Volume 21 Issue 9 - Summer 2016

ecordings.
This two-CD set consists of recently discovered
recordings from French radio archives
that include the quartet, an expanded version
called the Jazz aux Champs Elysées All-Stars,
and organ and piano trios led by Young.
Virtually unknown at home, these musicians
roar with surging invention in the post-bop
style then in flower. Anthemic pieces such
as Young’s Talkin’ About J.C., Shaw’s Zoltan
(beginning with a quotation from Kodály’s
Háry János Suite) and Wayne Shorter’s Black
Nile give rise to hard-driving, extended modal
explorations. Davis will fasten on a phrase,
repeating it with increasing focus to generate
tremendous tension. Shaw, the last to emerge
in a cohort of brilliant young trumpeters,
was already demonstrating the fluid creativity
that would distinguish him. Young is
almost a band in himself, creating bass lines
and surging rhythms, constantly feeding new
material to the horns until he breaks free in
his solos.
The booklet that accompanies the CDs has
extensive background on the mid-60s Paris
milieu, along with interviews with Young’s
collaborators and followers, including John
McLaughlin and John Medeski.
Stuart Broomer
POT POURRI
Do Right
Sari Kessler
Independent (sarikessler.com)
Do Right is Sari
Kessler’s debut album,
and it’s an impressive
one. Although a scan
of the track list with
its frequently covered
songs initially didn’t
give me high expectations,
right off the top we get a nicely reimagined
treatment of the Bacharach-David hit,
Walk on By. Arranged by James Shipp, with a
darker feel than the original, young trumpeter
Nadje Noordhuis adds to the noir. The album
continues in its tastefully inventive vein as
Kessler and Shipp’s arrangements breathe
new life into tunes like Sunny and provide an
appropriately contemplative take on I Thought
About You. One of the lesser-known songs
on the album is The Gal From Joe’s by Duke
Ellington, handled with understated poignancy
by Kessler and the band. Based in the
U.S., Kessler took up a career in jazz singing a
little later than some, and that’s given her an
ability to inject some genuine depth and soul
into her delivery. Coached by the wonderful
Kate McGarry (who also co-produces the
album) Kessler has a fine voice with a warm
tone, spot-on pitch and jazzy phrasing. The
creative and able playing of the musicians,
including John di Martino on piano, guitarist
Ron Affif and sax man Houston Person, round
out this skilled collection of songs.
Cathy Riches
Long Time Leaving
Christa Couture
Black Hen Music BHCD0079
(christacouture.com)
!!
With the release
of her fourth CD,
Edmonton-based,
eclectic, rootsinspired
chanteuse,
pianist and gifted
composer Christa
Couture has recorded
a brilliant careerdefining
project. Featuring all original music,
and described by Couture as a “celebration
of ordinary heartache,” she has almost
cinematically plumbed the depths of her
own inspiring journey (teenage cancer, the
unimaginable loss of two children and more)
and transmuted those experiences into a panrelatable,
uplifting and delightfully quirky
project. Recorded in Nashville and skillfully
produced by JUNO-winning guitarist/
multi-instrumentalist Steve Dawson, the CD
includes members of Blackie and The Rodeo
Kings, notably Dawson on pedal steel and
electric guitars, John Dymond on bass, Gary
Craig on drums and venerable Nashvillebased
fiddler, Fats Kaplin.
There is no wallowing in self-pity here.
In fact, the instrumentation, arrangements,
compositions and Couture’s lithe, sheer,
roots-influenced vocals all underscore the
unconquerable human spirit – and make this
recording an appropriate listening choice for
almost any mood or activity.
Of special note are The Slaughter, with
its haunting, almost childlike, echo-infused
vocals and a lyric that ponders breakups with
both men and women; Michigan Postscript
– a melodic travelling song with a lilting
vocal and stunning slide work by Dawson;
Zookeeper – replete with fine acoustic
piano and heavy surf guitar saturating this
insightful and witty ode to couples therapy;
and Lovely Like You – a sweet stunner
featuring the honeyed tones of fiddler Kaplin.
Also memorable is the closing track, Aux
Oiseaux – a charming, pristine and deliciously
melancholy anthem of survival and
the art of learning to embrace life again – no
matter what has transpired.
Lesley Mitchell-Clarke
KAMP! Songs and Satire from
Theresienstadt
Amelia DeMayo; Curt Buckler; Sergei
Dreznin
Analekta AN 2 8789
!!
When DISCoveries editor David Olds
approached me about reviewing a CD of satirical
songs written inside the Theresienstadt
concentration camp, we both expressed our
reservations about it. But curiosity (and the
fact that the World Jewish Congress sponsored
the project) got me to listen.
KAMP! Songs and Satire from
Theresienstadt is the
first English recording
of songs written and
performed by some
(of the many) Jewish
poets, composers,
musicians and cabaret
stars imprisoned in Theresienstadt (1942-44),
and marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation
of that infamous “model ghetto.”
These songs were brought to light, given
life and presented in a cabaret-like setting in
Vienna in 1992. Russian-Jewish pianist and
composer, Sergei Dreznin, served both at the
piano and as music director. Dreznin, who
also wrote several new melodies to existing
poems, went on to direct an English version
called KAMP! in 1994. The eponymous CD is
the culmination of Dreznin’s 20-plus-yearresolve
to keep alive this material created as
a means of survival, a way for prisoners to
mock their unbearable circumstances and
maintain their sanity.
The material is indeed subversive and
unsettling. It is also brilliantly executed by
Dreznin and singing actors Amelia DeMayo
and Curt Buckler.
If nothing else, KAMP!, with its gallows
humour and shades of Tom Lehrer, G&S,
Weill, Brecht, Brel and Brooks (Mel), deserves
a listen for its celebration of the human spirit.
To quote Dreznin, “I hope you will laugh. You
will cry. And you will definitely learn.”
Sharna Searle
Sephardic Journey
Cavatina Duo
Cedille CDR 90000 163 (cedillerecords.
org)
! ! Sephardic Journey
is the result of a
20-year exploration
taken by the
Cavatina Duo – the
husband and wife
team of Bosnianborn
guitarist,
Denis Azabagic, and
Spanish-born flutist, Eugenia Moliner – into
their Sephardic Jewish heritage. In 1996,
Azabagic learned that a great aunt of his was a
descendant of Sephardic Jews who left Spain
at the end of the 15th century. Later, Moliner
discovered her own connection: to avoid
being expelled, some Jews living in medieval
Spain converted to Christianity, taking on last
names according to their vocations; a miller,
for example, adopted the name “Moliner.”
From this shared background comes a
compelling CD of new works commissioned
specifically for the Cavatina Duo, all drawing
on traditional Sephardic folk tunes – mostly
love songs with their often-dramatic, Ladino
(Judeo-Spanish) texts – for inspiration.
The recording is infused with gorgeous,
evocative melodies, soulful and plaintive
laments, lyrical flights of fancy, sultry twists
on the tango, startling percussive passages