive, a gently humming underbrush alive with detail. The final segment moves from delicate sonic events to a turbulent, vibrant world that recalls the opening, a formal motion that exaggerates a pattern evident since the early classical era. It’s an act of “autoschediasm” rich in taut attention to nuance and form.

Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds
Kim Myhr; Quatuor Bozzini; Caroline Bergvall; Ingar Zach
Hubro HUBRO CD 2612 (hubromusic.com)

Initially commissioned and performed at FIMAV in Victoriaville, Quebec, Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds is a musical rumination on immutable nature and human disruption, composed by Kim Myhr, the Norwegian guitarist whose strums underscore the narrative that ululates through this six-track suite.

Accompanied by Norwegian percussionist Ingar Zach and framed by the harmonies of Montreal string ensemble Quatuor Bozzini (QB), the music shares space with the idiosyncratic recitation by French-Norwegian poet Caroline Bergvall. Her distinctive phrasing helps set up a rhythmically charged program where her vocal narrative adds as much to individual sequences as the QB’s intermittently buzzing glissandi, the percussionist’s hand pops and vibrations, plus the guitarist’s string strokes and spanks on 12-string acoustic, which constantly move the theme forward. Moving efficiently through word images that range among simple instances of nature appreciation, chimerical retelling of dreamlike surprises, and astute allusions to political events involving refugees and dangerous water crossings, Bergvall sets up hypnotic sequences whose resolution depends as much on the feints and fancies of instrumental virtuosity as the players’ strategies depend on her verbal concoctions.

With its echoes of folksay, impressionism, stark improvisation and poetics, Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds is a distinctive creation which can be experienced more than once – which is precisely what can be done by listening to this CD.

Linger
Benoît Delbecq; Jorrit Dijkstra; John Hollenbeck
Driff Records CD 1801 (driffrecords.com)

Reshaping improvisational parameters, Dutch alto saxophonist Jorrit Dijkstra and French pianist Benoît Delbecq add flexible oscillations to the ten performances here by also improvising on, respectively, Lyricon and preparations for synthesizer, aided by the flexible percussion patterning of Montreal-based John Hollenbeck.

With instrumental additions that can process tones as they’re created, the Europeans’ secondary voices multiply interactions past standard trio voicings to suggest enhanced melodic lyricism and rhythmic vigour, often simultaneously. On Stir for instance, reed smears and outer-space-like oral currents vie for supremacy challenged by wave-form squibs and measured keyboard chording. Unfazed by timbre multiplicity, the drummer not only keeps a backbeat going, most powerfully on Push, but also bluntly asserts his agenda with individualistic rolls and ruffs plus cymbal splashes there and throughout the CD.

Dijkstra and Delbecq don’t just depend on texture supplements as they aptly demonstrate on Dwell, where irregular saxophone trills and split tones confront a flowing keyboard narrative plus inner piano string stops; or on Stalk, where modulated piano clusters create an impressionistic theme that complements inchoate Lyricon echoes as well as cursive beats plus drum-rim rubbing from Hollenbeck.

Contrapuntal yet communicative, the textural sound-melding throughout the disc suggests that Dijkstra and Delbecq, who first met at the Banff Jazz Workshop in 1990, should collaborate more often. As it is, the two, plus Hollenback’s fluid and inventive patterning, have created a session over which one can beneficially linger.

Eric Dolphy – Musical Prophet
Eric Dolphy
Resonance Records HCD-2035 (resonancerecords.org)

When Eric Dolphy died in a diabetic coma in 1964 at 36, he represented a special loss to jazz: a master of three distinct woodwinds (alto saxophone, bass clarinet and flute) whose exalted technical acumen and creative intensity contributed immeasurably to great recordings by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus, George Russell and Oliver Nelson, among many others.

Musical Prophet is a 3CD set that expands the 1963 sessions that produced the LPs Conversations and Iron Man. Ranging from unaccompanied saxophone solos (Love Me is an expressionist masterpiece heard here in three versions) to a tentet, from jazz standards like Fats Waller’s Jitterbug Waltz (on flute) to Dolphy’s own dense, swarming Burning Spear, it’s the finest portrait of the breadth of Dolphy’s genius available. There are no finer examples of the “third stream” impulse than Dolphy’s duets with bassist Richard Davis, abstract weavings that press Ellington’s Come Sunday and the standard Alone Together into classics of improvised chamber music. On Music Matador, his bass clarinet roars with celebratory abandon.

Dolphy’s breadth is as apparent in his range of collaborators, from bassoonist Garvin Bushell, who recorded with Mamie Smith in 1922, to 18-year-old trumpeter Woody Shaw, here making his recording debut. Along with the expansive and illuminating alternate takes, the set includes a remarkable bonus, A Personal Statement, with an extended musical dialogue that includes pianist Bob James (yes, that Bob James) and countertenor David Schwartz.

La Fenice
Keith Jarrett
ECM ECM2601-02 (ecmrecords.com/catalogue/1532415893/la-fenice-keith-jarrett)

A new release from the Keith Jarrett concert archive is always a welcome occasion. Such is the case with La Fenice, the ECM label’s latest offering from the virtuoso pianist, which comes to us as a two-disc set featuring an improvised solo concert recorded at Gran Teatro La Fenice, Venice, in 2006. By this time, Jarrett had adopted a concert format during which he would improvise a series of relatively short pieces, as opposed to the long uninterrupted sets that he favoured on earlier iconic recordings such as La Scala and Bremen/Lausanne.

Interestingly though, Jarrett begins La Fenice by breaking these self-imposed format limits, as he launches into a mostly atonal musical exploration which clocks in at over 17 minutes, until its final unexpected resolution in F-sharp Major. In Part 3, the pianist visits one of his more familiar trademark styles wherein his left hand lays down an ostinato pattern while the right hand improvises fluid gospel/blues lines. Rhythmic clarity, direction and superb melodic development are present throughout, as Jarrett pulls off one amazing pianistic feat after another with apparent ease. The music then segues into an achingly beautiful ballad, possibly one of the most breathtaking improvised pieces he has ever recorded.

On disc two, the pianist breaks up more complex harmonic territory with a bittersweet Gilbert and Sullivan tune (The Sun Whose Rays), before proceeding on to a straight-out blues romp. We are also treated to several encores, including My Wild Irish Rose, Stella by Starlight and a stunning Jarrett original, Blossom. On Stella, the pianist is clearly enjoying himself as he weaves complex bop lines over a left hand walking bass, while also tapping his foot on beats two and four: a one-man band!

All told, La Fenice is a deserving addition to Jarrett’s long and distinguished recording legacy.

(I) Les vents orfèvres;
(II) Les entrailles de la montagne
Jean-François Bélanger
Les Productions de l’homme Renard (jfbelanger.com)

Jean-François Bélanger is a specialist in period and contemporary string instruments. Between 2015 and 2018 he completed an enduring diptych dedicated principally to the Swedish folk instrument the nyckelharpa. However, unlike Olov Johansson of the Swedish group Väsen and renowned exponent of the three-rowed nyckelharpa, the music created by the Montréalais Bélanger seems to fuse a myriad of musical idioms, drawing from Swedish and Celtic ones, on his single-rowed instrument.

The first of Bélanger’s diptych of recordings is Les vents orfèvres, a piercing journey into the interior landscape of the artist’s mind, “dedicated to matters of the spirit,” as Bélanger explains. There is an astonishing variety of music here, from the spine-tingling and airy Ouverture tirée à quatre épingles and Le pensoir with their eloquent silences punctuated only by the sound of the keys as they are depressed, to serve as frets to change the pitch of the string, to the knockabout Suite norvégienne with its highly theatrical and dance-like gestures that closes out this disc.

Throughout we hear music-making of great vividness and immediacy; the songs seem to traverse not just time, but also a musical topography infinitely more vast than the relative insularity of the instrument. It bears mention too that Bélanger also plays numerous other stringed and percussion instruments and is accompanied by 12 other virtuoso musicians who play a staggering range of instruments from the Jew’s harp and the Brazilian caxixi to the Indian bansuri and the viola da gamba.

The second part of his celebrated diptych Les entrailles de la montagne is infinitely more adventurous. The music unfolds and with it the metaphor of the mountain takes shape. As the disc progresses the music seems to pour out of the instruments in a proverbial volcanic mix that melds opulent orchestral arrangements with a percussive folksy theatre that seems to crisscross the earth’s music. But to describe it as such gives the impression of overcooking when in fact the whole project is a masterpiece of subtlety.

Somehow Bélanger’s nyckelharpa appears to give way more frequently to other instruments from his pandora’s box that even includes the sitar and tampuri-swarmandal. Here too, Bélanger is accompanied by 15 musicians plus a string quartet, each deeply attuned to his vision. The surprises, when they come, are effective but discreet: a gamelan-like riff played as pizzicato harmonics and a delicate curlicue of a bass line that sounds like a Gaelic lament and, as in La brouseaille – Chemin de traverse, a close-knit passage that develops from a single phrase. Small wonder that Bélanger received the Instrumental Solo Artist of the Year prize at the 2018 Canadian Folk Music Awards for Les entrailles de la montagne.

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Before You
Alicia Hansen
Independent (aliciahansen.com)

Alicia Hansen does not write party music. What the Vancouver-based singer and piano player does write are artistic, original and harmonically complex songs. Her propensity for minor keys and stark lyrics make her latest album, Before You, feel a little dark at times, but her beautiful voice and vulnerability more than make up for it.

Hansen’s third studio release comprises 11 tracks all written by her and produced by JUNO Award-winner, Jesse Zubot, who also plays violin on the album. Zubot and cellist Peggy Lee’s string work add to the haunting quality of many of the tunes, such as Who I Am or the opener Disintegrating Heart which explores themes of love and relationships, as many of the songs do. Other themes are emotional growth, self-acceptance and the rejection of standards set by others. In Fame and Glory Hansen writes, “So I hope that you’re not waiting for me, to turn into something that I’ll never be.” And that sums this record up well. Hansen’s work is worth exploring for anyone tired of formulaic pop offerings and keen for fresh, interesting, yet accessible songs.

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You’re Fine
Barbra Lica
Justin Time JUST 260-2 (justin-time.com/en/profilArtist/404)

Barbra Lica is on a songwriting and album-releasing tear. Her fifth CD in six years has just come out and it’s populated by all original songs, almost all written or co-written by Lica. For this album, she travelled to the mecca of American music, Nashville, where she collaborated on songwriting, enlisted players and recorded tracks, all under the tasteful oversight of Toronto bassist and producer Marc Rogers. So while this album is a bit of a departure from Lica’s previous jazzy records, it’s still true to her signature, sunny style. Even when she’s singing about heartbreak and longing, such as in Everybody Else, you need to listen closely to know it, since the songs are so consistently upbeat.

Besides Lica’s pretty, lithe voice, guitars are the stars of You’re Fine courtesy of Tom Fleming and Nashville session players Paul Franklin and Wanda Vick Burchfield, whether it’s the acoustic on the opening track Before I Do, which sets the tone for the album with its lovely simplicity, or the pedal steel, dobro and mandolin that enrich a number of the tracks. Heck, a banjo even makes an appearance on one song (Jolie Oiseau)! Joel Visentin’s keyboard work deserves mention as it subtly supports throughout the album then shines on the closing track, When I’m Gone, a lovely lilting number featuring piano and the instrument that’s most dear to this reviewer’s heart, accordion. Aaahh.

Bushes and Bombshelters
Ivana Popovic
Long Play CD 034 (ivanapopovic.com)

While it’s generally not my practice to mix reviews with politics, in this current political climate of hateful, anti-immigration rhetoric being hurled by xenophobic politicians (from both sides of our southern border and beyond), it delights me to review violinist and composer Ivana Popovic’s lovely debut album, Bushes and Bombshelters, which paints a poignant, musical portrait of a successful immigration story – her journey from Serbia to a creatively rich life in Canada.

An accomplished classical musician, Popovic’s compositional influences run the gamut from Bach and Shostakovich to Gypsy and Eastern European folk music. The ten original tracks on Bushes and Bombshelters cover the themes of longing and belonging, nostalgia, connection, homeland and new beginnings, and are crafted with the passion of someone who has experienced them all, intimately. Accompanying Popovic on her musical journey are pianists Saman Shahi and Perry Maher, double bassist Jesse Dietschi, trombonist Don Laws, percussionist Max Senitt, violist Nikray Kowsar, cellist Stuart Mutch and flutist Jamie Thompson. Popovic sings on three tracks; John MacLean lends vocals on one.

With the spirited clippity-clop of the voyage, the mood shifts from sombre to celebratory, brilliantly depicted by Popovic on electric 5-string violin with outstanding contributions from Laws and Senitt; this titular first track sets the tone for the entire album. From the evocative violin and piano duo, Sketches From Serbia, to the plaintive, prayer-like Blue for solo violin, and Memory’s exquisite interplay of flute, violin and cello, Popovic’s Bushes and Bombshelters is a journey worth taking.

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As the advances, musical and otherwise, that transformed the 1960s and 70s recede into history, new considerations of what happened during those turbulent times continually appear. Reissues of advanced music recorded during that time, some needlessly obscure, some better known, help fill in the details of exactly what transpired.

Probably the most historically relevant set to become available for the first time on CD is Bäbi (Corbett vs. Dempsey CvsDCD052; corbettvsdempsey.com) by master-drummer Milford Graves. Recently the subject of Full Mantis (a documentary about Graves’ contribution to sessions by the likes of Albert Ayler and Paul Bley and his years teaching at Bennington College), Graves is acknowledged as one of the originators of multi-pulsed, free-form drumming. This legendary 1976 disc, with the sophisticated drum patterns evolving alongside frenetic screeching and jumping multiphonics from saxophonists Arthur Doyle and Hugh Glover, captures that trio at its zenith, and the 2CD set includes an additional four tracks recorded in 1969 by the same band. If anything 1969 Trio 1 to 1969 Trio 4 are even further out than the sounds Graves, Doyle and Glover would record seven years later. With sabre-sharp altissimo cries, and fractured split tones plus near bloodcurdling vocal interruptions, the performance is the epitome of 1960s ecstatic jazz. Yet beneath the reed gurgling and glossolalia, Graves’ press rolls, cymbal-splashing and elastic textures create a thundering counterpoint and moderating influence on the saxophone astringency. The drummer may be kicking off and time-marking his performance with more speaking in tongues and whooping in 1976, but he’s refined his percussion strategy still further. Pounding ruffs and rebounds at a whirlwind pace, his patterning pushes reed peeps and fissures to a higher plane, and then brings them back to earth. Meanwhile on the concluding Bäbi, his verbal counting-off and vocal time and tempo shifts for the others resemble Africanized tribal chants. With Glover and Doyle becoming more exaggerated in their screeching and slathering irregular vibrations, Graves empties his percussion trick bag, fluidly jerking from steel-drum-like rhythms to bell-ringing, wood and Mylar block thumps and skin slaps. The horns may be heading for outer space, but the drummer’s pacing ensures that the pieces judder with foot-tapping rhythms as well.

If Bäbi has been more legendary than listened to over the past 45 years, then saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell’s defining work from 1966, Sound (Delmark DE 4408; delmark.com), has an opposite history. Constantly available since its release, this new reissue uses the original analog mix and includes alternate, longer takes of the title track and Ornette. A breakthrough which put the burgeoning Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians’ (AACM) sound on disc for the first time, two of the members of the sextet – trumpeter Lester Bowie and bassist Malachi Favors – soon joined Mitchell and others to form the influential Art Ensemble of Chicago. At that time Ornette confirmed that Ornette Coleman’s early 1960s advances were now accepted additions to contemporary jazzers’ vocabulary, though granted the mix of duck-like quacks and piercing kazoo-like peeps from Mitchell and tenor saxophonist Maurice McIntyre on both takes probably draws more from the AACM’s sardonic viewpoint than Coleman’s more naïve concepts. Plus reed trills are artfully balanced by sophisticated guitar-like patterning from Favors and cellist Lester Lashley. Even cursory listening to the alternate takes reveals subtle differences between them with different emphases and climaxes. With its harmonica breaths and cogwheel ratchet cracks, The Little Suite is even more indicative of how Mitchell compositions could be moderato and spiky simultaneously, as advanced Coleman-John Coltrane-like reed-tone explorations share space with vocal yelps in a tambourine-smacking pseudo march. With over 20 minutes to elaborate his sonic concepts on either take of Sound, Mitchell creates a mercurial sound kaleidoscope. His sometimes snarling, sometimes circular-breathed alto saxophone line negotiates a distinctive exposition that ambles past near-breathless trombone signs, spectacular trumpet accelerations, driving cymbal rattles and tough sul ponticello string nips. No matter how abstract the exposition however, the composition advances harmonically with the initially available track even concluding with a recapped head. Sound maintains its reputation since it synthesizes the music that preceded it and adumbrates sounds to come. 

Experiments in free-form sounds were spreading outwards from New York and Chicago all during that time, and 1976’s The Haunt (NoBusiness Records NBCD 105; nobusinessrecords.com) documents the now almost-forgotten New Haven scene. Ironically, although Connecticut-based clarinetist Perry Robinson was from New York, and trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith, an AACM linchpin, a Chicago expat, local vibraharpist Bobby Naughton was the third trio member and composed all the tunes. Stripped to chamber improv, the six tracks don’t suffer from lack of conventional chordal or percussion timbres, since Naughton’s just-in-time steel bar resonations purposely and craftily fill any gaps left from the sonic contrasts among Smith’s heraldic open-horn keens and Robinson’s abstruse glissandi or whinnies. While gorgeous trumpet storytelling on tracks such as Places moves with contrapuntal injections from shrill clarinet pitches, from polychromatic expanse to uncomfortable abstraction, mallet-chiming pops prevent this. Instead, shimmering vibes tones help assume a forward-moving group pulse. Skillful in adding diaphanous, but not delicate, mallet strokes that ring like toy piano keys; or adding extra weightiness by striking while diminishing the motor speed, the vibist’s skill and The Haunt’s individuality are highlighted on the concluding Ordette. With calm mallet-on-metal strokes preserving the narrative, textures resulting from blending Robinson’s note spews and Smith’s graceful slurs are now harmonized, moderated but no less powerful on this disc recorded a decade after Sound.

Midway between when Sound and The Haunt were recorded is the 1970 instance of truth-in-packaging Groupcomposing (Corbett vs. Dempsey CvsDCD056; corbettvsdempsey.com), which shows off the free-music conceptions European players had been developing on their own during the previous half-decade, only peripherally influenced by stateside experiments. Trans-European long before the 1993 Maastricht Treaty created the European Union, the Instant Composers Pool here includes three players from the United Kingdom, three from The Netherlands and a German. A couple of years after such defining LPs as Machine Gun and European Echoes were recorded (featuring most of these players), sound-searing saxophonists Peter Brötzmann and Peter Bennink, slippery-toned trombonist Paul Rutherford plus unpredictable drummer Han Bennink were still producing oppressive timbres that bounce from polyphony to cacophony to multiphonics. Meanwhile guitarist Derek Bailey’s distinctive, spiky twangs occasionally peer from the near-solid sound mass and saxophonist Evan Parker, two months away from recording the BritImprov-defining Topography of the Lungs (with Bailey and [Han] Bennink), tries out both the agitated and allayed approaches in his solos. One defining moment occurs midway through Groupcomposing2 when the guitarist’s astringent clanks join Parker’s split tones and pinched snores from the trombone for a caustic lull that is soon swallowed by long tones from the saxophones, plus belligerent cracks and blunt ruffs from Bennink’s hand bells, cymbals and odd percussion add-ons. Other eventful sequences among the claustrophobic mass of upwards spiralling broken-reed glissandi and trombone gutbucket smears, are sardonic intermezzos from pianist Misha Mengelberg, who defies the others by clanking keys at divergent speeds and pitches. Like Sound, Groupcomposing is suggesting alternate improvisational paths for the future.

The most inclusive sonic snapshot of the 1960s and 1970s is, however, Cosmic Forest – The Spiritual Sounds of MPS (MPS 4029759122562; mps-music.com) which collects 13 tracks by American and European musicians trying out conflicting musical strands to unite with jazz. A few which foretold the intellectual dead end of vocal-led smooth jazz are best forgotten, but others such as saxophonist Nathan Davis’ Evolution, find a committed bopper adopting modal currents to his own style; still others inaugurating a version of expansive Nordic narratives; while Timbales Calientes from the MPS Rhythm Combination & Brass is a reimaging of Latin-jazz rock with the layered section work goosed by Palle Mikkelborg’s stratospheric trumpet lines. More compelling are players pioneering a fusion between improvised and so-called world music. For instance clarinetist Tony Scott’s Burungkaka Tua is a notable melding of Scott’s moderated tone, tough ethnic blowing from Javanese flutist Marjono and a decisive blues underpinning from Chinese pianist Bubi Chen. Pianist George Gruntz’s Djerbi takes a traditional Bedouin dance melody played by Sadi El Nadi on ney and unites it with the pianist’s chromatic thrusts aided by Daniel Humair’s foot-tapping drumming. A crucial harbinger of what was to come is Yaad, which, propelled by tabla slaps, unites the exploratory comping of pianist Irène Schweizer and Barney Wilen’s whispery flute with the sitar twangs and vocalized chants of Dewan Motihar mirrored by trumpet blats from Manfred Schoof.

Free music orchestrator Schoof’s presence confirms that improvisers of the time were committed to experimenting with all sorts of sounds. Many exceptional projects were recorded in the 1960s and 70s, and the more that become available again, the more they increase our knowledge of what was attempted and accomplished. 

Bach333: J.S. Bach – The New Complete Edition
Various Artists
Deutsche Grammophon 4798000 (222 CDs; bach333.com/en/)

When I was presented with this edition for review a little while ago I was delighted. Now I can play absolutely any Bach work at any time, I rejoiced. Then it sunk in. What exactly can be written to appraise excellence? “Are you going to recommend it?” “Will you listen to 222 CDs?” were typical questions from friends. After assessing the enormity of the collection and playing something from just about every category, I settled down to watch the one DVD in the box, Bach: A Passionate Life, a documentary written and presented by Sir John Eliot Gardiner. This is an engrossing documentary and unfolding story, an appreciation with conversations with colleagues and others. Gardiner describes Bach’s life from his birth in Eisenach on March 21, 1685 through his early years and Lutheranism in Eisenach, his family and musical education. Gardiner follows his life and works in Arnstadt, Mülhausen, Weimar and finally on July 28, 1750, at the age of 65, his death in the Thomasschule in Leipzig following a botched operation. Interwoven in the narrative are period-informed performances of significant passages from several genres, the ensemble works mostly directed by Gardiner. I mention this most informative and absorbing DVD because, quite unexpectedly, my appreciation of many of Bach’s original works in the collection, all of them, choral, concertos, concerted works, string solos, organ and keyboard works, etc. has been heightened.

So, what’s in the box? Everything. There are 48 CDs of sacred cantatas conducted mainly by Gardiner and the Monteverdi Choir with some performed by Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium, Japan. Others are by Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent, Ton Koopman and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra and Choir, Joshua Rifkin and the Bach Ensemble, and more. The 22 secular cantatas are directed by Suzuki, Rifkin, Hogwood, Goebel, Koopman, Leonhardt, Gardiner, Alexander Grychtolik and Helmut Rilling. The three Magnificats are under Gardiner, Simon Preston and Paul McCreesh. The Mass in B Minor is from Frans Brüggen. Peter Schreier conducts Masses BWV 234-236. Two versions of St John Passion are by Gardiner and Suzuki, two versions of St Matthew Passion, by Gardiner and McCreesh. Two Christmas Oratorios, Gardiner and Chailly. And there are many more works for voice and voices including, as the title states, everything else. Complete texts with translations are in four accompanying booklets. Before leaving the vocal works there are 23 CDs of historic recordings from 1933 on. They include conductors Mengelberg, Scherchen, Karl Ristenpart, Fritz Lehmann, Karl Münchinger, Neville Marriner, Benjamin Britten, Raymond Leppard and Roger Norrington. Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Orchestra and Choir has 13 CDs including another complete Matthew Passion. Vocalists include Karl Erb, Magdá Laszló, Hilde Rössel-Majdan, Waldemar Kmentt, Helmut Krebs, Alfred Poell, Fischer-Dieskau, Agnes Giebel, Elly Ameling, Ileana Cotrubas, Hugues Cuénod, Julia Hamari, Birgit Finnilä, Helen Watts, Werner Krenn, Tom Krause, Janet Baker, Robert Tear, Peter Pears, Matthias Goerne, Peter Schreier, Anna Reynolds, Hertha Töpper, Ursula Buckel and about 50 more including Emma Kirkby, Gundula Janowitz and Fritz Wunderlich.

The second half of this everything collection is devoted to instrumental works beginning with the entire catalogue of organ works on 20 discs played by distinguished soloists. Bach was a superlative organist and composer, hence his compositions are best served by virtuoso performers, as these are here, playing organs throughout Europe, Scandinavia and England. Mavens will recognize their names including: Simon Preston, Ton Koopman, Peter Hurford, Wolfgang Rübsam, Helmut Walcha, Daniel Chorzempa, Graham Barber and Christian Schmitt. CD124 presents 20 “Free Works of Unproven Authenticity.” They are organ works and each has a BWV number assigned to it, BWV898 with the rest spotted between BWV 533 to 598. Played by Hurford and Preston and two others, the risk is leaving them out of a complete edition… they may be authentic.

The keyboard works are shared by harpsichordists and pianists. Harpsichordists include Trevor Pinnock, Gustav Leonhardt, Justin Taylor, Kenneth Gilbert, Huguette Dreyfus, Ton Koopman, Keith Jarrett, Masaaki Suzuki, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Christopher Hogwood, Christophe Rousset, Mahan Estahani and others, both familiar and unfamiliar. Pianists include Brendel, Argerich, Hewitt, Jarrett and Ashkenazy, Schiff and Nelson Freire, Murray Perahia, Maria João Pires, Benjamin Grosvenor and Pogorelich. There are five CDs of keyboard legends; pianists Edwin Fischer, Gulda, Lipatti, Gieseking, Backhaus, Tureck, Myra Hess (Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring), Richter, Horowitz, Gilels and others. Organists include Albert Schweitzer and Helmut Walcha.

The Brandenburg Concertos, the violin and keyboard concertos and the orchestral suites are directed by Goebel and Pinnock and Hogwood, all with period instrument soloists. Following six CDs of a miscellany of “Orchestral Traditions” there are seven CDs of, “Instrumental Traditions” containing famous pre-informed versions from 1935 on. A group of Bach works include “Solo and Chamber Works” played by alternative instrumentalists. The first alternative is a rather unexpected version of the mighty Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV565 played on a lone period instrument by violinist Andrew Manze. So simply perfectly correct and satisfying in every respect, one could easily believe that this is the original, not an alternative version.

There are many other sub-groups: “The Bach Family”; “Concertos at Weimer,” arrangements of Telemann, Vivaldi and Marcello; “Bach Renewed – From Bach’s Sons to Mahler”; “Bach Reimagined,” with orchestrations by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Brahms, Busoni, Respighi and Stokowski; “Bach Orchestrated – Reger to Stokowski”; “Inspired by Bach – Gounod to Pärt”; “Bach & the Virtuoso Piano – Liszt to Busoni”; “Bach & The Virtuoso Piano – The 20th century”; “Bach à la Jazz”; and finally, on CD222, “New Colours of Bach.”

Each CD sleeve is numbered 1 to 222, and colour-coded. Finding a certain CD is easy, either categorically or finding the location within from the directory listing by BWV number, title or artist. The CDs sit vertically on an A-frame construction within the box. Very clever. Deutsche Grammophon has, once again, outdone themselves and everyone else in preparing this uniquely unmatched collection containing “every known note from the great master.” There are over 280 hours of music, including 10 hours of new recordings, totaling 750 performers. For this monumental edition, DG collaborated with Decca and 30 other labels and the Leipzig Bach Archive. Three books are included, the scholarly up-to-date BWV listing, a fine quality 222 page hard-bound with an appreciation of every composition on every disc, and a matching hardcover book covering every aspect of Bach’s life, complete with essays by noted authorities.

So, my reply to the questions in the first paragraph is Yes and No.