Volume 21 Issue 3 - November 2015

National Orchestra since 1988, he’s even more
distinguished as an explorer. Taking up the
tuba’s ancestor, the serpent, he plays jazz on it
as well as ancient music. His most distinctive
work may be in the unusual hybrids he
constructs between jazz and renaissance
music, like A Serpent’s Dream with his
quartet Le Miroir du Temps.
The band’s sounds are distinctly beautiful,
blessed by a dry and ancient clarity in the
case of Godard’s serpent and Katharina
Bäuml’s shawm, though Bruno Hestroffer’s
theorbo (a long-necked lute) sounds lightly
amplified (at least with a microphone close
to the steel strings) and Godard’s occasional
electric bass is by definition. Percussionist
Lucas Niggli employs a host of instruments
to add colour, but it’s his hand drumming
that comes to the fore. There’s nothing of
the purist in Godard’s approach: most of the
works heard here are his own compositions,
and he’s just as happy setting them beside the
ancient and anonymous In Splendoribus as
Charlie Haden’s Our Spanish Love Song, with
its distinctively contemporary – or at least
romantic – harmonies.
Godard’s ensemble manages to reveal a
subtle sense of order, some of it gleaned from
archives and some just coming into being.
Presented with the opportunity to play a
serpent made in 1830 that is decorated with
an ornate, gilded sea monster with scales
and tail, Godard elects to play the blues, the
traditional, specific and appropriate Old
Black Snake Blues. It’s impossible not to
be charmed.
Stuart Broomer
Leo Records 35th Anniversary Moscow
Gratkowski; Kruglov; Nabatov; Yudanov
Leo Records CD LR 719 (leorecords.com)
!!
Anniversaries of
record companies
usually only serve
as a reminder of the
longevity implicit
in cannily peddling
particular products.
But the commemoration
associated with
this CD is more profound. Recorded at the
initial Moscow concert of a quartet consisting
of two Russians – Alexey Kruglov playing alto
saxophone and basset horn and percussionist
Oleg Yudanov – plus Germans, pianist Simon
Nabatov and alto saxophonist/clarinetist
Frank Gratkowski, the five tracks pinpoint
the cooperative skills of players from both
countries. Providing a forum for Russian free
improvisers to demonstrate their advanced
expertise was one of the reasons Londonbased
Leo Records was founded 35 years ago.
That neither the Eastern nor Western players
can be distinguished on the basis of talent or
sound on this celebratory disc is a tribute to
the label’s ideas.
Russian-born and American-educated
Nabatov provides the perfect linkage among
the band members. The grandeur of his
cascading runs on Our Digs for instance,
creates emotional underpinning for the reedists’
atmospheric whispering; plus his emphasized
wooden key stops provide the climax.
At the same time he clatters phrases on
the keys and slams the instrument’s frame
to amplify the piano’s percussiveness on
Homecoming, locking in with Yudanov’s
smacks and rolls, never unduly forceful in
themselves. Marathon-speed chording also
adds to the saxophonists’ expositions that mix
harsh Aylerian smears with reed textures as
broad as wide-bore scanners. While as indistinguishable
as corn stalks in a field, when
alto saxophone bites emanate from both
players, identifying resonation distinguishes
Gratkowski’s bass clarinet and Kruglov’s
basset horn on the reed showcase Hitting
It Home. Exchanges between the Russian’s
warbling yelps and the German’s sonorous
hums that could be sourced from an underwater
grotto are ornamented by the pianist’s
ringing timbres and shaped into a pleasing
narrative.
Since outsiders rarely associate Germans
or Russians with humour, House Games is
particularly instructive, when the woodwind
players’ choked yelps and snarling pants make
the exposition sound like an aural Punch and
Judy show – and just as violent. However this
tongue splattering and note spewing is eventually
harmonized into a manageable melody
by the pianist’s romantic interludes.
Overall, Leo’s more than three-decade-old
promise is fulfilled with a connective session
such as this one.
Ken Waxman
POT POURRI
Persian Songs
Nexus; Sepideh Raissadat
Nexus 10926 (nexuspercussion.com)
!!
Persian Songs,
the 16th album on
its own Nexus label
(there are numerus
others in addition),
provides an interesting
dual portrait of
the veteran Torontobased,
internationally renowned group’s
musical roots and multi-branched evolution.
It’s also an exhilarating listening experience.
Two musical suites are featured on the album,
both skillfully arranged by Nexus member
and University of Toronto music professor
Russell Hartenberger. They provide insights
into his – and the group’s – career-long
investment in two (often complementary)
threads: on one hand 20th century American
music, and on the other, music performed
outside the Euro-American mainstream.
First up is Moondog Suite, a mellow
tribute to the compositions of Louis T. Hardin
(1916–1999), a.k.a. Moondog, the outsider
American composer, street musician and
poet. His music has been cited as an influence
on the development of New York musical
minimalism. Hartenberger’s caring and crafty
arrangements, rearrangements and adaptations
for keyboard-centric percussion provide
a disarmingly straightforward presentation of
Moondog’s tonal contrapuntal melodies. The
Suite is capped by Suba Sankaran’s cameo
appearance singing the cheery I’m This, I’m
That, set in a classical passacaglia form.
The album’s centerpiece is the eight-part
Persian Songs, featuring arrangements of
songs by the award-winning contemporary
Iranian stage director, novelist and songwriter
Reza Ghassemi. Musical interpretations
of poems by giants of the Persian
classical literary period, including Hafez,
Sa’adi and Rumi, these songs are evocatively
sung and accompanied on the setar by the
Iranian vocalist Sepideh Raissadat. Steeped
in the rich Persian music tradition from an
early age, she has been called “a key figure in
the new generation of classical Persian song
interpreters.” In 1999 Raissadat took the bold
step of giving a solo public performance at
the Niavaran Concert Hall in Tehran, the first
female vocalist to do so after the 1979 Iranian
revolution.
Raissadat is currently pursuing her doctoral
studies in ethnomusicology at the U. of T.
with Dr. Hartenberger among others, just one
of the fascinating interconnecting threads
on this album. Hartenberger’s arrangements,
Raissadat’s singing and Nexus’ precise
performances culminate in eight and a half
minutes of glorious music making on Az In
Marg Matarsid; Bouye Sharab. It’s a powerful
illustration of the vibrant and rich transcultural
musical tapestry being woven right
now, right here in Toronto.
Andrew Timar
Subcontinental Drift
Sultans of String; Anwar Khurshid
Independent MCK2060 (sultansofstring.
com)
!!
World music
Canadian superstars
Sultans of String
continue to expand
their musical journey
with the addition of
guest sitar master
Anwar Khurshid
in this release. Khurshid adds energy and
Eastern flavours to the already diversesounding
flamenco, Arabic folk, Cuban
rhythm, East Coast fiddling and you-nameit-sounding
band. The result is perfect, joyful
music performed by perfect musicians.
Founding members violinist/bandleader
Chris McKhool and guitarist Kevin Laliberté
along with guitarist Eddie Paton, bassist
Drew Birston and Cuban master percussionist
Rosendo “Chendy” Leon have created
the band’s signature successful blend as
heard on the rhythmical percussion-driven
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