Brahms – Serenades
Leipzig Gewandhausorchester;
Riccardo Chailly
Decca 4786775

Following Chailly’s sensational performances of the Brahms Symphonies and the usual orchestral works that earned universal rave reviews (Decca 4785344, 3 CDs) we have all waited with great expectations to hear his Serenades.

It is an absolute joy to have these rather brisk, smiling performances of the two neglected early orchestral gems that Brahms wrote on the way to the symphonies. The 25-year-old composer already had an uncanny sense of what he wanted to do with an orchestra; as clearly present are what would become his characteristic orchestral colour and deployment of instruments. The first Serenade was composed in 1857-58, some three years after the first piano concerto of 1854. That concerto was first conceived as a symphony but Brahms re-thought it as a concerto. Similarly, these lyrical Serenades are Brahms’ second and third symphonic ventures wherein he stepped back a little to produce two youthful and breezy works for reduced orchestra. Reduced size does not however mean reduced invention; merely a less ponderous symphonic argument. The First Symphony was conceived during this time and had a gestation period of 20 years until 1875 when “Beethoven’s Tenth Symphony” was delivered.

Compared to other recorded versions, the breezy youthfulness of the present performances has a charming alfresco quality with vivacious tempi that neither undersell nor oversell the orchestral weight. Chailly and his vibrant orchestra, particularly the winds and horns, are flawlessly attuned to these scores, making this recording the very best version to own.

Gounod – Symphonies 1-3
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana; Oleg Caetani
CPO 777 863-2

Glancing at the title there are a number of personal discoveries here, including Gounod as a symphonist, the orchestra and the conductor and even the recording company. An interesting fellow, that Gounod… He sprang into world fame in one fell swoop with one opera, Faust, so successful that it has held the stage for the past 150-odd years and made him very rich, but he never could write another comparable opera ever again. However, as a young man and prior to his fame, he did dabble in orchestral composition with two symphonies plus an incomplete third, the latter newly discovered in a historic first performance here. Needless to say all were duly forgotten and completely overshadowed by Faust.

Fine works these are indeed in the hands of the extremely capable Italian conductor and Karajan Competition-winner Oleg Caetani who studied under the legendary Franco Ferrara (much admired in my teenage years when I saw him and he pretty well made me discover Schubert!). Much like the First of Beethoven, also inspired by Haydn, Gounod’s Symphony in D Major is a real charmer with finely sprung rhythms, unmistakeably French in character and conducted with a light spirit making the music sing and dance joyfully with the trumpets ringing out triumphantly at the end.

The more ambitious and mature Second Symphony in E-Flat Major already foreshadows the wonderful garden love scene in Faust. It is so lovingly performed with shimmering colours that it alone would make this disc worthwhile.

Saint-Saëns – Symphony No.3 “Organ”
Vincent Warnier; Orchestre National de Lyon; Leonard Slatkin
Naxos 8.573331

This disc is recommended for any collection lacking the Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony (1886). Organist Vincent Warnier and conductor Leonard Slatkin give a colourful reading, creating a coherent whole from diversity. In the opening movement strings and winds complement each other. The Lyon winds in particular are superb, both as soloists and as a wind choir, playing everything from busy double-note figures to the chorale theme. Saint-Saëns held off introducing the organ until after the sublime transition at the close of the first movement. This passage is paced and balanced expertly by Slatkin, and the following Poco adagio with its beautiful romantic harmony is alone worth the disc’s price. The organ becomes a new force, connecting well to wind and brass timbres while supporting the strings’ melodic voice. The scherzo’s tricky ensemble and the lightning-fast trio with its piano flourishes are handled impeccably. A foursquare and populist finale that incorporates brilliant brass and organ, ingenious development of the chorale theme and the Dies irae and much besides, ought not to work but on this recording it does!

The Lyon Auditorium organ on this recording is a refurbished transplant from Paris of the Cavaillé-Coll instrument on which Cyprès et Lauriers (1919) was premiered. Warnier is sensitive to the composer`s late exploratory chromaticism in the solo organ lament Cyprès, and appropriately celebratory in Lauriers for organ and orchestra. An ingenious transcription of Saint-Saëns’s well-known Danse macabre completes the disc.

Pierné; Vierne – Piano Quintets
Quatuor Arthur-Leblanc; Stéphane Lemelin
ATMA ACD2 2384

Pianist Stéphane Lemelin is director of “Découvertes 1890-1939,” a music series dedicated to the rediscovery of neglected early 20th-century French repertoire. He collaborated with the wonderful Quatuor Arthur-LeBlanc on this marvellous recording of piano quintets by Gabriel Pierné (1863-1937) and Louis Vierne (1870-1937). These two composers were contemporaries who shared not only turbulent times in both the history of Europe and the history of French music, but also similar musical aesthetics that could be described as very French and very refined. Gabriel Pierné, a prolific composer, also had a successful career as a conductor and was a passionate proponent of modern music, having premiered works of Stravinsky, Debussy and Ravel, among others. Louis Vierne was a respected organist – six organ symphonies are prominent in his opus.

As I was listening to this recording on a cold and snowy February day, it occurred to me that these piano quintets carry intensity that is emblematic of the winter season – a thick, undiluted, powerful “force majeure” of harmonies and expressions. Vierne’s music transmits darkness and pathos (possibly because he was mourning the death of his son) but also has a fierce energy to it. Pierné’s quintet appears to be more gentle, cinematic, with constant rhythmic drive that brings forward flow to each movement.

Passion and virtuosity are evident in Lemelin’s interpretation. The piano and strings have a good rapport, resulting in constant and flawless passing of expressions and big, enveloping sound at times. I especially enjoyed the delicate string textures in the quieter and accompanying sections.

Idil Biret Solo Edition 8 – Alexander Scriabin
Idil Biret
IBA 8.571302

The Idil Biret Archive (IBA) covers the long career of this much-recorded pianist; its Solo Edition features recent performances by the still-masterly Biret. This disc includes all 12 Scriabin Études of Op.8 and the eight of Op.42, along with Op.2, No.1 and the Fantaisie, Op.38. Biret’s expansive technique and musicianship meet the many requirements of these intricate, virtuosic pieces. Though it is greatly influenced by Chopin, I find Scriabin’s early style more “Russian” than do most commentators. Biret projects well the Russian soul and idiomatic vocal inflections of the dolorous Op.8, No.11 (1895). She is equally at home with the intense expressiveness, typically thick middle- and low-register textures and wide-ranging leaps (though a couple are missed) in the popular No.12 in D-Sharp Minor.

In the Op.42 Études (1903) Scriabin’s style becomes more idiosyncratic. The rapid moth-like No.1 is crowded with non-harmonic tones. Unequal note-grouping between left-hand accompaniment and right hand melody pervades several pieces, including No.6 with its five against three ratio. Scriabin’s tendency toward agitated and complex inner parts becomes more frequent as in No.5, as well as in the Fantaisie (1900). The overall tendency toward greater harmonic and rhythmic exploration connects with the often-improvisatory origins of Scriabin’s works, which Biret conveys with convincing rubato where appropriate. Among other things, this set is a good preparation for Scriabin’s later experimental, darkly mystical piano compositions.

The complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets with which the Quatuor Alcan is celebrating their 25th anniversary continues with Volume 2, a 3-CD set featuring the five works that have come to be known as the middle quartets: the Razumovsky quartets Op.59, Nos.1-3; Op.74, The Harp; and Op.95, Quartetto serioso (ATMA Classique ACD2 2492).

The high standard set by Volume 1, reviewed in this column last issue, continues here. As with that set, these works were recorded several years ago, between May 2008 and December 2011, but the fact that all the recordings were made at the excellent Salle Françoys-Bernier at Le Domaine Forget in Saint-Irénée in Quebec means that there is no discernable difference in the recorded sound.

Given the quality of the first two sets, I can’t wait to hear what the ensemble does with the late quartets in the final volume, scheduled for release in April.

There’s yet another beautiful CD of the three Brahms Violin Sonatas, this time featuring the French violinist Augustin Dumay and Canadian pianist Louis Lortie (Onyx 4133).

The playing here is perfectly judged. Nothing is ever rushed, but nothing ever seems to drag either; there is plenty of forward impetus when needed and a natural flow to the music that is helped by the expansive phrasing and the beautifully judged dynamics.

Dumay plays with his heart on his sleeve to some degree, with a big tone and a judicial use of portamento, but his playing – and Lortie’s too, for that matter – is always underpinned by great thought, intelligence and perception.

The Scherzo in C Minor, Brahms’ contribution to the collaborative F-A-E Sonata that he, Robert Schumann and Albert Dietrich wrote for Joseph Joachim, rounds out a simply lovely CD.

Hyperion’s outstanding series The Romantic Violin Concerto reaches Volume 18 with major works by the Belgian composer Joseph Jongen (1873-1953), in terrific performances by Philippe Graffin and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic under Martyn Brabbins (CDA68005).

The three works here – the Fantasia in E Major Op.12, the Adagio symphonique in B Major Op.20 and the Violin Concerto in B Minor Op.17 – were all written within a three-year period around the turn of the last century, when Jongen was still in his 20s. All are beautifully crafted Romantic works, with the concerto in particular a major composition with a quite beautiful slow movement.

Also included is the Rapsodie in E Minor by Jongen’s contemporary Sylvio Lazzari (1857-1944). Although born in Italy, Lazzari lived in France for most of his life and was influenced by Gounod, Franck and Chausson as well as by Wagner. His music has remained mostly unperformed since his death, but if this beautiful Rapsodie is anything to go by, then we’ve all been really missing something.

Graffin is, as usual, superb in every respect throughout the CD, with a luscious tone, expansive and nuanced phrasing, and sensitivity and passion to burn. He is given terrific support by Brabbins and the orchestra.

The outstanding Chinese violinist Tianwa Yang adds to her already highly impressive Naxos discography with a new CD of the two Violin Concertos by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (8.573135). Pieter-Jelle de Boer conducts the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden Baden und Freiburg.

It’s always interesting to hear rarely performed 20th-century violin concertos, and it’s a pretty safe bet that you won’t know the Concerto Italiano Op.31 at all – it’s a world premiere recording. Written in 1924, it looks back to the violin styles of the 17th and 18th centuries, and was considered by the composer to be his first truly symphonic work. Jascha Heifetz really liked it and after performing it in Paris in 1927 and in New York in 1931 he asked Castelnuovo-Tedesco to write a new concerto for him.

The resulting work, the Violin Concerto No.2 ‘The Prophets,’ Op.66, is certainly completely different. In 1925 the composer had discovered a notebook in which his grandfather had notated the music for some Hebrew prayers; the discovery had a deep emotional effect on him and led to his writing several works that celebrated his Jewish heritage. The concerto is one of these and uses traditional Jewish melodies in an orchestral setting that has more than a hint of the Hollywood movie scores that Castelnuovo-Tedesco would produce after moving to California some ten years later.

Heifetz, who gave the premiere in 1933 and also recorded the concerto, really liked it, but commented that apparently “no-one else did.” I’m with Heifetz.

Strings Attached continues at thewholenote.com with guitar concertos by Torroba (Pepe Romero and Vicente Coves), string quartets by Ruperto Chapí (Cuarteto Latinamericano) and works by Piazzolla arranged for violin and harp (Ann Hopson Pilot and Lucia Lin).

If you were asked to name a Spanish composer who lived through almost all of the 20th century, was over 90 when he died and wrote several guitar concertos, chances are you would name Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999), but Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982) was an exact contemporary who wrote ten guitar concertos of his own.

Naxos has issued Volume 1 of the Torroba Guitar Concertos, featuring guitarists Pepe Romero and Vicente Coves and the Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra under Manuel Coves (8.573255). Romero is the soloist in the world premiere recording of the Concierto en Flamenco, written in 1962 for the virtuoso flamenco guitarist Sabicas. Romero’s technical and musical mastery of both the flamenco and classical guitar styles make him an ideal interpreter. Coves is the featured soloist in the Diálogos entre guitarra y Orquesta, which was originally written for Andrés Segovia in the early 1960s but was subsequently revised and premiered in 1977. Pepe Romero recorded it in 1980. Since Coves is described in the booklet notes as having been a disciple of Romero’s for the best part of the last 20 years his performance clearly has the stamp of authenticity. Both works are pleasant and entertaining – the Diálogos in particular has a beautiful Andante movement – but neither makes as strong a first impression as the more popular Rodrigo concertos, which may partly account for their being less well known.

This Naxos CD is the first of three volumes of Torroba’s complete works for guitar and orchestra. As there are ten concertos to cover, the inclusion of two fairly substantial solo guitar works here is somewhat surprising. Again, the two soloists share the spotlight, with Romero the soloist in the five-movement suite Aires de La Mancha and Coves performing the three-movement Suite castellana, which includes Torroba’s first-ever composition for the guitar. Both works were the result of the composer’s collaboration with Segovia.

This seems to be a good month for works you’re not likely to hear that often, or even to know at all.

Ruperto Chapí (1851-1909) is a new name to me, and his String Quartets 1 & 2 are available on a new Sono Luminus CD in performances by the Cuarteto Latinoamericano (DSL-92185).

Chapí was a Spanish composer famous in his native country for his zarzuelas, the popular Spanish opera form, and he didn’t turn to chamber music until the last decade of his life, starting work on a series of four string quartets in 1903.

There certainly wasn’t much of a Spanish quartet tradition to follow. Little had been written since the three quartets of Juan Arriaga, who died just short of his 20th birthday in 1826, but the formation of the Cuarteto Francés ensemble in Madrid in 1901 kick-started the composition of string quartets by a number of local composers, Chapí among them. His first quartet was dedicated to the Cuarteto Francés.

Chapí had a thorough knowledge of the European masters, but his quartets are essentially portraits of Spain using the rhythms and colours of Spanish folk music. They are charming and effective works, and while the booklet notes mention references to Tchaikovsky and Grieg their mostly warm and sunny nature seems to me to be more reminiscent of Borodin’s D-Major Second Quartet.

The Cuarteto Latinoamericano are in their element here; you couldn’t ask for better performances.

Escualo is the title of a lovely new CD of the music of Astor Piazzolla, with violinist Ann Hobson Pilot and harpist Lucia Lin supported on selected tracks by J.P. Jofre on the bandoneón (harmonia mundi 907627).

Piazzolla’s nuevo tango music, which fused the traditional Argentine tango with jazz and classical elements, has become extremely popular over the past few decades, and the arrangements here work very well. There are two instrumental solos – Chiquillin de Bachin for harp and Tango-Étude III for violin – and two duets for violin and harp – Valsísimo and the four-movement suite Histoire du Tango. The only disappointment for me is the fact that the bandoneón only appears in the two remaining works: the three-movement Angel Suite and the title track. It’s a real pity, because the instrument’s distinctive sound adds such an air of authenticity to the music and takes it to a quite different level.

Pilot’s playing is clean and idiomatic, albeit perhaps a little restrained at times, but no matter – it’s always a delight to listen to, and she clearly understands the heart of this music.

French Trumpet Concertos
Paul Merkelo; Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal; Kent Nagano
Analekta AN 2 9847

Three challenging French trumpet concertos composed in the 20th century are given pristine, energetic and rollicking performances by soloist Paul Merkelo with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal under Kent Nagano. Merkelo has been principal trumpet with OSM since 1995. This long working association with his orchestral colleagues is heard in the performances, especially in sections where the soloist and orchestra have tight musical conversations. Conductor Nagano is yet again brilliant in his ability to lead them both while allowing considerable freedom for individual sound statements.

Each concerto is interesting in its compositional attributes. Militarist musical references such as trumpet fanfares and snare drums with jazz-like solo trumpet lines highlight Henri Tomasi’s Concerto pour trumpette et orchestre. Alfred Desenclos’ Incantation, Thrène et Dance pour trompette et orchestre is the most academic of the works here. Rooted in the Romantic harmonic and melodic tradition, Desenclos also sneaks in jazz-rooted ideas, creating a movie music scenario which ends with an appropriate big bang. Even more jazz influences are found in André Jolivet‘s Concerto pour trompette No.2. Described by the composer as “a ballet for trumpet,” 14 different percussion instruments, piano and saxophones lead the rest of the orchestra to groove like a big band. Merkelo shines in the second movement solo with its changing sonic qualities.

These may not be the strongest trumpet concertos ever written but the abounding essence of fun and enthusiasm in performance is uplifting!

Spirit of the American Range
Oregon Symphony; Carlos Kalmar
Pentatone PTC 5186 481

The “American Range” moniker of this album is a tad disingenuous as the three composers represented here all honed their craft in Paris in the 1920s and hailed from the East Coast of America. Boston-based Walter Piston (1894-1976) was an esteemed figure in mid-20th century American music who taught a generation of composers as a professor at Harvard. His most popular work, the masterful and highly entertaining suite from his 1938 ballet The Incredible Flutist opens this fine recording with panache.

George Antheil (1900-1959), the self-described “bad boy of modern music,” was born in Trenton, New Jersey. His 1927 composition, A Jazz Symphony, was first performed at Carnegie Hall by the African-American Harlem Symphonietta directed by W.C. Handy. The orchestra responds to this swaggering score with great gusto, with notable contributions from a very tight brass section.

Brooklyn-born composer Aaron Copland (1900-1990) stressed in his program note for the 1946 Boston premiere of his Third Symphony under Koussevitsky that his work contained “no folk or popular material,” hallmarks of his previous highly successful series of ballet scores. Nevertheless, the triumphalism of this, his most ambitious and extended composition, mirrored the optimism of the Postwar Era and the work was swiftly hailed as the epitome of the longed-for “Great American Symphony.” Kalmar’s interpretation eschews the tub-thumping often brought to this symphony with a highly sensitive and fluid reading which illuminates the complex thematic relationships between the four movements of this mighty work.

Pristinely captured in vivid sonics, these are live performances unmarred by any extraneous noises. This is a recording you’ll surely enjoy listening to repeatedly.

John Korsrud – Crush
John Korsrud’s Hard Rubber Orchestra
rubhard 04 (hardrubber.com)

From note one, it’s clear that composer and bandleader John Korsud studied at the Burning Man school of jazz, forging his wide-ranging musical inspirations into a bubbling hot electric Kool-Aid. Crush is all about oppositions: between big band and chamber music instrumentations; in the mash-up of musical genres; as competing strands within individual textures, and among the pieces, interpolating between the rabid (Crush, Lowest Tide, Slice, Wise Up) and the pensive (Peace for Ross, Mist 1 & 2). While the longer, heavier works symbolize a hydraulic press squeezing divergent energies out the seams, their shorter counterparts are the compacted, focused units at the end of the process.

On first hearing some of the pieces may sound discombobulated, but further listening reveals that even the most frenetic surfaces are unified with careful constraint. In Crush, surrounding the flailing wildness of drummer Dave Robbins, percussionist Jack Duncan and trumpet soloist Brad Turner, Korsrud displays near-tantric restraint with a slow, sustained low-register chorale, generating the tension that defines the piece. For Lowest Tide, among visceral clouds of fast and wiry ascending figures reminiscent of mid-period Ligeti, a Phil Dwyer solo scorches the Earth, Wind & Fire-inspired groove, punctuated with metallic horn shots that turn into a buzzing sax section pulp. In Come to the Dark Side, a serpentine trumpet lead (played by Korsrud) is pitted against a consistently pneumatic, stuttering accompaniment loosely recalling John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Industrial-strength Mahavishnu Orchestra-styled ostinati churn their repetitions alongside guttural baritone saxophone exhortations and Ron Samworth’s warped guitar playing in the final piece, Wise Up. If it seems like an implausible assemblage of ideas and sources, Korsrud and crew’s deft handling will flatten any doubt like a Jumping Jack Tamper™ on the sands of the playa.

Ziggurat
Neal Bennett; Brian Nesselroad
Redshift Records TK433
(redshiftmusic.org)

Matching personality to instruments in the brass section, trumpets are the alphas, French horns are quietly confident team players of generally modest demeanour; near the bottom you find the seeking souls who play trombone. Sensitive by nature, they mask this trait with tough-guy attitudes, fooling nobody. (The tuba runs the show, but nobody wants that to get out).

The last half-century has seen a surprising number of highly gifted sackbut virtuosi, players who turn their unwieldy horns on various dimes to produce striking results. Taking his place among them is Canadian Neal Bennett. His recent release, Ziggurat, offers works for solo trombone as well as a variety of choir sizes. Best known to local fans of new music will be Jocelyn Morlock, who contributed Sequoia for an ensemble of eight trombones and percussion and After the Rain, a solo piece. Scott Good’s Liquid Metal for ten (!) trombones, is a mighty enjoyable evocation of the foundry scene from Terminator 2.

Most of the composers are based in B.C., and his lone collaborator is percussionist Brian Nesselroad. Yes, instead of herding all available and capable practitioners for the multi-bone works (four of the seven tracks), Bennett worked all 34 (THIRTY-FOUR) parts up himself, layering overdub upon overdub. Sink that putt, I ask you.

The material is uneven. I’m nuts about Rob McKenzie’s blues-based Indigo but I feel Roydon Tse’s Continual Awakening, riffing on short-term memory impairment, is more interesting in idea than execution. Theatrics fail to work on a disc as they might on stage in Swedish composer Folke Rabe’s Basta, though the piece serves to highlight Bennett’s virtuosity. Finally there’s Ziggurat, by Farshid Samandari, a gorgeous dialogue with background voices and drums; it evokes the grand structure suggested by the title. A chattering coda ends the disc with a bang.

PEP: Piano and Ehru Project
Nicole Ge Li; Corey Hamm
Redshift Records TK437
(redshiftmusic.org)

The Vancouver duo Piano and Erhu Project (PEP), founded in 2011, is by its very nature a cross-cultural enterprise. It represents the ongoing artistic partnership between pianist and UBC music professor Corey Hamm, a champion of avant-garde music, and the erhu player Nicole Ge Li, the concertmaster of the B.C. Chinese Music Ensemble. She is a virtuoso on that Chinese two-stringed fiddle, the most popular of the huqin family. Moreover, as eloquently evidenced on this album, Li is as much at home in recent Western musical idioms as in Chinese ones.

While the combination of erhu and piano may be novel to most Canadian listeners, it isn’t news in China. There the practice of a pianist accompanying an erhu soloist reaches back into the last century. The compositions which form the backbone of Li and Hamm’s project however, exemplify a more fluid interplay between these two instruments, each an icon of its respective culture. Rather than an inter-cultural vanity project, their collective music-making focuses on polished, musically engaged readings of recently commissioned scores. It’s also a reflection of Vancouver’s rich, ever-evolving, pan-Pacific music scene.

The repertoire on the album all dates from within the last few years. It explores a wide stylistic range, from the alternately sassy, sizzling Blues ’n Grooves (2014) composed by University of Toronto composition student Roydon Tse, to Edward Top’s mysterious, modernist Lamentation (2014), a feast for Li’s expressive mastery in the erhu’s upper range. Top was a recent composer-in-residence with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.

A word about the composers; of the ten featured here most are Canadian, including Jocelyn Morlock, John Oliver, Laurie Radford and Mark Armanini. The polished scores they have produced for PEP are all performed with care and élan, and bear repeated listening. With a treasury of over 40 commissioned works by both Canadian and Chinese composers played to high standards, I’m not surprised that Volume 2 of PEP has already been announced.

P.S. I Love You
Monica Chapman; William Sperandei
LME Records 6 79444 20020 0 (monicachapman.net)

With P.S. I Love You, talented vocalist Monica Chapman presents an engaging collection of material that is both nostalgic and romantic, but with a discernably sensual and torrid blues sensibility. She has surrounded herself with intuitive musical collaborators, including JUNO-winning producer/pianist Bill King, whose innovative arrangements (as well as his piano work) really define this well-conceived project. Other first-call musicians include Dave Young on bass, Nathan Hiltz on guitar, Mark Kelso on drums and featured guest, William Sperandei on trumpet.

First up is Irving Berlin’s Tin Pan Alley hit, I Love a Piano, which sets the stylistic tone and is sung with the rarely performed verse, which then segues into a funky chitlin’ circuit jam, replete with a burning hot trumpet solo from Sperandei. The title track is the rarely performed Gordon Jenkins/Johnny Mercer ballad, which was most notably recorded by the incomparable Billie Holiday. In Chapman’s interpretation she has captured an appropriately ironic, bittersweet subtext while clinging to the beauty of the melodic line and lyrical intent.

Of special note is another Berlin tune, Shaking the Blues Away, which is perhaps most recognized as the four-alarm number performed by Ann Miller in MGM’s classic movie musical Easter Parade – cleverly delivered here with a spicy Louisiana roadhouse feel and lusciously languid vocals. A real treat (and slightly forward in the timeline) is Lionel Bart’s theme from the 1963 James Bond flick, From Russia with Love, which is perfectly arranged for Chapman’s luscious voice in a pure, classic jazz mode. This CD is a stunner, and a wonderful follow up to Chapman’s 2014 debut CD.

Concert Note: Monica Chapman launches P.S. I Love You at Lulu Lounge on April 24. Dinner reservations recommended.

New Vocabulary
Ornette Coleman
System Dialing SDR #009 (systemdialingrecords.com)

Maverick as he has been throughout his career, alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman, who personifies experimental jazz and won the Pulitzer Prize for music in 2007, has released a new disc with little fanfare. Recorded in 2009, Coleman’s first CD since 2006, and first studio session since 1996, New Vocabulary doesn’t feature the acoustic two-basses-and-drums quartet with which the reedist has been touring for a decade. Instead Coleman improvises alongside trumpeter and electronic manipulator Jordan McLean, drummer Amir Ziv, and, on three of the 12 tracks, pianist Adam Holzman. Although his name is neither on the cover nor attributed on the un-credited songs, the idiosyncratic titles are classic Coleman-speak.

Just as the alto saxophonist defined free jazz in the late 1950s and jazz-funk fusion in the 1980s, he easily adapts to the centrality of processed wave forms plus chunky percussion beats. Significantly, his barbed but effervescent reed tone is as individual, staccato and pointed as ever. Accordingly, tunes such as H2O and The Idea Has No Destiny clearly demonstrate how cymbal cracks and fierce wide smacks plus disintegrating brass oscillations can lock in with reed brays. The result leads to elaborate spherical timbres that reach pressurized summits then coalesce joyously. With calculated chording, Holzman’s harmonies add another dimension. That means a track such as Value and Knowledge reaches a luminous climax that folds trumpet splats, drum corps rat-tat-tats and rubato piano lines into an infectious near dance beat. Finally, Gold is God’s Sex, the CD’s climactic last track, demonstrates how feverish keyboard tolling plus revved-up reed bites can tame washes of menacing electronics.

Since Coleman’s playing is oblique but decisively melodic, New Vocabulary is a disc that’s convivial as well as challenging. Plus it shows that Coleman’s authentic ideas can convincingly adapt to and be adopted by any number of undogmatic musicians.

Something In The Air | Unusual Formats for New Music - March 2015

“Everything old is new again” doesn’t go quite far enough in describing formats now available for disseminating music. Not only are downloads and streaming becoming preferred options, but CDs are still being pressed at the same time as musicians experiment with DVDs, vinyl variants and even tape cassettes. Happily the significance of the musical messages outweighs the media multiplicity.

If there’s one instance of a musician having it all, then consider Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson’s boxed set Hidros 6 – Knockin’ (Not Two MW 915 nottwo.com). Recorded during a five-day gig in Krakow, by a specially constituted 12-member NU Ensemble,it highlights the group’s performance of the title track plus different musicians’ solo work. In total the Hidros box contains five CDs, two LPs, one DVD plus a 22-page LP-sized booklet. An addendum, the hour-plus DVD, includes a filmic record of different-sized ensembles improvising, rehearsing or performing the Knockin’ score plus interviews with many of the principals. All four sides of the LPs are given over to the large ensemble performance, which celebrates the transgressive sounds which Little Richard Penniman brought to pop music in the 1950s. Not rock ’n’ roll by any stretch of the imagination, Gustafsson’s graphic score combines the free jazz methodology of the players with samples of Little Richard’s works propelled by turntablist Dieb13, plus high-pitched repetition of certain phrases from his hits by vocalist Stine Janvind Motland. Climaxing with a call-and-response manifest the four sides of Knockin’ shove the vocal freedom engendered by Penniman into the instrumental realm. Solo and in sections, the players use extended instrumental procedures to fragment themes into in-your-face abstractions. Lyric soprano Motland has the hardest task since repeatedly vocalizing Little Richard lyrics such as “Hmm, I don’t need a show/Gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie gimmie” or “Bama lama bama loo/Go, go, have a time” calls for intense concentration plus a sense of humour. She and the other players are better showcased on the three group CDs. Accompanied by only Dieb13 and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, Motland eschews words for bird-like falsetto titters and warbles which elongate enough to make common cause with the slashes of sound and LP tracking rumbles sourced by Dieb13. At the same time her staccato pacing and wails connect on a visceral level with Nilssen-Love’s undulating and unvarying patterning. Elsewhere, the drummer demonstrates his malleability laying down an unobtrusive beat for Nybyggarland one of the vintage Scandinavian bop classics the band Swedish Azz plays. That quintet, filled out by Per Åke Holmlander’s tuba, Gustafsson on baritone sax, Dieb13 and Kjell Nordeson on vibes and drums creates a tune that’s engaging and swinging at the same time, with Nordeson’s vibes providing the sparkling melody as the low-pitched horns push out balanced blasts. Nordeson is also an exceptional drummer, with the evidence on the more-than 29-minute duet with pianist Agustí Fernández. Aggressively acoustic, the two produce a memorable savage, free-form intensity, as does a medley of New Thing classics performed on a later disc at warp-speed velocity by The Thing – Gustafsson, Nilssen-Love, bassist Ingebrigt Håker Flaten – plus additional tenor saxophonist Joe McPhee. With Fernández smacking the side of his instrument and forcefully plucking piano strings with fish-hook sharpness, it’s sometimes hard to determine where the drummer’s dynamic clunks and metal rustles end and his begin. Crucially this blunt-beat colouration reaches an exultant climax following the pianist’s highly volatile keyboard cascades and the percussionist’s introduction of clacking metal bar abrasions from his vibes. More memorable matchups include Fernández and Gustafsson joining trumpeter Peter Evans or McPhee with bass clarinetist Christer Bothén. On the first, the pianist’s rappelling forward at player-piano velocity challenges as well as accompanies the horn men. The result is staccato and dyspeptic timbres from both: in Evans’ case moving beyond the limits of his horn to elevate notes past triplets; and in Gustafsson’s blasting honks and slurs upwards. McPhee and Bothén create a gentler duet, each man defining the American or Swedish abstractions’ elaboration, with McPhee supplying human-like cries from his horn as Bothén appears to be digging into his own stomach lining for raw expression. With so much music to choose from however, it’s likely the listener will find much to enjoy in this box of wonders.

If Gustafsson’s package is the apex of modern sound dissemination then a couple of Montreal free improvisers go in the opposite direction with their release La Passe (Small Scale Music smallscalemusic.wordpress.com) is available only on cassette tape – though it does include a download code – which is how alto saxophonist Yves Charuest and trumpeter Ellwood Epps document their near telepathic interaction. With startlingly clear sound the five tracks capture relaxed improvisations that are often melodic and linear without ever losing a spiky edge. Merely brushing against one another as they follow parallel courses, one creates the defining narrative(s) which the other garnishes with deconstructed vamps. On Deuxième Passe for instance, tongue slaps plus bagpipe-like strains from the saxophonist foreshadow a plunger response from Epps, ensuring that the climax is polyphonic and pleasant. Similarly intersecting strategies on Quartième Passe reveal lip bubbling plus percussive bumps until separating into harsh buzzes (Charuest) and bird-like peeps (Epps). Finally as the trumpet’s airy loops bring out complementary reed timbres, the finale suggest waves lapping against a tranquil shore. A session where the message is more important than the medium, the accomplished duo deserves wider exposure in many formats.

Following up on the new vinyl emphasis, another Montreal-based duo, Pierre-Yves Martel, who plays viola da gamba, objects and feedback, and soprano saxophonist/bass clarinetist Philippe Lauzier, have released an LP of Sainct Laurens Volume 2 (E-tron Records ETRC 019 e-tron.bandcamp.com), even though Volume 1 was on CD. The choice is somewhat ironic since the textures the duo creates on these eight tracks relates more closely to computerized miniaturization than direct-to-disc mechanism. For a start, Martel’s treatment of the viola da gamba is that of a hammered dulcimer, using percussive resonation to clip and clank discursive blows even as they define the themes. Lauzier’s common strategy is to pull strident, almost vibrato-less horizontal tones from his horns, creating parallel responses to Martel’s expositions. Emphasizing his instruments’ wood, metal and reed properties, Lauzier’s tone ranges from pan flute-like airiness to violent glissandi. Additionally, triggered wave forms comment below the surface, creating more sonic surfaces to explore. Volga is one instance where Martel’s steel pan-like echoes meet equally bellicose bell-like gongs that are revealed as tongue slaps. As the buzzing timbres separate into reed blowing and sul ponticello string extensions, exhilarating timbres reach a crescendo, yet are craftily and abruptly cut off. This split-second timing plus startling tone integration and partition continues throughout the disc, making the pause between LP sides off-putting, but not insurmountable.

Another profoundly in-the-moment musician who has chosen an old-school format is British bassist Barry Guy. Referring by inference to experimental as well as advanced instant compositions, Five Fizzles for Samuel Beckett (NoBusiness Records NBEP 2 nobusinessrecords.com) is available as a 10-inch vinyl EP. Solo and only 14-minutes long, the program is as spacious and brutal as any of the Irish writer’s creations. Double stopping while pumping and pummeling his string set, Guy has created an autonomous salute where his single double bass creates more emotional resonance than exists in the author’s laconic works. Rappelling up and down his four strings at supersonic speeds, the bassist uses rasgueado and spiccato intensification in his playing, creating more resonance by vibrating a stick placed horizontally behind his strings. Besides attractive cross tones, belfry-like bell echoes and what sounds like wood rendered splinter by splinter, are heard. Finally on Fizzle V the concluding strategies reflect back on earlier tactics. Scrubbing every part of the bass, the climax combines pressure, pain and pleasure, with the coda a series of col legno whacks. Guy honors Beckett by expressing his own (musical) language.

This is also a variant on what each of the musicians here has done: producing memorable sounds preserved on individually chosen formats.

Imaginary Cities
Chris Potter Underground Orchestra
ECM 2387

Saxophonist Chris Potter first garnered attention as a sideman to senior masters, from 1994 figuring prominently in the bands of the late drummer Paul Motian and the bassists Dave Holland and Steve Swallow. In the past decade, he’s emerged as a leading figure in the contemporary mainstream, combining emotional power and an expansive creativity. He’s previously written for a ten-piece ensemble (Song for Anyone, 2007) and his last CD, The Sirens, was an extended suite inspired by Homer’s Odyssey. On Imaginary Cities he’s augmented his usual Underground quartet to an 11-member orchestra, adding vibraphone, two basses and a string quartet.

In the four-part, 36-minute title suite and four unconnected pieces, Potter constructs strong themes, synthesizing elements of jazz and classical music and matching them with rhythmic patterns sourced from as far afield as funk and Balinese gamelan to create complex grounds that both stimulate and merge with the improvised solos. Potter’s strengths are apparent from the opening Lament. His sound is flexible and expressive, hard, bright and capable of great nuance. On faster tempos, there’s a whiplash suddenness to his phrasing, while an ingrained nobility of line enhances the elegiac work.

Well past any traditional concept of the big band, Potter’s pieces for orchestra create a complex web of materials that feed his partners’ spontaneous impulses as well as his own. His regular band members – pianist Craig Taborn, guitarist Adam Rogers and drummer Nate Smith – all stand out, as do vibraphonist Steve Nelson and violinist Mark Feldman.