Volume 24 Issue 6 - March 2019

few text and musical references throughout,
such as from Verdi’s Rigoletto in 1000 (Viva
V.E.R.D.I.), all music and lyrics are written by
her with a self-described recurring theme of
freedom and control.
This is unique music touching on
contrasting styles with something for every
taste. The opening Cantu is a short almost
chant-like vocal solo with nice tonal modulations
translated into English from the
Sardinian poem by Grazie Deledda. Kings is
more theatrical and operatic in nature, with
moving string interludes and plucked string
sections leading to English/Italian lyrics
driving the storyline. Radio-friendly pop song
A Place in the Sun features vocal swells and
upbeat rhythms. Taranta is a toe-tapping
Italian flavoured tarantella-like song highlighted
by held notes and detached rhythms.
Dramatic English-language ballad-like
Bedouin features Di Gasbarro’s enchanting
vocals, modern key change modulations and
instrumental solos, all supported brilliantly
by bassist/producer Roberto Occhipinti.
Di Gasbarro sings with a clearly articulated
rich quality in her native English and Italian
languages. The recording features acclaimed
Canadian instrumentalists too numerous
to mention here whose performances add
to the detailed artistic musical merits of
Risorgimento.
Tiina Kiik
Something in the Air
Bending string section to
Exploratory Jazz Ends
KEN WAXMAN
Recording with a group of stringed instruments has always posed
particular challenges for committed improvisers. Since the
groupings of violin, viola, cello and the like are usually valued
for their harmonic and melodic qualities, the challenge is to avoid a
mawkish “& Strings” session, that buries innovation in schmaltz.
Luckily these discs impress by using string players not as backup or
afterthought, but as an integral part of the creative process.
Take Brazilian tenor saxophonist Ivo
Perelman for instance. As part of a seemingly
endless series of discs that link his
horn with other instruments, on Strings 1
(Leo Records CD LR 850 leorecords.com),
the saxophonist creates a free music interpretation
of high-art string quartet literature.
Perelman, who played cello as a youth
takes that part, while the others fit traditional
roles: violinists Mark Feldman and Jason Hwang plus violist
Mat Maneri. During the nine-track, 74-minute program, the four
subdivide frequently so that when one violinist concentrates on sul
ponticello squeaks, the other paces a moderato theme; or the saxophonist’s
yelps, peeps and growls are answered with contrapuntal
viola sweeps. Throughout, the fluctuating sequences move from
stop-time to fragmented to extended legato, with abstracted string
scratching as much a part of the expositions’ evolution as Perelman’s
multiphonic asides. Although all four are capable of creating elevated
timbres – despite the fact that the string players sometimes approximate
angry birds – uncomfortable shrillness is usually avoided, with
the quartet confirming that moderato storytelling can encompass
just enough jagged and jerking notes to enliven the tracks without
derailing them into atonality. The extended fourth track, for example,
which begins with dissonant pizzicato plucks from the string players
and elaborated sibilant reed squeaks, courses into a narrative where
Perelman’s caustic tones settle within circling string layering, so that
no matter how many spiky reed detours are tried, by the finale the
parallel improvising becomes a four-part coordinated theme.
American clarinetist Blaise Siwula is in somewhat the same situation
on K’ampokol Che K’aay (Creative Sources
CS 453 CD creativesourcesrec.com), Except
in this case the Lisbon String Trio consists of
violist Ernesto Rodrigues, cellist Miguel Mira
and bassist Alvaro Rosso. Recorded at a
Lisbon concert, the music on the disc –
titled for a Mayan coffee-like shrub – gets
steadily more salient as the program evolves
and each player becomes more comfortable
with the others’ skills. Initially, either strident
or wispy, Siwula’s clarinet parts evolve to sinewy mid-range,
with a woody overlay, as flutter-tongued elaborations become expressive
storytelling. When the string trio isn’t involved with mid-range
harmonies, each takes on a particular role. Rosso’s rugged program
includes applying ground bass plucks to the tracks; Mira’s repetitive
counterpoint challenges the narrative; and Rodrigues’ staccatissimo
thrusts decorate the fluid interface with pumps and jumps. The four
reach a climax midway through the third untitled improvisation when
a section of high and low pitches dissolves into individual showcases.
From that point on, despite ragged string sweeps, spiky textures, and
slap-tonguing and modulated shrilling from the clarinetist, the polyphonic
program touches on the pastoral, but includes enough sudden
and unexpected pitch and tone switches that, symbolically, the hardscrabble
work that underlies any bucolic scene ia sonically
obvious as well.
Another method of pushing an already
constituted string section into an anomalous
challenge is to mate it with another group.
Black Poker (Clean Feed CF 504 CD
cleanfeed-records.com) does just that, as
Italian drummer Francesco Cusa and his
band the Assassins with trumpeter/electronics
manipulator Flavio Zanuttini, tenor
saxophonist Giovanni Benvenuti and
keyboardist Giulio Stermieri are joined by the violinists Daniele
Iannaccone and Lorenzo Borneo plus violist Agostino Mattioni and
cellist Cristiano Sacchi who make up the Florence Art Quartet (FAQ).
Although the two quartets each have a track to themselves – with the
result too syrupy in the FAQ’s case – Black Poker’s achievement is
how well the ensembles’ dissimilar textures integrate. Starting with
Spades/Picche, the first track, the polished swing of the Assassins,
expressed most obviously in processed upsurges from Zanuttini and
pensive reed breaks from Benvenuti, is first buttressed and then challenged
via pizzicato pops from the FAQ. Sophisticated enough to
divide its role on Clubs/Fiore into high-pitched violin swirls and midrange
viola and cello vibrations, the FAQ is the antithesis of a clichéd
string section. As Benvenuti’s altissimo runs plus Stermieri’s tremolo
cadenzas – as well as Cusa’s faultless yet hard rebounds – move the
narrative forward while making it more overtly rhythmic, the string
shimmies provide the theme with flexibility and sparkle. Key role
reversal occurs in the penultimate Kirtimukha (Hearts/Cuori), where
90 | March 2019 thewholenote.com