Eduardo Sainz de la Maza - Sonando Caminos: Guitar Works

Daniel Bolshoy

ATMA ACD2 2635

The latest CD from the outstanding Canadian guitarist Daniel Bolshoy features the music of Eduardo Sainz de la Maza (1903-82), one of two Spanish guitarist/composer brothers whose lives spanned most of the 20th century. Bolshoy has a direct link to the other brother, Regino Sainz de la Maza (1896-1981): one of Regino’s students was Ricardo Iznaola, with whom Bolshoy studied at the University of Denver.

Unlike his brother, Eduardo rarely composed in the traditional Spanish style, being more influenced by jazz, and particularly by the music of Ravel and Debussy. The works here are mostly from the 1960s and 1970s, and are beautifully crafted and immediately accessible. The eight-movement Suite Platero y Yo (Platero and I) is the centerpiece of the recital: it was inspired by Juan Ramón Jiménez’s 1956 Nobel Prize-winning prose-poetry about a writer and his donkey, and the short excerpts from the chosen poems that the composer included in his score are also included here in Bolshoy’s excellent booklet notes.

Eight shorter original pieces and three arrangements – La Paloma, the cowboy song Colorado Trail and Swanee River, complete a delightful and thoroughly enjoyable CD that runs for over 77 minutes.

Bolshoy has a full, warm tone, with virtually no fingerboard or string noise. Recorded at the beautifully resonant Salle Francoys-Bernier at Domaine Forget in Quebec, the sound is close and intimate.

As an accordionist since childhood, I have seen the popularity of my instrument rise and fall in a fashion similar to current money markets. The accordion is on a sharp rise again at the moment, with a number of new releases that feature its rhythmic and melodic sensibilities in a variety of styles.

Finnish accordionist/composer Antti Paalanen showcases his enviable bellows control and minimalist compositional ideas in the solo release Breathbox (Siba Records SACD-1005). The Finnish landscape is depicted musically in tracks like the heavy long tones and looping grooves of Permafrost and the ethereal high pitched harmonies of Northern Wind. The tiny detailed tones of Mementos waltz are as touching as looking at one’s favourite keepsakes. Paalanen is an excellent instrumentalist fully in control. Many of the repeated musical ideas seem to be drawn from traditional folk melodies creating an exciting and accessible “cross-over” effect, though some lengthy passages, especially in Gaza, could use a bit of editing.

Accordionist Robert Kusiolek showcases his playing, compositional and electronics skills in Nuntium (Multikulti MPCC002). Along with Anton Sjarov, voice/violin, Ksawery Wojcinski, double bass, and Klaus Kugel, drums, etc., Kusiolek creates an atonal musical environment in seven chapters. The slow-moving vocal/violin improvisational mood of Chapter 1 sets the stage for a diverse range of ideas that is unbelievably coherent. Chapter 4, with its intricate conversations between the instruments, is the highlight. Each player is a star, with the accordion driving the jazzy music. The free improvisational feel of Nuntium adds to the unique sound of the accordion in this ensemble setting.

The bandoneon with its free reed mechanism, is a distant relative of the accordion, so the inclusion here of Navidad de los Andes (ECM 2204) is fitting. Bandoneonist/composer Dino Saluzzi breathes sonic beauty into this “Christmas in the Andes” ensemble collection. The excellent programmatic liner notes provide a guiding hand through the 11 tracks without getting lost in technical details, aiding the listener to envision the Christmas story in a personal way. From the arid, bleak opening track, many South American musical traditions (like the ever popular Tango) are brilliantly performed by Saluzzi, cellist Anja Lechner and tenor sax/clarinettist Felix Saluzzi.

The Tarkovsky Quartet (ECM 2159) is the brainchild of composer/pianist François Couturier. His music, which is inspired by the work of the late filmmaker Andre Tarkovsky – thus the name of the quartet – draws upon his life and work. Couturier’s new age tonal music shifts slowly like a scene frozen in lush cinematography allowing Parisian accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier to sit on long held notes with solemn colour. Cellist Anja Lechner and soprano saxophonist Jean-Marc Larche add their own unique contributions to the mix. Though the impressionistic compositions are in the style of movie music, it is the collective improvisations on three tracks that are the highlights. Here the harmonic world opens to more punchy chords while accordion melodies race through florid legato lines and extreme staccatos.

Now, literally, off to the movies. Uniko (Cmajor 707108) was written by Finnish rock star status accordionist/vocalist Kimmo Pohjonen and his colleague, electronics master Samuli Kosminen. The Kronos Quartet was introduced to Pohjonen’s music while on tour in Finland, and loved how he had expanded the possibilities of the accordion. All are featured in this concert film. There are lots of shots of fingers playing but the stark stage set and lighting supports the stark rhythmic explosiveness of the music. The looping musical ideas are perfect for the film idiom. Do not be misled by Pohjonen’s on-stage persona – his expertise on the accordion is solid. However, it always amazes me that nobody ever needs to turn a page…

There is a vast world of music available for the accordion and it should be no surprise that in solo and ensemble settings the “squeezebox” keeps pushing and pulling its way into contemporary music.

The Vipers

The Vipers

Independent www.silverbirchprod.com

The self-titled CD from bluesy jazz group The Vipers is a treat from start to finish. Produced by group members Pat Carey and Howard Moore, the disc features dynamic vocalist Sophia Perlman and additional band members Mitchell Lewis, Ross MacIntyre and Jeff Halischuk. Guitarist and arranger Ted Quinlan also guests on some of the disc’s strongest tracks.

The tasty opener, East of the Sun, West of the Moon (Brooks Bowman), has no shortage of swing. The horns are arranged in tight, Med Flory-inspired lines while Perlman’s glorious alto soars with maturity and all the right musical decisions. Her husky, June Christy-ish tone is the perfect complement to Quinlan’s crisp, lyrical guitar line. Vocalist Perlman also shines on That’s Why I’m Cryin’ - a rarely performed gem by blues icon Koko Taylor. Perlman’s approach is all at once soulful, gut-wrenching, funky and provocative.

Other stand outs include You Make Me Feel So Young (Myro/Gordon), a charming duet with Perlman and Moore that brings to mind the duets of Ray Charles and Betty Carter, and an energetic arrangement of Old Devil Moon from Burton Lane’s Broadway smash, Finian’s Rainbow. The tune is an up-tempo cooker with vibrant guitar from Quinlan and drum solo from Halischuk. Also notable is an evocative version of Billie Holiday’s Don’t Explain, which is literally drenched in musical “film noir” and features Perlman’s breathtaking and chameleon-like vocal instrument.

School Days

Steve Lacy; Roswell Rudd; Henry Grimes; Dennis Charles

Emanem 5016 www.emanemdisc.com

Nearly 50 years later it seems unbelievable, but this all-star quartet broke up after a couple of years of almost no work because few wanted to support a band that exclusively played what was then thought of as far-out music by pianist/composer Thelonious Monk. Yet, on the basis of the material recorded here in 1963, with Henry Grimes’ stentorian walking bass timbres and Dennis Charles’ free-flowing drum beats, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy and trombonist Roswell Rudd were already so familiar with the Monk canon that they were able to create their own swinging variations on such now-familiar Monk fare as Monk’s Dream and Brilliant Corners.

The seven spiky and unconventional songs, recorded in a New York coffee house by the late Toronto poet Paul Haines, then resident in Manhattan, demonstrate how Lacy’s gritty, yet lyrical tones imposingly blended with the modern gutbucket styling of Rudd. These treatments of Monk’s inimitable compositions also suggest the distinctive concepts that would help Lacy (1934-2004) develop into a major improviser and admired composer during the rest of his life.

As an added bonus this reissue contains two bootleg sound quality tracks – not recorded by Haines – from a 1960 jazz festival appearance with Lacy as a member of a Monk combo of heavyweights, the pianist, drummer Roy Haynes, bassist John Ore and tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse. Historically matchless, the versions of Ba-Lue Bolivar Ba-Lues-Are and Skippy provide insight, showing how Lacy’s tart, taut tone created a sonic role for itself within the tight-knit group’s performances.

In the Moonlight

Sophie Milman

eOne Entertainment EOM-CD-215 (www.eonemusic.ca)

Vocalist Sophie Milman’s latest disc, In the Moonlight is a trip through the Great American Songbook (with a short detour by way of Feist) which places her on a new tier of her remarkable evolution as a jazz vocalist. Ms Milman is the veritable Grace Kelly of jazz – elegant, beautiful, skilled and always in good taste. Produced by Matt Pierson (who is responsible for discovering jazz star Joshua Redman, among others), the CD was recorded at famed Sear Sound in NYC and boasts an all-star line-up of jazz luminaries such as Gerald Clayton, Lewis Nash, Romero Lubambo, Randy Brecker and Chris Potter, matched with innovative arrangements by Rob Mounsey, Gerald Clayton, Julian Loge, Gil Goldstein, Alan Broadbent and Kevin Hayes. In addition, we are treated to six tracks with orchestral components – inspired settings for Milman’s luminous voice and persona.

This recording is the splendid result of exquisitely talented pairings between instrumentalists, arrangers and vocalist. The Oscar winning title track was written by The Bergmans for the 1980s re-make of the film Sabrina. Milman’s version utilizes strings in interplay with her lower register, in order to capture every romantic nuance. From The Music Man comes ’Til There Was You, rendered by Milman with a profound intimacy - a new twist on this familiar Broadway powerhouse. Also wonderful is Serge Gainsbourg’s romantic Ces Petits Riens, enhanced by atmospheric accordion work from pianist/arranger Gil Goldstein. Milman’s quick, parfait-like vibrato and impeccable phrasing is an elegant fit for this genre. This is a beautifully produced, recorded and performed CD – a perfect holiday gift!

Is it possible to sound better than perfect? This improbable intellectual puzzle came to mind thanks to the new CD from Guido Basso, his first in eight years. His work on trumpet and flugelhorn has always been exemplary but he’s surely attained new heights on Changing Partners (Rhythm Tracks RTCD0015 www.cdbaby.com), an 11-tune excursion recorded over two years with five top-notch collaborators in duet formats. These settings, with no plan, no charts and no rehearsal, result in playing that’s often passionately inspirational, with wit and bravura technique added to his customary mellow fluency in all genres. His colleagues are pianists Robi Botos, John Sherwood and Don Thompson plus guitarists Lorne Lofsky and Rob Piltch. Botos is a particularly effective foil on three cuts, notably a sparkling There Is No Greater Love and a frolicking Down By The Riverside but there are no duds here. On Goodbye Basso adds a moving segment employing late bandleader Rob McConnell’s valve trombone in honour of his long-time associate. Apparently there’s plenty of material available for a second volume. Do it soon.

Another stylish veteran trumpeter is Montreal’s Kevin Dean, always eloquent and always striking. On Kevin Dean Quartet - A Message From The Dean (Cellar Live CL060711 www.cellarlive.com) he demonstrates an assured, flowing yet unhurried approach with a big, round sound that has none of the rough edges you’d expect in a jazzer schooled in hard bop. He’s also an imaginative composer, penning all ten tunes on which he has well-seasoned support from splendid pianist Andre White, bass Alex Walkington and drummer Dave Laing. The opening Famous Last Words is particularly impressive, Gone By Morning brisk and bracing with Dean’s contribution seemingly effortless despite daunting structure, in marked contrast to the yearning ballads Ultra Sounds and Thank You Notes. Quality is high throughout, concluding with the lovely Epitaph.

More great music emanates from Montreal on Donato Bourassa Lozano Tanguay - Autour de Bill Evans (Effendi FND112 www.effendirecords.com), an all-star quartet showcasing the current cornerstones of that city’s superior jazz history. The group led by excellent pianist François Bourassa tackles the repertoire of Bill Evans, the lyrical master who died in 1980, although of the disc’s 11 tunes just four are Evans originals. This tribute pushes the right buttons, sounds classic yet up-to-date and highlights the considerable talents of the team, with saxman Frank Lozano adept at capturing Evans’ melodic strengths, bass Michel Donato’s rich deep tones proving a super-strong anchor, drummer Pierre Tanguay exercising his precise subtleties and the leader his expansive imagination and crafted harmonies. The band’s easy cohesion and flair for innovation within the tradition will ensure this album is a candidate for top ten year-ending lists.

CD Note: Effendi has recently issued four more classy discs by Montreal headliners, groups led by Lozano (Destin), pianist Josh Rager (Kananaskis), saxophonist Alexandre Cote (Transitions) and bassist Alain Bédard (Homos Pugnax).

Pianist Paul Hoffert and drummer Jim Gelcer have long paid their musical dues (Hoffert a founder of Lighthouse) but their jazz inclinations get a workout here on Gelcer Hoffert Trio - How High The Bird (Breaking Records 110110 www.paulhoffert.ca), an 11-track exploration combining classic standards, much unison playing by the principals (bass duties shared by Lew Mele, Russ Boswell and Justin Gray) and a large dose of Thelonious Monk. The combinations don’t always work – the opening All Weep For Blues has definitive parts of All Blues and Willow Weep For Me and so on – but this seems just enforced cleverness rather than boundary-breaking concept. Elsewhere the unison work is more appealing, while the basics of Monk’s great compositions like Straight No Chaser and Well You Needn’t need no tampering and are handled well, as is Moe Koffman’s hit Swinging Shepherd Blues (done in 5/4). I didn’t care for Gelcer’s channelling Chet Baker vocals.

Bob Stevenson is probably better known hereabouts as Robert Stevenson, long a force in classical circles as former artistic director of innovative Arraymusic and many other roles. He’s also into jazz improv, demonstrated on The Bob Standard - Out Of Nowhere (Urban Meadow www.urbanmeadow.ca), his clarinet aided by guitarist Justin Haynes, bassist Victor Bateman and eclectic percussionist Blair Mackay. They tackle ten standards, trying to make the chestnuts palatable in different ways – like avant-garde music without its frequent ventures into the ugly. Results can be bizarre; witness the ensemble output on Out Of Nowhere and the sonic massacre perpetrated on Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise. The leader hews closest to familiar melodies while his subversive team assaults harmony, rhythm and a whole lot more. However, this risky venture is always interesting; Caravan works.

Jazz with strings was a popular experiment when bebop arrived, but mega-talented saxophonist, pianist and composer Phil Dwyer has gone much further, creating a violin concerto integrating jazz and classical music. On the enterprising – and beautifully recorded – Phil Dwyer Orchestra - Changing Seasons (Alma ACD10252 www.almarecords.com) he employs 21 strings led by admirable violinist Mark Fewer and a 17-piece jazz band. It’s a seamless showcase, a pleasing companion to baroque composer Vivaldi’s 18th century triumph, The Four Seasons.

If you must have Christmas fare but don’t want to cringe at the season’s usual mawkish musical sentiments, get Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas (Justin Time JUST 245-2 www.justin-time.com). The album features performers such as Oliver Jones, Diana Krall, Rob McConnell, Montreal’s Jubilation Gospel Choir and some fine but undervalued singers.

Despite the regular spouting from doomsayers, there’s still a tsunami of jazz discs being released, especially south of the border. Here’s an American six-pack that appealed to me in 2011.

Pride of place goes to Rudresh Mahanthappa, who on Sandhi (ACT 9513-2) plays alto sax (and laptop) and is joined by guitar, drums and a percussionist on South Indian drums as well as Toronto’s Rich Brown on electric bass. Intriguing melodies and rhythms are explored in depth with bright tones and ever-swirling grooves.

The trombone-playing member of jazz’s first family is Delfeayo Marsalis. With a star-studded big band he offers Sweet Thunder (Troubadour Jazz Records TJR092110) in which he deftly and delicately reinterprets the music composed in the 1950s by Duke Ellington for Stratford’s Shakespeare festival.

Trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith heads the double-CD Heart’s Reflections (Cuneiform Records Rune 330/331) where a massed and mostly electric ensemble (two more on laptops) create unruly, exciting and funky music way beyond Sun Ra that also lets the leader show his spiritual side - and displays the influence of Miles Davis.

New trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is a Monk Institute Competition winner who on When The Heart Emerges Glistening (Blue Note 509990 70619 2 9) leads a top-flight quintet featuring pianist Gerald Clayton in an inspired, adventurous and fresh probe into the future of 21th century jazz.

Alto sax ace Miguel Zenón, a recipient of a $500,000 MacArthur “genius” grant, takes a large group on Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook (Marsalis Music MARS 0016) through the melodic history of the Caribbean islands via ten well-known songs – a delightful fusion of jazz and Latin traditions.

Despite its ludicrous nomenclature Mostly Other People Do The Killing is a provocative quartet that presents original ideas and a passion for loud, furious assaults on the senses on Forty Fort (Hot Cup 091). It offers quirky trumpet, menacing sax, thunderous bass and splashy drums more extreme than The Bad Plus. They’re also big on wit.

Traditionally, holiday time gets people thinking about CD box sets as gifts. But merely offering multi-disc best-of collections hardly shows originality. Instead the most valuable multiple CD sets are collected because, like the talented players featured here, the musicians literally had more ideas than could be expressed on even two discs. Take Paris-based bassist Benjamin Duboc for example. Probably the busiest and most inventive player of his instrument in French improvised music circles, Primare Cantus (AYLCD 098-099-100 www.ayler.com), a three-CD-set, highlights a different facet of his work on each side. A treat for double-bass fanatics, the solo work on Disc 1 demonstrates that by also using his voice and extended techniques the spatial program not only expresses the fascinating bass timbres but does so in a way that the resulting sounds seem electronically processed although thoroughly acoustic. Meanwhile Discs 2 and 3 are equally excellent showing how his mature style adapts to input from radically different ensembles. Accommodating his jagged bowing and hearty string smacks to the vibrations from saxophonists Sylvain Guérineau and Jean-Luc Petit plus cunning percussion asides from Didier Lasserre, results in concentrated sounds that are as accommodating as they are opaque. The fifth untitled track for instance, perfectly matches low-pitched bass arpeggios with the timbres of cymbal tops being gonged and gauged, while track nine climaxes with majestic glissandi from both reedists mated with Duboc’s speedy string scrubbing that completes the initial challenge between the bassist’s strums and subterranean snorts from Petit’s baritone plus fortissimo bites from Guérineau’s tenor. Pascal Battus’ guitar pick-up and the subtle introduction of field recordings give Disc 3 more of an electronic cast. Overall, with Sophie Agnel concentrating on fishing out unexpected note clusters from her piano’s internal string set and Christian Pruvost mostly propelling pure air from his trumpet, the thesis is timbre expansion not swing. For instance, the bassist’s concentrated ostinato underpinning Battus’ bottleneck flanges, the trumpeter’s strained grace notes and Agnel’s mallet popping on the strings creates mercurial dynamism. Additionally, suggestions of billiard balls being racked or magnetic tape reels reversing provide unexpected tinctures in a sound field otherwise consisting of agitated bass licks, quivering piano strings and squealing brass. Overall, an aviary explosion from Pruvost, shaped by Agnel’s metronomic pitter-patter and Duboc’s pedal point is as exciting as anything recorded by Roy Eldridge with Oscar Peterson and Ray Brown.

So are the three CDs of improvisations from the well-matched Swedish duo of veteran Roland Keijser playing a variety of conventional and folkloric reeds in conjunction with Raymond Strid’s sensitive percussion output. Recorded live in a Stockholm club Yellow Bell (Umlaut UMADA 2 www.umlautrecords.com) offers a variety of moods and stratagems. Although Keijser – on piano – and the percussionist conclude with a stately reading of Monk’s Mood that’s all tremolo key clipping and drum rim smacks, most of the 32 tunes are far from the jazz canon. Spegelsång for example finds Keijser on stuttering saxophone and Strid’s thumping martial beat deconstructing a folk tune as its initial tone rows are played upside down in its second half. On Sohini the reedist’s tootles are from trussed metal whistles and Strid’s drags and flams could come from a djembe intonation, while Keijser uses a supple South Indian venu flute to play a variant of the Swedish Varför frågar du/Varför svarar du backed by snare shuffles and cymbal rattles. The most impressive display of this cross-cultural improv is evident on the title tune plus Kvällskvarpa/Dansa med moss. On the former, Keijser’s Sonny Rollins-like obbligatos transmogrify an ancient fiddle tune into near-jazz, while the latter is kept linear by Strid’s paradiddles and ruffs as mid-range clarinet glissandi diffuse from snake-charmer-like trills to splintered runs.

Someone who’s cognizant of Duboc’s plus Keijser’s and Strid’s influences plus many other notated and improvised tropes is Viennese guitarist Burkhard Stangl. Obviously no sufferer from false modesty, Hommage à moi (Loewenhertz loew 020 www.loewenhertz.at) presents 25 tracks of his oeuvre from 1993 to 2009 performed by groups ranging from duos to extended ensembles. Included are electro-acoustic compositions; notated and improvised music; an extended orchestral salute to English lutenist Robert Dowland; plus more contemporary influences and associates. The most affecting pieces are those created for quasi-improvised ensembles spurred by soloists such as British saxophonist John Butcher or Austrian trombonist Radu Malfatti. Konzert für Posaune und 22 Instrumente which seems to take its inspiration from Malfatti’s, microtonal vocabulary, contrasts flat-line, pressurized brass tones with an ensemble’s accelerating and vibrating polyphony. Highlights include slurred guitar fingering and the trombone’s incremental and widely spaced tongue slaps, squeaks and hollow-air vibrations. Quixotically, Concert for Saxophone and Quiet Players, featuring Butcher and a stripped-down ensemble is actually louder than the trombone concerto. Extended reed whorls encompassing tongue flutters are contrasted with contributions from the “quiet players” which include static crackles, dial-twisting quirks and field-recorded bird sounds plus flute flutters and intermittent percussion beats. Post-modern harmonization of 17th century vocalization and 21st century instrumentation, My Dowland puts countertenor Jakob Huppmann’s ethereal voice in the midst of romantic string progressions plus sampled aviary chirps which become increasingly agitated although Huppmann and the string section remain languid and moderato.

Moving from orchestrations to a more singular but just as wide-ranging project is British pianist Howard Riley’s The Complete Short Stories 1998-2010 (NoBusiness NBCD 21-26 www.nobusinessrecords.com). Extended essays in the art of solo piano, these six CDs present 74 tracks which range in length from slightly more than one and a half minutes to almost seven and a half plus five novella-sized meditations from 2010. Someone whose interests include contemporary notated music as well as every variety of jazz, Riley’s showcases are consistent as well as brief. One of the most affecting tracks is For Jaki on CD 2, a bouncy ditty with Tin Pan Alley suggestions that honours the late American pianist Jaki Byard. Similarly the title tune is kinetic as well as dramatic, equally emphasizing high-pitched tremolo lines as well as a grounded narrative. Concision on the other hand, vibrates on the percussive harmonics which can be plucked from and strummed on the piano’s internal strings, while the steady lengthening lines of Another Time show harmonic references to Lennie Tristanto-like cool jazz. Riley’s discursive stop-time frequently recalls Thelonious Monk as on the tellingly titled Roots and elsewhere. Nonetheless, the extravagant dynamics he exhibits on The Opener are mirrored by his stentorian patterns on many other tunes, where Earl Hines-like walking bass notes and Cecil Taylor-like percussive runs vie for supremacy.

Adventurous listeners on anyone’s gift list would appreciate any of these sets.

Many groups think of themselves as jazz bands, especially when they offer just a teeny dose of improv, or swing, or interaction or any of the other basic elements of the art form. Some are content to operate on the music’s fuzzy boundaries.

This trio could be classified as neo-jazz – they certainly aren’t purveyors of smooth jazz. The Sultans Of String do global music in which you’ll detect Flamenco, Roma, Arab, Cuban and Brazilian elements as well as plentiful grooves on their third album Move (Indie MCK 2050 www.sultansofstring.com). It’s a polished affair of 12 cuts with much colourful atmosphere, savage to sweet execution and terrific violin work from leader Chris McKhool. At his side are guitarists Kevin Laliberte and Eddie Paton, bass Drew Birston and sterling percussionist Chendy Leon as well as an army of guests. There’s much to enjoy from the Afro-Spanish blend of Andalucia to the lively Emerald Swing and the ultra-jazzy Ernie’s Bounce - and stuff to avoid (a cloying Heart of Gold for instance) – but overall it’s fun, if perhaps a little too polished.

The Boxcar Boys offer a dozen tracks and interesting instrumentation on Don’t Be Blue (Indie www.theboxcarboys.ca) with Rob Teehan, sousaphone, John David Williams, clarinet and composer of eight tunes, Karl Silveira, trombone, Laura Bates, violin and Ronen Segall, accordion. There’s vintage jazz, humour, Klezmer, blues, hillbilly vocals and more here, and you surely can dance to this circus music.

Halifax-based Gypsophilia (not to be confused with US band of the same name) is seven-strong. They all sing and play multiple instruments on Constellation (FMG026 www.gypsophilia.org), an album that expands on their fondness for Django Reinhardt. The 11 tunes, all by band members, are all distinctly different, a movie score perhaps with its touches of bop, classical, whimsy and waltzes. If these troubadours return to the GTA, go see.

Bailar Conmigo

Christopher Lee; James Brown

Manor House Records MHR220811

Several years ago, while attending a concert at a local high school, I was quite impressed by the talent of a young student named Christopher Lee. Today, some 25 years later, I am amazed at how this young musician has developed. In this CD Chris Lee has collaborated with Toronto guitarist James Brown, a faculty member of the Royal Conservatory. This all-Latin CD spans a wide spectrum of works from such standards as Abreu’s Tico Tico and Albeniz’s Granada and Seville to works of such contemporaries as Chick Corea, Christopher Caliendo and collaborator James Brown. Five of the 15 selections are by Caliendo, including the world premiere recording of his Mistero.

The guitar’s role is primarily accompanying the flute, where it is always tasteful. Brown’s solo opportunities on such tracks as Corea’s La Fiesta and his own Toronto Folk Song show his talents well. However, this CD is really a showcase for Chris Lee. His dazzling technique on Tico Tico and Caliendo’s Caliente come across as all the more amazing when contrasted with the subtle tones of such works as Ponce’s Estrellita.

For me, the highlight is El Choclo, one of the most recognizable of all tangos. This begins with a slow section where the performer introduces us to an amazing spectrum of tonal colours. Here the haunting sounds reminded me of a native flute circle.

The CD ends with dazzling virtuosity of Caliente. A must have recording.

Up to 1948 when Columbia Records introduced Long Playing discs, 78rpm recordings were the medium for home use. These discs had a limited frequency response but in 1945 British Decca astounded the industry and the record buying public around the world with their Full Frequency Range Recordings. Thus was born the Decca Sound and the logo FFRR on the label guaranteed state-of-the-art fidelity. The FFRR technology was even better realized on their new long playing discs which sonically eclipsed the Columbia product. Later FFRR became FFSS for Full Frequency Stereo Sound. Today, as always, Decca on the label is an assurance of excellent sound.

THE DECCA SOUND (DECCA 4782866) is a Limited-Edition, 50-CD set of outstanding performances and recordings dating from 1957 until 2009 packaged in a cube taking only five and a quarter inches of shelf space. As to be expected, there are many familiar works and a wealth of off the beaten track items. A very important factor in this particular collection is the roster of artists, many exclusive to Decca, heard at their distinguished best in their chosen repertoire. Even though there are no subsequent re-mastering dates revealed, in no cases did any performance sound less than freshly minted with spacious, translucent sound clarifying textures from top to bottom. The complete list of contents may be seen on the Decca web site www.deccaclassics.com. Each of the 50 CDs is sleeved in a fine board facsimile of the original CD cover. The 198 page booklet gives complete details of recording dates, venues, producers, etc., together with an extensive history of Decca from 1937 when Edward Lewis assembled a hand-picked collection of experienced sound engineers including the inspired and inspiring, forward-looking Arthur Haddy who headed the Decca team for decades. Given the excellence of the contents and presentation, at about $2.50 per disc this package is just about irresistible.

EILEEN JOYCE: The complete Parlophone & Columbia solo recordings 1933-1945 (Appian Publications & Recordings APR 7502, 5 CDs). Today, only collectors and archivists recognize her name, but in the 1930s, 40s and 50s Eileen Joyce was a pianist held in high esteem by her fellow musicians, critics and record collectors. She was born in Tasmania in 1908 and grew up in Boulder City, Western Australia. Her talent was recognized at an early age. Later Percy Grainger described her as “the most transcendentally gifted child he had ever heard.” She studied in Leipzig from 1927 until she moved to London early in 1930 where she was accepted by Tobias Matthay, one of the great musical pedagogues of his time, whose methods had produced many successful pianists including Myra Hess and Clifford Curzon. Her career took off in 1933 and she was in demand both as a recitalist and in concertos, appearing with such conductors as Beecham, van Beinum, Karajan, de Sabata, Celibidache, Ormandy, Wood, Szell and the rest. In those days it was still accepted and indeed expected that performing artists would have their own signature style and sound. Therefore there was more variation between them, as to how they produced their sounds and how they projected it in the music. The collectors of historic recordings are fascinated by this individuality which has become rare in the last half century. Eileen Joyce’s style can be characterized as bold, assured, and confident, and from these recordings could be classified as being on the dry or percussive side, although that may be attributable to the recording. She demonstrates, however, that she delivers a singing quality when she selects to do so. As a result, her communication to the listener is not always as immediate as we find in some of her contemporaries. Bryce Morrison states in the informative liner notes that “Virtually all of her recordings in this issue have the power to reinvent themselves so that you seem to be forever hearing them for the first time.” Joyce’s public most wanted to hear her play Schubert, Liszt, Chopin, Debussy and Grieg but, as we hear here, she played Bach, Beethoven, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich – the list goes on – together with such fashionable salon pieces as The Rustle of Spring, Melody in F, Lotus Land, Widmung, etc. Also included in the 94 tracks is Mozart’s Concert Rondo K386 with orchestra. Although the repertoire is attractive, this set is primarily aimed at the specialist collector of historic pianists. For those who may be interested in Eileen Joyce and her times, there is a fascinating and revealing 264 page biography written by Richard Davis and published by the Freemantle Arts Centre Press titled, Eileen Joyce: A Portrait (ISBN 186368333-X).

JOAN SUTHERLAND - The complete Decca Studio Recordings (DECCA 4783243, 23CDs, Limited Edition). The late Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) was one of the outstanding sopranos of the last century and she was known to the millions who were never privileged to hear her live through her many Decca recordings of operas and recitals. She was a commanding figure in person but it was her voice alone that won her a devoted following. To honour her, Decca has assembled every one of her studio recitals and packaged them in this attractive set. Her husband Richard Bonynge was, progressively, her pianist, coach and conductor. They married in 1954 and he directed her towards the baroque repertoire, the bel canto period and French works of the 19th century. The turning point in her career came on the evening of February 17, 1959, when she sang the title role in the first production at Covent Garden in 35 years of Lucia de Lammermoor. The performance was a well-deserved triumph for Sutherland and immediately her name was recognized in operatic circles around the world. She retired from the stage in 1990. Included in the 23 CDs are Art of the Prima Donna, Command Performance, Age of Bel Canto, The Noel Coward Album, Songs My Mother Taught Me, The Mozart Album and many more. The albums date from 1959, Operatic Arias through to 1986, Talking Pictures – Songs from the Movies and finally from 1987, Romantic Trios for soprano, horn and piano, with Barry Tuckwell and Bonynge (all born in Sydney – a nice ending to her recording career). The enclosed booklet contains full recording details and a short biography. In 1995 she acted in an Australian movie with Leo McKern and Geoffrey Rush entitled Dad and Dave on our selection. Sutherland plays Mum (a non-singing role) with no makeup or made-up to appear not to be wearing any. Set in rural Queensland, the characters are familiar to Australians. It’s a very dreary film.

Eugen Jochum: Rare Recordings (TAHRA 720) It was with singular pleasure that I listened to the second suite from Daphnis et Chloé played by the Bavarian Rundfunks Orchestra on this new release from Tahra. Jochum founded the orchestra in 1949 at the bidding of Bavarian Radio, creating one of Europe’s very finest ensembles. The often played Ravel suite is an excellent example of the composer’s meticulous craftsmanship and this virtuoso performance from October 1950 is played with an unexpected subtlety of timbre worthy of the finest French interpretation. Annelies Kupper was a German operatic soprano, well known and admired in her day as an interpreter of Mozart, Wagner and Richard Strauss. Her repertoire on CD is quite extensive but here, from December 1950 is her only recording of The Four Last Songs, richly sung with assurance and ardor and sumptuously supported by Jochum. The overture to Die Fledermaus is played with a sparkling exuberance that is usually heard only from the pit. The overture to Handel’s Agrippina is followed by Mozart’s Rondo K382 for piano and orchestra played with Edwin Fischer at the 1954 Wurzburg Festival. There are no complaints about the sound which is full-bodied, often with a natural, front to back dimension and with virtually no recording artifacts. This is the latest release from Tahra devoted to performances conducted by Jochum and all the works are new to his recorded repertoire.

Some years ago in Dallas we interviewed Andrew Litton who was then music director of the Dallas Symphony. He stated that very soon all symphony orchestras will sound the same. Well, it is very close to being true now as orchestral musicians move from orchestra to orchestra and from country to country, as do conductors. But there can be no denying that there was a unique sound to the French School of string quartet playing, such as the Calvet, Loewenguth, Parrinen, Krettley and Pascal quartets. All were characterized by their elegance and purity of style, immaculate intonation and humility in the face of the music. DOREMI has issued 22 Mozart String Quartets performed by the Pascal Quartet, circa 1952 (DOREMI DHR-8001-5, 5CDs). Mozart string quartets, particularly the ten mature ones, are arguably among the finest gems in classical music. In listening to the Pascals playing one senses that they are playing for the love of the music and that the microphone just happens to be listening in. The juvenile quartets are played with the same respect and appreciation. The original recorded sound was ideal in every respect and the meticulous transfers from the Musical Masterpiece Society LPs restore these radiant performances to life. This set is essential Mozart.

With The Goat Rodeo Sessions (SONY 88697891862) being touted as Yo-Yo Ma’s most successful release to date, it likely doesn’t need my help with promotion. But I can’t help but mention it as it touches on so many of my own musical interests. Evidently a “Goat Rodeo” is something which depends on an improbable number of high risk factors all coming together at once. Hyperbole aside, this recording is the confluence of four very busy musicians from across the musical spectrum and it is a treat from start to finish. Of course we are aware of Ma’s diverse interests in the field of classical music, and his world and roots music projects like Silk Road and earlier collaborations with Mark O’Connor and Edgar Meyer. On this outing bassist Meyer also plays piano and gamba. The other contributors, Nashville session-man Stuart Duncan and bluegrass star Chris Thile, respectively add fiddle, fretless banjo, mandolin and plectrum banjo; and mandolin, guitar, gamba, fiddle and vocals to the mix. Meyer, Duncan and Thile also share writing credits on all the tunes leaving Ma the odd man out simply playing his cello. But with the bottom end so ably anchored by Meyer, Ma gets to exploit the upper reaches of his instrument and the resulting ensemble is an extraordinary string band. Add the lovely voice of Anife O’Donovan on a couple of tracks and you have a wonderfully diverse album which, while firmly rooted in American folk traditions, incorporates a wealth of influences.

Local cellist Nick Storring was also the 2011 recipient of the Canadian Music Centre’s Toronto Emerging Composer Award. Like Ma, Storring works in a variety of genres, but unlike his mainstream counterpart, pretty much all of Storring’s excursions are far from the beaten path. Rife, a recent solo release on the adventurous British label Entr’acte (121 www.entracte.co.uk), features electronic compositions created over the past six years. Artifacts, takes as its main sound source a “near-broken” 7/8 size violin given to the composer by his grandmother. After nearly 22 years as a wall ornament the instrument became the inspiration for this extended suite. Although we are occasionally aware of the sound of the violin being plucked or bowed, for the most part the source is obscured by extensive electronic processing, computer manipulation, recording onto a dictaphone whose power supply was shorting out and the use of intentionally damaged CDRs and deliberately corrupted MP3 files. You wouldn’t know this from the liner notes however, which are literally non-existent. The distinctive packaging — a silver foil heat-sealed sleeve with purple lettering listing the tracks, brief credits and the websites of the publisher and the composer — is certainly eye-catching and presumably cost-effective, but ultimately does a disservice to the product. I think Storring is of the same opinion because when he sent the disc he followed up with a note saying that given the “peculiar style of the packaging” he felt he should provide an info-sheet with background about himself and the pieces. Although the information is available on the Entr’acte website, this fact is not mentioned on the packaging. The other works are Indices of Refraction (2005-2011) which uses various instruments, field recordings and mixer feedback, and Outside, Summer is Bursting at the Seams which cites only cello but the sounds here are every bit as varied as those in the other compositions. This is an intriguing release by a young composer/performer well worthy of our attention.

Dialectics – Expressions in Solo Percussion is a new CD by Richard Moore (www.richardmoore.ca). It juxtaposes works for relatively pitch-less instruments — kettle drums, bass drums, drum set and maracas — with pieces for melodic instruments including vibraphone, marimba and two members of the hammered-dulcimer family: the large Eastern European cimbalom and its tenor counterpart, the Austrian hackbrett. The opener, March for Two Pairs of Kettledrums was written more than three centuries ago by Jacques Philidor. Originally intended for two players placed antiphonally, Moore uses overdubbing to play the duet with himself in a convincing manner. The title track is a 1999 composition for two large bass drums by Moore himself. The driving first movement Thesis is reminiscent of the surf-rock classic Wipeout. Antithesis is introspective, combining hand drumming with the eerie sounds produced by drawing rubber mallets across the skin of the drum heads. Without a noticeable break Synthesis grows out of the quiet and builds back to the opening movement’s frantic pitch. Moore’s transcription of Max Roach’s The Drum Also Waltzes is an extended drum solo using a traditional jazz kit which features a bass drum and high-hat theme alternating with improvised sections. Moore is one of very few cimbalom players in our midst and interspersed with these percussive offerings we are treated to his own adaptation of an Andante for solo piano by Bela Bartok on this distinctive instrument, plus an original work by the Bavarian composer Frederik Schwenk who takes melodies from the folk repertoire of the Finnish kantele, yet another ethnic dulcimer, and adapts them for the hackbrett in a suite that features hammered strings in the outer movements and plucked strings in the middle. This is followed by an unusual piece by Mexican composer Javier Alvarez in which the performer is instructed to improvise using maracas over an electronic track which varies from environmental to industrial sounds and gradually transforms into a gentle folk melody. Moore’s improvisation is so well integrated that it is hard to realize it is not a part of the original soundscape. Frankly, I wish the disc ended there. Moore is an accomplished musician and these tracks demonstrate his command of many aspects of the contemporary percussionist’s arsenal. The disc however continues with Bach’s Third Suite for Solo Cello performed on a marimba. Perhaps it is just my prejudice as a cellist, but I feel there is simply not enough resonance, especially in the lowest register of the marimba, to do the music justice. Certainly Bach can withstand being translated into virtually any instrumental form, but the question for me is does the music benefit from the translation and in this instance my answer is no.

We welcome your feedback and invite submissions. CDs and comments should be sent to: The WholeNote, 503–720 Bathurst St., Toronto ON M5S 2R4. We also encourage you to visit our website, www.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, DISC discoveries@thewholenote.com

Pieces in My Hands
by William Aide
Oberon Press
87 pages, score reproductions, CD enclosed; $38.95 cloth,  $18.95 paper

Canadian pianist William Aide has spent most of his illustrious career as a performer and teacher. Yet during the past 15 years he has published a memoir and two books of poetry. In this new collection of poetry he continues to confront the “habitable pain and pleasure” of life through the prism of music. While beguiling us with his distinctive poetic voice, he creates resonant images that deepen our relationship with the music itself.

At the heart of this collection are two sets of poems based on large-scale pieces by Liszt and Schumann. B Minor Sonata probes Liszt’s fascination with the Faust legend and its various implications. Aide’s cycle closes with a moving Coda, which begins:

Who’ve lasted through the days and nights

are shriven:

The theme of peace bestowed on humankind

Restores benignity, the pact re-signed,

With one D sharp, all sinners are forgiven.

Mephisto murmurs low his final warning,

memorial tremors, epic myths recede;

each pianist plays out of his human need

for abstract music’s deep abyss of meaning.

The poems based on Schumann’s Carnaval offer pithy evocations of the characters the composer created in these short pieces. They zoom, leap, waltz and laugh, reminding us that “suffering seems unreal once it has passed.” Each poem in these two cycles is printed facing a page from the piano score on which Aide has scribbled comments such as, “Love these stentorian BLASTS!”, “This page wearies with age …” and “Hard to bear this note.”

Composers like Chopin (as always) and William Byrd, pianists like Janina Fialkowska and Claudio Arrau, painters like Delacroix and Uccello, and writers like George Eliot and Günther Grass, along with specific events from Aide’s own life, are woven into the fabric of the remaining poems.

The CD included with this book is truly a bonus, since it offers the opportunity to hear the music that means so much to Aide as interpreted by the poet himself. Yet these poems do stand on their own, able to provoke, amuse, teach and move us quite apart from the music that inspires them.

My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music
by Leon Fleisher and Anne Midgette
Anchor Books
334 pages, photos; $18.00 paper

It has been almost 50 years since pianist Leon Fleisher started losing the use of his right hand. This candid memoir takes us through all the ways his world fell apart while he struggled to find a cure for what was eventually diagnosed as focal dystonia. He kept performing by playing works written for the left hand alone, many newly commissioned by him. He taught, and took up conducting. But the emotional impact was devastating. Yet, after untold experimental procedures and false hopes, Fleisher, finally found a treatment that worked. Now 83, he has been performing with two hands for a number of years.

Fleisher offers colourful portraits of some of the remarkable “individuals of strong character” he has worked with over the years, like Leonard Bernstein and George Szell, who conducted Fleisher’s legendary recordings of the Beethoven concertos. The most memorable figure to emerge here is his beloved teacher, the great pianist Artur Schnabel. But it’s a shame there’s no index to be able to track down references to all these musicians, among other things.

Over the years, Fleisher has been regularly giving masterclasses in Toronto at the Royal Conservatory of Music. In five separate chapters he describes how he teaches specific works that have meant most to him, including Brahms’ Concerto in D Minor and Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major. He offers insights on what the music is about, and how to communicate that without sounding “as if feeling were being injected into the music, as through a syringe. You hear that kind of thing a lot, and it’s ghastly.”

There are plenty of funny moments here. But the issues Fleisher is dealing with are serious — physically, emotionally and musically. “At my lowest point,” he confides, “I seriously considered killing myself. But I didn’t kill myself. I stayed alive. And, just as I was stuck with being alive, I was stuck with my love of music.” This memoir is inspiring and brave, though at times I found the breezy tone Fleisher and his co-author, journalist Anne Midgette, invariably assume at odds with the gravity of what’s going on.

Concert Notes: January 11 and 12 at 8pm in Roy Thomson Hall, Leon Fleisher conducts the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and performs Mozart’s Concerto for Three Pianos K242 with his wife, Katherine Jacobson Fleisher, and former student, Stewart Goodyear.

Fleisher also conducts the Royal Conservatory Orchestra and performs Prokofiev’s Concerto No.4 with Uri Mayer conducting, at 8pm February 17, 2012, at Koerner Hall.

Gustav Mahler
by Jens Malte Fischer
translated by Stewart Spencer
Yale University Press
758 pages, photos; $50.00

In Gustav Mahler’s own mind, his life and his music were “inexhaustibly” bound up together. By filtering his biography of Mahler through the direct relationship between the two, Jens Malte Fischer is able to shed light on what makes Mahler’s music so utterly his own. “Using a vocabulary that seems familiar and sometimes even intimately colloquial,” he writes, “Mahler expresses all that is unheard of and uncanny, all that is unsettling and upsetting. What was alien sounds familiar, and what is familiar now seems alien.”

Mahler’s life was as complex as his music, mostly because, as Fischer shows, he was such an intense, complicated and brilliant character. Admiring though he is, Fischer doesn’t shrink from describing how condescendingly insensitive Mahler could be with colleagues, friends and, especially, his much younger wife Alma. But Fischer, like most Mahler biographers, is equally tough on Alma. Even from her own diaries she emerges as narcissistic, humourless and willful. But, as she wrote, Mahler “lived a life of torment and inflicted torments a thousand times worse on me.” She even gave up her own dreams of being a composer at his insistence, though Fischer seems unnecessarily harsh when he disparages her talent on the evidence of her surviving compositions.

In 1910, just months before he died, Mahler finally realized how unhappy Alma was. When he discovered she was having an affair with Walter Gropius, he contacted Sigmund Freud for help. No notes from the session, which took place as they wandered the picturesque streets of Leiden, Holland, have survived. But among Freud’s writings Fischer found interesting references to a patient who could only be Mahler. Fischer even managed to track down the bill Freud sent to Alma after Mahler’s death.

As a theatre historian, Fischer is able to offer fascinating perspectives on various aspects of Mahler’s work, such as the detailed and often idiosyncratic performance instructions Mahler wrote in his scores (which Fischer compares to playwrights’ stage directions). He is especially good at describing the literary, artistic, political and religious currents of his day, above all the prevailing climate of anti-Semitism that drove Mahler, who was Jewish, to convert to Catholicism. But there are occasional lapses in musical judgment. Explaining Mahler’s famous remark, “My time will come,” he inexplicably downplays the popularity of the works of Mahler’s supposed rival, Richard Strauss.

The translation by noted scholar Stewart Spencer flows well, especially when dealing with such vivid descriptions of Mahler’s works as, “His First Symphony is a tempestuous, urgent, rebellious work, the composer’s first contribution to the medium and without doubt the boldest symphonic visiting card in the whole history of western music.”

Concert Notes: The University of Toronto Symphony Orchestra under David Briskin performs Mahler’s First Symphony on Thursday, February 2, at 7:30pm in the MacMillan Theatre.