JENNY SCHEINMAN

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GLOBE UNITY: NORWAY Memnon: Sound Portraits of Ibsen Characters Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer/Helge Lien (Ozella Music) In A Rag Bag Karin Krog/Morten Gunnar Larsen (Meantime) Voxpheria Tone Åse/Thomas Strønen (Gigafon) by Tom Greenland Jazz fans familiar with ECM recordings know about a certain slice of the country’s ‘cool’ school but perhaps know little of artists like Bugge Wesseltoft, the rhythm team of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Paal Nilssen-Love, Jaga Jazzist, Supersilent, The Core and legions more that comprise Norway’s active and eclectic modern jazz scene. Memnon: Sound Portraits of Ibsen Characters features vocalist Ruth Wilhelmine Meyer and pianist Helge Lien in a series of composed improvisations inspired by the great Norwegian playwright’s protagonists. The pair’s modus operandi seems Stanislavski-ian, deeply immersing themselves in a character’s emotions before letting the creative sparks fly. Lien’s touch is gentle and ethereal, marking a zone for Meyer’s plaintive, searching vocal flights, which range from whispers, growls and squelched notes with pinched upper partials to wailing helicopter yodels and ululations, the latter reaching powerful climaxes on “Hedvig”, “Hedda” and “Peer and the Mountain King”. “Ellida”, “Åse” and “Nora” are all notable for their Billy Strayhornesque chromatic lyricism. Another vocal/piano pairing, veteran Karin Krog’s duo with Morten Gunnar Larsen In a Rag Bag, explores ragtime and traditional jazz repertoire, particularly Bix Beiderbecke and Fats Waller. A versatile singer and Norway’s first internationally known jazz musician, Krog phrases effortlessly with a slightly smoky and breathy tone, never oversinging where a subtler touch will do, serving up a saucy scat solo on “Spanish Steps”. Larsen is a marvel, a fine technician who deftly tackles the complex rhythmic convolutions of Scott Joplin’s “Euphonic Sounds”, his own “Olympia Rag” and Waller and Clarence Williams’ “Wild Cat Blues”, instantly adjusting his timing to accommodate rag, stride or boogie, often within the same piece, yet always maintaining his forward momentum. On Voxpheria, vocalist Tone Åse and percussionist Thomas Strønen take the duo concept one step further, into the realm of improvised electronica. The ‘50s-era cover, looking like a setpiece from The Twilight Zone, aptly telegraphs the music within, a pastiche of textures - radio static, fizzling power-lines, crackling hearth-fires, howling wind, leaky faucets, subterranean drones, shimmering chimes, tearing paper, rusty springs, twanging rubberbands, boiling kettles, shuffling cards and the like - that create a synthetic soundscape through which Åse wends her way with poetry bytes (by e.e. cummings or Rolf Jacobsen) and wordless ad-libs, often harmonized and digitally looped in spontaneous counterpoint. For more information, visit ozellamusic.com, karinkrog.no and gigafon.no 16 March 2013 | THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD Fourteen Nouveau Stride (Relarion) by Ken Dryden Tales of the Unusual Lorraine Feather (Jazzed Media) Vocalist Lorraine Feather’s gift for writing witty lyrics has put her on the map and garnered her both Grammy and Oscar nominations. Feather pens lyrics for decades-old gems by jazz greats with an engaging, at times conversational, singing style. Pianist Dick Hyman previously worked with Feather and recommended that she listen to Stephanie Trick, a young St. Louis stride pianist. Once they met and played a few numbers, they discovered it was a perfect match, christening themselves Nouveau Stride. Fourteen includes new Feather lyrics and some of her earlier works, all played with gusto by the talented Trick. James P. Johnson’s “Caprice Rag” becomes “Pour on the Heat”, a historic narrative on the development of stride, Feather alternating between rapid-fire singing and narration as Trick provides romping accompaniment. Trick delivers a powerful rendition of Johnson’s “Carolina Shout”, long considered an acid test for stride pianists. “Vive Le Boogie Woogie” is an infectious boogie-woogie penned by Trick (which she plays with as much authority as stride) with a playful Feather lyric. Willie “The Lion“ Smith’s “Spanish Rag” reemerges as “The Tango Lesson”, imagining a young lady’s discovery of the sensuous dance while Duke Ellington’s “Dancers in Love” transforms into “Imaginary Guy”, a hilarious solution to a lady’s problems with various boyfriends. Fats Waller’s “Bond Street” began life as his impression of a day in the life of a London streetwalker; Feather’s “California Street” transforms it into a nostalgic love story. Nouveau Stride will delight both jazz vocal and piano fans, due to the pair’s tremendous chemistry. Tales of the Unusual blends humor and an occasionally eerie flavor as Feather collaborates with some of her favorite musicians, which include Russell Ferrante or Shelly Berg (piano), violinist Charles Bisharat and either Grant Geissman or Mike Miller (guitar). The captivating alto is a terrific storyteller, crafting lyrics that take on a more introspective nature in this collection while adding to the exotic air of the music. “The Hole in the Map”, with music by Ferrante, is Feather’s amusing story of exploring the Amazon. “Where is Everybody?” combines mystery and humor, with Bisharat spicing his solo with gypsy flavor. “Five” features music by Tony Morales (Feather’s husband) and creative use of overdubbed vocals in a song about a young girl’s obsession with the number five. “Get a Room” is a hilarious tale of opposites attracting with plenty of romantic fireworks, with Berg’s engaging music and lively solos all around supporting Feather’s engaging vocal. She revisits “Indiana Lana”, an earlier work adding words to Duke Ellington’s “Jubilee Stomp”, singing a lively duet with Berg (a masterful stride piano player, among many things) about a female runner who outruns everyone and everything. Feather’s imagery in the haunting “To Lie Another Day” describes loneliness in an atypical fashion. With the diverse Tales of the Unusual, Feather reaffirms her status as one of the most gifted lyricists and compelling vocalists. For more information, visit lorrainefeather.com and jazzedmedia.com. Nouveau Stride is at Metropolitan Room Mar. 28th. See Calendar. Bouquet Charlotte Hug/Frédéric Blondy (Emanem) by Ken Waxman Live @ The Ironworks, Vancouver Ig Henneman Sextet (Wig) What’s the difference between a dog and a viola? The dog knows when to stop scratching. Of all the stringed instruments, it’s the viola that gets the least respect, with this joke only one of hundreds. Yet because of its unique intonation the viola has become a favored method of expression for inventive improvisers like Switzerland’s Charlotte Hug and the Netherlands’ Ig Henneman. The selections on Bouquet by Hug and Paris-based pianist Frédéric Blondy are perfectly designed to confuse types whose allegiance is to contemporary so-called classical music. Both have enough academic expertise to work in the notated milieu, but the dozen tracks here are improvisations, off-handedly displaying exquisite technical smarts while cooperating to create sound pictures that are extravagant without being egocentric. Most tracks consist of inside and outside piano tropes ranging from methodical to stratospheric, plus fiddle sweeps that encompass mangling, melding and mixing textures. The overlapping cadences create a genuinely moving program. A track such as “Thalia Remontant” finds Blondy vibrating miniature cymbals resting on the top of the piano’s internal string set, complementing Hug’s lowpitched spiccato swipes. In contrast, “Rosa moyesii” is completed with a (faux?) sexy sigh from Hug after the two have methodically exposed parallel tonal chords, with the violist’s instrument attaining cello-like resonance as she roughens her attack. Blondy is so skillful that on “Sombreuil” he creates a cavern-deep ostinato from pure pedal motion alone and then uses broken-octave keyboard jumps to define a response to Hug’s melodic invention. Elsewhere embroidered textures oscillate so quickly and are so opaque that ascribing them to a particular instrument is nearly impossible. The six Henneman compositions that make up Live @ The Ironworks, Vancouver include so-called classical references as well. Her international sextet is made up of bassist Wilbert de Joode and multi-reedist Ab Baars from the Netherlands; Berlin-based trumpeter Axel Dörner and two Canadians: Montreal clarinetist Lori Freedman and Toronto pianist Marilyn Lerner. Note the versatile turns on the final “A ‘n B”, with the exposition moving from straightforward swing, replete with graceful trumpet lines and contrapuntal cascades from Lerner, to tougher sequences when honking bass clarinet explosions from Freeman and angled riffs from the violist take over. De Joode’s steady pumping personalizes the title of “Bold Swagger”. Henneman’s gift for descriptive lines are on display with “Prelude for the Lady with the Hammer”, which could serve as a film noir theme. The group’s abstract turn arrives with the deceptively titled “Light Verse”. More like a dramatic epic, the juddering exposition include whinnying trumpet flutters, unaccompanied, altissimo reed squeals and jittery lines from Henneman. More sessions like these and eventually there may be a dearth of jokes like: Why is a viola like a lawsuit? Everyone’s happy when the case is closed. For more information, visit emanemdisc.com and stichtingwig.com
Money Jungle Terri Lyne Carrington (Concord) by George Kanzler Baritone Monk Claire Daly (North Coast Brewing) Two prominent female jazz artists honor jazz icons on these albums. Drummer Terri Lyne Carrington reimagines the music of one of the most celebrated allstar trio LPs in jazz while baritone saxophonist Claire Daly essays a program of Monk compositions in one of his favorite performing contexts. 50 years ago last month, United Artists released Money Jungle, a Duke Ellington album with bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach, a one-off trio assembled by producer Alan Douglas. Ellington wrote eight mostly blues-based tunes for the date, which also included three Ellington standards. Carrington jettisons those in favor of originals and augments her basic trio, with bassist Christian McBride and pianist Gerald Clayton, on some of the eight Money Jungle tunes. She also interpolates some soundbite quotes about our economic problems from the likes of Martin Luther King Jr., Barack Obama, George W. Bush and the Clintons onto the opening title track, which otherwise adheres closely to the original, right down to McBride’s choked, upper register Mingus bass technique. The album also ends with spoken words: Duke Ellington’s in his poem “Music”, an extended metaphor of music as a woman (voiced by Shea Rose) and his comments about jazz, music and money (voiced by Herbie Hancock). In between, Carrington and her cohort inhabit and reinvigorate the spirit of the music originally created by that allstar trio in 1962. Some of Ellington’s pieces receive radical makeovers. “Backward Country Boy Blues” adds ethereal wordless vocals from Lizz Wright as well as Nir Felder’s gritty electric guitar and some Rhodes from Clayton. “Fleurette Africain”, a delicate pastel on the original LP, becomes a colorful Romare Beardenlike collage, adding Clark Terry’s “mumbles” vocals and some mouthpiece brays as well as his trumpet solo, plus flutes and trombone. “Switch Blade” begins similar to the original, with deep groove blues piano referencing Ellington, but expands to include Tia Fuller’s alto sax, Antonio Hart’s flute and Robin Eubanks’ trombone in Mingus-y polyphony. The trio tracks are an inspired amalgam of tribute and creativity and Clayton’s “Cut Off” is a deft pastiche of Ellington’s “Solitude”, suggesting just how much this trio has absorbed the lessons of Money Jungle. After a spate of ‘novel’ Monk repertoire albums including organ and guitar trios and Monk mid-size bands without a piano, it is refreshing to hear a straightforward tribute in the manner of Monk’s most frequent working band, a quartet. Daly’s group, much like that early and suave Monk tribute band Sphere, plays Monk’s music without aping the composer or his bands. Like Sphere, Daly’s quartet is more aware of nuance and structure than the anarchic quirks and humor of Monk’s tunes, but aside from a couple of too bland takes, this CD delivers with moderate Monk-ish spice. The title is reflected in the bass clef favoritism of the best tracks, from “Light Blue”, wherein Daly’s baritone begins phrases completed by Mary Ann McSweeney’s arco bass, to “Ruby, My Dear”, a deliciously slow, sinuous version with plucked bass obbligati to the baritone lead. Also appealing to Monk fans should be the care and detail applied to singularizing such tunes as “Let’s Cool One”, with accelerating A sections and a slinky sax solo entrance, and “Bright Mississippi”, as an appropriately bright tempo is complemented by a drum solo accompanied by shards of sax melody. “Pannonica” features Daly on flute and a waltz tempo while “Green Chimneys” is a baritone sax and piano (Steve Hudson) duet that invokes Monk’s fondness for stride with its two-beat flavor. But this album triumphs on the expressive and Monk-informed vivacity of baritone sax and bass. For more information, visit concordmusicgroup.com and northcoastbrewing.com. Carrington’s Money Jungle is at Dizzy’s Club Mar. 26th-27th. Daly’s Baritone Monk is at Birdland Mar. 28th. See Calendar. ON DVD Solo•Duo•Poetry Cecil Taylor + Pauline Oliveros (EMPAC) by Suzanne Lorge Listening requires some effort on the part of the listener - at the least, a certain receptivity. This kind of interactive communication lies at the heart of Pauline Oliveros’ work as a musician, professor and philosopher. Her music can only be described as such if one understands that all sound is music. This is the message that Oliveros offered listeners in her 2008 concert with pianist Cecil Taylor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she teaches. The occasion was the dedication of the university’s Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performance Arts Center (EMPAC), a bright, open space of glass and wood for avant garde artists of all stripes. The DVD, with almost three hours of spontaneous composition and improvised poetry, not only shows off the Center’s stages to best advantage but gives lovers of free improv a visceral experience of the evening - not easy to do, given the immediate nature of that musical process. Oliveros and Taylor are experts at turning themselves inside out during their solos; one can almost hear their thoughts a second before they play them. Each improvised separately before collaborating on a 22-minute improv. In their solo performances the musicians followed their respective internal cues through the twists and turns of their composition, changing musical direction at will. When the two performed together, however, they synched these internal cues nonverbally, moving together the way birds do. The duo section is a lesson in how to work together. Taylor also improvises with words (the “poetry” part of the title). In a separate performance in the EMPAC’s theater, he read (or created spontaneously) phrases and verses that questioned the nature of existence - just what are these racial, sexual, cultural, biological, cosmological structures all about, anyway? As with the music, the answer seems to lie somewhere in between the sounds. This DVD is not for the passive viewer looking to be pleased or entertained, even though there are many pleasant, entertaining moments on the disc. It’s for those looking to have their psyches prodded. For more information, visit empac.rpi.edu. Oliveros is at Roulette Mar. 30th. See Calendar. THE NEW YORK CITY JAZZ RECORD | March 2013 17
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Page 10 and 11: ENCORE Valerie Capers by Brad Farbe
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Page 14 and 15: CD REVIEWS Capricorn Climber Kris D
Page 18: New Blues Aki Takase (Enja/Yellowbi
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Page 23 and 24: Music is Emotion Ryan Keberle and C
Page 25 and 26: The Exterminating Angel Kirk Knuffk
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Page 31 and 32: Ellington Saxophone Encounters Mark
Page 33 and 34: The Sirens Chris Potter (ECM) by Je
Page 35 and 36: Numerology (Live at Jazz Standard)
Page 38 and 39: CALENDAR Friday, March 1 êPreserva
Page 40 and 41: Friday, March 8 êPaquito D’River
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Page 44 and 45: Thursday, March 28 êClaire Daly’
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Page 48: presents John Williams, Guitar John

JENNY SCHEINMAN

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