Volume 26 Issue 6 - March and April 2021

instrument.” Sparkling opening arpeggiated
tonal flourishes and tempo and instrumental
contrasts lead to a march-like section with
intermittent horn lines building tension. The
slower second movement, scored for smaller
ensemble, has calming tonally diverse pitches
and piano-pedalled note vibrations. Karchin’s
accurately self-described “rambunctious”
third movement is in modified rondo form
with energetic instrumental chordal interplays,
flourishes and dramatic low-pitch
held notes.
Rochester Celebration (2017) is a solo piano
commission celebrating Karchin’s undergraduate
Eastman piano professor, Barry
Synder. A “must listen to” virtuosic Romanticfeel
composition for all pianists, as Karchin’s
thorough piano high/low pitch sounds and
effects knowledge are captured in Margaret
Kampmeier’s exquisite performance.
Postlude (2019) has Sam Jones on trumpet
with bucket mute play beautiful slower
melodic lines with resonating high-pitch held
notes to pianist Han Chen’s accompaniment.
Love Alice Teyssier’s flute trills emulating
Ashley Jackson’s harp rolls in Quest (2014).
Violinist Renée Jolles and harpist Susan Jolles
drive the exciting closing track Barcarole
Variations (2015) forward with their sensitive
instrumental effects.
Louis Karchin is a fabulous contemporary
composer with thorough instrumental
knowledge.
Tiina Kiik
Paolo Marchettini: The Months have ends
Various Orchestras and Conductors
New Focus Recordings FCR280
(newfocusrecordings.com/catalogue)
! The notes D,
E-flat, F and G walk
into a bar… this
set-up describes the
opening of Mercy,
from a collection
of the orchestral
music of Paolo
Marchettini. An
E-natural creeps in, bringing ambiguity with
it. Sometimes the E sounds a note of warmth,
other times it harshly clashes with two neighbouring
pitches. Where is mercy, one might
ask? The walls of this perfect fourth confine
the ear, or protect it: prison or sanctuary? The
gentle tone, and palette limited to the colours
of strings, senza vibrato, gives way to menace
in the middle section, brassy bombast overpowering
the opening textures. Mercy is
deferred until the final minutes, where a
violin solo offers kindness.
The Months have ends sets five Emily
Dickinson poems for soprano and orchestra.
Alda Caiello has the necessary vocal power
to match the forces accompanying her, but
the mix sometimes favours the instrumentals
to the point of overpowering the voice. I find
the brashness of the music at odds with my
feeling for Dickinson’s words, but it is bracing
to hear her poetry brought into the contemporary
idiom. There are audible artifacts of
live performance here and elsewhere, some
emanating from the podium!
Notturno follows the pattern of Mercy,
exploring relationships of pitches and tone
within a limited frame, here juxtaposing a
perfect fourth against a contrasting wholetone
dyad. Marchettini performs ably as
soloist in his Concertino for Clarinet, an
effective introspective addition to the contemporary
rep for the instrument. The orchestra
of the Manhattan School of Music mostly
keeps their end of the bargain in these two
pieces. Aere perEnnius is an homage to
Marchettini’s compatriot colleague, Ennio
Morricone; it alternates between melancholia
and bombast.
Max Christie
JAZZ AND IMPROVISED MUSIC
Honeysuckle Rose
Aubrey Wilson Quartet
AW Music AWM001
(aubreywilsonmusic.com)
! Vocal standards
albums get
a worse rap than
they should. Sure,
it can sometimes be
monotonous to hear
the same old songs
sung by a vocalist
who sounds like about a thousand other
vocalists. However, I would argue that for
every derivative example there’s an original
take on the style, and the latter can be some
of the more exhilarating music that exists.
Aubrey Wilson and company’s renditions
may help refresh the listener’s memory
of what makes these standards so standard
in the first place. In terms of staying
faithful to the tunes, starting with the opener
Nature Boy, it becomes pretty plain that
this is a group that won’t allow the pressure
to compromise their sound. The quartet
of Wilson, pianist/arranger Chris Bruder,
bassist Tom Altobelli and drummer Sean
Bruce Parker have been going strong for
nearly a decade and they have honed an
effortlessly prodigious feel for each other.
Bruder’s arrangements are tight, danceable
and audacious. The band’s interpretive abilities
are most notable during the melancholic
title track, completely turning Fats
Waller’s masterpiece on its head in a way that
would almost be sacrilegious, if it didn’t work
so well. That isn’t to say there are no bones
thrown for the more traditional-leaning
consumers, but even when the ensemble
isn’t subverting, they’re grooving. Wilson
constantly impresses, both with her improvisational
savvy and chutzpah. Well executed
all around.
Yoshi Maclear Wall
Monday Nights
Sophie Bancroft; Tom Lyne
LisaLeo Records LISALEO 0901
(bancroftlyne.com)
! Scottish singer/
songwriter/guitarist
Sophie Bancroft
and her husband,
Canadian bassist/
songwriter Tom
Lyne, are respected
UK-based musicians
whose latest
release was inspired by their weekly COVIDisolation,
Monday night livestream sessions
from their living room begun in spring 2020.
The five originals and five covers here were
recorded perfectly at Castlesound Studios.
The covers are their own very personal
take of famous tunes. Highlights include Cole
Porter’s You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To,
with a moving bass backdrop supporting the
virtuosic scat singing and subtle vocal back
phrasing; and a happy and positive feel for
our difficult times in their rendition of Lerner
and Lowe’s On The Street Where You Live.
Bancroft sounds like she is singing only to her
husband in the folksier emotionally charged
Tom Waits’ tune Grapefruit Moon.
Lyne’s composition, Far From Mars, is
a great jazz tune featuring his electric bass
playing. Wish it was longer!! Bancroft’s
Fragile Moon is slow, peaceful and delicately
performed. Her Miles Away is so COVID
isolation, with its storytelling lyrics about
love at a distance and pitch leaps adding to
the feeling of loneliness. Blue Room is mellow
and enticing. Comfort, with more folky singalong
qualities and repeated descending
vocal melody, has a stress-busting calm,
controlled feel.
Bancroft and Lyne are first-class jazz
performers, improvisers and songwriters.
Their performances here are upbeat, musical
and subtle, and surprisingly made me
totally forget our COVID outbreak isolation
lockdown.
Tiina Kiik
Vegetables
Lina Allemano Four
Lumo Records (linaallemano.com)
Permanent Moving Parts
See Through 4
All-Set! AS014
(seethroughmusic.bandcamp.com)
! These two CDs,
both recorded by
jazz quartets in
Toronto in winter
2020 at Union
Sound Company,
both featuring
trumpeter Lina
Allemano as a lead
voice, suggest very different approaches to
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