Giuseppi Scarlatti – Dove è amore è gelosia
Lenka Máčiková; Aleš Briscein;
Kateřina Knežíková; Jaroslav Březina; Schwarzenberg Court Orchestra;
Vojtěch Spurný
Opus Arte OA 1104 D

Prince Joseph Adam of Schwarzenberg left the education of his children (nine of them by Princess Maria Theresia of Liechtenstein, since you ask) in the hands of one of the Scarlatti family, Giuseppe, probably a nephew of Domenico. Prince Joseph openly referred to his own “low-brow taste” and love for Italian opera buffa and Scarlatti obliged. Dove è amore è gelosia is a lovesick duel between the widowed Marquise Clarice (Lenka Máčiková) and her suitor Count Orazio (Aleš Briscein) who slog it out, aided by failed suicide attempts (the sword got stuck in its scabbard, you see) and cups of tea carelessly poured by Clarice’s maid Vespetta (Kateřina Knežíková) which only forestall the quarrelling and venomous name-calling.

As if that was not enough, the aristocratic dépit amoureux is parallelled by the slapstick duel between Vespetta and Orazio’s confidant Patrizio (Jaroslav Březina). All make for a classic opera buffa, what with comedies of errors, supremely beautiful trompe l’oeil scenery, stage crew in period costume driving their stage manager to the point of nervous breakdown and even musicians who look over their shoulder in amused appreciation of what is going on.

It is difficult to single out any of the singers. All convey their anguish (and their sense of joy at inflicting anguish), and their satisfaction when they have sorted out all the confusion created throughout the course of this delightful farce. Non-speakers of Italian are greatly helped by the onscreen translations, which are both blunt and priceless: the suitor’s misdirected cry of “You blockhead” is more than matched by the widow’s retort “Get lost. Out!”

And then there is the star without any singing part — Český Krumlov castle where this DVD was filmed. The theatre for this re-enactment lies off the fifth(!) courtyard and is described as a baroque stage in its mature form of 1680. Enjoy this amusing performance.

Mendelssohn – Elias
Christine Schäfer; Cornelia Kallisch; Michael Schade; Wolfgang Schöne; Gächinger Kantorei Stuttgart;
Bach-Collegium Stuttgart; Helmuth Rilling
Hänssler Classic CD 098.017

Mendelssohn’s Elias is known as Elijah in the English-speaking world. And it was in English that the oratorio was first performed at the Birmingham Festival in 1846 with Mendelssohn himself conducting. The work became very popular in England, though by the end of the 19th century a reaction had set in. In 1892 George Bernard Shaw called it “sensuously beautiful in the most refined and fastidiously decorous way, but thoughtless.” Shaw was willing to set Elijah next to the “seraphic,” not religious, music of Gounod but could not find more in it than “exquisite prettiness.” Parsifal, Die Zauberflöte, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and the best of Bach and Handel were adduced as contrasts. In recent years interest in Elijah has revived (there are now 25 recordings available), as listeners have begun to consider the work on its own merits, not as a pale imitation of Handel’s oratorios or Bach’s Passions.

The CDs under review constitute a re-release; the music was recorded in 1994 and the discs were first released soon afterwards. There is stiff competition from two earlier recordings, which both date from 1968: the Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (a very dramatic reading with Janet Baker superb in the alto arias) and the Wolfgang Sawallisch (with Elly Ameling, Peter Schreier and Theo Adam as Elias). It stands up well, both because of Rilling’s conducting and the quality of the singing. The soloists are Christine Schäfer, soprano, Cornelia Kallisch, alto, Michael Schade, tenor, and baritone Wolfgang Schöne as Elias.

Tutto Verdi – Un ballo in maschera
Francesco Meli; Vladimir Stoyanov;
Kristin Lewis; Elisabetta Fiorillo;
Serena Gamberoni; Teatro Regio di Parma; Gianluigi Gelmetti
Cmajor 724208

By age 46 the world famous Verdi had many triumphs behind him, but all was not smooth sailing. His opera on the subject of regicide was strenuously objected to by the Neapolitan censors and he simply cancelled in disgust. Verdi was taken to court, but went to Rome instead; changed the setting and the protagonist to a mere Governor in remote colonial North America and thus the opera, Un ballo in maschera was premiered and succeeded.

This is a wonderful performance, one of the finest in this Tutto Verdi series of the complete operas. Conductor Gianluigi Gelmetti is an unlikely looking gentleman at first glance but at his first wave of the baton one realizes he is a master. His upbeat tempi have a big sweep that gives the opera the brilliance Verdi intended. The tenor, Francesco Meli (Riccardo), is a young fresh voice, powerful and sensitive; the baritone, Vladimir Stoyanov is beginning to take over from the venerable Nucci in the series. His voice is powerful, well shaded, his acting puts a menace into his Renato and we commiserate with his agony of being a betrayed husband. Serena Gamberoni’s Oscar is a delight — a stunning beauty, her voice supple and flexible, she moves like a real opera star! An American from Arkansas, Kristin Lewis is a passionate Amelia with power, secure in her top notes. Elisabetta Fiorillo (Ulrica), an old-timer now with an alto range, makes a strong impression as the wise and not at all wicked soothsayer.

About the scenery: it’s simply eye-popping and stunning, with grandiose highly artistic architecture, monumental creations and gorgeous colouring.

Editor’s Note:Next month’s WholeNote will feature an extended article by Janos Gardonyi in honour of the bicentennial of Verdi’s birth on October 10, 1813.

George Benjamin – Written on Skin
Barbara Hannigan; Bejun Mehta; Chrisopher Purves; Rebecca Jo Loeb;
Allan Clayton; Pierre-Laurent Aimard; Mahler Chamber Orchestra;
George Benjamin
Nimbus Records NI 5885/6

Written on Skin was a hit right from the first performances at the 2012 Aix-en-Provence festival, where this recording was made. The hard-hitting libretto by British playwright Martin Crimp involves murder, cannibalism and suicide, while the riveting score by fellow Brit George Benjamin includes some of the most sexually charged passages in opera since Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. Yet the action unfolds subtly, in a series of intimate conversations, while the diaphanous music, with its silky colours and angular textures, avoids sensationalism altogether.

Canadian soprano Barbara Hannigan dazzles as the passionately defiant Agnès. Her husband, the oily, malevolent Protector, is masterfully portrayed by baritone Christopher Purves. Counter-tenor Bejun Mehta is thrilling as the Boy, an itinerant artist.

Though the story is set in the Middle Ages, characters occasionally step into the present to “snap the dead back to life.” So the Boy imagines how a forest where he is taking refuge will be covered by “eight lanes of poured concrete” in a thousand years. Moments like these resonate powerfully. Less effective is when the characters slip into the third person to narrate their own story, or, especially, when the Boy turns up as one of the busybody 21st century angels. Their chilling presence may be provocative as a poetic device, but it does interfere with the drama.

A bonus, Benjamin’s imaginative Duet for piano and orchestra, featuring pianist wizard Pierre-Laurent Aimard, adds to the many reasons to enjoy this terrific recording.

La Voix Nue – Songs for Unaccompanied Voice by Living Composers
Patricia Green
Blue Griffin Records BGR279
bluegriffin.com

An entire disc of unaccompanied vocal works is a courageous undertaking for a singer, as the selection and performance of repertoire as well as its pacing and placement must engage the listener from start to finish. In addition, the singer must execute absolute precision of pitch while effectively conveying dramatic content. The beautiful, rich, warm tone of Patricia Green’s voice, combined with her dramatic sensibilities and skilful musicianship, is perfect for this collection of songs by living composers. These pieces, though modern, for the most part draw on historical material with texts from Shakespeare, Norwegian history, Ovid, Native legend, 5th-6th century aphorisms and surrealist French poetry.

As a committed performer of new music, Green is highly attuned to the intention of composers and respectfully steps out of the studio to delightfully make an exception to her solitude, allowing the accompaniment of birdsong for the excerpt from R. Murray Schafer’s Princess of the Stars. Another interesting and iconic work, King Harald’s Saga by Scottish composer Judith Weir, highlights Green’s dramatic flare, featuring a mixture of narrative and interchanging roles, each of which is given its own characteristic voice. Hillary Tann’s dramatic song cycle Arachne, in which an apprentice weaver takes a haughty stance with her teacher Athene and pays dearly for it, gives Green yet another opportunity to characterize more than one voice. The same again for Jonathan Dove’s setting of Shakespeare’s Tempest verses in Ariel. A couple of eclectic cycles by José Evangelista and György Kurtágprovide the singer a chance to exhibit a light and playful air, most charming indeed.

O’Riley’s Liszt
Christopher O’Riley
Oxingale OX2020
oxingalerecords.com

This wonderful pair of CDs is the perfect choice for avid lovers of the piano and its orchestral sound. The Lisztian virtuosic excess is like having a meal of rich overwhelming textures and layers of scintillating colours. Christopher O’Riley has astounding technique and control, as well as a creative and wild imagination. Those skills make these Liszt transcriptions a sumptuous and sensual listening experience.

I enjoyed his programming on the first CD. He paired two mammoth showpieces, alternating them with sensitive song transcriptions. He began with the extremely difficult transcription of Mozart’s Don Juan Fantasy, which Moritz Rosenthal had performed to impress Brahms. Schumann/Liszt’s Fruhlingsnacht followed in a tender and gentle interpretation. This was a breath of calm before the stormy and tragic Tristan und Isolde by Wagner/Liszt/Moskowski and O’Riley, who added a vocal line near the end of the piece and managed to make his fingers sing throughout this opera for the piano. He concludes the first CD with Schubert’s Fruhlingslaube. His emotional response to the music is refreshing and his musicality subtle.

The second CD is Liszt’s transcription of the Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. In his excellent program notes, Ethan Iverson quotes Charles Halle who said that Liszt played his piano version “with an effect even surpassing that of a full orchestra and creating an indescribable furor.” O’Riley displays his own gargantuan keyboard skills in this incredible performance. I didn’t miss the orchestra at all and O’Riley made the piano thunder and sing in washes of orchestral sound. Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath was monumental and devilish. These CDs are highly recommended.

Editor’s Note:O’Riley’s Liszt is also available on a Blu-Ray video disc which includes a special feature The Bells of Berlioz with artist’s commentary (Oxingale OX2021).

Koechlin; Schmitt; Rivier; Cartan;
Bozza Duo (Jean-Guy Boisvert;
Christiane Laflamme)
ATMA ACD2 2679

Moncton-based clarinettist Jean-Guy Boisvert’s latest project on the ATMA label brings together colleagues Christiane Laflamme (flute) and Jean-Willy Kunz (keyboards) from the Université de Montréal in an extended program of relatively unknown French miniatures from the margins of the 20th century wind repertoire, including several world premiere recordings. The 27 tracks are united by the recurring presence of the great Alsatian master Charles Koechlin, who is represented by 14 tracks interspersed with compositions by his contemporaries.

The best known of these fellow travellers is Florent Schmitt, represented here by the delightfully quirky modulations of his 1935 Sonatine for flute, clarinet and harpsichord. Also of note is the intriguing 1967 Duo for flute and clarinet by Jean Rivier, the slow movement of which is the only example that briefly flirts with the serial techniques of the 1960s. A series of duets by the short-lived Jean Cartan and the woodwind doyen Eugène Bozza fill out the guest list.

Koechlin is represented by the self-consciously antiquarian Sonatine modale and similarly conceived Motets de style archaïque duets along with six excerpts from his Monodies for solo clarinet. An example of Koechlin’s unique harmonic palette is briefly represented by his Pastorale for flute, clarinet and piano. The duets are masterpieces of contrapuntal writing while the best of the solo pieces is represented by the eerie chromatic bifurcations of the Chant funéraire. Koechlin also wrote extensively for solo flute and it is regrettable that we are not allowed to enjoy the clear and attractive tone of Christiane Laflamme in at least a few examples from the 96 pieces that constitute his monumental Les Chants de Nectaire. The recording is artfully captured in a warm, close acoustic recorded at the Domain Forget in Québec.

At the time of writing, the outstanding Toronto double bassist and former TSO principal Joel Quarrington is about to take up his new position as principal bassist of the London Symphony Orchestra. His latest CD with pianist David Jalbert on the Modica Music label, Brothers in Brahms (MM013), consequently has somewhat of a parting gift feel about it, having been recorded at the CBC’s Glenn Gould Studio just this past March and released in June. The title comes from a concert program that the Toronto RCM’s ARC Ensemble presented ten years ago, in which Quarrington was asked to play the Double Bass Sonata Op.97 by Brahms’ contemporary and friend Robert Fuchs. Quarrington had never heard of Fuchs or the sonata, but was quite taken with it, and eventually chose to record it by following the ARC Ensemble’s original program idea, pairing it with his own transcriptions of works by Brahms and Robert Schumann.

The Brahms might stop you in your tracks at first hearing: it’s the Violin Sonata No.1 in G Major, Op.78; a work you wouldn’t think would be able to survive a drop of a couple of octaves for the solo part. It takes a bit of getting used to, but soon assumes a character of its own and does work very well. Quarrington rightly stresses the singing nature of the solo part in his booklet notes and more than justifies this observation with his playing.

The transcription of Schumann’s beautiful Adagio and Allegro Op.70 for French horn is more immediately successful, but the main interest here is the Fuchs sonata. It’s a terrific work, with a cello-like quality much of the time, and quite Brahmsian in style — lyrical, Romantic, lush and passionate. As the original three movements are all Allegro, Quarrington chose to add the Andante from Fuchs’ Three Pieces for Contrabass and Piano Op.96 as a slow third movement; it works extremely well.

Quarrington’s playing throughout the CD is superb, combining virtuosity and musicianship with a tone and agility that are at times quite astonishing. Jalbert is his equal in all respects, and the recorded sound and balance are faultless.

Polish-born violinist Jerzy Kaplanek is a member of the Waterloo-based Penderecki String Quartet and associate professor in the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University. On his new CD Exoticism – The Music of Karol Szymanowski (Marquis MAR 437), he is joined by pianist Stéphan Sylvestre, associate professor of piano at Western University, in a recital of works by his compatriot.

Kaplanek readily admits that he feels he has known and understood Szymanowski’s music since his childhood days; it’s certainly borne out by his exemplary playing on this excellent disc. Two of the major works here — the Nocturne and Tarantella Op.28 and Mythes Op.30 — are from 1915, at the start of the composer’s most prolific period. Also included are the Sonata in D Minor, Op.9 from 1904, the early B Minor Prelude Op.1 No.1 in a transcription by Grażyna Bacewicz, and the Chant de Roxane from the post-war opera King Roger.

Szymanowski always wrote gratefully for the violin — his two violin concertos are particularly beautiful — and the music throughout this disc is a delight. Beautifully recorded at the Banff Centre in 2011, the recital features outstanding playing from both artists, with the wonderful Mythes the particularly dazzling highlight of a terrific CD.

Violinist Viktoria Mullova is joined by harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone and the Accademia Bizantina on a new Onyx CD of Bach Concertos (ONYX 4114). The two standard solo concertos — the A Minor BWV1041 and the E Major BWV1042 — are here, together with two transcriptions: the E Major Concerto for Harpsichord, arranged for violin in D major; and the Concerto for Two Harpsichords in C Minor, arranged for violin and harpsichord.

Mullova’s playing is simply beautiful: crisp, clean and light, with a nice sense of space. The slow movement of the E major concerto is particularly lovely. The two transcribed concertos aren’t quite as successful, but are still highly satisfying. The C minor concerto perhaps transcribes better, but both works have really nice third movements, with some particularly dazzling harpsichord passages in the duo concerto.

Beautifully presented in a glossy card folder, this is a simply lovely CD.

The wonderful Gil Shaham is back with another outstanding CD on his own Canary Classics label, teaming up once again with his sister Orli Shaham for a fascinating recital titled Nigunim – Hebrew Melodies (CC10). It’s a mixture of old and new, with Josef Bonime’s Danse hébraïque and Joseph Achron’s Hebrew Melody and Two Hebrew Pieces bracketing the major work on the CD, Avner Dorman’s Nigunim (Violin Sonata No.3). The Dorman work was commissioned for this recording by the Shaham siblings, who wanted to emphasize the relevance of the Jewish music tradition in today’s world, and it’s a stunning piece, the virtuosity and quality of which quite clearly thrilled the performers.

The other works on the CD are: John Williams’ Three Pieces from Schindler’s List, the link to the 1940s Poland of their grandparents giving the music a personal relevance for the performers; Leo Zeitlin’s Eli Zion, transcribed by Joseph Achron from the original 1914 piece for cello and piano; and Ernest Bloch’s three-movement Baal Shem, the terrific performance of which features a particularly glorious Nigun central movement.

The Shahams grew up with this music, and it shows: the violin playing throughout the marvellous CD is rich, warm and idiomatic, and the piano playing always sympathetic and perfectly attuned.

The young Czech violinist Josef Špaček has a new CD on the Supraphon label, pianist and fellow Czech Miroslav Sekera joining him in a recital of works by Janáček, Smetana and Prokofiev (SU 4129-2). Both players are clearly very much at home in the Janáček Sonata for Violin and Piano and Smetana’s From the Homeland: Two Pieces for Violin and Piano, but Špaček shows a remarkable affinity for the music of Prokofiev as well. The Sonata for Solo Violin Op.115 is a relatively short but charming work and Špaček gets it absolutely right, with a perfect mix of lyrical and spiky percussive playing in the opening movement, a lovely Theme and Variations middle movement and a nicely contrasted — and not too fast! — finale.

Both players are in dazzling form in Prokofiev’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in F Minor, Op.80, from the lovely wispy violin scales over the slow, deep bass piano octaves of the first movement, through the percussive second movement to the brilliant Allegrissimo finale and the return to the mysterious mood of the sonata’s opening bars.

The great sound and balance contribute to an outstanding CD.

Jennifer Higdon, who recently turned 50, is firmly established as one of the leading contemporary American composers. With Early Chamber Works (8.559752) Naxos has added a fascinating retrospective CD to its American Classics series, presenting première recordings, made in association with the composer, of five works from the formative years of Higdon’s career. They are all finely crafted and very accessible.

The Serafin String Quartet opens the CD with a short but lovely setting of Amazing Grace, followed by the Sky Quartet, a four-movement work inspired by the immensity and beauty of the Western U.S. sky. The quartet’s violist Molly Carr is joined by pianist Charles Abramovic for the early — and really beautiful — Sonata for Viola and Piano from 1990, and bassoonist Eric Stomberg joins a standard piano trio line-up for Dark Wood, a short piece that Higdon describes as exploring the bassoon’s virtuosic abilities as well as respecting its soulful nature.

Members of the Serafin Quartet perform the earliest work on the CD, the String Trio from 1988; it’s a terrific work that draws an interesting comment from Higdon, who says it “reveals a young composer in the process of finding her own voice. The language is restless and searching, and even the arrival points do not feel quite settled.” She calls it “a good place to be if you are a developing composer.”

And an even better place to be if you are an interested listener!

Françaix – Music for String Orchestra
Sir Georg Solti Chamber Orchestra, Budapest; Kerry Stratton
Toccata Classics TOCC 0162

Sometimes all it takes is a letter to provide further impetus for a new disc. At least, that was the case with Canadian conductor Kerry Stratton who, upon searching for some fresh material, contacted Jacques Françaix, son of the eminent composer Jean Françaix, asking if there was any music by his father that had never been recorded. Yes, came the reply, the score for the ballet Die Kamelien and the Ode on Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. Two years later, both pieces are to be found on this fine CD of music for strings on the Toccata Classics label featuring the Sir Georg Solti Chamber Orchestra.

2012 marked the centenary of Françaix’s birth — he lived until 1997 — and over the course of his lifetime, he quietly carved out a niche as a gifted and prolific composer, completing more than 200 pieces in numerous genres. The disc opens with the Symphony for Strings, written in 1948. Containing more than just a touch of French insouciance, this is elegant music, elegantly played, with the GSCO’s strongly assured performance further enhanced by a warm and resonant sound. Less well known is the ballet music Françaix wrote for Die Kamelien (The Camellias), loosely based on the 1848 play by Alexandre Dumas, which premiered at New York City Centre in 1951. The score is a study in contrasts, from the eerie opening to the highly spirited fifth movement, Im Spielsaal. Also receiving its premiere on CD is the brief Ode on Botticelli’s Birth of Venus from 1961, a haunting and evocative homage to the Renaissance Italian painter. Here, the delicately shaped phrasing goes hand in hand with a wonderful sense of transparency.

Kudos to Kerry Stratton and the GSCO, not only for some fine music-making, but for uncovering some unknown treasures that might otherwise have been overlooked.

Allan Gordon Bell – Gravity and Grace
Land’s End Chamber Ensemble
with James Campbell
Centrediscs CMCCD 19013

Gravity and Grace is a collection of recent chamber works by Alberta composer Allan Gordon Bell, featuring Calgary’s Land’s End Chamber Ensemble with guest James Campbell on clarinet. Bolstered by great performances by the core piano trio and guests, Bell’s music shimmers and shrieks, grumbles and growls.

Bell is afflicted with delight in sonority and fascinated by the physical fact of consonance, using an effective range of dissonance as a foil. He expresses a kind of gratitude to the world around him in all these works. He is a strongly visual composer; in one piece sounds create images of falcons rising on thermals above the prairie or cascades of water tumbling into pools. In Field Notes he begins with a depiction of two rivers meeting and finishes with a sunset. Sweetgrass wraps paired contrasting images of the prairie around a still central movement that takes a page out of Béla Bartók.

The album title derives from the final work on the disc. Trails of Gravity and Grace, for clarinet cello and piano, was commissioned by Toronto’s Amici ensemble. As good as the title is, it is the weakest part of a strong collection. The limited palate doesn’t suit the composer, and I must confess that at times I found Mr. Campbell’s intonation questionable.

Apart from that, the playing is solid and committed; I especially enjoyed Sweetgrass, (written in 1997, the earliest of these pieces) for a sextet requiring three guests: Calgary musicians flutist Mary Sullivan, Ilana Dahl on clarinets and Kyle Eustace on percussion. Bell is wise to write for some common groupings in the contemporary idiom: here it’s “Pierrot plus percussion.” Field Notes is written for the same group as Quartet for the End of Time.

Both Bartók and Olivier Messiaen could be fellow travellers with Bell. They shared a similar mystical regard for the natural world and made efforts to incorporate that world into their music. Bartók’s Contrasts and the Messiaen Quatuor would ride alongside Field Notes quite comfortably.

Woman Runs with Wolves
Beverley Johnston
Centrediscs CMCCD 18913

This new release by Canadian superstar percussionist Beverley Johnston has everything a listener loves — stellar performances, strong compositions and clear sound quality.

The title track, Woman Runs With Wolves by Alice Ho, is based on the myth La Loba from Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. It is a dramatic work, with Johnston vocalizing a text of an invented language while playing hand-held percussion instruments. The work also involves acting and movement but Johnston’s precise rhythmic patterns and surprising range of vocal colours make it moving even without the visuals.

Christos Hatzis’ In the Fire of Conflict is a two-movement solo marimba and audio playback version of an earlier work also featuring cello. The marimba part adds a contrapuntal melodic line to the haunting rap tracks by Bugsy H. (aka Steve Henry) and tape effects, while the rhythmic component breaks down the boundaries between classical and pop music. Hatzis’ Arctic Dreams also features flutist Susan Hoeppner and soprano Lauren Margison in a soundscape of jazzy marimba, trilling flute and lush vocals against a wilderness-evoking tape part.

David Occhipinti’s moving marimba solo Summit, and three duets with pianist Pamela Reimer — Tim Brady’s rhythmically driven Rant! (based on a Rick Mercer “Rant”), Micheline Roi’s Grieving the Doubts of Angels and the film score-like Up and Down Dubstep by Lauren Silberberg — add compositional contrast and colour.

Johnston’s sense of phrase, tone colour and respect for the composers shine throughout this perfect release from a perfect musician.

WomanChild
Cecile McLorin Salvant
Justin Time JTR 8580-2
justin-time.com

When the American singer Cécile McLorin Salvant won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition in 2010, the buzz around her was massive. Relatively young and coming seemingly out of nowhere, she impressed the judges with her poise and talent. The praise then and since has been effusive (on a recent cover of Jazz News she was referred to as simply “The Voice”) and it’s all well deserved.

The sounds of many legendary jazz singers can be heard in Salvant’s voice — most apparently Sarah Vaughan — in particular in the pure, horn-like quality that is one of the hallmarks of a great vocal talent. Confident and sure-footed in both traditional and modern styles, she gets basic and loose on the bluesy St. Louis Gal and the New Orleans-style Nobody, then edgy and outside the box on the title track, WomanChild, her own composition. Her sophistication quotient goes up even a few more notches when she sings easily and naturally in French on Le Front Caché Sur Tes Genoux.

The overall feeling of the album is masterful and that owes a lot to Salvant’s band mates. She has chosen to work with some very experienced players — like Rodney Whitaker, bass, Herlin Riley, drums, and James Chirillo, guitar and banjo — who bring a steady hand to the mix, while piano player Aaron Diehl is, like Salvant, a rising star in the jazz world. For fans who may worry about the art form’s future, this album is a sign it’s in very good hands.

Our Second Set
John MacLeod & His Rex Hotel Orchestra
Independent
johnsjazz.ca

Further proof — if indeed it is needed — of the astonishing quality of musicians in Toronto can be found on this, the second CD by this orchestra, recorded January 3 and 4, 2013, at the Humber College recording studio. The arrangements, all by John MacLeod except for Melancholy Baby which is by Rick Wilkins, are works of art and the program is a comfortable mix of standards and originals.

The standards are a high energy Indiana, a richly textured arrangement of Everything Happens To Me, what MacLeod describes as a “mash up” arrangement of O Pato and Take The A Train and the lovely Wilkins arrangement of Melancholy Baby mentioned above. The originals are beautifully played by what can truly be described as an all-star gathering.

The musicianship throughout is exemplary, the soloists are at the top of their respective games and I would hardly be able to single out any one of them. Having said that I would be remiss if I didn’t take my hat off to leader John MacLeod who is the catalyst providing the chemistry that brings it all together. Running a big band involves a lot of time and effort, especially if you are also doing the bulk of the writing.

If you like big band jazz you need to add this recording to your collection.

—Jim Galloway

Da Bang!
Billy Bang
Tum Records TUM CD 034
tumrecords.com

Billy Bang came of age amidst the Civil Rights movement and free jazz. Having studied violin as a child, he returned to the instrument after combat duty in Vietnam, a harrowing experience later revisited in recordings like Vietnam: Reflections. From his first recordings in the late 70s, he emerged as the most compelling jazz violinist of his day, combining the robust swing of 1930s violinists like Stuff Smith and the visionary power of John Coltrane.

Bang recorded this final session in Finland in February 2011, two months before his death from lung cancer. The repertoire includes two very familiar tunes, Miles Davis’ All Blues and Sonny Rollins’ calypso-fuelled St. Thomas, but even that emphasizes Bang’s originality in mating musicians and material. The front line of Bang’s eerily thin violin sound and Dick Griffin’s robust trombone is very distinctive, emphasizing the combination of frailty and force that gives Bang’s work a special intensity.

The band sounds as if Bang assembled it for maximum authority, creating a powerhouse rhythm section of pianist Andrew Bemkey, bassist Hilliard Greene and drummer Newman Taylor-Baker. They work in a largely received tradition, but Bang extends it in stunning ways: in his unaccompanied introduction to Don Cherry’s Guinea, pentatonic patterns and microtones link vernacular violin sounds — a Vietnamese đàn gáo, a Kenyan orutu — to early traditions of African-American fiddling, suggesting a unique perspective on the expressive depths and possibilities of jazz. Da Bang! is a powerful final testament.

Red Hot
Mostly Other People Do The Killing
Hot Cup HC 125
hotcuprecords.com

Trumpeter Peter Evans, who along with drummer Weasel Walter, bassist Tom Blancarte and pianist Charity Chan is featured at a punk-jazz-improv concert at the Arraymusic space on September 4, has quickly become one of jazz’s most in-demand and versatile brass men. Proficient elsewhere playing atonal music, this CD by an expanded version of the co-op group Mostly Other People Do The Killing (MOPDtK) finds the New York-based brass man helping to create a respectful but sophisticated take on early jazz. That Evans has mammoth chops is without question, and you can note that on Zelienople, where following a wood-block [!] break from drummer Kevin Shea, Evans’ open-horn exposition is bird-song sweet at one instance and growly as a warthog by the next. Meanwhile on Orange is the Name of the Town, he fires off triplet patterns after triplet patterns with aplomb.

While classic jazz fanciers probably won’t be offended, sardonic Red Hot is no by-rote Dixieland-recreation. For a start, MOPDtK bassist Moppa Elliott composed the nine selections, and each draws on a conservatory full of influences. On the title track for instance, there are echoes of sci-fi-like electronic processing plus clunking banjo twangs, both created by Brandon Seabrook. Meanwhile the two-step melody is extended by pianist Ron Stabinsky’s ragtime-styled pumps, and climaxes when Jon Irabagon’s C-Melody sax wails pierce the connective four-horn vamp.

Atmospherically (post) modern and good time music in equal measure, the CD demonstrates clearly how many avant-garde tropes like broken-octave sax peeps or squeezed and hectoring brass tones actually have a long history. It also shows how top-flight music can be made up of many inferences. Elliott, for instance, begins Turkey Foot Corner not with Trad Jazz bass string slaps but spiccato plucks, that while undoubtedly modern, blend seamlessly into a two-beat band arrangement that emphasizes bass trombone guffaws from David Taylor.