Mahler – Symphony No.5
Budapest Festival Orchestra; Ivan Fischer
Channel Classics CCS SA 34213

Slowly building what promises to be a complete survey of Mahler symphonies, Ivan Fischer’s latest release (preceded by Symphonies 1, 2, 4 and 6) is his most impressive achievement so far in this cycle. In some ways it might be considered a middle-of-the-road interpretation; the tragic, funereal profile of the first two movements in particular seems unusually constrained. Consider for example the operatic, borderline vulgarity of the “oom-pah” trombones so tellingly brought to the fore in the classic Bernstein Vienna Philharmonic recording from days of yore; here their barbaric yapping is barely audible. It’s not, as it turns out, a question of misjudged orchestral balances or engineering oversight, for in general the detail of sound is exemplary throughout, spectacularly so in the dynamic layering of the intricate polyphony of the grand fifth movement finale. Rather, Fischer’s’ devil dwells in the details, with the grand histrionics we have come to expect in Mahler subdued to highlight the large-scale architecture of this sprawling work.

The virtuoso Budapest forces respond most elegantly throughout; their accord with their conductor and founder in the famous Adagietto is positively psychic. It’s a pity however that the obbligato horn soloist placed at the front of the stage in the rustically rendered central Scherzo movement is not credited. Splendidly recorded in Budapest, this SACD features a spacious sound stage with the first and second violins divided to the left and right of the stage and exceptionally pristine sound. This is a refreshingly idiosyncratic performance that deserves a place near the top of recent Mahler recordings.

The Romantic Cello Concerto Vol.5: Saint-Saëns
Natalie Clein; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; Andrew Manze
Hyperion CDA68002

Outside musicological circles, the name Auguste Franchomme is probably unknown today, but during his long lifetime, he earned a reputation as a renowned cellist and composer. Not only did he inspire Chopin to write his one and only piece for cello and piano but he also provided the impetus for Camille Saint-Saëns’s first cello concerto in 1872. Saint-Saëns went on to produce two other works for the instrument, all of them included on this fine recording – the fifth in Hyperion’s Romantic Cello Concerto series – featuring cellist Natalie Clein and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Andrew Manze.

British-born Clein studied at the Royal College of Music and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. She attracted world attention at age 16 when she won the BBC Musician of the Year award, and since completing her studies, has appeared in concert halls throughout Europe, North America, Australia and Asia.

Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1 runs the whole gamut of emotions. It opens dark and impassioned, but there are also periods of quiet intimacy and sprightly good humour. Clein’s performance is commanding and technically flawless, her warm and resonant tone particularly suited to this late-Romantic repertoire. Thirty years lapsed before Saint-Saëns completed his second cello concerto in 1902. More serious in tone, it was chosen as a Conservatoire test piece by Gabriel Fauré. Saint-Saëns himself said of it: “It will never be as popular as the first, it’s too difficult.” Challenging is indeed the word, with its virtuosic passagework and frequent double-stopping required of the soloist. Clein meets the difficulties with ease and the orchestra under Manze’s skillful baton provides a solid and sympathetic foundation.

An added bonus is the inclusion of three shorter works, the optimistic La muse et le poète (with violinist Antje Weithaas), the Allegro Appassionato, and as an encore, an arrangement of the familiar The Swan from the Carnival of the Animals, thus rounding out a most satisfying recording.

Anton Rubinstein – Piano Quartets
Leslie Howard; Rita Manning; Morgan Goff; Justin Pearson
Hyperion CDA68018

“Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me Christian, Christians a Jew. Pianists call me a composer, composers call me a pianist. The classicists think of me as futurist, and the futurists call me a reactionary. My conclusion is that I am neither fish nor fowl – a pitiful individual.” Anton Grigorevich Rubinstein playfully described himself this way in his posthumously published book Gedankenkorb. While he is better known as one of the greatest 19th-century pianists and educators (he founded the St. Petersburg Conservatory, the first of its kind in Russia), Rubinstein also had a long and productive composing career.

The two piano quartets presented on this CD are premiere recordings of these pieces. Piano Quartet in F major, Op.55bis was originally written as a quintet with winds and the reduction for the string version was quite successful. The string’s sonority (with slightly more prominence given to the cello) certainly enhanced typical romantic gestures, lush harmonies and flourishing piano lines.

Piano Quartet in C-Major, Op.66 is clearly the stronger of the two – more cohesive, with more emotional depth and a touch of beautiful dark sonorities. The third movement, Andante assai, stands out with its stately piano lines and a dramatic violin solo that brings in a dash of gypsy spirit before settling into a peaceful melody. The ensemble playing is strong and close knit. Leslie Howard’s articulation is refined, bringing a sparkling quality to more virtuosic piano lines. Strings are juxtaposed nicely, achieving lovely colours in unison parts. Recommended for rainy afternoons – not exactly masterpieces, but these quartets could certainly take you on an interesting journey.

Allure
Kayla Wong
Independent (kaylawong.net)

Unlike many young artists, who tend to stick to familiar repertoire when releasing their first recording, pianist Kayla Wong thought outside the box and produced a CD of music almost entirely from the 20th century. She explained: “The composers on this CD are ones that I have always been drawn to on a deep musical level” and the result is an intriguing combination of music by Lecuona, Ravel, Rachmaninoff and Barber on this debut release titled Allure.

Born and raised in Saskatchewan, Wong studied at the University of Victoria and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. Since then she has appeared in concert throughout North America and Asia, including recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

Wong’s deep affinity for 20th century music is evident from the first chord of Lecuona’s Ante El Escorial, one of three compositions included by the Cuban-born pianist/composer. Her playing is dramatic and polished, at all times capturing the subtle rhythms and nuances which are such an inherent part of his style. Lecuona’s slightly older contemporary Maurice Ravel is represented by two of his most famous compositions, Jeux d’eau from 1901 and Une barque sur l’océan from the set Miroirs, written four years later. Dazzling and difficult, this music broke new ground when it first appeared and Wong approaches its formidable technical challenges with apparent ease. Indeed, her flawless technique seems to have no limitations, evident again in the Rachmaninoff Moments Musicaux Op.16 where a warmly romantic tone further enhances a fine performance. Of all the compositions on this disc, Samuel Barber’s Piano Sonata Op.26 from 1948 is undoubtedly the least familiar. Its four movements are a study in contrast, from the strident opening to the bold finale in the form of a fugue – a true technical tour de force which Wong brings off with much bravado.

In all, this is a very impressive recording from a young artist – “alluring” indeed – and we certainly hope to hear from her again in the future.

There is some simply beautiful music on Wood Works, the latest CD from the Danish String Quartet (Dacapo 8.226081), but it’s not necessarily what you would expect to hear. In their description of the recording the quartet members say that they borrowed a selection of Nordic folk tunes that are very close to their hearts and “let the music flow through the wooden instruments of the string quartet.” All but one of the 13 tracks are arrangements by the quartet members, and they are very effective, retaining the simplicity of the folk music while adding a quite modern touch in places. Some of the tunes, as you would expect, are clearly fiddle-based in origin, but there is a lovely range of mood and tempo here. I’m not sure why they felt it necessary to add an anonymous jazz trumpet solo to Five Sheep, Four Goats, though!

On the sleeve notes the quartet wonders “Does it work?” Yes, it does. It’s a charming, relaxing and thoroughly satisfying CD.

Violinist Tianwa Yang has often been featured in this column over the past few years, mainly because of her outstanding Naxos series of the complete violin music of Pablo Sarasate, and she has now let loose her remarkable talents on the Sonatas for Solo Violin Op.27 by Eugene Ysaÿe (Naxos 8.572995).

This is the fourth CD I’ve received that features all six of these astonishing works, arguably the greatest contribution to the solo violin repertoire since the Bach Sonatas & Partitas that were, in part, their inspiration, and it again highlights the difficulty in trying to make comparisons between the various versions. There are close to two dozen currently available on CD, and while many of the biggest names are missing there are certainly enough outstanding recordings to make choosing a top recommendation virtually impossible.

The good news, of course, is that there’s no need to. This is clearly one of those epic works – like the Bach unaccompanied – where owning one version is simply never enough. Tianwa Yang’s current performance, where her faultless technique enables her to delve deeply into the heart of these remarkable sonatas, is certainly one that you’ll want and will keep going back to.

The brilliant young Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova adds yet another stunning CD to her catalogue with Prokofiev Violin Sonatas and Five Melodies (Hyperion CDA67514). Cédric Tiberghien, her regular keyboard partner, is missing this time, but the outstanding British pianist Steven Osborne proves to be an ideal choice as replacement.

Prokofiev’s music for violin and piano seems to be attracting a lot of recording attention these days: this is the third CD of the same three works to come my way just this year, following the James Ehnes and Jonathan Crow discs reviewed in this column in February and April respectively.

As fine as those CDs were, Ibragimova proves to be quite irresistible in her performances here, showing the same fire, intensity, subtlety and intellect that helped make her live Wigmore Hall 3CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas with Tiberghien such a remarkable issue.

There’s another CD of violin music by the early 20th-century Russian Jewish virtuoso Joseph Achron, this time on a Naxos CD of his Music for Violin and Piano featuring Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster Michael Ludwig and pianist Alison d’Amato (8.573240).

Achron not only had a remarkable career as a soloist but also enjoyed great success as a composer, although his music fell out of favour following his death in 1943, just short of his 57th birthday. Most of his works have remained unpublished, and those that were in print suffered badly: his early publishers went out of business following the Russian Revolution, and nearly a dozen works published by Universal Edition were forced out of print by the Nazis when Achron was blacklisted in the 1930s. Achron’s music does seem to be making a comeback, however. Hagai Shaham’s terrific 2CD Hyperion set of the Complete Suites for Violin and Piano was reviewed in this column in September 2012, and Naxos has also issued the Violin Concerto No.1 in a performance by Elmar Oliveira.

The titles here are mostly short early pieces from before the First World War that encompass many different moods. Michael Ludwig’s big, rich tone is perfectly suited to the style and nature of Achron’s music, deeply influenced as it was by Jewish folklore and melodies, and he and d’Amato give performances that are idiomatic and technically stunning.

By coincidence, there was also a new CD by the afore-mentioned Hagai Shaham in a recent selection of discs, this time featuring Violin Sonatas by Italian composers Ildebrando Pizzetti and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco with Arnon Erez as keyboard partner (Hyperion CDA67869). Both composers died in 1968, but Castelnuovo-Tedesco was 14 years the younger, and studied with Pizzetti in his youth.

Both are represented here by a single sonata and three short songs.

Pizzetti’s Violin Sonata in A Major dates from 1918-19, and although it premiered to somewhat mixed reviews it was considered to be a major addition to the Italian chamber music repertoire, Castelnuovo-Tedesco devoting an in-depth article to it in a 1920 Turin music magazine. It’s an easily accessible work with – not unexpectedly – clear links to the war years; the central movement is a Prayer for the Innocents. The Tre canti from 1924 were transcribed by Pizzetti from his original cello and piano version.

Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s Sonata quasi una fantasia Op.56 was written in 1929, and features a big, sweeping first movement that makes great technical demands on the players, a dance-like middle movement and a calm epilogue. The Tre vocalizzi Op.55 were written the previous year for wordless voice and piano, and arranged for violin in 1930 by Mario Corti, an early advocate of the violin sonatas of Pizzetti and Respighi. Not surprisingly, perhaps, there are touches of Respighi here, but they’re lovely pieces, really stretching the violinist and ending with a delightful Tempo di Fox Trot (“American Music”).

Shaham’s playing is, as always, passionate and seemingly effortless in its handling of the technical challenges, but his constantly fast and intense vibrato can be a bit unsettling at times. The overall balance is fine, but there are moments when the two performers seem somehow to be a bit disconnected.

Gabriel Prokofiev – Selected Classical Works 2003-2012
Various Artists
Nonclassical NONCLSS017

In this release by composer Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of Sergei Prokofiev) we get a clear sense of the composer’s predilection for displacing his various musical influences (electronica for example) into traditional classical contexts. This disc, released on Prokofiev’s own label, is a collection of works ranging from 2003-2012 that signal Prokofiev’s return to notated compositions.

In his first and second string quartets, a series of dance grooves constantly devolve into mysterious textures. Punchy double-stops and gritty gestures remind one of Bartók or Janáček.  Rhythmic plucks and scratches lie below lyrical folk inspired melodic elements. In the second quartet, Prokofiev does away with any lyrical commitment and relies on clear rhythmic processes akin to dissonant minimalism. Both quartets possess a satisfying yet frigid mood, much like the dreariness of the CD cover image.

Next, in the Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra the turntablist creates various electronic sounds cleverly blended with the orchestra with confident rhythmic inventiveness. Imagine Stravinsky’s Rite fused with the pounding rhythms of a nightclub beneath a haunting lyricism. The second movement evokes a deranged carnival as the turntable sounds mesh with the orchestra in a bizarre and warped sound environment.

Piano Book No. 1 provides an array of moods for the performer to explore without relying on unnecessary virtuosity. Next, the Cello Multitracks for solo cello allows the performer to stack dense layers of recorded cello sounds through electronic manipulation. The result is a rich sound world moving to and from ethereal and light moments, to thick and intense passages.

The disc is an impressive culmination of confident works that span a decade of the composer’s output. Each piece shows Prokofiev’s ability to create a successful reaction to the influences of pop and electronica through a traditional application.

Editor’s Note: Gabriel Prokofiev was the Roger D. Moore Distinguished Visitor in Composition and composer-in-residence at the University of Toronto’s New Music Festival in January 2014. There were a number of performances of his works including the Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra (with DJ Madhatter and the U of T Symphony) and Cello Multitracks and Remixes performed by Shauna Rolston. 

Madison Avenue
Wesley Ferreira
Potenza Music PM1035 (wesleyferreira.com)

Canadian clarinetist Wesley Ferreira, now based in the U.S., has a solo release of mostly American music. The textures range from intimate and unaccompanied to wind-ensemble backing at hurricane-force. He includes nothing substantial in terms of duration, but consistently demonstrates a fine fluid technique and flexible tone. The longest work, clocking in at 13 minutes, is a tribute to the automobile called Auto ’66. This selection wheels along in spite of poor engineering (sound, not mechanical): Ferreira and the band seem to have been separated by a firewall. High rev. brassy moments are reduced to a sub-compact size, and the clarinet colour is dulled, losing the waxy lustre it displays on other tracks. Composer James M. David has a thing for cars and for Holst’s The Planets. Mercury is a source for the second movement (Mini Cooper S), which is appropriate, but what Mars has to do with a Lamborghini escapes me.

Elsewhere Ferreira knocks off blistering passagework and a great array of multiphonic effects, most notably in Mikro-Sonata by Aleksandar Obradović. The title track, by Nick DiBerardino, opens the CD with a brief and cheeky tribute to New York. Pianist Gail Novak types furiously in the background (the composer’s own suggestion, from the very useful liner notes), while the clarinet scales the skyscrapers and swings on looping Spidey-webs between them. Canadian Alasdair MacLean’s Without Further Ado II for two clarinets which immediately follows sounds like it could be a second movement to the previous track. In this as elsewhere, Ferreira is joined by his spouse Copper Ferreira. She holds her end of the bargain up well in the MacLean, but not so well as the bass clarinetist in Rotazione tre by Roberto Cognazzo, which derives much of its material from music of Nino Rota, a less instantly recognizable source than Holst.

My pick for best cut is the Sonata for B-flat Clarinet and Piano by Nikola Resanovic. At just over ten minutes, it wastes no time doing anything but providing a showcase for Ferreira and fun for the listener, especially in the Balkan-influenced finale.

Edward Gregson – Dream Song; Aztec Dances; Horn Concerto; Concerto for Orchestra
Wissam Boustany; Richard Watkins; BBC Philharmonic; Bramwell Tovey
Chandos CHAN 10822

Bramwell Tovey, conductor of many premieres with the Vancouver and Winnipeg Symphonies as well as abroad, guides the BBC Symphony in stunning performances of compositions by English composer Edward Gregson (b.1945). Gregson’s music speaks in a cosmopolitan 20th-century vernacular. He acknowledges influences of Shostakovich and Berg (both Mahler admirers), advantageous in Dream Song (2010) since the work is a “dream” of Mahler’s sixth symphony. From the opening complex chord “clap” Gregson demonstrates mastery of harmony and orchestration. Though abounding with Mahlerian references, the work sets up a contemporary sound world. My reservation is this: after Berio, Foss, Colgrass, Rochberg and others, neither quotation nor dream frame remain as intriguing.

The ritualistic Aztec Dances evolved from earlier versions, reaching ensemble proportions in its 2013 incarnation for flute and 14 instruments. In a brilliant performance, flutist Wissam Boustany’s tone quality is commanding, his articulation sharp and his effects palette eerie. Gregson composed his Horn Concerto (1971) for the distinguished Ifor Jones and his Besses o’ th’ BarnBbrass Band. The strings and winds on this disc’s 2012 orchestrated version provide additional contrast in support of Richard Watkins’ virtuosic yet sensitive horn. Concerto for Orchestra (2001) also achieved its current form after revisions; I found myself no longer worrying about influences, revisions, the breaking-or-not of new ground, etc., but simply sitting back to listen and admire a significant composer and a passionate conductor with a wonderful orchestra and soloists.

Music for Alfred Hitchcock
Danish National Symphony Orchestra; John Mauceri
Toccata Classics TOCC 0241

The eerie atmospheres created by the films of Alfred Hitchcock were the result of stunning cinematography and even more stunning musical backdrops. The Danish National Symphony Orchestra under the direction John Mauceri (who edited six of the works) here performs music from Hitchcock films with grace, splenduor, colour, well-placed angst and appropriate creepiness, transforming “background soundscapes” to first class orchestral works that need no visuals.

Bernard Herrmann worked closely with Hitchcock on many films. The music from Vertigo, The Man Who Knew Too Much, North by Northwest, and the in-your-face Psycho: A Narrative for String Orchestra are so familiar that they need no musical critique or introduction. The performances are astounding in clarity and tension. Herrmann then made an interesting arrangement of Arthur Benjamin’s The Man Who Knew Too Much: The Storm Clouds – Cantata. The work, with its Vaughan Williams flavoured choral and vocal solo sections, seems somewhat out of place without the visuals. Herrmann’s compositional influences can also be heard in Danny Elfman’s work from the 2012 biopic Hitchcock.

The symphony musicians prove themselves to be gifted interpreters in the jazz-flavoured sections of the “Prelude” from Franz Waxman’s Rear Window: Suite. Dimitri Tiomkin’s waltzes, bells and grounded writing technique drive the music from Strangers on a Train and Dial M for Murder.

Superb liner notes and production quality complete the package. Music for Alfred Hitchcock deserves a spot on every listener’s bucket list.

Offering: Live at Temple University
John Coltrane
Impulse! B0019632-02

No musician in jazz has created the stylistic transformations of John Coltrane, moving in little more than a decade through the harmony-rooted “sheets of sound” of the late 1950s and the modal period typified by his hit My Favorite Things in the early 1960s, ultimately to embrace and extend the most intense form of free jazz, “energy music,” in the two years prior to his death in 1967. This 2CD set presents a relatively well-recorded concert in Philadelphia just eight months before his death.

Coltrane’s last band was characterized by the rapid fluttering scales of pianist Alice Coltrane, the dense percussive fields generated by drummer Rashied Ali and, exceeding Coltrane himself in turbulent fury, saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, generating mad wails and honks that somehow erupted into polyphony. On this occasion, the band was augmented by a complement of four hand drummers and two young saxophonists sitting in.

The repertoire was already classic Coltrane – Naima, Crescent, My Favorite Things – but the treatment rarely is. This is jazz eschatology, religious and revolutionary, a vision of heaven and hell in which sounds may writhe in ecstasy or torment. Coltrane’s own sound is transformed by a tight vibrato and when he has taken his horn to its expressive limit he turns to chanting, pounding his chest for vibrato, in a performance that is as much rite as concert. This music has divided jazz audiences for half a century and still demands to be heard.

Signal
Elizabeth Shepherd
Linus 270197 (elizabethshepherd.com)

Elizabeth Shepherd continues on her unique musical path with her latest album Signal. Straddling genres such as jazz, lounge and soul (think Björk meets James Blake meets Stevie Wonder) the talented keyboardist, songwriter and singer combines funky rhythms, moody modes and thoughtful, obscure lyrics to create her sound. Co-produced by Shepherd and John Maclean, the liberal use of effects, samples and unusual instruments enrich the soundscape and elucidate the messages of the songs, such as on Another Day which starts with a news clip about a race riot before launching into a chanty groove. Words from folk-blues legend Ledbelly open B.T. Cotton and the use of steel pan drums keeps us on our sonic toes. What’s Happening is surely one of the prettiest songs ever written about political ugliness.

Many accomplished players who are regulars with Shepherd’s band fill out the tracks including Colin Kingsmore on drums and Ross McIntyre on bass. Guests include guitarist and Herbie Hancock band-member, Lionel Loueke, and the velvety voiced Alex Samaras. Shepherd favours minor keys and edgy harmonic relationships and by about the seventh track I found myself craving some nice cheery major chords. But if you’re in the frame of mind for a heady, complex listen, Signal will do the job well. Shepherd is touring in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico this fall.

Concert Note: Shepherd performs with Kingsmore, Kevin Turcotte, Thom Gill and Scott Kemp at the Music Gallery on November 15.

Joy in Spite of Everything
Stefano Bollani
ECM 2360

Stefano Bollani belongs to a bel canto school of Italian jazz musicians, like the superb trumpeter Enrico Rava, with whom he has worked extensively, and fellow pianist Enrico Pieranunzi, who has brought a heightened timbral grace to the harmonic style of Bill Evans. Further, the German ECM label has long recorded pianos with rare sonic allure. That combination may assure surface beauty, but there’s more here than that. Bollani is joined by his usual partners, bassist Jesper Bodilsen and drummer Morten Lund, along with two American masters of nuance and tone, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner and guitarist Bill Frisell, the five exploring formats that range from duo to full quintet.

The title may tell all: the music is usually joyous (conspicuous from the opening calypso Easy Healing) but it’s an insistent joy, earned in the rich depths and contradictions of experience. The group has a collective ability to deal lightly with complexity, evident in No Pope No Party with its distinct and playful mix of 50s cool jazz and contemporary angularity. It’s apparent as well in Bollani’s trio feature, Alobar e Kudra, as he ranges from the limpid to the crisp.

It’s ultimately the sense of dialogue and shared vision, though, which gives this music its depth, apparent on Las Hortensias, Bodilsen’s bass line rising to entwine with saxophone and piano, and on Ismene, where guitar, piano and drums create liquid pools of light.

Boom Crane
Boom Crane
Fresh Sound/New Talent FSNT 432 (freshsoundrecords.com)

Providing an unassailable musical instance of Equilibrium, “a state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced” – also the title of one composition on this incisive CD – is the intuitive skill of two expatriate Canadians and one American. In fact, such is the dexterity of the trio in negotiating moods and tempos on Boom Crane’s 11 selections that Boom Crane (the band) sounds like a full-time working group. In truth the three convene infrequently, since Kingston, Ontario-born alto saxophonist/clarinetist Peter Van Huffel is in Berlin; while B.C. native, bassist Michael Bates lives in Brooklyn as does Yank drummer Jeff Davis.

Actually titled On Equilibrium, the track perfectly syncs vibrating reed slurs, beefy string pumps and drum pops, but that’s only one of the trio’s attributes. Besides Van Huffel’s warm clarinet tone used on a couple of occasions to wiggle out unmatched balladic interpretations, his biting alto lines equally illuminate bop, blues and experimental forays. Sharp and tense, the title tune is a stop-time blues which distends without ever splintering and features Blake’s comfortable but commanding strumming. Dissonant Slipper Hero showcases hollow breaths forced through the saxophone alongside double-stopping arco string buzzes until Davis’ amiable swing beat helps guide the others towards an electrifying communicative finale. On Automatic Vaudeville apparently The Jazz Messenger must operate in that venerable tradition, since Bates’ walking bass and Van Huffel’s buoyant note jumps reference hard bop. Later reed squeaks and string pops confirm the tune’s modernity, plus the time is slyly doubled until variations lead back to the initial theme.

But perhaps the most characteristic track is Not A Living Soul. Another exercise in shifting tempos, its centrepiece is Bates’ dark, extended bass solo. It separates with skill the herky-jerky, flutter-tongued sax-led beginning and the blended conclusion of graceful cymbal vibrations, supple reed trills and bass string resonations.

A notable debut disc that calls for celebration not boom lowering on the trio, the CD’s tunes and the band can be experienced in Toronto this month.

Concert Note: October 28 12:30pm: a concert/clinic with Boom Crane at Humber College; October 27 and October 28 8:30pm Boom Crane at The Rex.

As serious music has become both more ardent and more accommodating over the past few decades, so has the definition of what constitutes a musical group or which instrument is appropriate for a solo session. One of the instruments that benefitted the most from this liberal attitude is the double bass. Freed from its singular function as a timekeeper in jazz or to suggest rumbling menace in so-called classical music, it has become the object of new experiments.

Solo bass recitals are no longer the novelty they once were, but some four-string explorers go even further, creating situations where multi basses play together. Take for instance Rotations (Evil Rabbit Records ERR21 evilrabbitrecords.eu). Operating as Sequoia, four double bass players – two Germans, one Italian and a Canadian, all based in Berlin – come up with eight-tracks that irrefutably demonstrate the qualities of a program based entirely on what can be created with acoustic bass. Acoustic sometimes has to be emphasized, because when Germans Meinrad Kneer and Klaus Kürvers, Italian Antonio Borghini and Canadian Miles Perkin fuse swabbed impulses on a track such as Lifts and Escalators the results resemble those created by electronic instruments. A block of coursing low-pitched tones, this sonic chiaroscuro still reveals separate timbre strata. Shaking and bouncing the tune reaches a crescendo of spinning attachments then downturns. Overall, interspaced with concise instances of jazz-like thumping, the CD exhibits all sorts of bass desires: staccato and languid, stentorian and shrill. The almost 16-minute Rotations for example isolates an assortment of expositions. While one bass duo creates a droning ostinato, another two make the upper reaches of their strings chirp and whistle. Interacting with tremolo slices, the final sound-image is that of a lively chicken coop with each fowl contributing distinctive notes. A similar divide exists on the final Passing By. Except here individual aggressive thrusts are layered from altissimo to basso, exhibiting mesmerizing strength within a mid-section of shrieking spiccato; and climaxing with a display of stentorian power that makes the 1812 Overture seem like a mild exposition.

Rather than halving the number and breadth of sounds they produce with only two bull fiddles, Swiss duo Peter K. Frey and Daniel Studer range through expanded narratives on Zwirn: Live in München (Creative Sources CS 239 CD creativesourcesrec.com). Less bellicose than Sequoia’s frequently all-out attack, the two employ scordatura, retuning and detuning to create timbres that often sound less string sourced than horn resembling. This is particularly apparent during the first measures of Eins Punkt Zwei. Until a clear string pluck resonates, it sounds as if a reed duet is in progress. Although not shying away from decorating their interface with mellow tones and sparkling peeps, toughness isn’t neglected either. The concluding Drei subsides after mandolin-pitched strums; upwards-moving string tweaks and almost visual sparks fly between the two on Zwei Punkt Zwei; and there are sections of the introductory Eins Punkt Eins where it appears as if the two are not only creating novel rhythms by twisting strings near their instruments’ scrolls, but sounding as if they’re ripping apart the bass wood as they play. Zwei Punkt Eins is the track most illustrative of the relationship. Climaxing with a series of spiccato runs that eventually relax into a peaceful conclusion, intense excitement is first built up by combining scrubbed lowing, aviary-like chirps and string recoils.

More linear, but just as inventive, Denmark’s Nils Davidsen fashions11 multi-textural solos utilizing a single gong plus two or three basses on some tracks. Although the multiple-bass narratives on Noget at glæde sig til (ILK Music 217 CD ilkmusic.com) may be overdubbed there’s no hint of artificiality. Blending upper register timbres with a reed player’s facility, for instance, Davidsen turns the three-bass Extraterrestrial Breakfast into a piquant repast of sharp and sour resonations. Creating a rhythmic continuum by vibrating the gong-like cymbal, the two-bass M/S Kissavik smartly concludes as arco and pizzicato lines harmonize. As for the two brief tracks featuring a single bass and a gong the sonorous gamelan-like vibrations provide unique accompaniment to relaxed pulsing. It’s not that additional instruments are needed either. Just Turn Green for example demonstrates Davidsen’s arpeggio-rich, guitar-like facility, while Woody unsurprisingly highlights tones that remain charming while sourced from the bass’ mid-range and much lower. Finally the bassist’s skillful proficiency with four strings allows him to negotiate the interlocking sequences that make up Osiris in 4 Parts. Slipping from melancholy spiccato, rugged double-stopping and melodic sprightliness, his fervor leads to sul tasto bowing concluding the piece with a beefed-up sonic landscape. The CD title translates as “something to look forward to,” which is awkward grammatically but musically apt.

Another Danish, but Berlin-based, bull fiddler, Adam Pultz Melbye uses Gullet’s nine tracks (Barefoot Records BFREC032CD barefoot-records.com) to showcase his skills with only one double bass, one bow plus a stick placed horizontally among the strings. More a deft colourist than someone swabbing gouts of paint onto a musical canvas, with angled string-darting and mid-range rubs he creates gamelan-like peals and flute peeps. At the same time, comparing tracks such as Attempts at Relevance and Zossener credibly demonstrate how power can be present as much when microscopic bow pulls lead to splintered tones as with off-centre yet tough col legno pushes. Taken as a whole, Melbye’s arco and pizzicato facility on these tracks is reminiscent of that of a writer who has mastered the short story. Perhaps however his next exercise should involve extended tale-telling.

One double bassist unfazed by lengthy improvisations is Paris’ Benjamin Duboc. His St. James Infirmary CD (Improvising Beings ib22 improvising-beings.com), consists of only two tracks, both more than 20 minutes apiece: the title tune and Saint-Martin. Each delineates one side of his mercurial talent. St. James Infirmary Blues is a deconstruction and reassembling of the folk-blues classic. Sonorous and diffident, his unhurried bumps, crunches and resonations, shake out unique variations on the theme until corrosive string stops break through the coconut shell of variations to expose the flesh of the familiar melody. The resulting sequence matches poignancy and power. Saint-Martin is even more challenging. Separating motifs through interludes of staccato whistles and strident buzzes, perhaps the result of unique tuning, his multiphonic exposition can be as thick as that expressed by all four bassists in Sequoia. His elaboration of assorted pitches from widely separated parts of his string set make it appear as if more than one bassist is at work. Exhibiting a mastery of col legno smacks, his stentorian pacing showcases unique string textures which are subsequently pierced with dagger-sharp thrusts. Buzzing drones finally make common cause with sul ponticello shrills for a finale of satisfaction and relief.

On their own or in multiples, the double bassists here confirm that any expression of bass desires is only limited by a player`s imagination.

Vancouver’s jazz scenes are well documented by some of the country’s most active labels, with Cellar Live (cellarlive.com) devoted to what might be called “traditional modern” and Songlines (songlines.com) covering more recent stylistic evolutions. Among the recent releases are a few of Vancouver’s outstanding guitarists and some dynamic crossovers of Canadian and American musicians.

Oliver Gannon has been a mainstay of the Vancouver scene for over 40 years, but he has rarely recorded as sole leader, favouring partnerships like one with the late saxophonist Fraser MacPherson. Easy Sailing (Cellar Live CL 120913) celebrates the kind of joyous swing that Gannon can create. His style is forged in the jazz of the 50s and 60s and he retains some of the markers of Wes Montgomery’s influence, like a fondness for playing in octaves and touches of the blues everywhere. The music moves along with a warm energy as Gannon plays through a program made up mostly of standards, still finding plenty of inspiration in tunes like Ellington’s Prelude to a Kiss or Harold Arlen’s Come Rain or Come Shine. He’s ably accompanied by pianist Miles Black, bassist Jodi Proznick and drummer Blane Wikjord.

Vancouver’s other mainstream guitarist of note is Bill Coon; in fact, the two have worked together as Two Much Guitar. One might expect Triology (Cellar Live CL 062113) to emphasize the resemblance, with the presence of Miles Black and Jodi Proznick, but the feel of the music is very different. Coon’s sound is more distinctly electric than Gannon’s, with a shimmering, glassy quality whether he’s creating a lyrical reverie on Proznick’s L’Espace or running rapid scalar figures on Black’s aptly named Morocco. What really distinguishes this from the Gannon quartet is its rhythmic momentum. While Gannon’s music has the slightly fractured quality of hard bop, Triology resembles the smooth, headlong swing of the early Oscar Peterson trios with guitar and foregrounded bass. The resemblance is exaggerated by the opening track, Ray Time, a Black original dedicated to Ray Brown, Peterson’s longtime bassist, but the sense of Peterson-inspired excess figures frequently here, as in the pile-up of the concluding I Got Rhythm.

Saxophonist Cory Weeds, founder of Cellar Live, has long paired the label with his recently closed Cellar Jazz Club, often matching local and international soloists and rhythm sections. As of Now (Cellar Live CL 100313) presents Weeds in the company of a superb New York-based trio made up of pianist Harold Mabern, bassist John Webber and drummer Joe Farnsworth, one of the last groups to appear at the Cellar before its closure in February. The three are masters of the kind of crisp interplay that’s at once precise, relaxed, authoritative and aggressive, and they clearly inspire Weeds, whose work is rooted in that of stylists like Hank Mobley and Stanley Turrentine. The 77-year-old Mabern is as vital as ever, combining Memphis blues roots, subtle chord voicings and sudden, invigorating, percussive splashes. As well as playing great piano, Mabern also contributes the best original compositions, including Edward Lee, a composition he recorded in duet with Toronto bassist Kieran Overs in 1992 on another cross- border excursion Philadelphia Bound (released on the Sackville label and well worth seeking out).

Vancouver has long been a site for some of the most creative cross-pollination in jazz, reaching back to the classic 1959 recording Kenneth Patchen Reads with Jazz in Canada, the American poet accompanied by the quartet of pianist Al Neil, the firebrand of Canadian jazz surrealism. Tony Reif’s Songlines label has been active since 1992, documenting the frontiers of jazz both internationally and locally, often documenting meetings between Vancouver-based musicians and international collaborators. It’s a frequent Vancouver practice: Ken Pickering, Artistic Director of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival, has used the approach to develop the most creative large-scale festival in the country. At Songlines, for example, clarinetist François Houle has created a substantial body of work, much of which consists of on-going partnerships with European and American musicians.

Another musician pursuing the same opportunity with the label is guitarist Gordon Grdina, whose recordings have benefitted from the participation of major American figures like bassist Gary Peacock. Grdina’s work is exploratory, experimental, seemingly driven outward and inward, forward and back simultaneously, whether he’s exploring free improvisation or traditional Arabic music. It’s apparent in his integration of the Arabic lute, the oud and bowed guitar in his performances. No Difference (Songlines SCL 1603-2) presents recordings from New York and New Jersey, with Grdina’s regular drummer Kenton Loewen and two outstanding New Yorkers. Tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby is a galvanizing presence, but Grdina forms an especially strong bond with Mark Helias, whose bass lines work hand-in-glove with Grdina’s improvisations. The bouncing free-bop of Visceral Voices is particularly memorable.

Another example of Songlines’ creative openness is composer/percussionist Harris Eisenstadt’s Golden State (Songlines SCL 1602-2). The Toronto-born Eisenstadt spent a 2012 residency at CalArts in Valencia where he created the ensemble Golden State with his wife bassoonist Sara Schoenbeck, flutist Nicole Mitchell and bassist Mark Dresser. The music is every bit as surprising as you might expect from that unusual instrumentation. Eisenstadt has studied African music extensively, as well as working with European and American idioms, and the choice of voices facilitates everything from the aggressive rhythmic introduction of What Is a Straw Horse, Anyway? to the almost medieval sound of It Is Never Safe to Be and the Schoenberg-like chamber textures of Flabbergasted by the Unconventional, in which Dresser’s cello-register bowed bass complements the winds. Don’t let the instruments fool you: Mitchell is among the most creatively aggressive of jazz flutists and Schoenbeck’s rapid-fire improvisations bring saxophone fluency to the bassoon.