Volume 27 Issue 8 | July 1 - September 20, 2022

through playing music, we can all find a little
just from listening to this poignant opus.
Sam Dickinson
Poetic
Jonathan Barber & Vision Ahead
Independent (jonathanbarber.bandcamp.
com/album/poetic)
! Connecticutnative,
famed
drummer Jonathan
Barber has released
a scintillating third
album with Vision
Ahead, a group of
musicians he’s been
pushing the limits with for over a decade.
Barber has worked on refining his sound on
this record, honing in on a unique modern
sound with just enough of the classic mixed
in to intrigue both older and newer fans of the
genre. Featured are all original compositions,
not only by the drummer himself but also by
guitarist Andrew Renfroe, alto-saxophonist
Godwin Louis and keyboardist Taber Gable.
A journey through a beautiful musical landscape,
this album is sure to catch the attention
of many a listener from the first note.
Barber mentions that “the album showcases…
the striking cohesiveness of a band
who have performed by each other’s
side…” and that is certainly very apparent
throughout the record. Within each piece,
each musician’s talents are very much showcased,
but there’s a blending of sounds and
instruments, of vibes, that only comes from
having a true understanding of your fellow
musicians. What lends a truly specific and
interesting dimension to the pieces is how
they are very much driven by rhythmic
grooves but not in an overpowering way, it all
comes together for a captivating whole.
From beginning to end, this album pushes
the boundaries of the genre in the best ways
possible, leaving the listener waiting for
the next musical statement from this extraordinary
musician and group.
Kati Kiilaspea
What Does It Mean To Be Free
Anthony Fung; David Binney; Luca
Mendoza; Luca Alemanno
Independent (anthonyfungmusic.com)
! Drummer/
composer Anthony
Fung was born in
Richmond Hill and
raised in Canada,
but has studied and
lived in the United
States for several
years. He earned a
Bachelor of Music degree from Berklee and a
master’s from the Thelonious Monk Institute
of Jazz Performance. What Does it Mean to be
Free? is his third album and was recorded in
L.A. where he currently lives.
This an exciting album with eight original
compositions and a great arrangement of
Wayne Shorter’s Sighteeing, all played with
an intense yet grooving style by some stellar
musicians. In addition to the core quartet
(Fung on drums; David Binney, alto sax;
Luca Mendoza, piano; Luca Alemanno, bass)
several tracks have special guest performers.
On the title track, Andrew Renfroe brings
some blistering guitar work including
a high intensity exchange with Binney
on sax. Defiance features Braxton Cook
on a tender yet intense alto sax melody
throughout and Alemanno with a pretty
bass solo. Let Us Not Forget to be Kind has
Roni Eytan providing some beautiful Toots
Thielmans-influenced harmonica.
Throughout the album Mendoza’s piano
is spectacular, providing tasteful accompaniment
and solos on the slower tunes
and effortlessly complex bop lines on the
up-tempo numbers. Fung’s drums are
propulsive and complex while still providing
a solid backing to the proceedings. What
Does it Mean to be Free? At least part of the
answer has to be: free to make great music.
Ted Parkinson
For Simon H. Fell
Rhodri Davies
Amgen 04 (rhodridavies.com)
! A studied
requiem for UK
bassist/composer
Simon H. Fell
(1959-2020), Welsh
harpist Rhodri
Davies uses transformative
prestidigitation
on this
eponymous disc to exhibit the assemblage of
timbres, pitches and rhythms he can induce
from the acoustic pedal harp. Davies and Fell
were members of the imposing string trio
IST for 25 years – cellist Mark Wastell was
the third participant – and although most
of this salute evolves at moderato and lento
tempos, it’s no lachrymose dirge. Instead,
the performance includes interludes of
bubbling drama, heartfelt emotion and coiled
percussiveness.
Interspaced with pauses and reverberations,
Davies’ almost hour-long creation
forges unique harp timbres, which alternately
resemble vibraphone reverberations, tombaklike
drum strokes, keyboard-like vibrations
and woody rubs against unyielding material.
All are used for emphasis and sequence
shifts. Expected thick glissandi, multi-string
drones and singular staccato echoes figure in
as well, so that by midpoint multiple strokes
are layered into an almost opaque squirming
mass. Its subsequent division into singlestring
high and low twangs and plinks that
move forward and ricochet back into the
concentrated narrative, suggest not only IST’s
multiple string tropes, but the sort of unique
compositions Fell wrote, arranged and played.
Properly saluting a fellow string player and
improviser, this session also confirms Davies’
innovative ability to come up with nearorchestral,
multi-string motifs sourced with
compelling skill from the attributes of only a
single stand-alone harp.
Ken Waxman
Blue Journal
Ester Wiesnerova
Independent (esterwiesnerova.com)
! The eloquent
vocalist Ester
Wiesnerová bids
you to sink into her
very private world
with this elaborately
packaged
Blue Journal: 11
songs, and an illustrated,
120-page
book. Here Wiesnerová invites us to enter
what appears to be a musical portal. Listening
to the opening bars of her very first song –
Sinking Deep – you will find it hard to resist
relocating yourself into her world. Her voice
is like a warm, inviting, whispered breath as
the poetic alluring lyrics are released into air.
Wiesnerová is accompanied by musicians
completely attuned to her vision and
artistry. Sam Knight’s questing horn soars
above tumbling cascades of Charles Overton’s
radiant harp. Kan Yanabe’s percussion colourations
glued together with the gentle rumble
of Michal Šelep’s bass also invite us with
impassioned conviction into Wiesnerová’s
private world.
Wiesnerová beckons you between the
sheets (so to speak) of the Blue Journal. She
lures you into this music of unsentimental
intelligence, with her clear, beguiling tone.
At the heart of her artistic conception is
Nightingales and Maple Trees, a song that
lies at the heart of Wiesnerová’s secret soundscape
deep inside her Blue Journal.
Throughout this repertoire, warmth and
affection abound, befitting the delicately
amorous subjects of the songs. For her part
the inimitable Wiesnerová breathes her way
into this extraordinary music with imagination
and infectious musicality.
Raul da Gama
Justice – The Vocal Works of Oliver Lake
Sonic Liberation Front and the Sonic
Liberation Singers
Hugh Two HT038
(sonicliberationfront.com)
! Decades ago I
was a young saxophone
player
attending university
in Edmonton
and saw a poster for
an Oliver Lake solo
concert. It had only
a picture of him
58 | July 1 - September 20, 2022 thewholenote.com