Volume 30 Issue 2 | October & November 2024

composed by Honari. A

composed by Honari. A Held note begins the piece moves to faster, rhythmic, dance along, happy tune touching on different styles; colourful instrumental answering back and forth, accented chords and held note swells illuminate the unique sound. Shalev’s composition Bagelissimo (Miles End Tango) has original yet traditional-based tango bandoneon, drumming bangs keeping it together along with guests Reza Abaee (ghaychak) and Pierre-Alexander Maranda (double bass). Kayyali’s Hayrah (Confusion) opens with a sad oud melody above bandoneon held notes/vibratos, then faster happier two instrumental leads with emotional cymbal splashes. Guest composer/arranger/bass clarinetist Charles Papsoff is featured on Apatride. Les Arrivants mesh countless stylistic musical sounds together in perfect performances. Tiina Kiik and get softer to the final closing cymbal hit. Be prepared to be “blown away” by this unbelievable, funny, one-of-its-kind release. Multiple listenings increase the joy! Tiina Kiik Mountain Air Harry Bartlett (harrybartlett.bandcamp.com) ! Canadian guitarist and composer Harry Bartlett grew up in the Pacific northwest, studied jazz guitar at the University of Toronto and currently lives in Nashville. I reviewed his superb album Wildwood when it was released in 2023. Streaming and digital releases have become commonplace so releasing an “album” no longer means the standard 30 to 40 minutes of music. This increased flexibility allowed Bartlett to spend an afternoon in Toronto playing and recording the contemplative and exquisite Mountain Air with Aline Homzy (violin) and Andrew Downing (upright bass). All three pieces are original compositions and are presented with a delicacy combining classical, string band and jazz elements. Trail Song has elegant solos from all three players and the music is both percussive, up-tempo and expressive. A Sun Beneath the Clouds is slower and more sombre, and Eagle River seems to be the most folk influenced of the three. Mountain Air works well as an EP-length contained suite; Bartlett’s compositions exquisitely Air Cake and other summery occupations Catherine Cary Orchard of Pomegranates (catharinecary. bandcamp.com/album/air-cake-and-othersummery-occupations) ! France-based American Catherine Cary has had many careers including economist, visual artist, story writer, improviser and performer. During COVID she would phone her nephew and improvise quirky children’s stories. Orchard producer Ayelet Rose Gottlieb suggested adding music to them. Here Cary energetically tells/improvises/ sings nine of her children’s stories for all ages about three young children – Leila, Grecian and Manu – on an adventurous French beach summer vacation. Playful, spontaneous, tight, free improvised music by Montrealers Eric Lewis (cornet, bass clarinet, percussion) and Eyvin Bamford (drums, percussion) complement the stories. Daisy Day opens with drums, then matching percussive rhythms to energetic speaking from loud to almost whisper. Loud speedy cornet during the going home segment softens to high note at home ending. Lazy Day is their tired day after collecting daisies. Cornet held note and intervals interspersed with more dynamic spoken words build to closing softer “you are just quiet” with distant drum roll ending. Climbing the Rhune features rock drumming and rhythmic spoken words, with a few almost sung, about the three going out for walk to incredibly tired back home hilarious loud boom crash ending. Contemplative Air Cake has wind sounds, pitched clarinet and drums backdrop to “I want to make cake but there is nothing in the house, nobody went shopping. It is all air.” High pitched atonal sounds and drums build Something in the Air Multiple discs of creative music can be boxed up but not boxed in KEN WAXMAN Although multiple-disc box sets are usually used as best-of retrospectives, another reason for collating numerous discs is when the artists involved decide that certain performances are so exceptional that they can’t be limited to a single or double disc. So it is with these live sets which involve respectively an American sax quartet; a collaboration between a Norwegian-American saxophone-drum duo with Japanese musicians; and a series of sets by a Swedish-French-British quartet. The third band is دم [ahmed], whose five-CD set Giant Beauty (Fönstret 9-13 fonstret.edition-festival.com) is dedicated to the quartet’s interpretations of music composed by bassist/oud player Ahmed Abdul-Malik (1927-1993). Best-known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as leader he released a series of LPs between 1958 and 1962 that affected a fusion of jazz, African and Arabic music: World Music before it had a name. Experienced creative musicians, Swedish bassist Joel Grip, French drummer Antonin Gerbal and alto saxophonist Seymour Wright and pianist Pat Thomas from the UK improvise on five Abdul-Malik compositions recorded during a five-night gig in a Stockholm arts space. Although each player is also expert in hushed, lower-case improv, their collective aggressive side is upfront. Every tune times in at approximately 45 minutes (about nine times its original length). That means the quartet members have enough space to weave variations on and create an individual and contemporary feel to tunes that show their age with titles like african bossa nova. Take tracks like el harris (anxious) or oud blues for example. With bedrock bass thumps and string buzzes plus responsive drum shuffles on the first, Wright’s stretched split tones and jagged vibrations at a variety of tempos and pitches are sutured closely to Thomas’ prestissimo key clipping that becomes more intense as pressure builds from the tandem exposition. Although the saxophonist’s squalling, mewling and yelping extrusions and the pianist’s player-piano-like speedy patterns and key stabbing evolve with seemingly unstoppable dynamism, interludes of paced swing alternate with returns to the initial theme. A walking bass line signals a modulation to andante tempo, and following some faux-exotic reed honks wraps up the piece with bowed string stops and singular piano pumps. 84 | October & November 2024 thewholenote.com

alance the guitar, violin and bass and all three players contribute their subtle performances. I’m happy Bartlett did not wait to release Mountain Air as part of a larger project. Ted Parkinson Chasing the Sun Colin James Stony Plain SPCD1499 (stonyplainrecords. com/colinjames) ! This is exciting music by renowned Canadian blues singer, songwriter and guitarist Colin James in this, his 21st release. Many famous guests also perform and compose here with James in seven blues/rock originals and four covers. Opening Protection grabs one’s attention as James (electric guitar, vocals) Colin Linden (electric guitar), Darryl Jones (bass) and Charlie Drayton (drums) perform energetic grooves, and James is joined by legendary singer/songwriter Lucinda Williams who co-wrote the tune. A contrasting quieter vocal verse leads to a loud chorus with backup singers Ann and Regina McCreary, instrumentals, guitar solos and James’ wailing vocals to upbeat ending. Instrumental Devilment, composed by Linden and Paul Reddick, starts with repeated descending guitar lines and drums. An elaborate harmonica solo by guest Charlie Musselwhite follows and gradually becomes syncopated bluesy swing and morphing into classic closing bass line and final drum crash. In My Own Dream by Paul Butterfield is a trio with James and Linden on guitars and Janice Powers on keyboards. This song has slower close ensemble playing with James singing, guitar flourishes and reflective feel. Closing track Open Your Mind by James and Tom Wilson is a group performance with James’ clear vocals and words, interest boosting Drayton drums, straightforward James and Linden guitars and Jones bass instrumentals, and McCreary backup vocals. Colourful performance to gradual decrescendo softer ending and fade to James’ closing words. James’ amazing musicianship keeps developing new blues sounds and Chasing the Sun is fun, energetic blues-to-rock music. Tiina Kiik More animated ferment is expressed on oud blues. With emphasis on the second rather than the first word of the title, Wright’s honks and snorts relate more to Midwestern R&B than Middle eastern Raqs sharqi, while Thomas’ pressurized runs and Grip’s upfront string stops suggest rent-party boogie-woogies not the sounds of a Persian barbat. Gerbal’s drum backbeat paces Wright’s screaming altissimo runs as the tempo increases, reaching a crescendo at the halfway point as reed doits and honks attach themselves to the pressurized dynamics Thomas extracts from all parts of the piano. Although freewheeling Dixieland-style breaks are heard, off-centre slides and flattement from Wright plus subtle keyboard asides confirm the tune’s modernity the same way as concentrated piano, bass and drum pacing maintains the performance’s forward motion. The final minutes are both speculative and swinging as reed tongue slaps and piano key smashes share space with arco string slices and drum rattles. If there’s such a thing as accessible avant-garde then دم [ahmed] has created it and it’s available here. Another aggregation that established a similar part experimental, part expected program, wrapped up in linear form is the duo of Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen- Love and American tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Ken Vandermark. The seven CDs on Japan 2019 (PNL Records PNL 059 Audiographic AG-022 audiographicrecords. com/album/japan-2019) preserve sounds from a unique tour where the long-time associates not only played as a duo, but organized trios and quartets alongside similarly creative Japanese improvisers. Two discs capture the creative partnership both have built up playing together over two decades. The saxophonist’s snarls, honks and sudden turns to more melodic flutters from all parts of his horns are met by the drummer’s steady beats where paradiddles and pops share space with thick ruffs to enhance the improvisations. But the most telling tracks here are those where the visitors interact with three veteran Japanese improvisers. Instructively note how Vandermark and Nilssen-Love react to the different piano styles of Masahiko Satoh and Yuji Takahashi. On disc two, Takahashi. who specializes in playing New Music and oddly enough Bach, gradually boosts his output from plinks and cross pulsing to unleashed intensity that meets Vandermark’s corkscrew reed variations and Nilssen- Love’s metal rim clanking and bass drum emphasis. As clarinet runs surge to atonal squeaks and powerful drum smacks turn woodier, the pianist slithers between shaded keyboard passages and a climax of single note comping. Takahashi’s midpoint switch to adagio key-dusting brings out warmer peeps from the clarinet plus responsive percussion pitter patter. With all three in sync the languid finale unites low-pitch rumbles from Nilssen-Love, squeaks from Vandermark and Takahashi’s measured keyboard pumps. Contrast that with the aggressive comping of Masahiko Satoh on disc five, whose free-jazz piano invention has faced the likes of Roger Turner and Joëlle Léandre. As his playing turns to thickened chording and soundboard vibrations, ascending tones from Vandermark’s saxophone turn to altissimo squeaks and superfast slurs as Nilssen-Love’s regularized drum smacks create a buffer zone between multiphonic reed shrieks and Satoh’s methodological exploration of crunching glissandi and darting keyboard stabs. After the pianist’s sophisticated feints are accompanied by a weighty obbligato from the saxophonist, the drummer’s smacks and cymbal chiming move the improvisation into a stop-time sequence that, driven by elevated keyboard tickles, concludes the piece with juddering sighs and pops from the other two. The situation is different when the drummer and saxophonist work with alto saxophonist/clarinetist Akira Sakata, a Japanese free jazz pioneer who has recorded with Peter Brötzmann among many others. Disc six isn’t an expected blow-fest, but an instance of how two reed players with simpatico ideas can logically build up improvisations to realized climaxes. Starting with intertwined, almost gentle respiration from both saxophonists, the drummer’s pounding tom toms prod basement lows and altissimo screams to move upfront. Vandermark’s spetrofluctuation and prestissimo tonguing and Sakata’s sandpaper rough growls climax with aviary gargles and dog whistle equivalents from both. Switching to clarinets Vandermark’s clarion tones meet Sakata’s snuffles until the reed duo double teams the drummer’s dissected but responsive ruffs, leading to a metal and Mylar solo from Nilssen-Love. Back on saxophones, Vandermark forces balanced air through his bell to scoop out foghorn-like blasts while Sakata squeaks split tones up the scale. As the drummer’s bellicose press rolls fade, mid-range clarinet tones from Sakata and Vandermark recall the introduction’s gentleness, creating a high-pitched near-lullaby climax. The most telling of these configurations occurs on disc four however as the visitors improvise alongside both pianists. As one keyboardist hunts and pecks and the other creates regularized passages, they’re challenged by Vandermark’s excitable flattement and scooped tongue stops. The thematic exposition is defined by the dual pianos clipping and chiming reverberations as reed whistles and peeps and tough drum smacks add gravitas so that the narrative become more than decorative. At the same time as they circle each other’s clanks and frails with nuanced textures, Satoh and Takahashi display their exploratory bona fides by filling the spaces between the 176 keys with thewholenote.com October & November 2024 | 85