D'Indy - Symphonie sur un Chant montagnard français; Saugefleurie; Medée
Louis Lortie; Iceland Symphony Orchestra; Rumon Gamba
Chandos CHAN 10760

At the time of writing, spring has finally arrived, so a disc which includes Vincent d’Indy’s Symphony on a French Mountain Air seems particularly appropriate in celebration of the season. The disc in question is the fifth volume in a series on the Chandos label presenting music by the Parisian-born composer performed by the Iceland Symphony under the direction of Rumon Gamba.

Born in 1851, d’Indy was a controversial figure during his lifetime, his strong right-wing political views frequently going against the mainstream. Nevertheless, he was regarded as a composer of considerable stature, and his eclectic and romantic style exerted considerable influence on later composers, such as Eric Satie and Albert Roussel.

In addition to the Symphonie with renowned pianist Louis Lortie as the soloist, the disc also features Saugefleurie, Medée, and the Prelude to Act One of his opera Fervaal. The Symphonie is surely one of d’Indy’s most famous compositions, and is treated here with the joyous spirit it deserves. Based on a folk song from Tourtous, the work is a large and lush canvas with Lortie forming a perfect musical partnership with the orchestra. Saugefleurie had its origins in a poem by Robert de Bonnières and here the prominent use of horns and chromatic harmonies shows the clear influence of Wagner. (Unlike many of his French contemporaries, d’Indy was a staunch Wagnerite). Also with a literary connotation is the orchestral suite Medée, written for a tragedy by Catulle Mendès. The Iceland Symphony performs with a sensitive assurance, ably capturing the orchestral colours and contrasting moods in this story of doomed love, thus rounding out a most satisfying recording.

This is a fine addition in the series devoted to the “Samson of Music,” one which is helping bring to light certain works that up to now have unjustly languished in obscurity. D’Indy would be gratified!

Journeys: Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence; Schoenberg - Verklärte Nacht
Emerson String Quartet; Paul Neubauer; Colin Carr    
Sony 887254 70602

Firstly, I must admit my prejudice against the Emerson String Quartet initiated by a keen
disappointment and lingering dislike of their Beethoven String Quartets cycle of the mid-1990s issued by DG. To my ears, those coldly efficient, shiny performances displayed no empathy at all for the human being behind the scores. So it was with some trepidation that I approached this new CD, recorded just last year, but the interpretations are exemplary!

Verklärte Nacht is a particular favourite of mine, both in the original sextet version of 1899 and the opulent version for string orchestra revised in 1943. There is also a version for piano trio by Eduard Steuermann, a pupil of Schoenberg, of which several performances are available. The Emersons are right on the mark here. Their towering performance is completely focused with impeccable ensemble. Sensitive to every nuance and reading between the notes, the group appears to be totally absorbed by the beauty of the score and, just maybe, mindful of the melodrama and imagery of the Richard Dehmel poem that inspired it. Arguably, this performance sweeps the board.
 
Souvenir de Florence is an exhilarating, less familiar four-movement sextet by Tchaikovsky. It enjoys the same attention from the players who turn in a solid and joyous performance of this beautifully decorated score that will surely convert new listeners into fans of this captivating, abundantly energetic opus. 

The recording producer and engineer, Da-Hong Seetoo deserves an award for achieving such stunning realism and immediacy with apparent ease. This is an inspired disc that belongs on your shelf.

Mahler - Symphony No.1
London Philharmonic Orchestra; Vladimir Jurowski
LPO LPO-00070

The late release of a 2010 performance of Mahler’s Symphony No.1 on the London Philharmonic’s house label reveals a young conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, leading an enthusiastic and quite capable orchestra in repertoire he evidently has not quite come to terms with. This is most evident in the first movement, where Jurowski’s rigid phrasing robs the music of much of its charm and freshness. The novelty of this particular performance is the inclusion of a fifth movement entitled Blumine (Flowers) inserted between the first and second movements, an addition which was deleted by Mahler after three performances and was presumed lost until it resurfaced in 1966. Over twenty recordings have included this movement since then, but considering the flood of recordings we have experienced lately it’s still quite a rarity. Jurowski’s freakishly muscular interpretation of this delicate movement is certainly no bed of flowers, and for my taste the plebeian lack of perfume spoils the contrast with the country bumpkin charm of the following Scherzo, which seems to pass by in a flash in its wake. Having opted to reclaim the past by the inclusion of the extra movement, Jurowski inexplicably gives in to current revisionism by assigning the celebrated double bass solo that launches the ensuing bizarre funeral march to the entire section according to the specious reasoning of the latest Mahler edition. Thankfully by this point the conductor is beginning to show some real enthusiasm, finally hitting his stride in the hyper-theatrical grand finale and eventually saving the day with a fiery conclusion. The recorded sound from the recently renovated Royal Festival Hall is quite acceptable with no discernible distractions.

Although she doesn’t really do any more than her collaborators on her latest CD featuring Schubert’s String Quintet and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, the terrific Janine Jansen gets virtually solo credit and attention on the cover (Decca 478 3551). Her usual musical intelligence and sensitivity, however, is clearly matched by violinist Boris Brovtsyn, violists Maxim Rysanov and Amihai Grosz, and cellists Torleif Thedéen and Jens Peter Maintz. Schoenberg arranged Verklärte Nacht for string orchestra, but what a ravishing and entrancing work it is in this original sextet form. Written in 1899, well before his journey into atonality, it remains a stunningly beautiful late-Romantic work, given an exemplary performance here. The quality is just as high in the Schubert String Quintet, with impeccable balance between the voices revealing the intricate inner details with perfect clarity, and far more successfully than most ensembles. Attention to detail, never for its own sake but always with the aim of enriching the interpretation, is one of Jansen’s great strengths, and her leadership here is evident. This is music-making of the highest quality, and as engrossing and satisfying a performance of this wonderful work as you could wish for.

Another of Decca’s young European superstar violinists, Julia Fischer, has a new CD of the Bruch and Dvořák Violin Concertos, with David Zinman leading the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (Decca 478 3544). In the old LP days, the Bruch Violin Concerto in G Minor was nearly always paired with the Mendelssohn, but the Dvořák makes a surprisingly good companion. The two works were written only about 12 years apart, and share similarities in form – as indeed they do with the Mendelssohn. Fischer clearly has a great affection and affinity for the Dvořák: her mother is Czech and studied in Prague, and the concerto was one of the first that Fischer studied as a child. It’s a lovely work that has never really established itself at the top of the standard repertoire. Fischer believes that this is changing; it would certainly be difficult to find a more convincing argument than the one she presents here. From the very strong opening, through the beautiful slow movement to the lively finale, this is a magnificent performance – intense, expansive, rich and warm throughout, with a lustrous tone and lovely orchestral support.
Exactly the same can be said for the beautiful performance of the Bruch, which makes this old favourite sound new and fresh.

Hyperion’s excellent ongoing series The Romantic Violin Concerto has reached Volume 14 with works by Alexander Glazunov and Othmar Schoeck (CDA67940); Chloë Hanslip is the soloist, with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana under Alexander Vedernikov. A beautiful performance of the Glazunov A Minor Concerto reminds us what a truly lovely work this is, and the short Meditation Op.32 is no less lovely despite its brevity. The Mazurka-oberek dates from 1917, when Glazunov’s work as head of the Conservatory in St. Petersburg left him with little time for composition; its Polish flavour suggests that it may have been one of the small number of works written with wartime patriotic associations. The Swiss composer Schoeck is known primarily for his vocal works, and his Concerto quasi una fantasia in B flat major, Op.21 is one of the few orchestral works that he produced. Written in his early 20s, it is a work that is an appropriate and welcome addition to this Romantic series.

Another outstanding ongoing series is The Soviet Experience: String Quartets by Dmitri Shostakovich and his Contemporaries, which reaches Volume III with a 2-CD set of Shostakovich quartets Nos.9 through 12 paired with Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s String Quartet No.6 in E minor (Cedille CDR 90000 138). The Polish-born Weinberg was a close friend of Shostakovich, and both composers influenced each other in their quartet writing. Weinberg’s quartet, one of a series of seventeen, was written in 1946 but never performed; it was briefly included on the list of “non-recommended” works produced in 1948 as part of Andrei Zhdanov’s anti-formalist campaign. Not published until 1979, it was apparently premiered as late as 2007.
The Pacifica Quartet is once again in simply superb form, playing these intensely personal works with sensitivity and passion and a wonderfully expressive range of dynamics.

Shostakovich is the featured composer on a new harmonia mundi CD from the French cellist Emmanuelle Bertrand, who gives a solid, committed performance of the Cello Concerto No.1 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Pascal Rophé (HMC 902142). Bertrand is joined by her regular piano partner Pascal Amoyel for an excellent performance of the Cello Sonata Op.40, written just 2 years before the devastating 1936 attack on the composer and his music in the Pravda newspaper, and of the Moderato, a short piece found in manuscript some year’s after the composer’s death, and which may possibly be contemporaneous with the sonata itself.

Other Minds is a non-profit organization in San Francisco dedicated to promoting the work of contemporary composers. For the past 20 years they have produced an annual festival where the composers are in attendance, and a few years ago had the idea of a short series of concerts that would present contemporary works alongside works by the now deceased American composers who had influenced the current generation. As the intention was to summon “the spectres of musical forbears” the series was called A New Music Séance; among the performers were violinist Kate Stenberg and pianist Eva-Maria Zimmermann. The resulting CD Scenes from a New Music Séance (Other Minds OM 1019-2) is the recording debut of the duo, and presents a fascinating program. Works by composers no longer with us are: Josef Matthias Hauer’s Jazz, the fifth of his Fünf Stücke für Violine und Klavier; Henry Cowell’s Ballade; Ruth Crawford’s Violin Sonata; George Antheil’s stunning Sonata No.2 for Violin, Piano and Drums, a fascinating and exhilarating single-movement romp through a whole range of American popular songs and styles; Alan Hovhaness’ Khirgiz Suite; and Henning Christiansen’s Den Arkadiske. Works by current composers are Canadian Ronald Bruce Smith’s Tombeau, Charles Amirkhanian’s Rippling the Lamp, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen’s Double and Amy X Neuburg’s Nonette. Stenberg and Zimmermann handle the wide range of styles and techniques with consummate ease.

Kate Stenberg is also the first violinist of the Del Sol String Quartet, an ensemble based in San Francisco and dedicated to breaking musical boundaries. Named for the sun, the group gave their first concert 20 years ago in New Mexico, where the sun is sacred to the Zia Indians of the region. The quartet’s new CD release is called ZIA (Sono Luminus DSL-92164), and features five works by contemporary composers. Gabriela Lena Frank’s Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout takes Andean folk music traditions as its inspiration; the composer has travelled extensively in South America, studying not only music but also poetry and legends (leyendas). There are some fascinating effects here, especially when Andean folk instruments are being evoked. Lou Harrison, who died at 85 in 2003, is represented by his String Quartet Set from 1979, which was dedicated to our own Robert Aitken and New Music Concerts. It’s a decided mixture of five short pieces with quite different characters. Spain’s José Evangelista has been based in Montreal since the 1970s. His Spanish Garland, 12 Folk Melodies from Spain dates from 1993; the melodies used are predominantly very old, and have a distinct middle-Eastern flavour and character to them. The Iranian composer Reza Vali has been on the School of Music faculty at Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University since 1988. All of the musical material in his Nayshâboorák (Calligraphy No.6) is derived from traditional Persian music. Its use of quarter-tones and precise intervallic degrees makes for challenging but highly distinctive music. Born in Uzbekistan, Elena Kats-Chernin has been resident in Australia since 1994. Her Fast Blue Village 2 is a short moto perpetuo with a 5-beat rhythm. The playing throughout a varied and often technically challenging program is of a very high standard, and the music is always engaging. Perhaps the clue lies in the comment in the booklet notes that the Del Sol Quartet “commissions and performs accessible new music…” (my italics). Certainly there is much to enjoy here.

Ann Southam 5
Eve Egoyan
Centrediscs CMCCD 19113

There are many reasons to get excited about this recording of late works by maverick Canadian composer Ann Southam. For one thing, no one knew these works existed until they turned up in Southam’s Toronto home after her death in 2010. For another, this is a gorgeous recording.

What struck me the first time I listened – and after many listenings I’m still not ready to put this disc away – was that although these works are strikingly austere, they throb with vitality. Like the water-sculpted fallen trees on the booklet cover, they enchant by stealth, as though they are emerging from another world.

Southam wrote these works with Toronto pianist Eve Egoyan in mind, like the works on Egoyan’s two previous Southam recordings. Egoyan is able to bring special insights from those close collaborations with Southam to her exquisite handling of the lilting, halting and shifting rhythmic patterns which connect these works to each other, and to previous works called Returnings (two of these share the name Returnings, while the rest were left untitled).

The booklet throws light on Southam’s personal sound-world, especially by reproducing pages from her manuscripts. The sound is clear and spacious, allowing the pauses to resonate. But this disc deserves a more meaningful title, especially since it makes such an important addition to the already substantial evidence that Southam is not just one of our finest composers – hers is a significant voice in contemporary music.

Concert Note: Eve Egoyan plays a recital for Music Toronto on November 26 in the Jane Mallett Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts.

T. Patrick Carrabré - War of Angels
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Centrediscs CMCCD 18513

T. Patrick Carrabré’s accessible, modernist music is characterized by angular lines and apt, dissonant sonorities orchestrated with clarity and balance. Inuit Games (2002) is an engrossing work in which Inuit throat singers Pauline Pemik and Inukshuk Aksalnik together weave continuous vocal patterns. Around them Carrabré emphasizes the low and high orchestra registers in mysterious, menacing sonorities. A unique and strong piece. In Symphony No.1: The War of Angels (1996), the opening movement’s fast triplet motion initially struck me as suggesting a finale. But then, shouldn’t wars happen differently in angel space and time? The sombre slow movement has profound moments, while the concluding one needs more intensity, in my view. The Winnipeg Symphony brass and winds shine in this work.

Hearing the workmanlike first movement of Symphony No.3 (2003) left me with some qualms about the composer’s propensity for the moto perpetuo process. But the second one is richer and more expansive; the Winnipeg winds give their numerous atmospheric solos loving treatment. And the finale is dramatic and varied, with some intricate counterpoint that builds to an impressive climax. The Dragon’s Tail (1997) is the exciting closer on this disc, featuring percussion passages performed energetically as the other sections of the orchestra also generate plenty of menace! Kudos to Carrabré for his compositions and his work (along with conductors Andrey Boreyko and Bramwell Tovey) for the annual Winnipeg New Music Festival, which has helped composers, orchestra and audiences for contemporary music flourish.

Rite
Jon Kimura Parker
Independent FP 0907 (www.jonkimuraparker.com)

Rite is an exciting CD of world premiere transcriptions of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring (1913) and the complete ballet Petrouchka (1911) by pianist extraordinaire Jon Kimura Parker. There have been numerous transcriptions of the Rite, notably, by Stravinsky himself, Sam Raphling and Dickran Atamian. There are countless CDs and YouTube versions of three movements from the ballet Petrouchka. Emil Gilels, Grigory Sokolov, Alexis Weissenberg, Maurizio Pollini are excellent, Yuja Wang and Lang Lang with huge followings less so. What makes Parker’s version of Petrouchka a “must listen” is his remarkable and sensitive adaption of the complete ballet for solo piano. The focus is not so much on the pianistic fireworks of the famous dances but more on the pathos and lyrical qualities of melodic passages and the storyline. His attention to detail in transcribing is impeccable and his performance is never rushed but unfolds with singing lines and capricious humour. The ballet breathes in shapes and emotions. I realized at the end of the piece that I had not thought about the orchestra or the dancers because Parker’s transcription works beautifully as an extraordinary solo piano piece. This is definitely a welcome addition to the piano repertoire.

May 29, 2013 is the 100th anniversary of the Rite of Spring premiere performance in Paris, France. Today The Rite of Spring is one of the most influential works of the 20th century. Claude Debussy knew the work well and played it with Stravinsky in the four-hand duet version. Stravinsky himself worked on the score from the piano so it is no surprise that it works well as a solo piano piece. Jon Kimura Parker discovered Stravinsky’s piano duet version, which was used for ballet rehearsals. He felt that it was “less fastidious with details than I had expected.” Parker then began to add instrumental lines that had been left out. Other solo piano versions were deemed either too minimal or unplayable. I like Parker’s version with the encompassing layers of sound, from extreme delicacy and poignant colour to raw sensuality and primitive power. His performance is virtuosic both technically and artistically. I also agree with Parker’s quote about his own inspiration for this project. “Playing the Rite of Spring at the piano I am reminded of the day that I saw an exhibition of Picasso’s pencil sketches side by side with the finished paintings. Despite the absence of colour the angular power of the lines had even a greater impact.” We can use the same words about this CD which is excellent and I recommend it highly.

Ives/Brant - A Concord Symphony; Copland - Organ Symphony
San Francisco Symphony; Michael Tilson Thomas
SFSMedia 821936-0038-2

The four movements of Charles Ives’s Concord Sonata for piano (published in 1919 at Ives’s own expense along with his philosophical Essays Before A Sonata) are entitled Emerson, Hawthorne, The Alcotts and Thoreau – all leading authors of the American Transcendentalist school. Ives’ visionary writing is similarly “transcendent” and extremely challenging for performer and listener alike. Canadian-born composer, teacher and professional orchestrator Henry Brant had a particular affection for this groundbreaking work and set out to transcribe it for orchestra, a labour of love that occupied him off and on over the course of 35 years. The resulting 50-minute work was completed in 1994. Brant explained his intent was “to create a symphonic idiom which would ride in the orchestra with athletic sure-footedness and present Ives’s music in clear, vivid and intense sonorities.” Brant’s transcription is masterful and highly imaginative. He freely shifts the contours of melodic lines from one register to another and occasionally constructs inner voices to enhance his orchestral palette while remaining true to the content of Ives’s original piano score which, with its multiple staves, extreme density and general absence of time signatures, clearly suggests a blueprint in the form of an orchestral short score. The result could hardly be in more capable hands than those of Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, both of whom have an outstanding record of support for contemporary American music.

The disc also includes Aaron Copland’s Organ Symphony of 1925, a work commissioned and first performed by his mentor Nadia Boulanger. It is a remarkably assured accomplishment by the then 24-year-old composer and was the first of his works to receive wide public acclaim. Organist Paul Jacobs delivers a knockout performance of this intriguing and surprisingly intimate work. Superlative SACD quality sound throughout makes this disc a must-have item.

Cage - Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano       
Henry Kucharzyk         
Artifact Music ART-041 (www.arraymusic.com)
What to say about John Cage’s Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano? The piece has been recorded scores of times. Cage “invented” the prepared piano by inserting bolts, screws, pieces of rubber and other objects between the piano’s strings at precise points along the strings’ lengths in order to change the instrument’s timbre and tuning in unexpected ways. He described the result as a percussion ensemble under the hands of a single player. Cage’s insight and ingenuity in creating the prepared piano are a legendary moment in 20th century music. He had been exploring the possibilities of the prepared piano for some years up until the date of Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48) and continued to write for it for some years afterward. The prepared piano is the signature instrument of this early-to-middle phase of the composer’s career. 
What do we listen for in each new interpretation of the Sonatas and Interludes? Often, we tend to listen to the surface of this music – the novel sounds that result from Cage’s preparations. But Henry Kucharzyk’s performance takes us deeper into a new world of sound possibilities to approach the music’s essential motives. Cage’s “subject” was the nine “permanent” emotions of the Hindu tradition: the heroic, the erotic, the wondrous, the mirthful, sorrow, fear, anger, the odious and tranquility, to which the others all tend and aspire. Cage does not specify whether a particular sonata or interlude was intended to depict one or more of these nine. The overall effect of this very beautiful CD suggests that Henry Kucharzyk was especially highlighting tranquility, without short-changing any of the others. The erotic and the wondrous would be my next choices as guidelines/impulses in Kucharzyk’s interpretation, which has its mirthful and sorrowful moments, too.
I don’t remember now why I wasn’t there to hear this performance at the Premiere Dance Theatre 23 years ago. It must have been wondrous indeed. But we have this unique recording thanks to Artifact Music, Arraymusic, recording technicians John Oswald and Christopher Butterfield and, most of all, to Henry Kucharzyk for his deeply intelligent and elegantly realized rendition – emotional in just the way Cage intended.

Rota - Clarinet Sonata; Clarinet Trio
Goran Gojevic; Mary Kenedi; Lynn Kuo; Winona Zelenka; Michael Sweeney
Naxos 8.572778

The name Nino Rota may not be all that familiar, but if you’ve ever seen The Godfather or heard the famous love theme from the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, you’ve heard his music.

Born in Milan, Rota studied composition with Pizzetti and later at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. Although he is chiefly known today for his film scores, his output also includes a large number of chamber and orchestral works, all of it written in a contemporary but thoroughly accessible style. And what better way to sample some of his non-commercial output than through this fine Naxos recording with music performed by some of Toronto’s top musicians? Among the pieces presented here are the Clarinet Sonata, the Clarinet Trio, Improvviso, Toccata for Bassoon and Piano and the Fantasia for Piano, admirably performed by Goran Gojevic, clarinet, Mary Kenedi, piano, Lynn Kuo, violin, Winona Zelenka, cello, and Michael Sweeney, bassoon.

This is a charming disc, its appeal not only in the high level of performance, but in the inherent contrasts found within the music. The Trio for Clarinet, Cello and Piano from 1973 is pure cheekiness, with two playful outer movements surrounding a languorous andante. In contrast, the lyrical Clarinet Sonata, written 18 years earlier, clearly looks back to the 19th century with its expansive melodies and mood of introspection. Gojevic’s warm tone and Kenedi’s solid command of the score result in a fine performance. Equally romantic is the Fantasia for Piano, also from 1945. A recent discovery, this piece seems to draw from numerous sources, but few of them from the 20th century – do I detect a snippet of Schubert at times? A touch of French impressionism?

This collection is a most welcome addition to the catalogue, and ample proof that there is much more to Nino Rota than what we’ve heard on the big screen during the last 45 years. Bravo to all performers involved for some fine music making.

Elżbieta Sikora - Solo and Electronics
Various Artists
DUX 0679a (www.dux.pl)

The soundworlds of the four works composed by Polish born Elżbieta Sikora emerge in this album out of the inspiration generated by the poetry of Zbigniew Herbert. Through the skilful interweaving of instrumental and electroacoustic timbres, each piece is an evocative sonic image stimulated by Herbert’s words: a striding Orpheus-Apollo; a hesitant Nike beckoning; a waking dream shimmering; a collection of stones distilling midair.

Although celebrated in Europe Sikora is relatively unknown in this country, but if you love listening to new sounds and are intrigued and curious about the electroacoustic genre, this CD offers music of breathtaking imagination and compelling sonic textures. Each piece presents an interaction between a solo instrument – flute, cello, harpsichord, piano – and electronic sources generated within a studio environment. 

This interaction takes varying forms: question and answer, expression of opposite polarities, or one sonic plane enhanced by the other. And within each of the pieces, she has carefully crafted various approaches to creating a sense of open flexibility within the realm of a fixed time frame -- always a compositional challenge with electroacoustic works for live players and pre-recorded electronics.

Even though the pieces were created over a period of 25 years, at no time do you feel as if the older technologies used are a limitation. In fact, quite the opposite. Each piece offers a window into a rich and diverse sonic language, and is full of dramatic vigour and intensity. Definitely a composer worth discovering.

Night
Holly Cole
Rumpus Room Records 3716101 (www.hollycole.com)

Singer Holly Cole continues her stylish ways with her latest release. Her first studio album in five years, Night is a return to collaboration with the bandmates of the last two decades that helped establish her as the fine song interpreter she is. So pianist and arranger, Aaron Davis, David Piltch on bass, sax and reed player John Johnson and drummer Davide Direnzo are the core players and provide clever nuanced support throughout. The theme of the album isn’t obviously represented by the song titles as not an “evening” or “night” song is to be found. But there’s a wee-small-hours-of-the-morning feel that permeates throughout.

The opening tune sets the tone as the group eases through a languid You Only Live Twice with dreamy pedal steel courtesy of Greg Leisz. Then we’re led through a range of stories courtesy of some well-known songwriters like Tom Waits (the swampy Walk Away) and others a little more obscure but no less poignant, like Danny O’Keefe (Good Time Charlie’s Got the Blues). Even when the energy gets kicked up, as it does on Viva Las Vegas – complete with 60s style horns and a smokin’ flute solo from John Johnson -- there’s an appealing coolness that pervades. Cole and her band’s tune-picking abilities and powers of interpretation are in abundance on Night and fans will not be disappointed.

Masterclass: Holly Cole will be joining the clinicians at the Jazz On The Mountain at Blue festival July 5 to present her own class on “the art of the voice and the bass.” (www.bluemountainjazzfest.com)

Offset
Kyle Brenders Quartet
18th Note Records 18-2012-2 (www.kylebrenders.ca)

Proficient in both improvised and notated music, clarinettist/saxophonist Kyle Brenders has become a known commodity on the local music scene and this bang-up disc aptly demonstrates his elevated compositional and playing standards. Working through a program of eight somewhat bouncy always quirky Brenders’ originals he’s helped immeasurably by the cohesive, multi-faceted soloing of trombonist Steve Ward, Tomas Bouda’s unobtrusive yet sturdy bass line and the ever-inventive drumming of Mark Segger.

Working with motifs which reference brassy marching band music while utilizing extended instrumental techniques, the result is sophisticated without ever becoming esoteric. Segger and Ward are keys to this strategy. On a tune such as Porlock for instance, the trombonist constructs a jolting solo out of mid-range plunger impulses and smooth capillary extensions as Brenders’ soprano saxophone exposes quivering multiphonics. Meanwhile the theme is repeated at intervals with tremolo flutters from both, centred by the bassist. With Whisk it’s blustering puffs and slurs from the ‘bone man that hold the line as the composer on bass clarinet cascades split tones a cappella from subterranean to altissimo and is then joined by the drummer’s ruffs and rebounds for a stop-time ending. Terrace on the other hand is Segger’s showcase, as metallic clinks, castanet-like snaps and wood-block smacks move upfront. At the same time his pops and pitter-patters underline the theme, which correspondingly vibrates by parallel clarinet and trombone lines.

Far along in his synthesis of other influences, which include composer Anthony Braxton’s eclecticism, the sax-and-trombone-centred New York Art Quartet and a crafty subversion of Cool Jazz’s thin and subtle harmonies with raucous trombone blats and contrapuntal saxophone glossolalia, Brenders is a noteworthy Toronto talent, with this CD a definitive showcase of his varied skills.

Concert note: On June 22 the Kyle Brenders Quartet is in concert at the Music Gallery along with New York saxophonist Matana Roberts.

Montreal pianist Oliver Jones announced his retirement at age 65 back in 2000, but returned to performing shortly thereafter. Since then he’s made a further contribution to the swing quotient of Canadian jazz, for Jones has a devotion to rhythmic propulsion second only to Oscar Peterson. A certain resemblance may be inevitable: Jones grew up in the same Little Burgundy neighbourhood of Montreal where he studied piano with OP’s sister, Daisy Peterson Sweeney. Josée Aidans appears as a special guest with Jones’ trio on about half of Just for My Lady (Justin Time JUST 251-2 www.justin-time.com) and the warmth of her violin adds a special touch, whether it’s to the forceful Josée’s Blues, the luminous balladry of Lights of Burgundy (a Jones composition from 1985) or the delightful swing of Lady Be Good. Elsewhere Jones, bassist Eric Lagace and drummer Jim Doxas are at their usual consummate level, consistently elegant whether reflective or joyous.

Bill King is another veteran pianist with a Peterson connection, first coming to Canada as a teenager in the 1960s to study at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. King has had a long career in Toronto as composer, publisher, bandleader and mentor to a host of vocalists, but on Cinemascope: Orchestrations for Piano (Slaight Music www.slaightmusic.com) he goes it alone at the keyboard of a Steinway grand, improvising on themes with cinematic inferences. There’s a strong thread of Ellington’s particular impressionism here, whether King is reflecting on Audrey Hepburn in Audrey in Silk or Duke’s writing partner in Strayhorn. King’s darkened-theatre reveries can recall a host of landscapes and genres, but they all seem to glow with the special luminosity of memory.

Another alumnus of the Peterson school is drummer Don Vickery, who was already active in Halifax jazz circles before he relocated to Toronto in 1959. Vickery is 74 now, but he’s lost none of his springy, propulsive beat, amply demonstrated on his first CD as leader, Alone Together (Cornerstone CRST CD 139 www.cornerstonerecordsinc.com). The music here is mainstream modern jazz of the first rank, with Vickery fitting hand-in-glove with his partners. Pianist Mark Eisenman’s relaxed rhythmic phrasing and feel for the blues always suggest something of the late Wynton Kelly, while Neil Swainson is a genuine melodic bassist, whether soloing or playing the melody on Johnny Mandel’s seldom heard Close Enough for Love. There’s never a sense of a superfluous note here, and it all seems to float on air, wafted aloft on Vickery’s detailed punctuation. Other highlights include Hampton Hawes’ Blues the Most and Henry Mancini’s Dreamsville, also imaginative repertoire choices.

The Carn Davidson Nine (Addo AJR014 www.addorecords.com) debuts a mid-size ensemble led by Toronto alto saxophonist Tara Davidson and trombonist William Carn. The band is a fine outlet for the co-leaders’ compositions and arrangements, allowing for voicings and dynamics that are unavailable in the typical quintet or quartet. While the name may recall Phil Nimmons’ groundbreaking nonet, this Nine’s structure includes sheer heft (consider the brassy force of Davidson’s opening Battle Scars) as well as nuance, complementing the leaders with saxophonists Kelly Jefferson on tenor and Perry White on baritone (always forceful presences), trumpeters Jason Logue and Kevin Turcotte, and bass trombonist Terry Promane, with bassist Andrew Downing and drummer Fabio Ragnelli. The subtlety comes via the doubling, with flutes and flugelhorns coming to the fore on Carn’s airy When You Least Expect It. With arrangers including Promane, Logue and Reg Schwager and high-level soloists (Davidson is delightfully abstract on her South Western View), the Carn Davidson Nine could become a significant institution.

Last year Montreal saxophonist Patrick Lampron released Walking the Line and Ottawa trumpeter Craig Pedersen put out Days like These, both CDs of exceptional promise. That promise has been fulfilled in record time with the release of Live in Silence (www.craigpedersen.com), the end product of a Northern Quebec tour by Pedersen/Lampron/Gobeil/Kerr/Thibodeau, essentially Pedersen with the band from Lampron’s CD: guitarist, Dominic Gobeil, bassist Joel Kerr and drummer Eric Thibodeau. While Pedersen’s band conception usually falls in the overlapping orbits of Ornette Coleman and John Zorn’s Masada, here the collective inspirations are the ECM label’s Nordic cool, open harmonies and spacious, lyrical modal jazz, complemented by influences from Wayne Shorter and Tomasz Stanko. The band is cohesive, with Pedersen bringing another dimension, nowhere more apparent than in Lampron’s compelling and concluding Obrigada, a composition that the quintet sustains with developing interest for nearly 17 minutes of music.

A similar Ontario/Quebec connection appears in the quintet of free improvisers Martin, Lozano, Lewis, Wiens, Duncan on the CD at Canterbury (Barnyard Records BR0332 www.barnyardrecords.com). The style is deliberate and focused, with ideas clearly developing as they’re passed around the group. Singer Christine Duncan and guitarist Rainer Wiens, doubling on theremin and mbira respectively, can create backgrounds of a rain forest density while trumpeter Jim Lewis and saxophonist Frank Lozano are deft musical architects, marking lyrical trails through the soundscape, all of it enhanced by Martin’s expansive store of adroitly distributed sounds. There’s an often uncanny sense of form here, and it’s too bad that Wiens and Lozano reside 500 kilometres from the rest of the band.

Montreal saxophonist François Carrier and drummer Michel Lambert are regular ambassadors to the world of improvised music, intrepid travellers who have matched inspirations with similarly open creators throughout Europe and parts of Asia. On Overground to the Vortex (Not Two MW904-2 www.nottwo.com), another segment in their extended chronicle, the two appear at London’s Vortex with two outstanding representatives of the British school of free improvisation, bassist John Edwards and pianist Steve Beresford. The trio of Carrier, Lambert and Edwards are heard first with Edwards’ complex bass activity matching up perfectly with Lambert, creating a force field of percolating rhythmic details that Carrier negotiates with the zeal of an urban explorer facing a new metropolis. The full quartet assembles for Archway, an extended musical arc consisting of constantly shifting moods and densities, highlighted by Carrier’s controlled passion and Beresford’s playfulness.

As the rhythmic base of jazz has changed over the past half century, adding emphases besides pure swing to improvisation, the role of the percussionist has changed as well. No longer just a time keeper the modern drummer must be conversant with varied beats from many genres of music. This familiarity with other cultures is also why many non-Americans have become prominent. Case in point is Norwegian percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love, who plays with the Euro-American band Lean Left at the Tranzac on June 15. Nilssen-Love, whose associates range from the most committed electronics dial-twister to free-form veterans is equally proficient laying down a hard rock-like beat as he is trading accents with experimental timbre-shatters. The two extended tracks on Live at Café Oto (Unsounds 32U www.unsounds.com) demonstrate not only Nilssen-Love’s cohesive skills amplifying the improvisations of Chicago-based tenor saxophonist/clarinettist Ken Vandermark as he does in many other contexts, but shows how both react to the power chords and violent string distortions which characterize the style of guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Ex from Dutch punk band The Ex, who complete this quartet. In spite of Vandermark’s consistent overblowing which encompasses pumping altissimo honks and frenetic slurs; plus the guitarists’ constant crunches, smashes and frails, the drumming never degenerates into monotonous rock music-like banging. Instead, while the backbeat isn’t neglected, auxiliary clips, ruffs, ratamacues and smacks are used by Nilssen-Love to break up the rhythm, with carefully measured pulsations. This strategy is most obvious during the climatic sections of the more-than-37 minute Drevel. With all four Lean Lefters improvising in broken octaves, the narrative shakes to and fro between Vandermark’s collection of emphasized freak notes and dyspeptic stridency and the dual guitarists’ slurred fingering that leads to staccato twangs and jangling strums. Not only is the climax attained with a crescendo of volume and excitement, but the final theme variations are in contrast as stark and minimalist as the earlier ones are noisy. As guitars methodically clank as if reading a post-modern composition, and the clarinet lines emphasize atonal reed bites, intermittent stick strokes and toe-pedal pressure from the drummer concentrate the sound shards into the track’s calm finale.
            
An extension of this calm also eventually occurs on Double Tandem Cement (PNL Records PNL 013 www.paalnilssen-love.com), where Nilssen-Love’s and Vandermark’s only companion is Amsterdam’s Ab Baars, playing tenor saxophone, clarinet and shakuhachi. Although the drummer trots out ruffs, smacks and bounces when both saxophonists blare at top volume, the most distinctive track here is the 30-minute Shale. Dividing interaction into duos or trios, as he faces each reedist’s experiments in hushed atonality the percussionist limits himself to microtonal popping and ratcheting as if he were playing Native American drum patterns. When one tenor saxophonist expels Sonny Rollins-like sharp and brittle slurs and honks, Nilssen-Love concentrates his responses to cymbal swishes and snare splatters. Elsewhere, glockenspiel-like pings plus cross-handed ratamacues back lip-bubbling, mid-range clarinet growls. As eloquently precise as he is focused in his percussive responses, the drummer later limits himself to offside rim clattering and cymbal rubbing as his associates rappel through reed challenges. When Vandermark circular breathes strident clarinet tones, Baars’ shakuhachi puffs judder sympathetically. When one saxophonist explores the limits of altissimo bent notes, the other revels in penny-whistle-pitched chirps and squeaks. Eventually the apotheosis of pummelling split tones and forced glossolalia that the two attain subsides into tonal interaction confirming Nilssen-Love’s discreet accents throughout.
           
Vandermark confirms his far-reaching rhythmic sophistication and welcoming of worldwide improvisers on The Resonance Ensemble’s What Country is This? (NotTwo MW 885-2 www.nottwo.com). This is a program which balances his baritone saxophone and clarinet style plus the input from six additional horn players with the synergic percussion skills of two Chicago-based drummers, Tim Daisy and Michael Zerang. Veterans of many bands with Vandermark and others, both know exactly how to both lead and accompany an ensemble of American and Northern European players, including three more saxophonists, three brass players and one bassist. Tracks such as Fabric include rapidly changing pitch and speed sequences where, for instance, salient drum rolls from one percussionist and clattering rim shots from the other underline the inchoate power essayed by Vandermark’s baritone sax and Dave Rempis’ tenor saxophone, underlined by pedal-point blasts from Per Åke Holmlander’s tuba. By the finale shimmering cymbal and drum plops lessen the density and solidify a now well-balanced melody, leaving ample subsequent space for Devin Hoff’s walking bass solo, Magnus Broo’s plunger trumpet lines and mid-range clarinet sluices from Waclaw Zimpel. Stop-and-start rather than stop-time, the distinctive Acoustic Fence likewise mixes unique forms of expression from a swing-era-styled saxophone section riffing to a hearty tenor sax solo by Mikolaj Trzaska that’s just this side of rock music. Still the sinewy arrangement calls for the former to be accompanied by perfectly timed percussion slaps and clattering cymbals and the latter by tough shuffles and opposite sticking from the drummers that would be equally appropriate on a soul music session. Eventually, extended blustery trombone brays by Steve Swell prefigure the session’s only protracted percussion solos, as rolls, rumbles and ruffs open up into a restrained yet powerful display of thrusting textures and pinpointed smacks, with the narrative ricocheting from one drummer to the other.

If that CD underlined the expressive power of two inventive percussionists then Fire! Orchestra Exit! (Rune Grammofon RDCD 2138 www.runegrammofon.com) ups the ante with four drummers contributing. Exit is a two-part multiphonic showcase for this massive band featuring 27 of Scandinavia’s top improvisers, including Holmlander and Broo; plus one ex-pat Canadian, bassist Joe Williamson. The ensemble is directed by tenor saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, a frequent associate of both Vandermark and Nilssen-Love, who played Toronto in May. Although part of the performance is devoted to wordless or unconnected phrase-making vocals from three singers – most prominently Sofia Jenberg – they’re part of the improving process, as their vocal cries, yodels and rasps intersect or soar over the often dense instrumental cacophony. While there’s never any doubt about the beat emanating in hearty unison from percussionists Raymond Strid, Andreas Werlin, Thomas Gartz and Johan Holmegard, like Nilssen-Love on Live at Café Oto, there’s sensitivity in their accompaniment. Designated space is also available for soloists who include Sten Sandell’s piano-pumping glissandi in addition to frenetic split tones and broken octave jumps from saxophonists Gustafsson and Frederick Ljungkvist. The percussionists shatter the finale of Exit! Part One with their collection of miscellaneous instruments of ratchets, rattles, gongs, bell trees and wood blocks. Then, if anything the CD’s second track is more intense and powerful than the first. It features string-shredding reverb from three guitarists, massed cadences from the vocalists, deep-pitched tuba burbling and a vamping reed section. Only as the piece reaches a fortissimo crescendo is it clear that the entire band has been steadily motivated by the drum quartet’s nearly inaudible clanks, clicks and drags, which have been present throughout. Eventually the harmonized percussionists’ conclusive thundering, echoing and booming make it clear the sonic miasma has been breached for the finale.
           
Hearty demonstrations of new percussionists’ taste as well as power, plus the ascendency of European musicians, these discs also suggest names to watch for when they next gig in Toronto.