Robert Lemay – Cinq Études for Alto Saxophone
Jean-François Guay
Centrestream CMCCT 11621 (cmccanada.org/shop/cd-cmcct-11621)

Our world of streaming media has a few benefits including how the creation and distribution of music projects is less expensive and simpler than a decade or two ago. This ease of production makes niche products more accessible and an excellent example is Cinq études for alto saxophone by Robert Lemay (commissioned and exquisitely performed by Jean-François Guay). 

The five movements total just 18 minutes and Cinq études is released as a stand-alone digital offering. While Cinq études works as a concert piece, its unique purpose is to demonstrate different playing techniques, including double and triple tonguing, multiphonics, altissimo, rapid register changes and subtones. These techniques are heard in most contemporary saxophone works, but can pass by so quickly we may miss identifying them. Doublez ou triplez la mise is a great demonstration of double and triple tonguing which Guay performs cleanly and with verve, while Additions & multiplications has some subtle and quiet melodic lines leading into some excellent multiphonic work. 

The liner notes state: “Each piece is a tribute to a great saxophonist/pedagogue: Marcel Mule, Jean-Marie Londeix, Eugene Rousseau, Frederick Hemke and Daniel Deffayet.” I am surprised the altissimo section is not dedicated to Sigurd M. Rascher whose Top Tones for the Saxophone (which I purchased decades ago) is a standard in saxophone literature. This small quibble aside, Cinq études is worth a listen for its inventive and musical demonstration of multiple techniques.

Steve Reich
Nexus; Sō Percussion
Nexus 11042 (nexuspercussion.com)

A collaboration between two leading percussion groups, veteran Toronto-based Nexus and younger-generation New York-based Sō Percussion, this album features four percussion-centred scores by American composer Steve Reich. 

Reich’s music is generally characterized by repetition, canons, slow harmonic changes and, for a time, the adoption of selected musical notions from West Africa and Indonesia. By the mid-1960s Reich sought to create music in which his compositional process was clearly discernible by the audience in the music itself. From 1965 to 1971, his style was dominated by a process called “phasing,”  a kind of Escher-like perceptual magic where incremental changes to the music being performed are revealed to the listener in real time.

All those compositional and performative approaches deeply colour the brilliantly performed music on this album: Clapping Music (1972), Music for Mallet Instruments, Voices, and Organ (1973), Mallet Phase (2016, based on Piano Phase 1967), and Quartet (2013). The first three, controversial in their day, have become contemporary standards. , a jazz-inflected work scored for two vibraphones and two pianos, is an outlier in this program. Reich called it “one of the more complex [pieces] I have composed.” While frequently shifting key and continuity by restlessly changing metres, the outer sections maintain a pulsed momentum, a recognizable link to Reich’s earlier compositions. In stark contrast, the middle slow movement introduces chordal harmonies unusual in his music, evoking a peaceful, pensive mood.

This is Nexus’ 31st commercial album release – and a resounding way to celebrate both its 50th anniversary and its deep and enduring relationship with Reich.

Ofer Pelz – Trinité
Meitar Ensemble; Quatuor Ardeo
New Focus Recordings FCR303 (newfocusrecordings.com)

Intricate prepared-piano ricochets and barbed ensemble alchemy converge to permeate the Meitar Ensemble’s latest release – a portrait of music by Montreal-based Israeli composer Ofer Pelz. The five pieces on the disc represent an eight-year collaboration between the composer and the virtuosic ensemble. 

Pelz’s clear and punctuated sound world is well suited for the bravura and precision of intent capable by the Meitar musicians. The first work, Backward inductions, for augmented piano, evokes a process whereby reverse reasoning achieves a sequence of optimal actions. This dynamic music produces fluidity through compartmentalized yet spinning lines and tempestuous interruptions. A piece titled Convergence for alto flute and electronics is a wondrous barrage of granulated tinctures that envelopes the ear and the mind. The chamber work, marchons, marchons, performed in Toronto when New Music Concerts presented Meitar at the Music Gallery in 2017, offers delicate and distant conversations spoken in metallic whispers. Finally, a piece written in two movements for flute, prepared piano and amplified string quartet titled Blanc sur Blanc begins with a dance-like mysteriousness followed by windswept panorama. 

The confident nature of Pelz’s music is propelled forward by what is clearly a process-oriented approach – yet this attribute also contains a wealth of originality and expression. The music and performances on this release are as compelling as they are refreshing. Bravo to all.

Listen to 'Ofer Pelz – Trinité' Now in the Listening Room

Peter Gilbert – Burned into the Orange
Arditti Quartet; Iridium Quartet; Various Artists
New Focus Recordings FCR300 (newfocusrecordings.com)

Composer Peter Gilbert’s second full-length album – Burned into the Orange – is a collection of chamber works that explore rich and sensuous textures performed by the Arditti Quartet, Camilla Hoitenga, Magdalena Meitzner, Jeremias Schwarzer, Richard White, Michael Veit, Emanuele Arciuli and the Iridium Quartet. 

The seemingly ever-rising pulsation of the voice opens wide to forget that which you are singing produces an ephemeral hypnosis. The title track, scored for saxophone quartet, evokes sonic tendrils creeping among the sinuousness of a liquid cathedral. The almost violent gestures of Channelling the Waters produces a musical energy that tunnels through unknown timbral pathways. A piece titled By the Lonely Traveller’s Call, for tuba and amplified mute, transduces extreme guttural bellows into resonant sonic clouds. The lingering harmonic canopies of Soon as the Sun Forsook the Eastern Main evaporate monumental piano sonorities into monoliths of aural brilliance. 

This album is saturated with aural enchantment – each piece seems to be on a journey from unaltered impetus to transcendent harmoniousness. Burned into the Orange will surely burn into memory for those who listen.

Listen to 'Peter Gilbert – Burned into the Orange' Now in the Listening Room

Fantasy – Oppens plays Kaminsky
Ursula Oppens; Jerome Lowenthal; Cassatt String Quartet; Arizona State University Orchestra; Jeffrey Meyer
Cedille CDR 90000 202 (cedillerecords.org)

Titan of the contemporary keyboard, Ursula Oppens is a rarity among artists living today. She is the stalwart bearer of a mid-century musical torch that apparently burns eternal. How fortunate we are to have such musicians as Oppens still making music with fortitude, passion and tireless faith.

A most recent episode for Oppens has been a record made with the Cassatt Quartet and Arizona State University Orchestra showcasing music of American composer Laura Kaminsky. This disc, themed “Oppens Plays Kaminsky” seems a testament of friendship (these two impressive musicians have been longtime pals). Presently, they come together in a variety of idioms to demonstrate Kaminsky’s portfolio in a traversal of quintet, fantasy and concerto.

Despite evocative titles such as Maelstrom, and…, or Hurtling. Still. the music isn’t always convincingly first rate. Nevertheless, there are moments of tunefulness and poetry. The affinity between Oppens and Kaminsky radiates throughout, leaving a palpable sense of fellowship and mutual joy amongst colleagues.

Oppens wields her piano at the album’s centre, steering a varied vessel with consistent skill and surety. Even in brief piano passages, as she peeks out from dense ensemble material, Oppens’ artistry sings unmistakably. The 20-minute solo Fantasy (2010) should be considered a tour de force in and of itself. When it comes to a career such as Oppens’, dedication and staying power carry the day. May she always urge us to listen close and listen well, ever compelling our ears toward the future.

Richard Danielpour – An American Mosaic
Simone Dinnerstein
Supertrain Records 025 SR (richard-danielpour.com)

The ever-engaging American pianist, Simone Dinnerstein, has been rather active during the COVID-19 pandemic. Early on, in lockdowns last spring, she retreated into studio – inspired by nourishing walks through Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery – to lay down some favoured works by Schubert and Philip Glass. (See my review of the album A Character of Quiet, in the October 2020 issue of The WholeNote.)

She has now embarked on an attractive new project with Grammy Award-winning composer, Richard Danielpour: an album of pieces written expressly for her. This is a sequence of 15 miniatures, each offering comfort and musical solace during the difficult pandemic months of 2020 and 2021. The disc is capped by three arrangements of Bach’s music by Danielpour, as a tribute to Dinnerstein. He was first inspired by Dinnerstein’s celebrated recordings of Bach and set pen to staff paper in a generous outpouring of sound portraits of American society (usually in slow tempi!) over the past months of crisis: parents, teachers, first responders, religious leaders and even politicians. This recipe makes for a rich and varied (albeit lethargic) musical feast, contemporaneously narrating an era of suffering in which we still find ourselves. But why not take stock at such a close vantage point, reflecting on recent traumas still evolving? 

As for Dinnerstein herself, how could she not record such music? This set was made especially for her quintessential artistry, quietly singing through at every corner. Here is the optimal example of performer-meeting-composer-meeting-performer-again; the results are worthy of a two-eared listen in these fraught, often one-eared times.

À Claude
Benedetto Boccuzzi
DiG Classic DCTT111 (naxosdirect.com/search/8054726141112) 

Twentieth-century piano-repertoire specialist, Benedetto Boccuzzi (b. 1990), is not only a concert pianist but also a composer, improviser and teacher. He regularly performs in Italy and conducts workshops on contemporary piano repertoire, extended techniques and improvisation.

À Claude, Boccuzzi’s debut album, is an eclectic keyboard feast, featuring works by Claude Debussy, George Crumb, Toru Takemitsu, Olivier Messiaen, Diana Rotaru and Boccuzzi himself. The programmatic conceit of the album pays homage to Debussy, before moving on to a selection of the French maître’s musical heirs.

Beginning with three miniatures from Debussy’s Images: Cloches à travers les feuilles; Et la lune descend sur le temple qui fut; and Poissons d’or (1907); the album sets a relaxed, impressionistic atmosphere inviting the listener to let imagination roam. Boccuzzi then very effectively renders six of American composer George Crumb’s texture- and allusion-rich Makrokosmos I (1972-1973). This collection of aphoristic piano pieces describes the temperaments of the houses of the zodiac, famously using an encyclopedic range of colouristic effects including plucking the strings, producing massive tone clusters, coaxing overtones from depressed keys not played and directly quoting music of composers such as Chopin.

Three pieces of the Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (1944) by French composer Messiaen receive a muscular performance here, though sections of Regard de la Vierge exude a poignant cantabile quality. Particularly admirable is Boccuzzi’s precise rendering of the demanding birdcall references throughout.

Listen to 'À Claude' Now in the Listening Room

Blow – Wind Quintets by Donatoni, Salonen & Lash
The City of Tomorrow
New Focus Recordings FCR294 (newfocusrecordings.com)

Part way through the sixth movement of Leander and Hero (2015) by Hannah Lash, a ghostly flute-like voice enters the texture. As the liner notes reveal, the sound is one player blowing across the open mouth of another. When it comes to unusual directions from composers, I apparently have neither seen nor heard it all. This new release, from the spectacularly capable woodwind quintet The City of Tomorrow, delights and amazes.

Put aside that in the current circumstances this would simply be an unacceptable breach of personal safety for both performers, the intimacy of the act demands trust and care, to say nothing of technical control of “embouchure” and/or “instrument.” It wouldn’t surprise me to learn the effect was overdubbed onto the track, but I’m willing to bet the players didn’t need to. Given how the rest of this disc is presented with complete assurance and musicality, a little thing like playing your colleague’s head like a jug in a jug band would hardly be beyond them. 

The title track, Franco Donatoni’s stutter-stepping Blow (2000), provides the players an opportunity to show off more conventional contemporary skills. I love his music, it’s always full of swing and fire, and this is no exception. The group’s sound is crisp, tart and sweet, like a perfect fall apple.

Esa-Pekka Salonen closes things with Memoria (2003), music reworked partly from unpublished material, composed over a period of 20 years, and compiled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, a group he co-founded. Angst-y Finnish melancholia suits the group to a tee.

Listen to 'Blow – Wind Quintets by Donatoni, Salonen & Lash' Now in the Listening Room

Arnold Griller – Orchestral Music, Volume Three
Kamila Bydlowska; Matilda Lloyd; Liepaja Symphony Orchestra; Paul Mann
Toccata Classics TOCC0590 (naxosdirect.com/search/tocc0590)

In 1955, while studying composition with Darius Milhaud, Arnold Griller (b.1937 in London, England) wrote his 13-minute, Coplandesque Concerto Grosso for strings, filled with long-lined, brooding melodies. Griller’s father Sidney was first violin of the renowned Griller Quartet but, writes Douglas Finch, “Griller chose to withdraw from the musical maelstrom into which he was born and for most of his adult life has remained in relative seclusion.” Now living in a small Cornwall village, Griller even spent 25 years teaching ESL in Winnipeg!

Three recent (2017-2018) works, each over 20 minutes, variously utilize what conductor Paul Mann calls “the Griller gamelan” – harp, xylophone, marimba, celesta, glockenspiel and harpsichord.

Griller’s Violin Concerto memorializes Yodit Tekle, Toccata Classics founder/CEO Martin Anderson’s partner, cancer victim at 37. The dark-hued orchestra, lacking violins, growls atonally while Kamila Budlowska’s agonized violin struggles, rallies briefly with a rising tonal sequence but succumbs to snarling brass. Now alone, it sustains a long-held single note, then vanishes.

Dances under an Autumn Sky has no stated program, but its jagged rhythms, angry brass and percussion outbursts create an increasingly violent scenario, ending in tragedy. The Trumpet Concerto opens with soloist Matilda Lloyd busily meandering over fragmented, percussion-heavy, violin-less sonorities. A march past Dvořák’s house begins in high spirits, then darkens, the muted trumpet playing a dirge marked “with great sadness.” The concerto – and the CD – concludes with a motorized crescendo of celebratory fanfares and percussive fireworks. Finally, a happy ending!

Poul Ruders – Dream Catcher
Bjarke Mogensen; Odense Symphoniorkester; Sebastian Lang-Lessing; Scott Yoo
Bridge Records 9553 (bridgerecords.com/collections/catalog-all) 

Danish composer Poul Ruders is renowned for his symphonies, and his operas like The Handmaid’s Tale based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. Here, three Ruders instrumental works showcase his intriguing compositions.

This world premiere recording of the seven-movement Sound and Simplicity (2018) concerto is performed by Danish accordionist Bjarke Mogensen and the Odense Symfoniorkester conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing. I. Rain opens with high staccato accordion replicating the sound of surface-landing droplets, followed by an energetic full orchestra section. Love the percussion thunder-like rumbles. Calming sustained four-note II. Trance, presented over three octaves, makes for relaxing “simple” sounds. Mogensen’s accordion performance of IV. Smoke paints a smoky soundscape with steady held notes, wide pitch range, brief controlled bellow shake and contrapuntal melodies, supported by orchestral diverse floating pitches and dynamics. Rollicking VII. Wolf Moon bounces along with faster interchanges and dynamic swells between orchestra and accordion, to the penultimate ascending line and the final accordion chord.

Dream Catcher is Mogensen’s arrangement for solo accordion of Ruders’ accordion and string quartet Serenade on the Shores of the Cosmic Ocean. This diatonic work features musical, hypnotic held notes, a high-pitched slow tune and closing repeated soft notes, highlighting Mogensen’s virtuosic bellow control. 

Previously released by Bridge, Symphony No.3 “Dream Catcher” is a two-movement orchestral extravaganza conducted by Scott Yoo. The loud percussive start transforms into a tonal, sweet-dream string section. In the second movement, faster birdlike horn trilling leads to full-steam-ahead virtuosic orchestral multi-rhythmic chase music.

Catch this great Ruders sound release!!

Piazzolla Cien Años (100 Years 1921-2021)
Juanjo Mosalini; Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston; Gisèle Ben-Dor
Centaur Records CRC 3844 (giseleben-dor.com)

This is another memorable release celebrating the centenary of Argentine composer/bandoneonist Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992) as conductor Gisèle Ben-Dor leads the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston and bandoneon soloist Juanjo Mosalini.

The recording opens with a Piazzolla original Aconcagua, Concerto for Bandoneon (1979) a three-movement, true-to-his-style work, featuring rhythmic symphonic grooves, lyrical bandoneon solos with fast trills and virtuosic lines, and tight soloist and orchestra interchanges creating a danceable yet concert-hall classical-flavoured rendition performed perfectly by all concerned.

Four world premiere recordings scored for bandoneon and orchestra follow. Two Mosalini single-movement original compositions incorporate Piazzolla influences with popular/classical touches in his own soundscapes. Tomá, Tocá (Take It, Play It) is faster with repeated notes and virtuosic flourishes. Cien Años (One Hundred Years) combines tango elements with nostalgic bandoneon melodies, long phrases and bright high pitches.

Two Piazzolla works arranged by Mosalini follow. Originally in four movements, The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires is presented as one long, connected work. Piazzolla purists will respect this for its true-to-style playing. Shifts in tempos, grooves and moods, the deep cello lines, florid fast bandoneon and orchestra accompaniments are amazing, ranging from danceable and fun to serious and slow. In the closer, Piazzolla’s popular Libertango, technically challenging solos now alternate with colourful orchestra lead lines above bandoneon rhythmic accents.  

Fantastic performances and great music, what more could we want?

Now Pronouncing
Caity Gyorgy
Independent (caitygyorgy.bandcamp.com)

Full disclosure: I know Caity Gyorgy from her time in Toronto when she was a college student. That said, whether you are previously familiar with Gyorgy and her marvellous vocal and musical abilities or you are new to her considerable talents, time listening to Now Pronouncing is indeed time well spent for jazz and vocal fans alike. 

This short recording, five songs in length, may be a manifestation of her degree-end capstone school project, but it is anything but an academic student affair. Leading a top-shelf, large-sized professional musical ensemble through a program of original compositions and arrangements, Gyorgy states a melody and lyric with aplomb and, as on Secret Safe, trades improvisatory lines with the assembled and stacked roster of horn players, demonstrating her clear mastery of the bebop and jazz language. And while I have no doubt that she is capable of singing just about anything, regardless of style or genre, how refreshing it is to hear a jazz singer be a jazz singer, foregrounding scat singing, swing, ornamented bebop vocal lines and total band leadership from out front on this fine recording. 

Backed capably by a great Toronto rhythm section of Felix Fox-Pappas (piano), Thomas Hainbuch (bass) and Jacob Wutzke (drums), Gyorgy, who has since relocated and is now showcasing her talents on the Montreal jazz scene, demonstrates why this Calgary-born singer is a talent worth watching regardless of the city in which she takes up residence.

Listen to 'Now Pronouncing' Now in the Listening Room

Flicker Down
Waxwing
Songlines SGL1633-2 (songlines.com)

Formed in 2007, Waxwing is a co-led trio created by three veterans of the Vancouver music scene: Tony Wilson on guitar, Peggy Lee on cello and Jon Bentley on saxophones. Flicker Down is the third album from this energetic group: not just veterans of the busy Vancouver scene where they are based, individually these three players collaborate in dozens of other musical combinations from folk to jazz to classical around North America and beyond. When they reunite, each brings their best in not only their playing experience, but as equal composers and co-leaders. The result of this fine balance is exquisitely produced on this album. Already a huge fan of this trio, and though their first two albums were thoroughly enjoyable, Flicker Down is a whole other listening experience.

As improvisers, the group keeps their freshness alive with a freedom of expression and a nuanced sense of timing that decades of experience has only heightened. With several manipulated improvisations added to some tracks, this album has a more composed feel but manages to retain the creative freedom and melodic flow that the group is revered for. As cultural travellers, there is a flavour of world music mixed with jazz, folk and contemporary composition, sublimely polished with fine chamber playing. With 18 beautiful tracks there is a plethora of favourites. Montbretia Gates (1’49”), featuring guest flutist Miranda Clingwall, is one of many gems. The decisiveness of Highway of Tears – based on lyrics that concern the murder of Indigenous women – avoids sentimentality and keeps clear the social messaging. Each player’s technical execution is sheer perfection; gorgeously subtle mixing and production from Bentley only raises the bar.

Sings & Plays
Jonathan Bauer
Slammin’ Media (jonathanbauermusic.com)

Renowned Canadian-born, New Orleans-based trumpeter Jonathan Bauer is exposing a new artistic side on this newest release – a smooth tenor voice that both rivals and adds to his talents on the horn. Featuring well-known musicians such as Mike Clement, Gerald Watkins Jr. and Ryan Hanseler, this sultry and classy album is one that any jazz lover would want in their collection. The selection of songs by classics, ranging from Henry Mancini to George Gershwin, does a great job of not only showcasing Bauer’s skills as a leader, trumpeter and now as a vocalist, but also the superb talents of the all-star lineup that backs him.

Sonorous, silky horn melodies lead the listener through staples of the genre like Days of Wine and Roses and Love is Here to Stay. For those that are familiar with the musician, the unique dark and buttery tone that he conjures out of the trumpet, almost reminiscent of the flugelhorn, is back in full force throughout the record. What makes Bauer stand out even more is the way that the happiness and bliss he pours into his instrument clearly translates into his vocals, his voice having the same soaring, joyous quality that the trumpet melodies invoke. The album is a fabulous introduction to this side of the famed artist’s talents and leaves the listener excited to hear more, both instrumentally and vocally, in the future.

You Don’t Know What Love Is
Angela Wrigley Trio
Cellar Music CM051920 (cellarlive.com)

On her impressive debut offering, Alberta chanteuse, pianist and composer Angela Wrigley has come forth with a delightful recording that incorporates funky, horn-infused original compositions with tasty standards, reimagined for a contemporary audience. Joined by her fine trio members, Derek Stoll (bass/piano/organ) and Dave Lake on drums, Wrigley also welcomed percussionist Bob Fenske, saxophonist Cory Weeds, trumpeter Vince Mai and trombonist Rod Murray. This clever and appealing project was also produced by longtime jazz-focused record-label visionary Scott Morin and master saxophonist, producer, recording label owner and jazz impresario, Weeds.

The opening salvo, How Did I Get Here, is a funky original composition, in which Wrigley’s warm and soulful pipes wind themselves around this siren song of compelling lyric and melody. Mai infuses the arrangement with both sexy muted trumpet and a large, mouth-pieced Latin sound.  Another intriguing original track is Crazy Fool – a nostalgia-tinged tip of the hat to Tower of Power and other funky horn/vocal bands of the 70s and 80s. Stoll’s classic Fender Rhodes sound is as refreshing as it was back in the day.

Other standouts include Hoagy Carmichael’s moving I Get Along Without You Very Well, in which Wrigley utilizes her sweet, vulnerable upper register, while Weeds cries through his horn in delicate counterpoint; also a bluesy, B3-infused Lover Man; the superb title track, featuring pristine vocals and Stoll’s eloquent piano work; and finally Drive, where composition, performance and arrangement merge in perfect symmetry. This CD is a beautifully constructed first release that clearly establishes this talented new artist’s identity and sound.