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

Something in the Air
Improvising on the Classics
with fealty and freshness
KEN WAXMAN
Almost from the time when so-called classical music was first
recorded, inventive musicians have figured out ways to alter the
scores in some way for novelty, commerce or homage. The most
sincere of these trends began in the 1950s as creative musicians began
interpolating improvisations into what had been treated as immutable
musical doctrines since High Culture codification began in the late
19th century. This sonic refashioning continues, with the discs here
demonstrating different approaches to the revisions.
Outlier of the group is the octet led by Polish
woodwind player Marek Pospieszalski on
Polish Composers of the 20th Century
(Clean Feed CF 585 CD cleanfeed-records.
com). Rather than recasting any of the classical
canon’s greatest hits by great
composers on this two-CD set,
Pospieszalski, two other horn players, three
string players, a pianist and a percussionist
plus the use of tape and a soundboard, produce variations on a dozen
themes by contemporary Polish composers. Titled with the
composers’ last names, most of which are little known outside their
home country, the tunes are given additional resonance as jazz, noise
and electronic tropes are worked into the performances. Staying true
to the music’s genesis though, references are always made to the initial
theme. Each track is, above all, an orchestral work, since there are few
solos, and no protracted ones, with each performance arranged as
primarily group work. What that means, for instance, is that while a
piece like Stachowski may be broken up with effects pedal rock-like
flanges from guitarist Szymon Mika and metallic percussion from
drummer Qba Janicki, the track’s essence is a horizontal flow that
becomes more concentrated as it evolves. Similarly, Kotoński may be
briefly segmented by Tomasz Dąbrowski’s mewling trumpet breaths,
Piotr Chęcki’s pinched vibrations and Pospieszalski’s flat-line clarinet
buzz, but the equivalent of a military-style march projected by the
drummer and bassist Max Mucha also suffuse the track. True to
Poland’s Slavic folk heritage as well, tracks such as Szalonek and
Rudziński include some joyous, terpsichorean moments. The first
bounces along with drum clanks and hard percussion pummels while
climbing to an explosion of vamping-horn multiphonics and
harmonies. Meanwhile, the second uses horn slurs, Mucha’s clippingnerve
beats and pianist Grzegorz Tarwid’s jumpy keyboard pressure to
replicate Eastern European free-style enthusiasm. Overall though, the
paramount impression left by the 12 performances is how both discipline
and dexterity have united into an ingenious salute to contemporary
Polish composers, which also stands on its own as a musical
statement.
The same concept applies to Danses
(Microcidi 027 circum-disc.com) by the
French Otto duo of electric guitarist Ivann
Cruz and drummer Frédéric L’Homme.
Transforming 13 Bach compositions for lute
and cello, the two invest the suite with a
modern sensibility without overdoing
things. So while some of the gigue interpretations
would seem more appropriate to pogoing than courtly dancing,
the basic lyrical form is maintained. Gigue, Suite n°2 BWV 997
encapsulates what the two do in miniature. Beginning with rugged
rat-tat-tats from the drummer and a low-pitched bass-string thump
that moves towards Memphis funk, the familiar lyrical melody soon
replaces the track inception so that the piece sways back and forth
between both sonic strands to the expected ending. Later transformations
are signalled on Prélude, Suite n°2 BWV 997, the first track, as
L’Homme’s two-beat cowbell ringing pulse would be more common
in a Dixieland club than a Baroque-era church and Cruz’s fleet
pinpointed swinging references confirm the impression. Throughout
the guitarist’s stylings encompass not only jazz but country picking
(Allemande, Suite n°1 BWV 996) and even flirt with punk rock
(Allemande, Suite pour violoncelle n°2 BWV 1008), as rugged percussion
asides or straight-on drum pressure adds to the fluid expressiveness.
The duo though, is also canny enough not to override the
melodic core of Bach’s work. So, while a tune like Prélude &
Allemande, Suite pour violoncelle n°3 BWV 1009 allows the drummer
to expose his inner Neil Peart with busy, connective ruffs and bottom
clanks and the guitarist to seed the track with a shower of high-power
buzzes and flanges, the collective slides and echoes may be more
aggressive but no more discordant than the original. Letting themselves
go, Chaconne, Partita n°2 BWV 1004 is extended to 13-plus
minutes, with the interpretation as intensified as it is concentrated.
Throughout, lighter string frails, subdued percussion crackles, reverb
challenge for supremacy, molasses-thick string chording and bornedown
drum bangs and ruffs, it’s this tension which defines the challenge
met and satisfies by giving way to folksy reverberations by
the end.
Moving from the music of a composer who
died in 1750 to one who was around until
1937, are compositions partly based on
Maurice Ravel themes played by Montreal’s
Cordâme sextet on Ravel Inspirations
(Malasarts mam 048 cordame.bandcamp.
com/album/ravel-inspirations). Mature
in his own writing, leader/bassist Jean
Félix Mailloux alternates tracks directly
influenced by the French composer and those wholly his own. The
group’s treatment of Boléro demonstrates how these transformations
evolve. With the familiar theme first stated by harpist Éveline
Grégoire-Rousseau, it’s taken up by violinist Marie Neige Lavigne and
then harmonized with supple modulations from pianist Guillaume
Martineau. As harp glissandi and Sheila Hannigan’s cello sweeps
embellish the exposition, Mailloux’s bass and Mark Nelson’s percussion
create a rhythmic bottom. When Martineau pulses a bluesy interlude
within the theme, massed and discordant string plunks add
to its fragmentation, but by the end it’s reconstituted with sympathetic
harp strums. Group harmonies keep the narrative linear during
other glimpses into the Impressionist’s canon such as Pavane pour
une infante défunte at the same time as stop-time string strokes and
piano-created note swells build up excitement. That done, piled on
textures from harp, cello and violin calm the performance so that
it finally relaxes during the concluding integrated sequence. Other
tracks may sound a bit too formal until they’re suffused by the
warmth of tincture additions in Mailloux’s arrangements. Meanwhile
Cordâme originals are characterized by more overt modernism in the
arrangement and performances. Horizontal bow sweeps and clocklike
drum ticking give way to violin triple stopping and continuous
harp patterns on La bardane; while tough and heavier sound coordination
among band members sutures the rubato sections of Océanos,
which, besides staccato string stings, feature a rugged drum solo and
a near-foot-tapping groove. Drum rumbles and pops also characterize
what may be the preeminent composition Kenny Wheeler, named
for another Canadian musical innovator. By cannily contrasting
undulating motifs from the strings which attain smoothness without
sweetness and rhythm section power, Mailloux realizes the same sort
of half-Impressionist, half-intense composition, that is not unlike
Wheeler’s memorable work.
60 | July 1 - September 20, 2022 thewholenote.com