Milhaud & Ginastera
Andrée-Ann Deschênes
Independent (aadpiano.com)

Los Angeles-based Canadian pianist Andrée-Ann Deschênes has a thing for Latin American piano music. Her first CD was a collection of piano music from Cuba and Brazil. And in August, the Humber College grad – presently a doctoral music student at California’s Claremont Graduate University (CGU), with a teaching gig at Cal State LA – released Milhaud & Ginastera. Her second indie effort – in a recent interview with CGU’s magazine, The Flame, Deschênes calls herself an “indie pianist” (followed by, “if there’s such a thing!”) – offers two sets of dances for solo piano: one largely inspired by Rio de Janeiro’s neighbourhoods; the other, a well-known trio of Argentinian dances.

After a two-year stay in Rio (1917-18), French composer Darius Milhaud composed his 12-dance suite, Saudades do Brazil. Untranslatable, “saudade” suggests a feeling of longing, melancholy or nostalgia, a fixture in the music and literature of Brazil. In that same Flame interview, Deschênes says she chose these pieces “because they are such unique little gems of music.” And they are, each one its own, self-contained iteration of saudade, some poignant and dark, others more playful with driving rhythms. All tonally interesting, harmonically colourful and utterly charming. Deschênes captures the essence of saudade, tapping into an emotional connection to the material – you sense she’s both moved by it, yet at the same time, focused on the task at hand, technique crisp and clean.

Alberto Ginastera’s Danza Argentinas are also gorgeous gems, and Deschênes executes them deftly and sensitively; the middle, an achingly beautiful invocation.

Deschênes’ disc is a gem. ¡Fantástico!

Charles Wuorinen – Eighth Symphony; Fourth Piano Concerto
Peter Serkin; Boston Symphony Orchestra; James Levine
Bridge Records 9474 (bridgerecords.com)

In his heyday, conductor James Levine was known as a staunch advocate of the American high modern school of practitioners of Arnold Schoenberg’s serial method, commissioning new works from Elliott Carter, Milton Babbitt and Charles Wuorinen during his tenure as music director of the Boston Symphony. Bridge Records, with considerable philanthropic support, has now issued a commemorative disc of two major works from the last man standing of that compositional triumvirate. The first of these, Wuorinen’s Eighth Symphony, bears the arcane subtitle, Theologoumena, defined by the composer as “a private non-dogmatic theological opinion.” Make of that what you will. Formally it is cast in a conventional order of three fast-slow-fast movements, expressed in a no-compromise, often abrasive, language. That language is nevertheless in many ways a very traditional and approachable one; there are no extended instrumental techniques or a smidgen of spectralism to be found in his highly contrapuntal style. The first movement of the symphony is a wild ride of unbridled energy, dense and frenetic; the second movement is marginally more restrained, while the finale brings the percussion and piano to the fore for a thunderous conclusion. The ensemble of the Boston musicians is pushed to the edge in this high tension recording of the 2007 premiere performance.

The performance of Wuorinen’s compelling Fourth Piano Concerto from 2005 is considerably more assured, in large part due to Peter Serkin’s admirable mastery of the demanding solo piano part and the composer’s more lyrical approach in this work. All three movements of the concerto maintain a constant, mercurial energy leavened with explosive outpourings of orchestral frenzy. This is tough music to love, but easy to admire.

Wind blown – Sonatas for wind instruments by Peter Hope
Various Artists
Divine Art dda 25137
(divineartrecords.com)

A Land So Luminous – Music by Richard Causton; Kenneth Hesketh
Continuum Ensemble; Philip Headlam
Prima Facie PFCD051 (thecontinuumensemble.co.uk)

Richard Danielpour – Songs of Solitude; War Songs
Thomas Hampson; Nashville Symphony; Giancarlo Guerrero
Naxos 8.559772

On the day the Twin Towers fell, Richard Danielpour was at the composers’ retreat in Aaron Copland’s former Peekskill, NY, home. His artistic response to 9/11 was to begin work on Songs of Solitude, settings of six scathing Yeats poems. Danielpour’s melodic, rhythmic and colouristic predilections link him to Copland and Bernstein, two fellow New York-based composers of Jewish ancestry. Echoes of Copland appear in the cycle’s orchestral opening and closing; Bernstein is channelled in the jazzy Drinking Song. The longest song, lasting nine of the cycle’s 28 minutes, sets Yeats’s most famous poem, The Second Coming, but the music fails to match the power of these often-quoted lines.

There’s power aplenty, though, in War Songs (2008), inspired, writes Danielpour, by photographs of young soldiers killed in Iraq. Set to haunting Civil War poems by Walt Whitman, four dirge-like, elegiac songs precede the shattering final song, Come up from the Fields Father, at 11 minutes, nearly half the cycle’s duration. I was left both shaken and stirred.

Both cycles were composed for baritone Thomas Hampson, here in characteristically fine voice, fully expressive of the words (texts are included).

Transformations
Aaron Tindall, tuba; various ensembles
Bridge Records 9471 (bridgerecords.com)

Vyacheslav Artyomov – Symphony Gentle Emanation; Tristia II
Russian National Orchestra; Teodor Currentzis; Vladimir Ponkin
Divine Art dda 25144

Artyomov – Symphony on the Threshold of a Bright World; Ave Atque Vale; Ave, Crux Alba
National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia; Vladimir Ashkenazy
Divine Art dda 25143
(divineartrecords.com)

Vyacheslav Artyomov was preparing for a life in astrophysics, but these two symphonies (parts of a tetralogy) are unlike The Planets, unless you think of them as uber-Holst: they cause a visceral reaction and suggest a metaphysical cri de cœur. My initial reaction to them was that they sounded like the soundtrack of some 1940s film noir or an original-series Star Trek episode – which is apt, since they embody mystery and the unknown. In his essay, Musica Perennis, the composer said “Serious music is created by the spirit for the Spirit,” and these twin-released CDs reflect his view of music as a mediator between God and man, but also as science. While I find the Threshold of a Bright World symphony more arresting than the Gentle Emanation, they are both accessible, and while Artyomov is often compared to Arvo Pärt, I hear a little more of Rautavaara.

The orchestration in Ave Atque Vale and Gentle Emanation is a little jarring due to the highlighting of the percussion parts. But Ave, Crux Alba, a choral (Helikon Theatre Choir) and orchestral setting of the Hymn of the Knights of Malta, returns to the majesty and mystery Artyomov is known for in his musical quest for spirituality. Tristia II, based on the 19th-century poems of Nikolai Gogol and with spoken parts read by Russian actor Mikhail Philippov, carries on the potential-soundtrack feel and allows us non–Russian speakers to hear the cries of the artist to God for inspiration; the suspense in the middle tracks suggests Him mulling the petitions over.

Both CDs are in memoriam of the composer’s friend and colleague, Mstislav Rostropovich, and both have expansive liner notes.

Slow Bend
See Through Two
All-Set! A8007 (all-set.org)

Famous Wildlife Movies
Mike Smith
All-Set! A8006 (all-set.org)

Another Helpful Medicine
Aurochs
All-Set! A8004 (all-set.org)

Margins
See Through 5
All-Set! A8005 (all-set.org)

The All-Set! Imprint is fast becoming a beacon of originality as a fast-growing world of boutique and independent contemporary music labels. Its penchant for featuring artful cover graphics that appear more inclined towards corporate identity than visually describing musical content is unusual, to say the least. But nothing could prepare the listener for what to hear on each of their releases; not even the names of rather well-known experimental musicians whose work lies within each release. A case in point is Slow Bend by the bass duo See Through Two.

On this masterful performance by Rob Clutton (bass, banjo and fretless Fender bass) and Pete Johnston (bass) we glimpse music from quite another realm of bass violin, with the sound of the banjo providing not just relief, but occasionally elevating the music to the upper layers of this tonal realm. The personality of each piece is characterized by the rhythmic brevity of its title but often takes the dallying conversation between the two bassists to fascinating harmonic spaces. This adventure that takes as its starting point, in place of metric lassitude, a steady beat which is then stretched and moulded with infinite varieties of rubato. As a result, the rather explicitly titled Range that begins the set to Trail, which suggests not the end, perhaps, but the beginning of another journey, the refreshing overall impression is of a great colouristic soundscape that is rather dynamic and rich in possibility.

In addition to Slow Bend, but completely different in every aspect of music, recent releases have also included Mike Smith’s Famous Wildlife Movies, a fascinating collection of pieces which emerges as an epic in miniature for large ensemble performed with special authority and élan. Two years after Aurochs’ Rational Animals comes Another Helpful Medicine, which seems to have been created in a crucible ignited by an explosion of collective imagination. Finally the recent collection of releases includes Margins by See Through 5, a quintet whose music is characterized by its gaunt sonority, laser-like projection, finely calibrated articulation and uncanny rhythmic equilibrium.

John MacMurchy’s Art of Breath Volume One
John MacMurchy
Independent (johnmacmurchy.com)

Toronto woodwind stalwart John MacMurchy has produced a sonically refreshing album that manages to combine sophistication and accessibility across a variety of musical genres. The eight original compositions contained in Art of Breath flow together in a natural way, a testament to MacMurchy’s writing and arranging skills. The somewhat unusual instrumentation, a septet augmented by vocals and a string quartet, makes for a broad colour palette. The front line of MacMurchy’s tenor saxophone, clarinet and harmonica, Bruce Cassidy’s trumpet, flugelhorn and EVI (electronic valve instrument) and Dan Ionescu’s guitar provide a large ensemble sound with a few twists. Alan Hetherington’s highly informed percussion work adds a nice touch of groove and authenticity to the tracks.

Expat Cafe introduces most of the band with Ionescu’s slightly overdriven guitar tone and soaring approach giving way to pianist Mark Kieswetter’s patiently constructed and harmonically lush solo. MacMurchy and Cassidy build intensity with spirited trading on tenor and EVI. Working Title Blues evokes Art Blakey in its soul jazz vibe and bop-oriented improvisation. Drummer Daniel Barnes and bassist Ross McIntyre swing hard and make concise solo contributions.

Vocalist Whitney Ross-Barris is also the lyricist of Now You’ve Gone Away. Her understated style and economy of phrasing lend themselves perfectly to the Latin-tinged ballad, as does the atmospheric string quartet arrangement and MacMurchy’s soulful harmonica. Yvette Tollar brings her rich voice and poignant delivery to Dandelion Wine, MacMurchy’s hauntingly beautiful elegy to a departed friend.

Micro and More Exercises
Sergio Armaroli Trio with Giancarlo Schiaffini
Dodicilune Dischi Ed 360 (dodicilune.it)

Like friends who should be made for one another but avoid hooking up, improvised and new music have grown closer recently but rarely mesh. Yet the Italian stylists here show how handily this could be done. Percussionist Sergio Armaroli and trombonist Giancarlo Schiaffini consistently move between those genres, and assisted by bassist Marcello Testa and drummer Nicola Stranieri put their stamp on 19 Microexercises composed by Christian Wolff, and six extended pieces by Schiaffini. Member of the New York School, Wolff also had improv experience working with the AMM band. Commissioned to write pieces with fewer than 100 notes, Wolff’s bagatelles leave open instrumentation, ensemble size, playing order, transposition and dynamics. Schiaffini’s compositions reflect his background as a pioneer free music player and collaborator with composers Scelsi, Nono and Cage.

Armaroli and the trombonist are the main soloists, with many of the mini-tunes vibrating with contrapuntal contrast between gutty brass lowing and feather-light vibraphone resonations. Like a group painting project, the performance of many Wolff miniatures, such as Microexercise 8, becomes more dramatic when unbroken vibraphone splashes are paired with spiccato string slices. Analogously positioned drum rolls and pops add gravitas to tunes such as Microexercise 15 that, when coupled with blurry trombone blats, resemble a child of show tunes and nursery rhymes. Armaroli’s skill with reductionist marimba chiming elsewhere is augmented Janus-like on Microexercise 20, 21 and 22 where Wolff’s pieces open up so that they could come from an imaginary Milt Jackson-Al Grey session. Replete with walking bass line and drum smacks, Schiaffini romps through the changes and Armaroli displays four-mallet ingenuity.

Bringing jazz feeling to Wolff’s miniatures is balanced by adding notated precision to Schiaffini’s tunes. Testa’s woody bowing and Stranieri’s processional drum breaks keep the bottom balanced, while Armaroli’s percussion collections interpolate polyrhythms plus nuanced tones onto the tracks. Throughout, the trombonist quotes snatches of Italian pop songs and Baroque fanfares with abandon. Most spectacular is Rib, where Schiaffini’s output could come from two different ’bone players: one smooth and unaccented, the other raucous and gutbucket. Structure is never neglected though, as this performance eventually relaxes into sparse new music reflections with spaciousness as prominent as rhythm. Musical masters, this quartet scores as musical matchmakers as well.

Ken Waxman

It’s Easy to Remember
Corey Weeds Quintet featuring David Hazeltine
Cellar Live CL031716 (cellarlive.com)

Vancouver tenor saxophonist Cory Weeds teams up with New York pianist David Hazeltine in this impressive live outing. Recorded at Smalls in NYC, the album’s nine tunes make a compelling case for the variety to be found in contemporary mainstream jazz. The programming is an eclectic mix of standards and originals with Hazeltine’s considerable arranging skills shedding new light on a few old chestnuts.

The opening track, Kenny Drew’s With Prestige establishes the band’s hard-bop credentials. Weeds sounds right at home here, incorporating a relaxed, swinging style with a big tone and impeccable lines. Trumpeter Joe Magnarelli’s loose, behind-the-beat phrasing opens into a tour de force of double-time ideas. Hazeltine demonstrates a classic style, playing with a deep-time feel and exquisite taste. Paul Gill’s arco bass solo summons up Paul Chambers in its facility, sound and note choice.

The late Ross Taggart, a brilliant musician/composer and a Vancouver compatriot of Weeds, is remembered in two of his compositions. Expose introduces a modal vibe to the recording, and the players take full advantage of the leeway it allows. Solos explore greater angularity and Hazeltine makes a playful reference to Surrey With A Fringe On Top. Drummer Jason Tiemann contributes aggressive, up-tempo playing and an explosive solo. The title track, It’s Easy To Remember is full of twists and turns. All of the players negotiate Hazeltine’s complex arrangement with the combination of confidence and abandon that defines this recording.

Oddara
Jane Bunnett and Maqueque
Linus Entertainment 270244 (linusent.ca)

Award-winning soprano saxophonist/flutist Jane Bunnett has a knack for putting together great bands. In fact, she has been doing so since before the release of her first recording, In Dew Time (1987), through to the acclaimed Spirits of Havana band, which celebrated their 25th anniversary this year (see Andrew Timar’s review in the September 2016 issue of The WholeNote).

Her latest outing showcases the all-female band, Maqueque (meaning “the energy of a young girl’s spirit”), formed five years ago. This group follows in the Bunnett tradition of ensembles featuring not only phenomenally talented players, but also great chemistry amongst the musicians. This chemistry is evident throughout Oddara, Maqueque’s follow-up to their 2014 self-titled debut CD.

Accordingly, core band members Dánae Olano (piano, vocals), Celia Jiménez (bass, vocals), Magdelys Savigne (percussion, vocals), Yissy Garcia (drums) and Elizabeth Rodriguez (violin, vocals) all turn in great, inspired performances. However, it is the group dynamic, deep listening, empathy and superb communication that come to the fore on each track.

Highlights include the Melvis Santa composition, Power of Two (Ibeyi). Based on a traditional Afro-Cuban chant, the song opens with a call-and-response section, before seguing into a beautiful pentatonic vocal and flute melody. On Dream, the ensemble showcases their versatility as they navigate a variety of textures and turns in this multi-layered arrangement. Bunnett’s distinctive sound and impeccable musicianship shine throughout. This is music brimming with joy, mastery, beauty and passion.

All My Treasures
Lauren Bush
Independent (laurenbushjazz.com)

Currently based in the UK, Canadian jazz vocalist Lauren Bush showcases her diverse musical abilities as she sings and scats a selection of her favourite tunes with energy and a distinctive vocal colour while being supported by her superb band comprised of Liam Dunachie (piano/arranger), Andrew Robb (acoustic bass) and David Ingamells (drums),

The opening I’ve Got Just About Everything I Need is a fast-paced jazz tune arranged by Canadian musician Don Thompson. Bush sings the challenging plethora of words set at a higher pitch with conviction and clarity. The addition of a horn section provides a welcome New Orleans-flavoured sound for instrumental solos and for Bush to sing a bouncy version of Sweet Georgia Brown. But it is the slower tunes where Bush performs the best. Her sultry vocal opening in the Latin tune Dindi leads to varied vocal stylings with a great horn solo. The Mancini/Mercer song Charade suits her voice perfectly, allowing her to lay back and expand her subtle vocal lyrical qualities while listening closely to the band to set her phrases. Likewise the kid’s show classic, A, You’re Adorable is given an accented vocal performance against more legato sections, a rousing piano solo and touches of Fender Rhodes chimes.

Kudos to Bush for choosing songs that are both well suited to her voice, and also those more musically challenging. Excellent performances by both Bush and her band set the stage for an exciting musical future.

Otterville
Andrew Downing
Independent AD00105
(andrewdowning.com)

JUNO Award-winning bassist, cellist and composer Andrew Downing’s new double CD (and his tenth release) takes its name from a diminutive burg located in Ontario’s tobacco country, the family seat of the Downings throughout the 20th century. The beautifully composed, recorded and performed project is a laconic, nostalgic journey through small-town Canadiana, where linear time is only a concept and the hard-working lives of generations are imbued in the land itself.

The thoughtful and complex Otterville is comprised of 15 original pieces (primarily by Downing) some of which embrace elements and snippets of familiar themes from the Great American Songbook, cleverly re-constructed on a framework of highly intriguing instrumentation, and taking inspiration from diverse tunesmiths Billy Strayhorn, Kurt Weill and Ry Cooder. The fine musicians include (producer) Downing on cello, Tara Davidson on alto saxophone, Christine Bougie on lap steel guitar, Michael Davidson on vibraphone, Paul Mathew on bass, Nick Fraser on drums and special guests Rebecca Hennessy on trumpet and William Carn on trombone.

The opening track, This Year’s Fancies, could be considered a loose structural homage to Johnny Mercer and Jerome Kern’s standard I’m Old Fashioned, re-invented with a modern, multi-instrumental cacophony of both melodic lines and harmonic dissonance. A standout is Family Portrait, composed by the uber-talented Tara Davidson. Linear sax lines and the heartwarming juxtaposition of strings and reeds make this one of the most appealing and accessible songs on the project. Additionally, Downing’s haunting take of Strayhorn’s Take the A Train is nothing short of genius and his composition, Leaving Me With a Memory overflows with emotion and sweet reverie, and defines the mise-en-scène of this potent project.

The Long Slog
Snaggle
Browntasauras Records NCC-1701G (snagglemusic.com)

Many young musicians today put out records that feature a wide range of playing styles. It’s a healthy trend, especially when the program makes intrinsic musical sense from start to finish. However, not many musicians make their records sound as elegant and sophisticated as Snaggle. The record in question is The Long Slog and it comes courtesy of the well-known Toronto musician, Brownman Ali. Snaggle is a quintet comprising six young Torontonians and the smoky syntax of their keyboards, guitar, tenor saxophone, trumpet, bass and drums is quite unique.

Each of the instrumentalists brilliantly addresses keyboardist Nick Maclean’s compositions, bringing the music’s intense rhythmic interplay and extended lyrical passages to life. Each of Maclean’s charts is superlative although Theorum and Lagaan, which feature the electric trumpet of Brownman Ali, are especially riveting. Bassist Doug Moore does contribute Nonuhno, which features not only a tongue-twisting title, but also a tantalizing pulse.

While the relentless swirling down into the furthest reaches of their instruments’ capabilities might be the first aspect of this record to captivate the listener, one is soon drawn into the music’s inner machinations – the sensuous inner rhythm, vivid harmonic colours and the overall wonders and mysteries of the music. The wonder of the musicians’ playing is how engagingly, articulately, flowingly and creatively they pour themselves into the songs, adding further lustre to this recording, which is stylish, responsive and richly atmospheric.