03 Ginastera 100Ginastera One Hundred
Gil Shaham; Yolanda Kondonassis; Jason Vieaux; Orli Shaham; Oberlin Orchestra; Raphael Jiménez
Oberlin Music OC 16-04
(oberlin.edu/oberlinmusic)

This disc’s high-calibre performances and production make it a fitting tribute to Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis’ introductory notes state that his Harp Concerto (1956, rev. 1968) “pushed the harp out of its box and gave us the kind of indelible, substantive composition that makes or breaks a solo career like mine.” In broken-chord dance rhythms of the first movement, resonant glissandi of the second and tuneful melodies of the third, the Argentinean composer consistently finds striking, effective gestures for the instrument. Soloist Kondonassis plays with confidence: her rhythms have bite and liveliness, her flourishes atmosphere and grandeur, all in effective partnership with the Raphael Jiménez-led Oberlin Orchestra.

Pampeana No.1 (1947) for violin and piano dates from a period when Ginastera was influenced by Aaron Copland to integrate folk and modernist elements. Violinist Gil Shaham plays the opening soliloquy with intensity and virtuosity, in alternation with pianist Orli Shaham’s lower-pitched chords emulating guitar strumming; the whole suggests the Argentinean pampas’ wide open spaces. In later exciting dance sections, ensemble between violin and piano is ideal. Shaham is equally effective in the more familiar Danzas Argentinas (1937) for piano. The Sonata for Guitar (1976), the most advanced work included, comes after the composer’s move to Switzerland. Ginastera allows the guitar to resonate with well-chosen tonal material and a variety of percussive effects. Challenging to play yet mastered convincingly by guitarist Jason Vieaux, I enjoyed this work thoroughly.

04 Morton SubotnickMorton Subotnick – Music for the Double Life of Amphibians (Landmark Recordings)
Various Artists
Wergo WER 7312 2

For most of his notable career American composer and electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick (b. 1933) has employed his signature methodology of live electronically processed scored acoustic instrumental and/or vocal parts, and later, interactive computer music systems.

Subotnick has also been an important actor in many of the significant technological milestones in the commercialization of electroacoustic music. A prime example is his early Silver Apples of the Moon (Nonesuch LP 1967). Produced using the Electric Music Box, Don Buchla’s analogue modular voltage-controlled synthesizer and tape-manipulated sounds, it is considered the first electronic work commissioned by a record company. In it, the composer challenged academic avant-gardists by including sections with metric, regular rhythms. More significantly, he aimed to render a musical composition for which the performance was the recording, reflecting the spirit of Marshall McLuhan’s 1964 phrase “the medium is the message.” The album sold very well internationally and was highly influential: it was a touchstone of my own first experiments in tape and electronic music.

Recorded in a studio between 1981 and 1985 the music for Subotnick’s Music for the Double Life of Amphibians continued his fruitful commercial relationship with the Nonesuch label. This skillfully remastered current Wergo CD is part of a series dedicated to Subotnick’s recorded oeuvre. Each of the seven movements form part of a larger symphonic poem, and the resulting dramatically compelling music successfully treads over several genre lines. It seamlessly combines modernist chamber music – superbly performed by cellist Joel Krosnick in the outstanding Axolotl, as well as by the Juilliard Quartet and by the soprano Joan La Barbara – with (1980s) state-of-the-art studio electronics.

The album strongly affirms the composer’s modernist lineage. It also reminds us of his street cred in the development of 20th-century electroacoustic music’s creation, performance, studio recording and commercial release.

05 OCallaghanEspaces tautologiques
James O’Callaghan
empreintes DIGITALes IMED 16140 (electroCD.com)

On his recent electroacoustic CD Espaces tautologiques, composer James O’Callaghan takes us down the rabbit hole into a visceral, endogenous acousmatic wonderland. Although tautologies can be defined as needless repetitions, for O’Callaghan, they instead may be an ironic unifying premise for his vagabond auditory adventures, or append extra significance to compositional procedures such as varied repetition, imitation and augmentation. The first three pieces form a triptych that “imagine[s] the sounding bodies of instruments as resonant spaces.” They contain crisp, natural and remodelled recordings of passages through remote instrumental spaces, and at times it feels as though the listener is situated inside the instrument. From the rim to the spine of a piano (Objects-Interiors), an acoustic guitar and toy piano (Bodies-Soundings), or the surfaces and recesses of instruments in a string quartet (Empties-Impetus), each piece celebrates the percussions and resonances of a similar, colourful palette of instrumental and digital treatments.

O’Callaghan demonstrates fluency with standard techniques of electroacoustic music, but it’s the impetus of the philosophical aspects that takes the pieces to their most compelling territories. The last piece, Isomorphic, is a particularly captivating jaunt through protractions of carefully ordered squealing, chattering textures. While the work shifts from one archetype to another, it’s coherently driven by consecutive, playful morphological relationships that extend from one sound to the next, despite differences of sound source and context. By virtue of the gesture, contour, pitch and timbral coherence of his materials, O’Callaghan proposes contrasting ways to consider the ornithological chirps, industrial doors and ambient environments. They can be heard as a perpetual flow, in which all sounds are related as one, or as a duality in which the listener simultaneously compares the ongoing profile similarities of the sounds with their wildly differing origins.

06 Christopher RouseChristopher Rouse – Odna Zhizn; Symphonies 3 & 4; Prospero’s Rooms
New York Philharmonic; Alan Gilbert
Dacapo 8.22611 (dacapo-records.dk)

Rouse is the most recent to hold the composer-in-residence position at the New York Philharmonic, and this new disc is his capstone project. It is actually the latest chapter in a decades-long relationship between composer and orchestra; the Phil premiered, along with many other of his works, Rouse’s Pulitzer Prize-winning trombone concerto in 1993. Owing to these years of collaboration, this disc achieves an all-too-uncommon thing: music born from an understanding shared equally by conductor, orchestra and living composer.

Just as these three have found common ground, so has Rouse found common ground between the conceptual and the visceral. The harmonic language of Odna Zhizn, for instance, is tightly controlled and generated using a “code.” If these words conjure up frightening images of angular serialist lines, however, fear not: “code” here refers not to forbidding pre-compositional matrices, but to the age-old tradition of encoding a loved one’s name into the score by way of note names.

“Odna Zhizn” means “life” in Russian and Russian influences loom large here. Symphony No.3 is heavily indebted to Prokofiev’s Symphony No.2, his symphony of “iron and steel.” If Prokofiev’s was the churning foundry, then Rouse’s is its smoldering remains, brooding and charred. As for his Symphony No.4’s “code,” Rouse cites Tchaikovsky: “Asked whether listeners would devise the…meaning of his Pathétique Symphony, Tchaikovsky famously replied, ‘Let them guess.’”

This disc’s grand and unified vision is not to be missed.

07 Kurtag MolinariGyörgy Kurtág – String Quartets
Quatuor Molinari
ATMA ACD2 2706

Review

Founded 19 years ago, Montreal’s Quatuor Molinari has become one of Canada’s pre-eminent interpreters of 20th- and 21st-century classical compositions, including those by Canadians. In this album however, they venture deep into the string quartet’s European-home geographic and aesthetic landscape.

Like his composer friend and colleague György Ligeti, the multiple-award-winning Hungarian composer György Kurtág (b. 1926) fled his home country following the October 1956 Hungarian uprising. Part of an exodus of a wave of some 200,000 Hungarians, Kurtág used his exile productively as an opportunity to study composition in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud. There he also discovered the modernist compositions of Anton Webern and plays of Samuel Beckett. These influences proved decisive in his chosen career.

On returning to Budapest, Kurtág composed his first String Quartet (1959). Dedicated to his psychotherapist Marianne Stein, the work is strongly redolent of the music of the Second Viennese School, while still expressing a personal compositional voice. Webern and Schoenberg can be heard throughout its disjunct dodecaphonic tonal language, its expressive extremes. The work’s tense, dramatic yet aphoristic six movements are riddled with enigmatic, destabilizing silences. It remains a very satisfying – emotional even – listen today. The composer dubbed it his Opus 1, its success launching his career internationally. Quatuor Molinari gives it a precise, clear rendering filled with a light-handed virtuosity, evident commitment and soul.

Kurtág followed his String Quartet with a number of works for these forces. Like his first opus, almost all reference composers, musicians and friends he admired. All are represented here. We hear an aesthetic continuity, certainly, but also one of technique and tone, though in later works hints of tonality peak through the skittering introspection. Kurtág’s music is superbly represented on this CD by Quatuor Molinari.

08 Traffic QuintetTraffic Quintet plays Alexandre Desplat
Traffic Quintet
Deutsche Grammophon 4812172

Shutting one’s eyes while listening to the music of Traffic Quintet plays Alexandre Desplat might actually be the best way to approach a collection of Desplat’s celebrated film scores. The act most certainly provides one with the opportunity to enter the dreamscapes for which they were intended. The profound air of these works triggers special journeys to the world of the cameo images from the films for which they were intended. The music is superb with its performers combining Desplat’s unique pictorial-dramatic and reflective approach that always leads to an intensity that has become the hallmark of the composer’s musical signature. Reducing the music’s essence into the quintet format has taken a special ingenuity; one that distills their aural content into the equivalent of a small frame.

For me, the real ace in the hands of Dominique “Solrey” Lemonnier’s Traffic Quintet is the haunting voice of Alexandre Desplat. It is heard most effectively on the more familiar themes: The King’s Speech, Girl With A Pearl Earring and Ang Lee’s Lust, Caution. Most human in their resonance and directness, folk-like in timbre and gesture, classical in lyrical construction, Desplat’s voice and his music defy categorization. Production values – and this is all due to the unique genius of Lemonnier and her Traffic Quintet – are excellent because of her animated, filmic orchestrations. The yearning brooding music of this disc may be somewhat desolate for some, but nevertheless yields rich and seductive soundscapes.

01 AccompliceAccomplice
Amy McConnell; William Sperandei
Femme Cachee Productions FCP0002 (mcconnellsperandei.com)

Review

The second CD from the team of trumpeter William Sperandei and singer Amy McConnell takes us on a journey to a time when songs were carefully crafted and lyrics actually said something. Focused mainly on songwriters from the 60s and 70s, such as Jacques Brel, Henry Mancini and Michel Legrand, Accomplice has a sophisticated Euro feel to it. Sperandei’s bright trumpet sound and McConnell’s rich, emotive vocals are a nice foil for each other and with the arrangements by Sperandei managing to be both jazzy and poppy at the same time, the album feels fresh.

Keyboard player Robi Botos and guitarist Rob Piltch are both masters of various styles and sounds, and effects are used liberally by them and Sperandei. Add Davide Direnzo on drums and percussion and Marc Rogers on bass and you’ve got a whole lot of sonic ingenuity to choose from. The results are some indefinable styles such as Dance Me to the End of Love which has a tinge of 90s electronic dance music to it and Ne me quitte pas, which sounds like what would happen if Edith Piaf and Gino Vanelli had a love child. I Wish You Love morphs from a lovely mid-tempo ballad into a funky get down. Quite a trip.

02 KaeshammerNo Filter
Michael Kaeshammer
Independent KA2-CD-5970
(kaeshammer.com)

When Michael Kaeshammer first broke on the scene in the 90s, he was a young boogie-woogie piano phenom. Since then, the British Columbia-based musician has added singing and songwriting to his arsenal of skills, and they’ve been honed over the last several years. All the songs on No Filter have been written or co-written by Kaeshammer (along with, primarily, Nashville-based songwriter John Goodwin) and many, such as the rousing opener Letter from the Road, stay true to his signature, exuberant New Orleans style. But there are other stylistic gems too. Late Night Train, is a poignant lament to a lost love made more gorgeous by the velvety vocals of guest singer, Denzal Sinclaire. Regret is the theme of the ballady/gospel-tinged Back into the Pen while West Coast Spirit is a sprightly little solo piano number that acts as a palate cleanser between meatier pieces. The production on the record is top-notch with the various keyboards, horns (William Sperandei, trumpet; Chris Gale, sax; William Carn, trombone) and percussion (Roger Travassos) subtly enriching the tracks and making No Filter a fine, satisfying listen from beginning to end.

03 Lorraine DesmaraisDanses Danzas Dances
Lorraine Desmarais Big Band
Les Disques Scherzo SCHCD-1512 (lorrainedesmarais.com)

A fierce energy leaps out of the opening chords of Lorraine Desmarais’ Ultra Triple Swing. It is an immensely exciting start to Danses Danzas Dances, a recording that has you on the edge of your proverbial seat. Primary colours abound in the orchestral texture, and the fast nature of the piece keeps the music on a tight rein, with angular rhythms and phrasing precise and alert. Of course you should expect nothing less from Desmarais, whose mastery of the big band idiom is quite beyond reproach. Conducting from behind her concert grand piano, Desmarais brings the fabulous orchestrations of her most recent music to life with spectacular effect.

The spirited and finely nuanced readings of these charts that literally sweep the listener off his or her feet, and across the dance floors of the Americas, is articulated by vivid performances by members of this wonderful big band. Adopting a spacious, and a feisty, artful approach to navigate the idiosyncrasies of Desmarais’ luscious arrangements, the musicians display unbridled virtuosity as well as unusual musical instinct as they bring cohesion to the many disparate elements of the music and generate tremendous high-voltage tension and hair-raising orchestral ingenuity to this music from beginning to end of this exquisite disc.

04 Parker AbbottElevation
Parker Abbott Trio
Independent (parkerabbotttrio.com)

The content of the Parker Abbott Trio concept album on the idea of ascending to a rarefied realm transcends even the image on its package. Somewhere in the swirling ascension of the Alpine Swift in flight lies some very classy piano (and a battery of other keyboards) playing. Indeed both Teri Parker and Simeon Abbott have developed something of an edge-of-the-seat virtuoso risk taking. On Elevation this pays off handsomely. The CD is a selection of short pieces evoking the giddy atmospheric fantasy arising from meditations on odysseys of music and mind. But philosophy aside there is much to enjoy, discover and identify with.

Parker and Abbott’s playing – as well as that of drummer and percussionist Mark Segger – is eloquent indeed. The pianists’ voicing is expertly balanced in the edifying transcription of the title track and their phrasing sings wonderfully in the near-mystical Night Song and the scintillating Zinnia. The otherworldly music of Maybe makes for a fitting, open-ended conclusion. The trio’s enigmatic studies are not the easiest nuts to crack, but Parker, Abbott and Segger’s insightful colours have the measure of their limpid introspection and fantasy.

Remarkably, this music – despite the originating imagery – is not as cerebral as one would imagine, but pre-eminently heart driven. Exchanging the intellectual for the emotional may be what makes this exceptionally polished recording get under the skin as well.

05 a b Nachoff FluxFlux
Quinsin Nachoff; David Binney; Matt Mitchell; Kenny Wollesen
Mythology Records MR0012 (quinsin.com)

Toronto-born tenor saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff has been exploring unusual textures since combining a jazz trio and a string quartet on Magic Numbers, his 2006 debut. The elements in his music have grown more tightly interwoven since then, so it’s difficult to separate out the sources and genres that contribute to his work, music that bears the name “flux” appropriately. Nachoff’s current compositions are alive with subtle underpinnings and a sometimes jarring surface, all of it brilliantly executed, interpreted and extended by his current quartet of prominent New Yorkers.

He’s paired with alto saxophonist Dave Binney, the two supported by the virtually orchestral combination of keyboard player Matt Mitchell (piano, Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Moog Rogue and organ) and drummer Kenny Wollesen (drums, timpani, tubular bells and handcrafted percussion). Together they develop a rare yet consistent combination of complexity and vitality, evident from the opening Tightrope, a tense piece in which Nachoff, the composer, introduces different thematic materials throughout, ranging from short, irregular rhythmic figures that set the initial mood to smooth rapid figures and a ballad, each segment opening to individual solos, until the piece climaxes with a collective improvisation thematically anchored by Mitchell’s forceful left hand.

That combination of distinctive structures and strong group interplay continues throughout, with Wollesen’s loose drumming and Mitchell’s varied approaches continually shaping the music’s flow. It’s particularly apparent on Complimentary Opposites, as the two shift the ground from Binney’s fluid invention to Nachoff’s edgy, broken lines filled with vocalic shifts. Nachoff’s creativity has been evident since his debut, and Flux is his most developed statement to date. 

05 a b Nachoff FluxFlux
Quinsin Nachoff; David Binney; Matt Mitchell; Kenny Wollesen
Mythology Records MR0012 (quinsin.com)

Like a Paralympian who triumphs in a contest despite lacking something usually deemed fundamental, tenor saxophonist Quinsin Nachoff has composed a set of seven well-balanced creations with a quartet missing one jazz necessity: a double bass. But so skillfully are the tunes affiliated and so sophisticated are his musical associates that it’s almost unnoticed.

A former Torontonian, now based in New York, Nachoff, who also composes for big bands and string ensembles in North America and Australia, makes sure Flux’s flow is maintained by relying on three of New York’s nonpareil improvisers: alto saxophonist David Binney; Kenny Wollesen on drums and percussion; and Matt Mitchell who stretches his hands over piano, Fender Rhodes, organ, Wurlitzer and Moog synthesizer, sometimes synchronously. Like a generic drug compared to an original, Mitchell’s bottom notes and Wollesen’s faultless beat remove the need for a bassist. More crucially through the drummer’s animated clatter or hard backbeat plus Mitchell’s harmonic judgment – his crinkly, slurry electric keyboard fills are as arresting as his cultivated romanticism on acoustic piano – fit perfectly jigsaw puzzle piece-like depending on the circumstances. On its own, Binney’s sculpted-out-of-stone tone can be heard at its flinty best on a tune such as Astral Echo Poem. Elsewhere he and Nachoff chew up or caress phrases like conjoined twins. Alternately stinging or smooth, the tenor saxophonist can angle out weighty Coleman Hawkins-like storytelling on Mind’s Ear I then turn around to spit out triplet snorts on Mind’s Ear II backed with thick piano extensions.

Most indicative of Nachoff’s writing and playing is Complimentary Opposites. Built up from a hide-and-seek game between the composer’s Hawkins-like timbres with rococo-like snarls and split tones from the other saxophonist, the harsh interface takes place on top of calliope-like bounces from Mitchell’s Wurlitzer plus silky cymbal swishes and tap-dancing snare taps from Wollesen.

If there’s anything lacking in Flux it’s that this just released CD was recorded in 2012. Imagine how well the quartet must sound today.

06 Duopoly Master Cover ArtDuopoly
Kris Davis
Pyroclastic Records PR 01/02
(krisdavis.net)

Review

Since leaving Canada to settle in New York, pianist Kris Davis has extended her creative vision as both an improvising pianist and as a composer. Duopoly (two plus many?) is her first extended exploration of the duet, and it’s a genuine exploration, combining multiple duo partners and methods in a large-scale work. Choosing to work only with musicians with whom she hadn’t previously recorded, Davis enlisted eight different partners to record two duets each. The first time through, Davis and her partners each explore a composition (five by Davis; one by Angelica Sanchez; two jazz standards); the second time through the order of partners is reversed and each duet is wholly improvised.

Her partners also appear in pairs: the first two duets are with guitarists Bill Frisell and Julian Lage; then pianists Craig Taborn and Angelica Sanchez; then drummers Billy Drummond and Marcus Gilmore; and finally reed players, alto saxophonist Tim Berne and clarinetist Don Byron. Even the release is dual: the 16 duets are presented as both a music CD and a DVD, the two performers seen in split screen.

The music constantly reveals different facets, from Davis’ muffled prepared piano blurring into Frisell’s guitar on Prairie Eyes through the rhythmic dialogue of Thelonious Monk’s Eronel with Drummond to the dense web of Trip Dance for Tim with Berne and the liquid grace of Ellington’s Prelude to a Kiss with Byron. The wholly improvised segments, each named for the partner, are just as diverse. The intertwining continuous piano and percussion of Marcus Gilmore invoke Cecil Taylor and Bud Powell; Sanchez sets a reflectively Monk-ish mood in her pairing; the resonating tones and clusters of Craig Taborn suggest Morton Feldman; Davis and Lage create continuous harmonic surprise. It’s a fine introduction to Davis’ work and the cutting edge of contemporary jazz as well.

07 Darren SigesmundJigtok
Darren Sigesmund
DS0004 (darrensigesmund.ca)

Toronto composer and trombonist Darren Sigesmund has been crafting his own distinct idiom for a decade now, a kind of pan-historic cool that emphasizes subtle timbres, often floating rhythms and a keen harmonic imagination that can recast a melody with fresh inferences. This is his second recording in two years with a quintet that includes New York-based violinist Mark Feldman and keyboardist Gary Versace (here he plays piano, organ and accordion), a group that draws a line from the 1930s French café sound of Stéphane Grappelli and Django Reinhardt through 50s cool jazz to the mid-60s music of Wayne Shorter to the present.

It’s Sigesmund’s acute consciousness of instrumental makeup that sings through here, from the different meshes of characteristic overtone patterns to attacks and decays. The frontline is matched by the orchestral colourings of bassist Jim Vivian and percussionist Ethan Ardelli. The result is a tonal richness that goes beyond the usual jazz quintet.

There’s a special resonance to Machautnations in which Feldman’s eerie droning melody is set against Versace’s understated organ and the broad sonic washes of Ardelli’s cymbals. The ultimate entry of Sigesmund’s wailing upper-register trombone creates a kind of pan-cultural spell, a ceremony, seance or invocation that stretches from Northern Europe to the Far East. The more mainstream Now or Never highlights the unusual combination of violin and trombone along with Sigesmund’s mature instrumental voice, at once brusquely authoritative and finely nuanced, arching across Versace’s harmonic fields and inflected rhythms.

08 Myriad3Moons
Myriad3
Alma Records ACD52062
(almarecords.com)

The collective musical spirit is alive and well in Moons, the third release by Toronto-based jazz trio Myriad3. Like the group’s name, a myriad of traditional, experimental and popular influences are quoted and/or superimposed while masterfully performed by pianist Chris Donnelly, bassist Dan Fortin and drummer Ernesto Cervini.

Each member is a composer too which makes for an eclectic listening experience. Donnelly’s Skeleton Key abounds with minimalism and new age melodic influences, with a flamboyant drum part and a surprise sudden stop ending adding welcome contrast. His Unnamed Cells is driven in a funky direction by speedy repeated notes in conversation between instruments. In contrast, Fortin’s appropriately titled Stoner is a slow and meditative journey that aches for the resolution of the chord changes while his Exhausted Clock ticks away gently to dreamland in a calming acoustic trio performance. The title track, Moons by Cervini, is a tranquil and reflective work with the subtle use of percussion colours creating a memorable space-age effect. The more traditional jazz acoustic stylings of his Ameliasburg make this exercise in simplicity a highlight. The trio really knows how to rock too, especially in Cervini’s more-in-your-face tune Brother Dom, and their feisty cover of Counter of the Cumulus by electronic whiz Disasterpeace.

Myriad3 is a strong trio no matter what style they tackle. From traditional to hybrid, their take on modern jazz is intelligent, groundbreaking and satisfying.

09 Steve KovenBeyond the C
Steve Koven Trio
Bungalow Records SK 010 4
(stevekoven.com)

Established in 1993, the Steve Koven Trio is a well-respected, internationally renowned Toronto-based jazz trio. This new release reinforces their professionalism, musicality and improvisational skills as pianist/composer Steve Koven, bassist Rob Clutton and drummer Anthony Michelli perform Koven’s compositions with precision, drive and the overwhelming sense of delight that comes from playing together for a very long time.

The title track, Beyond the C, is an upbeat playful jazz tune with a bouncing groove. The almost-stadium-anthem sing-along quality of the two tracks Brooklyn and Bathsheba form a solid backdrop to Koven’s improvisational stylings. The Learned is a more lyrical work embellished with piano runs and trills, and a surprisingly dense virtuosic drum part by Michelli which builds excitement until the final gentle chord. Cymbal washes and broken-chord-flavoured lines evoke programmatic sonic images in Mist-ic. More programmatic touches in Swamp Water Bullfrog as Clutton’s brilliant colourful bass playing resonates with rhythmic and melodic expertise. The closing waltz-like Moments is a reflective lyrical treat.

Koven and Michelli are also producers here, along with co-producer Roman Klun, so it comes as no surprise that all the trio’s group and individual musical nuances, idiosyncrasies and teamwork are captured in the recording. Check out the cover design by Hugh Syme with smart touches of the sea and birds flying in C-formation.

Listen and enjoy the Steve Koven Trio here as they play every note beyond and including the C!

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