Kate Read – After
Kate Read
Leaf Music LM258 (leaf-music.ca)

A curious mixture of contemporary solo viola compositions and Baroque pieces, this debut album by Kate Read is engaging and explorative, as well as enterprising. Although not a theme, the music on this album indirectly depicts the natural elements of Newfoundland, where Read currently resides – beauty amidst ruggedness, vastness of (sonic) space, wildness of possibilities. Read is a powerful performer, fully present in every phrase and turn, adventurous, always aware of the structure and direction. Her sound is imposing yet gentle, with an array of colours and expressions.

All contemporary pieces on the album involve electronics but don’t venture into the avant-garde, entailing structural symmetry and classical aesthetics. Two are new commissions by Kate Read: Evennight by Benton Roark, a neverending joyful cascade of 16th notes using amplified viola with analogue electronics, and Blackwood Sketches by Andrew Staniland. The latter is a visceral, expressive take on an acclaimed etching by David Blackwood, Fire Down on the Labrador, and involves synth tones and low notes to depict the whale, ice and wood underneath and in between the viola’s segments. Keep in Touch by Nico Muhly features an unusual, pre-recorded track that blends with the viola exquisitely. The album closes with Aftermath, a collaborative improvisation on two of Bach’s pieces with Michelle LaCour, featuring synthesized and found sounds, pedals and layering. 

Baroque pieces by Biber (Passacaglia from Mystery Sonata No.16) and Bach (movements from Violin Sonata No.3) are arranged for viola by Read and played with passion. The unusual programming gives a spark to this album.

Listen to 'Kate Read – After' Now in the Listening Room

The Lakota Music Project
South Dakota Symphony Orchestra; Delta David Gier
Innova 1 081 (innova.mu)

This highly creative project is a stunning combination of material composed by six gifted Indigenous Americans of the Lakota Sioux nation featuring the eminent South Dakota Symphony under the musical direction of Delta David Gier. The Lakota Project is a brilliantly constructed collection of music specifically written and designed to dissolve the walls between the Lakota peoples and their horrific history of abuse and near genocide at the hands of European settlers. The music itself was created in an atmosphere of trust and open communication and is a pure, resplendent boon to the process of reconciliation. 

Black Hills Olowan by Brent Michael Davids features the Creekside Singers dynamic; mystical motifs depict the incredible power of natural forces and the ensemble’s magnificent voices serve to intensify the magic. The composition and arrangement here are nothing short of superb, and awash with emotional and musical gravitas – chaos and destruction, and then rebuilding. Also exceptional is the six-movement, Victory Songs (Wakétgli olówan) by Jerod Impichchachaaha’ Tate, which fluidly moves the listener through time and history – from the beginning of the world to the horrific murder of Sitting Bull. Stephen L. Bryant’s sonorous voice digs deep into the soul, at once elevating us up into etheric dimensions and plunging us back down into the grief and horror of one group of the human race determined to exterminate another. 

Of particular delight is Desert Wind by guitarist Jeffrey Paul. Paul drags us into the present time and place with his cheeky, relentless electric guitar, soothed by Robert Erhard and Sharon Mautner-Rodgers on cellos and the Creekside Singers. The closing track is (ironically) John Newton’s 1772 Christian hymn, Amazing Grace. Arranged by Theodore Wiprud, this song celebrates a transformation that speaks to the oneness of all… a radiant and much needed message in our present world.

American Stories
Anthony McGill; Pacifica Quartet
Cedille CDR 90000 216 (cedillerecords.org)

This is a great recording. What is not to like here? The Pacifica quartet are excellent, Anthony McGill turns the clarinet into a beautiful distinct voice, and the stories? Well, let’s talk. 

Leaving aside the question of whether music can function as narrative, let’s at least say that while American Stories doesn’t push the inclusion-and-equity button too hard, it includes equally compelling tales from a variety of voices. Richard Danielpour’s threnody Four Angels reflects on the aching sorrow caused by the Birmingham church bombing now almost 60 years in the past. The angels are the four young girls who lost their lives to the hatred of a racist. The piece derives real beauty from that reflection and opens our hearts to hope. Despicable acts seem to be part of the curse of humanity, and courage and hope two blessings we require in order to persist. Commissioned by McGill in early 2020, it was premiered online in 2021. 

The longest and most entertaining work is the final one, Valerie Coleman’s Shotgun Houses. Coleman grew up in West Louisville, Kentucky as did the subject of the piece. Muhammed Ali’s early life and rise to prominence as an African American hero is depicted in three movements: the first, with the same title as the entire work, describes the neighbourhood itself, the architecture of poverty celebrated for the strength of the inhabitants. Grand Avenue is one of those streets, notably Ali’s home address when he was still Cassius Clay and before his Olympic triumph in Rome 1960. In this last movement Coleman pencil strokes Ali at the speed bag, on a flight (his first ever) to Rome, and in the ring for three rounds on his way to the gold medal, in under seven minutes; the entire work lasts about 18. I hope the composer at least considers whether it might be expanded, perhaps even with an epilogue to honour Ali’s later years as an activist, and his struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

Between these are two other great pieces: High Sierra Sonata by Ben Shirley and James Lee III’s Clarinet Quintet. More tone poem than narrative, Shirley’s piece is an honest response to the dynamic beauty of the American southwest, in American vernacular style, if that means anything. Lee has a heavier task, addressing the treatment of the Indigenous peoples who were cheated out of promised territory in the Dakotas. Made me think of a half-finished monument to Crazy Horse that sits near Mount Rushmore. Both pieces substantially add to a growing genre: the clarinet quintet.

Invocation
Duo Kermani-Gentili
Pro Classics 7025 (duo-kermani-gentili.com/en/cd)

Is music by women composers like the dark matter of the musical universe: influential, yet somehow undetectable by current means? Try again.

Invocation sheds light on this element, featuring works for clarinet and piano. The duo of clarinetist Kymia Kermani and pianist Alba Gentili-Tedeschi have focused on European composers, all women, most presenting (I would argue) mid-20th-century style. An exception is the first composer featured, Marie Clémence de Grandval (1823-1907), whose Deux Pièces include the title track for the disc. Apart from her importance as an established female composer in the 19th century, I don’t think hers was the strongest opening play; tuneful and sweet, a bit like Adolph Adam, but less observed; de Grandval was kind enough NOT to write Minuit Chretien.  

A selection of well-performed miniatures, there are 27 separate tracks through its 58 minutes. It’s as if the composers were afflicted by modesty. I feel most compelled by the music of Holocaust escapee Ursula Mamlock’s Rückblick, in Erinnerungan die Reichspogromnacht 9. November 1938, a brief but harrowing depiction of her family’s flight from Berlin in the wake of Kristallnacht. 

The tracks are linked by short interludes by Barbara Heller (b.1936). Her Luftspuren are lovely enigmatic epigrams that serve as a “promenade” between the other works.  

Composition dates are absent in the jacket material, but with help from their publicist I learned Polish composer Krystyna Moszumańska-Nazar, who studied composition at the same school as Krzysztof Penderecki, quite possibly a bit earlier, was nine years his senior. Isn’t it wonderful to imagine that her clever (and also earlier) Three Miniatures for Clarinet and Piano influenced the much more celebrated man whose work of the same title was published in 1959? Now there’s some dark matter!

Poul Ruders – Clarinet Quintet; Throne; Piano Quartet
Rudersdal Chamber Players
Our Recordings 8.220680 (ourrecordings.com)

The Rudersdal Chamber Players lift the music of Poul Ruders off the page and into the ether with finesse and passion. Liner notes include Ruders’ own quirky accounting for the pieces, and players’ biographies, which one senses were written by themselves. The group has been together since 2017, with members mostly of the current generation, all excellent. No explanation is offered for the similarity of the names, so call it a coincidence. The group is named for a music festival whose home is Rudersdal.  

The music itself is intense and compelling. Three works fill out the roughly 60 minutes of track time: Throne for clarinet and piano (1988); and the more recent Clarinet Quintet (2014) and Piano Quartet (2016). Describing or categorizing Ruders’ music requires more space than allotted, so I decided to list some adjectives and some possible likenesses to other composers: swinging, soaring, wailing; sweet and then astringent; moody and meditative; then boisterous and exuberant.  

Sometimes in the style of a chorale, featuring monody or homophony, with minimal vibrato (the Adagio movement of the Clarinet Quintet). At others (especially in the Piano Quartet) he reverts to more boldly modern style in the sense that his usual tonalism gives way to expressionistic chromaticism. And especially in the playing of the terribly capable clarinetist Jonas Frøland, expect keening notes at the top of the spectrum to tug on your emotions.

If he has forebears, they are Messiaen (although Ruders is doubtless a pantheist) and Ruders’ compatriot Carl Nielsen (minus the melancholy). His contemporary cadre might include Gavin Bryars and Anders Hillborg, and possibly Kaija Saariaho. In his own words, the most important defining feature of his music is its soul and I urge you to discover that for yourself.

Listen to 'Poul Ruders – Clarinet Quintet; Throne; Piano Quartet' Now in the Listening Room

Works for Violin and Percussion Orchestra
Nicholas Kitchen; New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble; Frank Epstein
Naxos 8.574212 (naxos.com/Search/KeywordSearchResults/?q=Agocs)

American composer Lou Harrison (1912-2003) enjoyed mixing non-Western musical exoticism with lots of percussion. In his Arabic-flavoured, 21-minute Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra, he augmented conventional noisemakers with novel “instruments” including flowerpots, metallic coils and washtubs. Sinuous violin melismas and pulsating percussion decorate its first two movements, composed in 1940; Harrison added the roisterous belly-dance finale in 1959. It’s energetically performed by Nicholas Kitchen, first violinist of the Borromeo String Quartet, New England Conservatory quartet-in-residence, and the NEC Percussion Ensemble conducted by Frank Epstein, its founding music director. 

Insistent rhythms and pentatonic melodies, including an ancient Mayan dance-song, evoke tropical steaminess in the five-movement Xochiquetzal (2014) by Robert Xavier Rodríguez (b. San Antonio, Texas 1946). Kitchen’s violin vividly represents Xochiquetzal, Aztec goddess of beauty, love and fertility, among hummingbirds, casting a love spell, alongside her rain-god husband, weeping tears of flowers and bestowing music and dance upon her worshippers.

The four-movement Concerto for Violin and Percussion Orchestra (2018) by NEC faculty member Kati Agócs (b. Windsor, Ontario 1975) begins with Incanta, gentle tinkles accompanying a long-lined, sentimental violin melody. In the animated Inquieto, staccato percussion punctuates rapid, repeated violin figurations. Maestoso presents another extended, soulful violin melody, slowly throbbing percussion, an intense violin cadenza leading to a dramatic tutti climax before returning to the opening lyricism. Brioso.Cantabile’s piquant melodies and propulsive rhythms create a whirlwind, Gypsy-like dance, its exultant final flourish ending both the concerto and this very entertaining CD.

Album for Astor
Bjarke Mogensen; Danish Chamber Players
Our Recordings 8.226916 (ourrecordings.com)

Danish accordionist Bjarke Mogensen writes in his liner notes that this Astor Piazzolla instrumental release is for “the centenary of his birth.” Mogensen bases his accordion performances and instrumental arrangements here in his admiration, studies and understanding of Piazzolla’s compositions and bandoneon playing. Combined with Mogensen’s personal sound, this is over one hour of perfect Piazzolla.

The attention-grabbing opening track is Mogensen’s accordion solo arrangement of Adiós Nonino, Piazzolla’s work composed in memory of his father. An accented fast beginning leads to the famous slow, sad, emotional melody with rubato, then back to faster lush full glissandos and colours, showing off Mogensen’s skillful musicality, fast technique and respectful interpretations. The closing track solo arrangement Despertar (cadenza) is calming.

The other tracks feature ensembles. Mogensen arranges six works for himself and the Danish Chamber Players. Highlight is Fuga Y Misterio, from Piazzolla’s opera Maria de Buenos Aires. Contrapuntal writing with fast attention-grabbing accordion single lines, fugal instrumental lines, then full instrumentals with accented accordion and orchestra detached notes produce spirited dance sounds. 

Mathias Heise on harmonica joins Mogensen on their co-arrangement/duet of Café 1930 from Histoire du Tango. The harmonica blends surprisingly well with the accordion, especially in high-pitched lines above accordion bellow vibratos. Co-arranger Johan Bridger’s melodious virtuosic ringing vibraphone playing competes with and complements accordion tango runs in Vibraphonissimo. His vibes/percussion tight rendition with accordion moves from moody to tango nuevo in Tristango.

Piazzolla’s music lives on in this clear recording.

Listen to 'Album for Astor' Now in the Listening Room

Denis Plante – Suite Tango
Stéphane Tétreault; Denis Plante
ATMA ACD2 2881 (atmaclassique.com/en)

Bandoneonist/composer Denis Plante was inspired by J.S. Bach’s Cello Suites which feature such dances as courante, gigue and sarabande to compose Suite Tango, six multi-movement dance suites for bandoneon and cello. Plante is joined by Stéphane Tétreault here. These two multi award-winning musicians play the mesmerizing unique sounds with compassion.

Baroque meets modern day Argentinian dance music head on! Suite No.1, “Argentina” is a perfect introduction to Plante’s compositions here. First movement Preludio, with its slow emotional rubato opening, creates the mood, with a gradual accelerando into instrumental conversational tango styles. Lyrical slower bandoneon opens Silbando, with legato cello contrapuntal countermelodies, plucked cello and lower-pitch bandoneon solo adding different colours. The third movement Tango is so very melodically rooted in this dance-form style, highlighted by cello melodies accompanied by accented bandoneon chords and single notes, then shifting to bandoneon melodies with cello accents. The opening movement Coral of Suite No.2 “Bach to tango” features a Baroque/tango-flavoured bandoneon to a closing Bach-like cadence. The solo cello is memorable in the short 49-second Recitativo second movement. The Baroque-coloured tonal duet features subtle tango feelings in Canto. Back to an exuberant lively short tango in the fourth movement Milonga-cayengue. Four exciting multi-movement suites follow. 

Plante composes with Bach and tango-flavoured styles combined, alone and developed into compelling new sounds. Both performers play with colourful rich tones, and virtuosic stylistic/instrumental expertise. It’s time to listen and/or to dance to Suite Tango!

Listen to 'Denis Plante – Suite Tango' Now in the Listening Room

Featuring
Caity Gyorgy
La Reserve Recordings (caitygyorgy.com)

With the opening barn burner, I Feel Foolish, singer-songwriter Caity Gyorgy puts us on notice of what’s to come on Featuring. It’s the first of many compelling songs she’s written for her latest release, and what’s to come is 13 tracks of vocal virtuosity and genuine jazz, ranging in style from swing to cool to bebop. 

Backed up by a hard-swinging trio (Felix Fox-Pappas, piano; Thomas Hainbuch, bass; Jacob Wutzke, drums) with guest appearances by guitarist Jocelyn Gould (who does a gorgeous duet with Gyorgy on the ballad, I Miss Missing You), fellow young phenom singer, Laura Anglade and a long lineup of horn and woodwind players, including Pat LaBarbera and Virginia MacDonald. Gyorgy solos effortlessly and extensively along with the master instrumentalists, but never sacrifices warmth or musicality for adroitness. Storytelling wins out even when vocal gymnastics are dazzling us, as they do on A Moment, featuring the remarkable Allison Au on sax. My Cardiologist is a masterclass on how to be both light-hearted yet seriously musical, with its witty take on what love does to our hearts. 

The accolades continue to pile up for Gyorgy since her debut release two short years ago, as she made Best of 2022 lists and won a Juno Award. I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of the world catch on as this homegrown talent expands her reach through tours in the U.S. and beyond. Track her progress at caitygyorgy.com.

Listen to 'Featuring' Now in the Listening Room

Recollecting
Mathieu Soucy
Inner-Bob Records (mathieusoucy.com)

Young jazz guitarist Mathieu Soucy, a recent graduate of McGill and a Montreal native, showcases his prolific compositional and technical skills on this debut album. Soucy adds his own twist to the songs, managing to both create a beautiful hark back to the eras of swing and bop while also bringing them into current times; making for a new classic of sorts. The record features an excellent set of musicians, with Gentiane MG on keys, Mike De Masi on bass, Jacob Wutzke on drums and Caity Gyorgy on vocals. Most pieces are penned by the guitarist himself with a couple of fresh takes on well-known jazz classics mixed into the musical pot pourri.  

Lennie’s Changes starts off the album with catchy, toe-tapping energy; fast-paced bass runs and a constant, driving beat keep this captivating little number moving until the last note fades. Where or When is a spiffy take on the Rodgers and Hart classic, featuring the sultry and mellow vocals of Gyorgy with Soucy’s talents as a guitarist splendidly coming to the forefront within the piece. 

The fascinating thing about this album is how Soucy manages to make these pieces sound as if they could have been written back in the golden era yet also fit incredibly well into the current musical landscape. With this invigorating album, the up-and-coming young guitarist shows that he definitely has more in store for the future.

Let Go
Sam Taylor; Terell Stafford; Jeb Patton; Neal Miner; Willie Jones III
Cellar Music CM013122 (cellarlive.com)

Philadelphia native, tenor saxophonist Sam Taylor has a pure joy for both playing and writing music which shines through phenomenally on his latest release. Recorded at the legendary Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Taylor has managed to capture that aforementioned joy within each of these pieces and send it right to the ears and hearts of listeners; it’s impossible to not smile while listening through. The talented musician has brought together his musical heroes and inspirations in his backing band, featuring Terell Stafford on trumpet, Jeb Patton on piano, Neal Miner on bass and Willie Jones III on drums. The pieces are uplifting and fresh takes on jazz classics with one song penned by Taylor himself. 

The record is a ray of musical sunshine that brightens up the dreariest, grey winter days from the first note. A perfect balance of slower, mellow tunes and fast-paced, head-bopping ones make for an ear-pleasing, all-encompassing musical journey to satiate that itch for fresh music that you didn’t quite know you had. Luminescence stands out as a particularly energetic and snazzy piece with fantastic solos peppered throughout, showcasing each musician’s fine talents. Bye Bye Baby, a fitting title to end the record, leaves the listener with a sense of hope and positivity for the future as well as a curiosity to see what this prolific saxophonist comes up with next. A great addition to the jazz aficionado’s collection!

Make That Flight
François Houle & Marco von Orelli
ezz-thetics 1032 (hathut.com)

A barebones, but not budget flight, this 11-track itinerary is fuelled by only two instruments and the improvisational imaginations of Canadian clarinetist François Houle and Swiss cornetist Marco von Orelli. The key to microscopic interactive playing like this is to make the partnership expansive not reductive, creating as many harmonized or contrapuntal tropes as necessary. Not only are compositions divided between the musicians, but for every delicate reed tone and portamento brass sequence heard, an almost equal number of altissimo squeals and half-valve extensions balance the horizontal flow.

This is most expansively expressed on the concluding Morning Song 1 where the tune’s forward motion is speckled with shaking growls and toneless breaths from von Orelli and scoops and stretches from Houle. Eventually both intersect and resolve the tune with connected but distorted high pitches. Transitions aren’t always that abrupt, as dual sweeps up and down the scale are sometimes concluded with grace not suturing. Other times, as on a track like Tandem, the title is literally defined. Allegro cornet puffs and calliope-like clarinet peeps move through parallel shaking emissions only to finally connect with tandem-animated narratives.

Overall, while each sequence allows for individual technical expressions, all are resolved with lockstep ambulation or rondo-like affiliations, leading to broken octave linear motion. Without the need for electronic technology or more partners, Houle and von Orelli prove that together they can auspiciously fuel a memorable musical flight.

Outside the Rain Has Stopped
Ig Henneman
Stichting Wig Wig 32 (abbaarsighennemanwig.bandcamp.com/album/outside-the-rain-has-stopped)

Canadians who only know Dutch violist Ig Henneman from her collaboration with the local Queen Mab duo, might not realize that in recognition of her lifetime in improvised and composed music The Netherlands made her a Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau in 2021. This CD presents many aspects of the 76-year-old’s extensive career in many idioms. 

The soundscape Bow Valley, which blends improv with Alberta’s Rocky Mountain area field recordings is one standout. While Anne La Berge’s flute flutters and Ab Baars’ shakuhachi trills are intertwined with rural sounds, the bucolic texture is repeatedly interrupted by passing freight train whistles and radios blaring rock music. Meanwhile Galina U, inspired by Russian composer Galina Ustvolskaya, posits a contrapuntal challenge between Ansgar Wallenhorst’s foghorn-like organ drones and dynamic crescendos with structured colouration from La Berge’s flute, Baars’ clarinet and Henneman’s own viola. 

Other compositions for pressurized solo organ, spirited solo cello and poem or sound poem embellishments and improvisations are included. But the most impressive demonstration of Henneman’s compositional aptitude is the title tune. Here, dynamic interaction among violins, viola and cello with jagged arco slices, sul tasto pushes and whistling glissandi, shatter the form then reach an energetic crescendo that approaches Cecil Taylor’s dynamic pianism. 

Obviously, Ig Henneman is a name that should be more recognized by sophisticated listeners on both sides of the musical improvisation-notation divide.

In a Summer Dream
Hannah Barstow; Mike Murley; Jim Vivian
Cornerstone Records (cornerstonerecordsinc.com)

There can be no question that the creative pairing of pianist, vocalist and composer Hannah Barstow with saxophonist/composer Mike Murley is beyond inspired… and the addition of eminent jazz bassist Jim Vivian is not only the perfect complement to Barstow and Murley, but also to the superb, eclectic selection of rarely performed tunes and the two original compositions here. Barstow and Murley serve as producers, innovatively arranging works from such diverse artists as Johnny Mandel, Nat Adderley, Johnny Mercer and Michel Legrand. 

The program kicks off with Mandel’s Don’t Look Back – which features a haunting, delicate melodic line as well as masterful playing from Barstow who has put her own swinging stamp on this Broadway tune. Her pitch-perfect, rhythmic jazz vocal style adds another dimension to the meaningful lyric, while Murley and Vivian eminently support Barstow throughout. Barstow’s intonation, tone, lyrical interpretation and respect for the melody is worthy of a vocal master class – and the sooner the better! 

Who Are You comes from iconic trumpeter/composer Kenny Wheeler. The tenor solo opening gently segues into Barstow’s stunning vocal line. Murley sings through his tenor, effortlessly creating an aura of musical intimacy, and Vivian’s skilled and moving bass solo takes us deeper on the trip. From the inspired minds of Legrand and Mercer, comes Once Upon a Summertime, replete with a sumptuous solo from Murley. Of special note is Barstow’s original title track, which calls to mind the vocal style and musicality of the great Norma Winstone. By any musical criteria, this is one of the finest jazz recordings of the year. 

A Little Louder Now
Lauren Falls; David French; Trevor Giancola; Todd Pentney; Trevor Falls
Independent (laurenfallsmusic.com)

With her second dynamic salvo, gifted and accomplished bassist and composer Lauren Falls has fired off a fine recording comprised almost entirely of original tunes. Joining her is a superb ensemble, including Todd Pentney on piano, Trevor Giancola on guitar, David French on tenor saxophone and Trevor Falls on drums. First up is New View – a languid, sensual trip, grounded by Pentney’s perfectly insistent chordal movement and Giancola’s incredible touch and taste on guitar – which brings to mind the great Jim Hall or Mundell Lowe. French’s warm, substantial sound perfectly parenthesises the almost hypnotic tonal modalities of the composition.

The well-conceived title track absolutely grooves with intent and prominently displays the artistry of each musician. Falls is rock solid, and her superb bass work not only permeates the musical landscape, but it deftly leads her group through this evocative tone poem. Drummer Falls not only embodies seamless, perfect dynamics, but additionally manifests the ideal diaphanous support of his sister’s gorgeous solo. Disagree to Disagree is an outstanding effort, rife with emotional content, exploring both longing and resolution. French weaves his tenor in and out of the composition, with clever improvisations that underscore the contrapuntal aspects of the tune.  

Another standout is Take Me. This track lilts along with pure joy, and the duet sequences between tenor and guitar are almost breathtakingly beautiful, as is Pentney’s piano solo. The closer, Vincent Youmans’ venerable Tin Pan Alley classic, I Want to Be Happy is presented here with a fresh, contemporary twist, featuring some interesting non-standard chord changes that perfectly illustrate the cognitive dissonance of the search for personal happiness in a seemingly cold, rigid, unforgiving world – just as it was in the Great Depression.