04 Simon MartinSimon Martin – Hommage à Leduc, Borduas, et Riopelle
Quatuor Bozzini; Quasar quatuor de saxophones; Trio de guitares contemporain
Ambiances Magnétiques Collection QB CQB 1616 (quatuorbozzini.ca)

The young composer Simon Martin has created three separate works here with highly distinct instrumentation in homage to a trinity of closely linked Québécois painters central to the history of Canadian art. The first piece L’heure mauve, inspired by the Ozias Leduc painting and the last of these works to be composed (2009), is performed by a trio of classical guitarists. Historically, Martin has arrived at the earliest of these painters last and he’s matched Leduc’s symbolist landscape with an extraordinary minimalism, organizing a piece that matches periods of silence with complex rhythmic patterns created on strummed flurries or plucked notes on open strings.

Projections libérantes (2007), named for a text by Paul-Émile Borduas, was composed for Quasar saxophone quartet. The piece uses saxophone multiphonics created by alternate fingerings and shifting embouchures to mine the instruments’ sonic resources, drawing, for example, simultaneous low-frequency blasts and whistling highs from the baritone.

That sonic creativity is matched by Martin’s handling of the string quartet in Icebergs et Soleil de minuit — Quatuor en blanc, which takes its inspiration from Jean-Paul Riopelle’s series of black and white paintings. It’s a series of brief vignettes, sometimes highly gestural, in which Quatuor Bozzini explores different textures often employing harmonics to create a kind of richly nuanced transparency, a contradictory dense thinness of sound resembling the texture of a painted surface, as clusters can gradually reduce to single attenuated pitches.

What ties these works together is Martin’s fascination with the physical matter engaged by these painters and the power of brush or spatula strokes in their work, qualities transferred to his own dramatic exploration of individual instrumental timbres and subtly evolving sounds. The ultimate effect resembles the dynamic stillness and material transformation that links his three subjects’ work. It’s music of power, beauty and originality, worthy of its subjects.

05 FairouzMohammed Fairouz – No Orpheus
Kate Lindsey; Kiera Duffy; Christopher Burchett
Naxos 8.559783

Review

The young American composer Mohammed Fairouz has quickly become a widely performed and recorded composer. Although barely into his 30s, Fairouz has been commissioned by many important American institutions and performers. In his latest Naxos release Fairouz has compiled a selection of art song spanning a ten-year range in his output. The disc is comprised of four works that incorporate texts by W.B. Yeats, Edgar Allan Poe and William Wordsworth, along with selections from the writings of Alma Mahler, the ancient Arabic poet Ibn Shuhayd and contemporary poets Wayne Koestenbaum and Lloyd Schwartz. This collection reinforces Fairouz’s command over his approach to musical expression. Those who are familiar with his musical language appreciate it for an immediate sense of accessibility, its strong link to popular music infused with light romanticism and a familiar lyricism. Fairouz writes well for the voice. There is clarity of intention in his vocal writing that leaves nothing beyond the surface for the listener.

Mezzo-soprano Kate Lindsey, soprano Kiera Duffy and baritone Christopher Burchett bring a strong sense of musicality and drama to this recording and are able to interpret this music with a calming sense of ease and intuitiveness. At times the music is bare. The instrumental writing for cello and piano make for a light accompaniment that – despite a sense of clarity – perhaps leaves the listener wanting a bit more. Where clarity of artistic voice elevates this music to certain successful neighbourhoods, a deeper level of expression is perhaps lacking throughout. This recording provides a light, pleasing listening experience that doesn’t pin the listener down with any type of heavy material.

06 LangerElena Langer – Landscape with Three People
Anna Dennis; William Towers; Nicholas Daniel
harmonia mundi HMU 907669

Elena Langer, a Russian-born composer who studied in London, writes in an idiom that recalls Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition as orchestrated by Ravel; she combines a Russian folk sensibility with modern orchestral colours and a deep understanding of the resonances between text and music.

This is especially true of the title piece, a work for soprano, countertenor, oboe, harpsichord and trio of strings. Here Langer casts the poetry of Lee Harwood, a 20th-century English poet best known for being John Ashbery’s lover during the 1960s, in a baroque-inspired musical mould. There is an uneasiness in the configuration, though – the poems, dealing as they do with urban love, threaten to struggle free from the old-fashioned harmonic conventions that constrain them. Langer, delighting in this tension, exploits it to very wry effect. This is especially true of the oboe part, which, ostensibly representing the third figure in a love triangle with the soprano and countertenor, frequently seems to make stage-whispered asides to the audience, offering commentary on the action in the way only wickedly good gossip can. “This is my first love scene,” sing the soprano and countertenor, but the oboe’s acidic obbligato implies mockingly that this is neither their first nor their last “first love scene” at all. Ultimately, the oboe is subsumed by the affair, and the three figures are left to swirl in the purgatorial ambiguity of their similar tessiture. Such nuances pervade the works of this vital composer.

01 Rich BrownAbeng
Rich Brown
Independent RDB03 (rinsethealgorithm.bandcamp.com/album/abeng)

Review

Rich Brown, one of Canada’s and the world’s preeminent bassists, has produced an impassioned reaction to, and path forward from, some of the darkest forces of human nature, specifically racism and divisiveness. He has chosen the abeng, an instrument originally fashioned by escaped Jamaican slaves, as a metaphor for a call to unity. This message comes at a perilous time in world affairs. He has assembled a cast of some of Canada’s top musicians to interpret Abeng’s compositions and the result is great depth and complexity. The rhythm section team of Brown and drummer Larnell Lewis establishes a broad, open canvas on which everything seems possible.

Mahishmatish opens the recording with a melody that incorporates a long held note, perhaps the sound of the abeng. Saxophonists Luis Deniz on alto and Kelly Jefferson on tenor trade phrases that rise in intensity with the incredible feel and interplay provided by Brown and Lewis. Pianist Robi Botos solos effortlessly over Window Seat’s across-the-bar-lines groove. Chant of the Exiled (Abeng) is a perfect miniature, featuring trumpeter Kevin Turcotte and percussionist Rosendo Chendy Leon in its mournful exploration. Brown holds off until track four, Promessa, before treating us to his remarkably lyrical bass soloing. Chris Donnelly, who shares keyboard duties with Botos, plays a beautifully evocative intro to This Lotus Ascension and continues on to improvise over the doubled bass/alto sax melody. Abeng is a masterful recording that confirms Rich Brown’s position as one of our country’s most important musicians.

Concert Note: Rich Brown and the Abeng Quintet open for the Ernie Watts Quintet on May 21 at the George Weston Recital Hall.

02 Michael BlakeFulfillment
Michael Blake
Songlines SGL1615-2 (songlines.com)

Michael Blake is among New York’s most esteemed saxophonists, but he frequently returns to Vancouver where he works with some key members of the city’s jazz community. Fulfillment is a very special Vancouver project that uses up to ten musicians in an extended suite devoted to a dark episode in the city’s history: in 1914 several hundred Sikh immigrants on board the Komagata Maru were refused entry to Canada by means of laws designed specifically to exclude Asians. In subsequent events, advocates for the passengers were murdered in Vancouver and 19 were killed in an altercation with British officials on their return to India.

Blake’s suite abounds in complex emotions and original textures, gradually developing a cumulative impact. The theme of the opening Sea Shanty intertwines his soprano saxophone with Emma Postl’s voice to create an effect that’s at once dissonant and ethereal; there’s a coiling improvised duet between Blake’s soprano and Chris Gestrin’s synthesizer on Perimeters in which the two instruments are almost indistinguishable; a series of duets among the string players on Arrivals is highlighted by the unlikely combination of Peggy Lee’s cello and Ron Samworth’s banjo. Exaltation is an extended jam that adds Neelamjit Dhillon’s tabla drums to the densely textured rhythms created by drummer Dylan van der Schyff, bassist André Lachance and the rest of the group.

At the core of Blake’s music there’s the consistent legacy of modern jazz, from the extended use of blues structure and compositional inspirations from Ornette Coleman, Charles Mingus and Oliver Nelson to the overarching expressive power of his tenor saxophone, best embodied here on the evocative Battle at Baj Baj, directly inspired by John Coltrane’s elegiac Alabama.

03 The DisguisesSongs and Dances from The Muted Note
The Disguises
Ambiences Magnetiques AM 227 (actuellecd.com)

Trombonist/composer Scott Thomson crafted this series of song settings for poems by the late British Columbian poet P.K. Page in 2012-2013, first recording them in a series of spare and artful duets with the singer Susanna Hood (The Muted Note, & Records, ET20). The project later expanded to include Hood’s choreography for four dancers and a quintet called The Disguises, adding alto saxophonist Yves Charuest, bassist Nicolas Caloia and drummer Pierre Tanguay to the original duo. The result is remarkable, sacrificing some intimacy but gaining greater resilience and highlighting the strength of Thomson’s melodies, like the vibrant Picking Daffodils.

The Disguises represent some of Montreal’s finest improvisers and Thomson has achieved a fine balance in the writing, creating arrangements that frame and expand Page’s luminous language without drowning it out, sometimes employing understated dissonance to suggest ambiguity. Thomson has studied with the veteran trombonist Roswell Rudd, and at times The Disguises strongly suggests the clarity and interplay of the New York Art Quartet, the brilliant band that Rudd co-led in the mid-60s: Charuest’s solo on The Understatement consists of brief elliptical phrases with shifting timbres, recalling the subtle work of NYAQ saxophonist John Tchicai.

While it’s the wedding of poem and sound that unites these works, moments of spontaneous musical creation abound, like the energy and precision that Caloia and Tanguay bring to The Disguises/The Masks, or the dovetailing lines of Hood and Charuest on Star-Gazer. Thomson’s accompaniment to Hood’s voice on The Metal and the Flower flirts with silence to suggest birds and tiny woodland creatures, while the brashly vocal, plunger-muted solo of The Mole conveys generations of jazz trombone playing.

04 Aimee ButcherThe World Is Alright
Aimée Butcher
Independent (aimeebutcher.com)

This debut album by singer/songwriter Aimée Butcher, recorded when she was only 22, demonstrates clearly her ability to compose, and deliver beautifully, melodies which are both substantially interesting and satisfyingly – almost frustratingly – catchy.

The band, a quintet featuring Butcher’s voice, Chris Pruden on piano and keyboards, Brandon Wall on guitar, Jeff Deegan on bass and Robin Claxton on drums, all of whom are recent graduates of U of T’s hailed music program, has several feet planted firmly in the contrasting, sometimes feuding, worlds of jazz and pop. Songs like Stay or Drive and The World Is Alright are where Butcher’s hooks really shine: these are on the one hand pop songs, melodies that would feel at home in the mouths of singers like Alanis Morisette or Michael Bublé; and on the other hand recordings that highlight delicious, distinctly jazzy improvisations, including a simple, brief scat solo by Butcher. Especially notable is Pruden’s piano solo on the title track. It builds and develops perfectly, organized yet exciting; I always find myself saying “yeah” at the end.

Butcher’s band also re-imagines songs by Joni Mitchell, Radiohead, and, delightfully, Jann Arden; the haunting duo of Butcher accompanied by Wall’s guitar on Arden’s It Looks Like Rain might be my favourite track. With a pulse only lightly suggested, on an ethereal bed of swelling chords, Butcher delivers Arden’s song as though it was her own.

05 Carrier OutgoingOUTgoing
François Carrier; Steve Beresford; John Edwards; Michel Lambert
FMR Records FMRCD400 (francoiscarrier.com)

As much as this performance is entirely improvised the musicians also offer finely gauged and beautifully regulated music. The benefits are immediately apparent in OUTgoing, which is not only audaciously spelled, but contains music that is also unflinchingly dynamic. The players – saxophonist François Carrier, pianist Steve Beresford, bassist John Edwards and drummer Michel Lambert – offer music that is impetuous, inventive and laced with paprika. In one episode after another on this empirically existential recording the players make music that is technically challenging and impeccably pointed. There is a miraculous balance between simplicity, depth and virtuosity, all in the service of expression.

Steve Beresford’s piano playing has an impish wit which, when pursued by the saxophone of Carrier, is pushed to address the saxophonist with an effect that borders on an almost “three-handed” playing, achieved by huge scales that sweep from top to bottom of the keyboard. Carrier’s own playing on saxophone as well as the exotic Chinese oboe, is informed by themes decorated with abandon, while Beresford passes the harmonics between himself and Carrier (especially on Kingsland Road) decorated with swirling arpeggios to once again give the illusion of there being three hands playing. The piece ends with passages of interlocking lines between saxophone and piano entwined with some impressive arco playing by bassist John Edwards. This is a sparkling disc which combines the talent of four astonishingly versatile musicians to create iridescent showers of notes cascading with echoing, scintillating exuberance.

Wrong Is Right
Noisy Minority
Intakt Records CD 262

NYC Five
Angelika Niescier; Florian Weber
Intakt Records CD 263

In Motion
Richard Poole; Marilyn Crispell; Gary Peacock
Intakt Records CD 264

08a Intakt NoisyAt the very end of music’s spectrum, almost like planetary rumblings from outside the Milky Way, free improvisations imbue today’s music with a glorious sheen. Instrumental movements that one is accustomed to hearing are turned on their head enabling us to hear, with unabashed fascination, the explosive whimsy captured by some of the finest musicians alive today. Taking a leaf from Berg and Webern, Stravinsky and Stockhausen as much as from Anthony Braxton and Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and Lester Bowie, musicians – some who have been playing pretty conventional swing – have been blazing new trails, birthing, in every sense, a new avant-garde. This trend in Europe is vastly different from the one in America, which is rooted as much in the blues as it is in the music of Europe. Across the pond the “New Thing” dives daringly into triumphantly free improvisation that is almost completely bereft of the blues, although it might sometimes dig into jazz for idiomatic inspiration. Here are three wonderful discs from the Swiss label Intakt (intaktrec.ch) that exemplify everything that is bold and beautiful about European free improvisation.

Wrong Is Right is a performance that provides a burst of acclamation with loud triumphant chords fittingly made by musicians who are the epitome of the triumph of musicianship. Saxophonist Omri Ziegele is also a voice artist and leads the power quartet that includes one of the finest trombonists in the business. Ray Anderson has been celebrated for his brilliant tone colours and impeccable use of timbre, all embodied in the highest form of artistry. The repertoire on this disc has music that is arranged in a suite-like manner. Everything – especially the brilliant Decimal System and Wrong Is Right – celebrates the unexplored nooks and crannies of the instruments’ vast repertoire.

08b Intakt NYCNYC Five is a beautifully constructed album of songs by one of the most extroverted saxophonists in Europe. Angelika Niescier might not be a name many are familiar with but the Cologne-based alto saxophonist inhabits many worlds seemingly at once. The music that is improvised is strikingly majestic and the written work – especially the ballad, Invaded – is likely to tear your heart out for its deep emotion and exquisite showers of notes by the pianist Florian Weber. The ubiquitous American drummer Tyshawn Sorey makes an electrifying appearance wherever he goes and this record is no exception. Watch out for the lightness and bounce of Ralph Alessi’s trumpet – the other American of repute on the album.

08c Intakt Crispell“Cats with nine lives” is how tempting it is to describe pianist Marilyn Crispell, drummer Richard Poole and most definitely the monumental bassist, Gary Peacock, on In Motion. These leading exponents of their instruments almost intuitively bring dramatic, fresh tones and textures to notes and chords that you have heard hundreds of times before. The almost vocal styles of Crispell and Peacock have endeared them to generations of free-thinking musicians and here they show why. Their explosive whimsy is captured on Backseat of the Galaxy, In Motion and Isle of Nowhere. The rest of the repertoire is no less wondrous and is full of joyous evocation and revels in the über-virtuosity of all three musicians whose brilliance has no limits.

06 GumpertA New One
Ulrich Gumpert Quartet
Intakt Records 257 (intaktrec.ch)

East Germany’s most prominent jazz composer/pianist, Ulrich Gumpert, 70, shows that he has lost none of his Teutonic-Thelonious acuity in the quarter century since the destruction of the Berlin Wall. With band members several years his junior, including Germans, bassist Jan Roder and drummer Michael Griener, plus Swiss saxophonist Jürg Wickihalder, the quartet moves through 11 mostly Gumpert-composed tunes that could equally impress in a West Berlin club with aficionados familiar with the sounds of Monk and bop, as well as an East Berlin theatre audience more attuned to Socialist Realist anthems and folkloric marches.

One instance of this is Iffie, initially a balladic theme the pianist developed years ago for a performance with a poet, resolved with a snorting Wickihalder solo into 100 percent contemporary jazz. Recitativo Secco, is a plaintive Germanic recitation for full band that too is transformed into a jokey promenade with cymbal sizzles and reed smears. There’s also the Griener-composed Süshotz, a simple rustic tune that balances Mozartian rococo with a charming alto saxophone lead. With Wickihalder playing tenor saxophone, Number Nine and the give-away titled The Bop & The Hard Be are more overtly Monkish, with the pianist replicating Monk’s hesitant yet spiky chording on the second, as Roder walks and the saxophonist channels Johnny Griffin’s bite and speed. Expanding and contracting time as it develops, Number Nine shuffles as much as it swings with Gumpert introducing ragtime and boogie-woogie motifs that lock in with Wickihalder reed outbursts that are as hard and thick as titanium.

Like a pseudo-military march the penultimate Scrollin’ is driven by a tough drum solo, moderated by elegant string reverberations from Roder, ending in a formation that finds each musician hopscotching and circling around the others as he solos. Confirming that sardonic humour wasn’t stifled in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the CD ends with a 55-second reprise of Iffie called Iffie’s Saloon, with appropriate barroom-like plinking from Gumpert and nasal soprano saxophone passages from Wickihalder. In spite of its misdeeds, the GDR allowed talents like Gumpert to flourish; luckily A New One gives us in the West a new way to experience it.

07 NecksVertigo
The Necks
Northern Spy Records NS 067 (northernspyrecords.com)

Members of the Australian trio, The Necks, habitually construct mesmerizing CDs consisting of one extended improvisation. As committed to their musical vision as ensembles such as the Beaux Arts or the Lyric Arts trios were to theirs, after three decades as a band, pianist/keyboardist Chris Abrahams, bassist Lloyd Swanton and percussionist Tony Buck can still alter the overall interpretation in such a way that it becomes like an aural kaleidoscope offering novel facets on each playing.

Unlike earlier creations which relied on Swanton’s unvarying plucked tone to buoy the improvisation, with Vertigo it is Abrahams who sets the pace. After an initial piano showcase that finds him channeling David Tudor-like minimalism and Professor Longhair-like exuberance, he bares the connective theme, variations of which resonate throughout the 44-minute program. Exploring the acoustic piano’s low-frequency continuum plus internal strings at points, he concurrently coaxes rasping timbres from electronic keyboards that seem to emanate from a revved-up harpsichord or replicate billowing pipe-organ-like quivers. Or does he? Because one of the attainments of The Necks is that generally a sound can’t be ascribed to a specific instrument. Certainly temple bell-like clatters, metal rim-like clunks and remote resolute thumps come from Buck’s kit; while winsome stops, twang and infrequent connective drones arise from Swanton’s instrument. But what is the genesis of the whip-like snaps that echo throughout the piece, as well as the vibrations audible from what could be steam-whistle blasts or vocal chorale-like bellowing?

Ultimately it doesn’t matter. Like a dwelling built on a flood plain which gradually becomes waterlogged as the sea level rises, the strength of this sonic mosaic is how easily the sounds blend into a multiphonic mosaic. Vertigo won’t cause you to lose your balance except in a positive way, as you’re knocked out by the many-sided skills that went into producing this session.

01 Welsh GaurdsA Tribute
Band of the Welsh Guards
British Military Music Archive BMMAWG1502 (bmma.org.uk) 

This two-disc set commemorates the 100th anniversary of the establishment of The Band of the Welsh Guards. In 1915, as the British army expanded during the First World War, it was felt that Wales should be represented in the Brigade of Guards. The regiment was formed in February of that year. Soon after, when the establishment of a band was approved, the city of Cardiff helped to purchase a set of instruments, and the band began rehearsals in October. By the time of their first concert in the London Opera House on March 1, 1916, the band had already been in a studio and recorded the first six numbers of CD1. By the end of the year 1916, founding members of that band had recorded all 12 numbers on the first CD. While recording techniques have improved significantly, the audio quality is quite amazing.

While CD1 contains mostly patriotic music, CD2, recorded between 1921 and 1940, contains a variety of musical styles including several novelty numbers of the type performed by bands in the years between the wars. Such numbers as Gaiety Echoes and Wedded Whimsies certainly aren’t likely to be found in the repertoire of concert bands of 2016. One particular novelty number that used to be very popular is The Whistler and His Dog. Written by Arthur Pryor, famed trombone virtuoso of the Sousa band, it has many of the band members whistling the melody and then ends with loud barking. This CD even contains a couple of numbers by the Dance Orchestra. All in all, an excellent preservation of the musical history of the Welsh Guards.

02 Orono Cornet BandOrono Cornet Band
Orono Cornet Band
Great Canadian Town Band Festival (oronocornetband.com)

Some years ago, trombone player and old town band music fan, David Climenhage established the Great Canadian Town Band Festival in the small town of Orono, east of Toronto. While the festival no longer operates, Climenhage has now focused on another aspect of his interest in the music of the early town bands in Canada. When he got together with Toronto musician Herbert Poole they discovered that they had a common interest in the collection and restoration of old brass musical instruments. They soon decided that, since their instruments were made to produce music, not just to be admired, they should form a band.

The result is Orono Cornet Band which performs the music of the period when the instruments were built. The result is this recording with music composed between 1855 and 1890. Top flight musicians performing on period instruments, ranging from cornets to such lesser-known oddities as the ophicleide and helicon, provide a rare insight into the musical life of small town Canada before motion pictures, radio or television. Where else could you hear such works for a town dance as the Take Me Home Quickstep or the Blue Dahlia Polka Mazurka. Unfortunately, there are no program notes, and while I had never heard of any of the composers, a little research provided much information on one of them. F. H. Torrington founded the Toronto College of Music which became the first music affiliate of the University of Toronto. In 1894 he conducted the very first concert in Massey Hall. For devotees of early brass band music this recording is a must.

Preserving Rediscovered Free Music Classics

Fully grasping the intricacies of musical history often depends on the availability of recorded documents. That’s why many musical histories are re-evaluated once hitherto little known performances become accessible. This is especially crucial when it comes to completely or mostly improvised sounds. Reissued and/or rediscovered sessions, which preserve ephemeral moments, confirm the music’s wide dissemination. More importantly they add the equivalent of additional sentences that provide a fuller understanding of the free music story.

01 Braxton BaileyConsisting of almost 78 minutes of music, First Duo Concert (Emanem 5038 emanemdisc.com) is particularly relevant because it captures one dozen interactions between American multi-reedist Anthony Braxton and British guitarist Derek Bailey. Recorded in 1974, it displays the similarities, and as significantly, the differences between free music concepts. Even at this early date Bailey and many of his London-based colleagues rejected the idea of playing anything but in-the-moment music. But as true to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) ethos as Knights Templar would be to their creed during the Crusades, the saxophonist/clarinetist brought not only familiarity with the blues form, but also an interest in semi-composed material and extended explorations in certain techniques to the date – concerns that remain with him more than 40 years later. When the completely improvised Area 3 (open) is reached, congruence turns to cooperation. What originally could have been the jolts produced when two blindfolded players collided with one another turns into a motley garment whose patchwork can envelop grinding string buzzes and harsh clangs as well as resonating timber wolf-like saxophone snarls and moderated bass clarinet ostinato. If gating banjo-like reverb plus internal body tube puffs and renal-like vibrations from his reed collection on Braxton’s part still disturb the evolving continuum like pointed flecks in rough wood grain, then his unexpected peeps and pops lessen as both aim towards measured expression. Allowing each partner’s full expression during single unaccompanied tracks, the duo reaches the zenith of mutual understanding on the extended Area 11 (open). While each still tests the limits of the other’s convictions with the zeal of a small child taunting the family pet, harsh, oblique strums and quivering, aviary-styled peeps from the clarinet finally dovetail enough so that aggressive string thumb taps fit into an accompanying groove, as later circular tweets from sopranino saxophone, clarinet and flute settle uneasily next to guitar strokes. The concluding Area 12 with its corkscrew reed squeaks and rugged string quivers gives notice that neither improvisational philosophy has bested the other. But the framework for future reciprocal idea exchanges has been set.

02 BrotzmannThree years earlier the protean trio of German saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, Belgian pianist Fred Van Hove and Dutch percussionist Han Bennink was constantly touring the continent confirming that a bellicose interpretation of free jazz wasn’t confined to Americans. The CD 1971 (Corbett vs Dempsey CD 020 corbettvsdempsey.com) reissues the band’s justly famous, furiously unyielding set at that year’s New Jazz Meeting, but adds an additional almost 16 minutes of sound recorded four months earlier that demonstrate the hair-trigger-like technical skill that goes into what initially seems like relentless bombast. Like the proverbial tough guy with the gentle interior, Van Hove for one uncovers elegant near-romantic phrasing on Filet Americain, which he expands with harsh clanging, sounding as if he prepared the piano with thumbtacks. Bennink confines himself to clattering reverberations and Brötzmann blows with a burr-like tone. I.C.P. No.17 is more aggressive, with the saxophonist’s subterrestrial exposition echoed by Bennink probably honking through a Tibetan radung or long metal bass horn. Just For Altena the 26-minute final showcase then shows how a palpitating rhythm can be maintained even as the players push techniques past expected instrumental limits. Spelled by the percussionist’s smashing cracks, horn blowing and yells, Brötzmann’s virtually endless honks and glottal punctuation sound as if he’s soon going to be pushing blood out of his horn as well as air. Still he manages to work in quotes from Bavarian marches, polkas, Mexican hat dances and limitless free-jazz glossolalia as he plays, often unaccompanied, reaching beyond the highest imaginable altissimo slur. Like a hyperactive canine, Bennink is also in motion, shoving everything from a conga-drum interlude to bass drum resonation to gong and cymbal clashes into his accompaniment as if boiling a potluck stew. Van Hove marathon-runner-like glissandi share space with crackling kinetic expositions that whack the keys and strings as frequently as they play them. Is it any wonder that at this time this trio could challenge any electrified rock band for pure excitement?

03 Willem BreukerAnother band that could do the same was the Willem Breuker Kollektief (WBK), like Bennink, part of Amsterdam’s fertile improv scene. Mixing anarchistic stunts, parody, constant motion, classic tune recreations plus free-form playing with top-line musicianship, the nine-piece group led by saxophonist/clarinetist Breucker (1944-2010) was the epitome of post-modernism. Yet unlike more academically oriented Fluxus or Dada experimentalists, the WBK was so entertaining that this two-CD set recorded live in France, Angoulême 18 mai 1980 (Fou Records FR-CD 9&10 fou.records.free.fr), ends with the raucous audience demanding three successive encores. A European equivalent of Sun Ra’s Arkestra, but infinitely less serious-minded, here the group mixes the precision of Glenn Miller’s band, the romping swing of Count Basie’s and the humour of Laurel and Hardy. During the concert modern jazz originals, a tango, Kurt Weil’s Song of Mandalay, Les Brown and his band of Renown’s theme song Sentimental Journey and finally the hokey I Believe – to disperse the crowd – race by at record pace. Additionally, following Big Busy Band where the group’s solid brassy power is broken up by Rob Verdurmen’s flashy drumming à la Gene Krupa, plus bassist Arjen Gorter playing Blues in the Closet, Breucker exposes his inner Benny Goodman and tenor saxophonist Maaren van Norden outscreams Big Jay McNeeley. Eventually an episode of pseudo-show-biz banter introduces March & Sax Solo with Vacuum Cleaner where Breucker does just that, improvising in tandem and in opposition to the whining household appliance. Like a squad of quick change artists the WBK is capable of taking on any persona, with pianist Henk de Jonge for instance, comping like a bopper, knocking out stride piano asides, beginning and ending Flat Jungle with romantic flourishes and extravagant glissandi that could be Vladimir Ashkenazy playing Chopin, channels Cecil Taylor’s contrasting dynamics in the song’s centre and mocks the saxophonist’s appropriation of the highest altissimo notes in existence with studied, flamboyant quotes from Rhapsody in Blue. Gorter’s bass line and Verdurmen’s back beat ensure that foot-stomping elation is always present, even if the rhythm team may sometimes feel like extras in a Marx Brothers movie with all the musical mayhem going on around them. Still any band that on Potsdamer Stomp mocks rock music’s overwrought yakety saxes via dueling solos from Breuker and baritone Bob Drissen, at the same time as playing Name That Tune, as fragments of everything from Chick Corea’s Spain to the Marine Hymn to circus music loom into earshot, confirms that these discs do a lot more than fill in a three-year gap in the WBK discography. They’re a jubilant listening experience on their own.

04 FrictionsIf music’s value is judged by its pervasive acceptance, then the tracks on Frictions/Frictions Now (NoBusiness Records NBCD 79 nobusinessrecords.com) are as notable as the better-known efforts by Breuker, Braxton-Bailey and Brötzmann. Independent of other connections, members of the Free Jazz Group Wiesbaden (FJGW) developed a caustic and punchy free music variant, which mixed musique concrète and chance notions from notated music, folkloric instruments and tropes plus improvisation that went beyond freebop into sonic intoxication. Recorded in 1969 and 1971 and released in limited edition, the German band members eventually pursued other paths. Like Quebec’s Walter Boudreau, who went from leading the Zappa-esque ensemble l’Infonie to become a composer and artistic director of Société de musique contemporaine du Québec, trumpeter Michael Sell abandoned improvisation for fully notated work in the 1980s; saxophonist/pianist/flutist Dieter Scherf played with major German free jazzers later in the decade before abandoning music because of dental problems; drummer Wolfgang Schlick and guitarist Gerhard König’s histories are even more obscure. However the three tracks here demonstrate the band’s originality. Coming across like a spiky combination of Jimi Hendrix, Sonny Sharrock and Earl Scruggs, König’s chord-shredding flanges insinuate into whatever spaces the horns leave open with a style that includes surf music intonation, single-string finesse and preparations that could come from double bass. Schlick’s coiled rumbles and consistent thumps range from martial to miasmatic; he doesn’t swing but keeps the pieces moving notwithstanding, even when slamming his metal bracket for unusual rhythms. Squeezing death rattles and hunting-horn-like blares from his trumpet, Sell’s tone resembles those of ur-New Thing players like Earl Cross and Don Ayler. Yet when he unites with Schlick they harmonize enough to approach contemporary jazz, and even flutter out rounded grace notes on the final Frictions Now Part II, to reach a meandering, delicate tempo. Leaping among his instruments like an unsupervised child in a music store, Scherf brings something different to each one. On alto saxophone, obviously influenced by the atonal techniques of American free jazzers, his honks, snorts and blats include crying vibrations that add an unconventional Teutonic melancholy. Brief shenai and oboe interludes introduce World Music allusions to the middle of the extended Frictions, while his inner-piano strums join with König’s finger-style ornamentation on the same piece for stark tonal outlines, finally climaxing with a moving motif that appears to judder from cadence to cacophony and back again.

Like crate digging in a second-hand vinyl store, reissues like these can reveal unexpected values. They confirm the talents of the known or introduce unfamiliar stylists who should have been better known first time out.

01 Philips 50A new box of Philips Classics restores to the catalog a wealth of analogue recordings that were, not so long ago, in wide demand by music lovers around the world: Philips Classics The Stereo Years – 50 Analogue Albums in Original Jackets (Decca 4788977, 50 CDs). After WWII Philips entered the blossoming long-playing record business by issuing American Columbia recordings in Europe under their own Philips mini-groove imprint. Columbia, inventors of the long-playing record, owned the LP logo and for many years no other manufacturer could call their product an LP. Very soon LP became generic however and that was that.

Philips productions were of the highest quality, both sonically and in their immaculate pressings. In fact, when their discs were eventually pressed in North America, knowledgeable music lovers sought out the better sounding Dutch pressings in their gatefold covers even though they were marginally more expensive. It may be of some interest to audiophiles that after Ray Dolby developed his noise reduction system that enabled producers and engineers to make more accurate and wider range recordings, Dolby became the universal noise reduction system (and still is). Philips, though, preferred to tilt the high frequencies up in the recording and reverse the process for playback. Simple…tape hiss gone. There’s more to it than that, but that’s how Philips touted it at the time. In 1979 when Polygram bought Decca they owned DG, Philips and Decca, and although each company shared their technologies with the others, each retained its own recognizable sound due to the preferred choice of microphones, set-up and certainly recognizable artistic preferences. Philips, in close cooperation with Sony, devised and perfected digital encoding and in 1979 began recording digitally. The recorded performances in this box are from the analogue era, 50 recordings in replicas of their LP original jackets, often with bonus tracks.

Most music lovers of a certain age – make that of any age – will be thrilled to the teeth to hear the musicians whose artistry lives on in these recordings. Dutch soprano Elly Ameling sings Schumann, Frauenliebe und -leben and Liederkreis, and ten Schubert lieder with Dalton Baldwin and Jörg Demus (1973, 1979). Mezzo Janet Baker sings Handel and Gluck with Raymond Leppard (1972, 1975). Cristina Deutekom, the Dutch coloratura, sings Verdi, Bellini, J. Strauss, etc. (1969, 1971). Dramatic soprano, Jessye Norman sings Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été (1979). Gérard Souzay, the French baritone, sings Handel, Rameau, Lully and Ravel (1963, 1968). José Carreras sings 16 arias from Verdi to Rossini (1976, 1980); and there are others.

Pianist Claudio Arrau, once a towering figure, plays Liszt’s Twelve Transcendental Etudes (1976) and the Concert Paraphrase on Aida (1971), also Beethoven’s Third and Fourth Piano Concertos with the Concertgebouw Orchestra and Bernard Haitink (1964). Alfred Brendel plays Schubert’s Sonata D960, The Wanderer Fantasy and Three Klavierstücke D946 (1971, 1974), Liszt’s two concertos and Totentanz (LPO Haitink, 1972), three Mozart concertos, K450, K467 and K488 (1971, 1981) and of course, the Sviatoslav Richter Sofia recital of February 1958. And lots more.

How about symphonies? Brahms’ First and Fourth (van Beinum), Saint-Saëns’ Third (Daniel Chorzempa organ, Edo de Waart). I must mention that this recording was made with the Rotterdam Philharmonic in the organ’s home, De Doelen, Rotterdam. Overwhelming sound. Simply fabulous! Well deserving of mention are the Concertgebouw Orchestra recordings: The Sibelius Second conducted by George Szell, the Dvorak Seventh under Colin Davis, Heldenleben (Haitink), Bruckner Ninth (Haitink), Bruckner Fifth (Eugene Jochum), Schubert Ninth (Haitink) and many other so well-remembered classic recordings.

In this collection there is not a single recording or performance of less than exemplary quality but check them all out for yourself at deccaclassics.com/us/cat/4788977.

02 Mahler Das LiedArthaus Musik has issued a Blu-Ray video of a really great live performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Sir Colin Davis, the Bavarian Radio Symphony and soloists Doris Soffel and Kenneth Riegel (ArtHaus Musik 109113). It is fortunate for us that this 1988 event from Munich was flawlessly documented in both audio and video. Davis is not usually remembered for his Mahler, although he has directed impressive productions throughout his career.

Davis was such a natural, intuitive Mahlerian in this performance that it’s a pity that he did not set down a complete cycle of this calibre. Of course he has the redoubtable Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, with whom he recorded the First, Fourth and Eighth, who are surely at home in this work. The best news is the choice of soloists because both Riegel and Soffel have not been able to elsewhere demonstrate their mastery of this demanding work. From the first song, Riegel creates a bright, constantly dramatic tone, cutting through the orchestral welter. Here we can see just how fluently he projects every meaning of the text with intense, vehement authority.

Soffel is captured in a role for which she was clearly born. In this production her alto voice is perfect for the role. She comes into her own after the orchestral interlude in Der Abschied where she projects a sense of loneliness and emptiness with the tone of her voice wherein she keeps any warmth under strict control, to crushing effect.

Mahler, deeply superstitious, salted away the finished score and never heard it performed.

03 KoganLeonid Kogan (1924-1982) was born in Kiev and came to be one of the foremost violinists of the 20th century. From about 1955 on, he was considered to be among the supreme artists of his era. One only needs to hear any of his recordings to agree. Archipel has returned to the catalog the three Brahms Violin Sonatas with his accompanist Andrei Mytnik (ARPCD 03550). The first two are studio recordings and the third live from Moscow in 1956. As a bonus there are the Brahms Hungarian Dances 1, 2, 4 and 17. From the first few bars of the First Sonata, through to an inspired finale we hear totally natural Brahms played with commanding mastery.

04 Leonard RoseThe late Leonard Rose was an American cellist who was best known during the 1950s and the 1960s through his Columbia recordings of concertos with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra and later as a member of the very special Istomin-Stern-Rose Trio. Well-respected are his early 1950s recordings with the New York Philharmonic, of which he was principal cellist, of Bloch’s Schelomo with Dimitri Mitropoulos and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations under George Szell. Although many or most of his Columbia recordings remain in print as reissues, collectors are always on the lookout for live performances from around the world residing in radio archives. There are three cello concertos: Dvořák with Charles Dutoit and the ORTF Orchestra (1967); Saint-Saëns No.1 and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations with Louis de Froment from Radio Luxembourg (1961); and Beethoven’s Fifth Cello Sonata with Eugene Istomin (Stratford, 1969). From WQXR in NYC, playing with pianist Nadia Reisenberg, Rose plays Beethoven’s Third Cello Sonata and Brahms First Cello Sonata (1973). These performances issued by Doremi (DHR-8038/9, 2CDs) are not intended to replace his commercial recordings but to confirm and enjoy his unmistakable, now legendary powerful sonorities and musicianship.

It was my mother’s record collection that whetted my appetite for a broad spectrum of music at a young age, from the warhorses of the classical repertoire on her Reader’s Digest boxed set of LPs, to such “modern fare” as Ferde Grofé’s Grand Canyon Suite, through the New Orleans jazz of Louis Armstrong and Pete Fountain (my introduction to St. James Infirmary Blues), and a gamut of what we now call roots music. Of particular note were albums by Carl Sandburg (including the memorable My name is Yon Yonson), Burl Ives (Goober Peas), Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee (Rock Island Line), Pete Seeger with and without the Weavers (too numerous to mention), Woody Guthrie (ditto) and Lead Belly (Pick a Bale of Cotton). Mom is now well into her ninth decade and still an active concertgoer and “record” collector, as well as a devotee of public television.

01 Eric BibbIt was this latter that provided her introduction to the late Leon Bibb and his son Eric some years ago. She spoke so enthusiastically of this blues duo that when I realized Eric Bibb was coming to Hugh’s Room in January, accompanied by Michael Jerome Browne (whose CD Sliding Delta I discussed in this column last March), I knew it was time for a family outing. Now as I mentioned, mother is getting on in years and mostly prefers matinee performances, but that evening she happily stayed for both sets. Bibb is a storyteller-singer-songwriter who picks a mean guitar – fingerstyle, no actual picks – and has a powerful and gruff, yet melodic voice. His own compositions span a variety of styles but his repertoire also encompasses acoustic blues and roots standards of the last century from field calls to gospel (and he does a mean James Brown).

Bibb’s most recent project focuses on the seminal work of Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly. On Lead Belly’s Gold (Stony Plain Records SPCD 1387 stonyplainrecords.com) Bibb is joined by French harmonica wizard JJ Milteau whose credits include work with Yves Montand and Charles Aznavour but whose main focus is the Blues, an idiom in which he is very well versed. What strikes me most about his playing is the way he incorporates a world of styles into these classic tunes, from the blue note-bending that we’ve come to expect in the genre to sounds that mimic Zydeco accordion produced on his tremolo harmonica.

There are a few Bibb original tunes dedicated to Lead Belly in the mix, but mostly we are presented with songs written by or associated with Lead Belly, including Grey Goose, Midnight Special, Pick a Bale of Cotton, Rock Island Line, Goodnight Irene and House of the Rising Sun. The CD features both live (at the Sunset) and studio recordings, with Bibb and Milteau joined on some tracks by drummer Larry Crockett and bassist Gilles Michel with backing vocals by Big Daddy Wilson and Michael Robinson. If you didn’t have the opportunity to hear these songs thanks to your mother in your formative years – thanks, Mom! – or even if you did, this tribute to one of the true originals of roots music is a great introduction/reminder of where it all began.

02 Duane AndrewsOne of the discs to cross my desk over the holiday season was the latest from Newfoundland jazz and swing guitarist Duane Andrews entitled Conception Bay (duaneandrews.ca). The shadow of Django Reinhardt looms large, as it always does in Andrews’ repertoire, both in the form of Reinhardt covers and original compositions in the Hot Club style. I was delighted to find Reinhardt’s Swing 39, which I first heard on a Quintet of the Hot Club of France LP some 40 years ago, in a lively and convincing rendition which sees Andrews in duet with fellow Newfoundlander, violinist Mark Fewer. As a matter of fact all four members of the string quartet who make up the band here are originally from Newfoundland: Lynn Kuo, violin; Angela Pickett, viola and Amahl Arulanamdam, cello.

Not all of the music is in the swing style and fittingly there are some Newfoundland-inspired tunes including Andrews’ Gigues plus traditional Reels and Otto Kelland’s Let Me Fish Off Cape St. Mary’s. The quartet members all have strong careers in classical music (although not to the exclusion of other musical forms – they are remarkably eclectic) and we find nods to the world of composed music in the form of the Lullaby from Stravinsky’s Firebird and a suite of Improvisations on Chopin’s Op.64, No.2. The darkly impressionistic title track, another Andrews original, is a stark portrayal of the landform, presumably in the dead of winter. But we are not left out in the cold – the disc ends with a sunny, breakneck version of Sweet Georgia Brown. Highly recommended!

Review

03 Valerie MilotQuebec harp virtuoso Valérie Milot’s latest CD Orbis (Analekta AN 2 9880) is an eclectic release of 20th century fare. Minimalist offerings by Marjan Mozetich and Steve Reich are featured along with works of John Cage and Antoine Bareil plus Bareil’s arrangements of music by Gentle Giant and Frank Zappa. Mozetich’s El Dorado for harp and strings opens the disc in a dramatic performance with Les Violons du Roy under Mathieu Lussier’s direction. The quiet, almost ominous, opening gradually builds like an ancient steam locomotive coming into town – you can almost see the smoke chuffing into the sky on the horizon – but over the 15 minutes of the work the textures gradually lighten and change into what Mozetich describes as a dreamscape. Commissioned by New Music Concerts for Erica Goodman back in 1981, El Dorado has become something of a modern classic and this is the third recording that I’m aware of. Goodman’s performance with the Amadeus Ensemble and Caroline Léonardelli’s with the Penderecki String Quartet are available from the Canadian Music Centre (musiccentre.ca).

The locomotive relentlessness of the opening of the Mozetich is mirrored in a gentler way in Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint. Originally written for jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, the work is scored for solo guitar, 12 guitars and two bass guitars. As in many works by Reich it can be played by an ensemble or by a single musician overdubbing the multiple parts. In her arrangement for harps, it is this latter approach taken by Milot, giving her an opportunity to showcase “the distinctive colours of the harp’s different registers and its exceptional resonance.” The result is very effective and the hypnotic rhythms are tantalizing in this performance.

John Cage’s In a Landscape is hypnotic in a different way, with dreamlike arpeggiated melodies spiralling gently and only occasionally punctuated by belling chords in the bass. Composed in 1948 for the choreography of Louise Lippold it was conceived for performance on either piano or harp. Milot’s depiction of the meditative landscape is exquisite.

Composer/violinist Antoine Bareil’s Castille 1382 continues the mood with a meditation on Jacob de Senleches’ fourteenth-century virelai La harpe de mélodie. Bareil’s title recalls the year of the death of Eleanor of Aragon, Queen of Castile. It is in two sections, an extended harp solo in which the medieval melody is presented unadorned and then in a harmonized rendition; and in the final minutes the haunting soprano voice of Marianne Lambert joins the harp in canon. It’s otherworldly.

At this point the disc takes a hard left turn and we are immersed in the world of pop music. But the transition is seamless as the solo harp introduction of Bareil’s arrangement of the Gentle Giant song As Old as You’re Young is in a lilting folk idiom. Harp is soon joined by an edgier violin statement of the melody (played by Bareil) and as the piece develops it gets harder and harder with the addition of marimba and raunchy bowed double bass. This sets us up for the culminating storm, Frank Zappa’s iconic G-Spot Tornado. Zappa initially conceived it as an electronic piece for his album Jazz from Hell because he felt that live musicians could simply not perform its complexities at the desired tempo. He was later proved wrong and there is YouTube video of an athletically choreographed performance with modern dancers and the Ensemble Modern conducted by Zappa in 1992. Since that time G-Spot Tornado has received myriad live performances and here it is vigorously and very effectively played by Milot and Bareil with Jocelyne Roy, flute, François Vallières, viola, and Raphaël Dubé, cello, providing a tornadic finale to a very fine disc.

Concert Note: Valérie Milo and Antoine Bareil can be heard in recital on March 18 at Convocation Hall, McMaster University in Hamilton. On March 19 at 5pm they will give a free performance at the Consulate of the Republic of Poland, 2603 Lake Shore Blvd W. here in Toronto (limited seating, first come first served). Soundstreams will present a performance of Electric Counterpoint and other works by Steve Reich on March 19 at the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W.

04 Southam Glass HousesGlass Houses Volumes 1 & 2 (Centrediscs CMCCD 22215) is a simple repackaging of two previous releases featuring Christina Petrowska Quilico. As I said in my original review in 2011,Glass Houses Revisited is a reworking of Ann Southam’s ‘fiendishly difficult etudes’ the pianist was working on with the composer at the time of her death in November 2010. Originally composed in 1981, the title Glass Houses refers to minimalist composer Philip Glass, the best-known proponent of this style at the time of writing, and to choreographer Christopher House with whom Southam worked extensively. The mostly ebullient, busily joyful pieces were revised in 2009 for Petrowska Quilico and further edited by her with the composer’s permission for this recording in 2010. The disc features nine ‘favourite’ selections from the set, arranged with four lively pieces on either side of the solitary ‘broody and moody’ track, Glass House No.13. Overall they are a weaving and embroidering of various melodic motifs that, in Ann Southam’s words ‘reflect the nature of traditional women’s work – repetitive, life-sustaining, requiring time and patience.’ One can only imagine the patience and diligence required of Petrowska Quilico to master these complex and exhilarating gems, and master them she has.”

While the first disc purports to comprise Petrowska Quilico’s “favourite” selections, no less care or enthusiasm is given to the remaining six etudes on Glass Houses Volume 2. Here’s what Dr. Réa Beaumont had to say in her review in June 2014: “The pianist and production team have given careful thought to the order that the pieces appear on the album. From a shimmering opening to intense, driving movements, there are also playful moments with unexpected jazz riffs. Petrowska Quilico’s recording exemplifies the artistry and physical endurance that are required to create this seamless musical vision for one of Ann Southam’s masterpieces.

If you didn’t take our word for it first time round, this new edition is a cost effective ($20 at musiccentre.ca) way to rectify that and to get the whole collection.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: DISCoveries, WholeNote Media Inc., The Centre for Social Innovation, 503 – 720 Bathurst St. Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website thewholenote.com where you can find added features including direct links to performers, composers and record labels, “buy buttons” for online shopping and additional, expanded and archival reviews.

David Olds, DISCoveries Editor
discoveries@thewholenote.com

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