(Review
by Dave Brownlow)
New
Songs Of Resistance is
Professor of Piano at Berklee College of
Music Jason Yeager’s latest mix of protest, jazz, classical and Latin American
folk music. It is his attempt to draw more attention to the anger and confusion
felt by the peoples of Latin America and the United States in their current
situation. Jason attempts to speak truth through the power of music in the form
of resistance as previously achieved by such jazz masters as John Coltrane,
Charles Mingus and Max Roach in the not-too-distant past.
In his group he uses three distinct
vocalists and a sextet of accomplished, like-minded musicians who perform with
authenticity and fire in an album of thirteen tracks of original compositions
and songs from four Latin American composers using the original Spanish and
Portuguese lyrics as a sign of respect.
Gracias
a la Vida features Erini’s
first vocal – clear-toned, cool yet passionately delivered. Fleet solos from
the leader, trumpeter Boni and drummer Walker are integrated with ensemble
passages using flugelhorn, cello, trumpet, clarinet and bass-clarinet over a
strong rhythmic pulse with Latin melancholia. The Facts is a fiery, ominous, unsettling performance with a
jarring melody/vocal of clashing melodic intervals from Malek over a
march-style rhythm. Erini again handles the plaintive vocal on Somos Cinco Mil a sombre,
highly-charged, dramatic original from Yeager. An Arabic-influenced cello solo
against the leader’s ‘Tyneresque’ chords provides a most emotive moment. Interlude: Uncovering is a brief, gentle
piano solo in an ‘Impressionist-style’ using Debussy-influenced chords and note
patterns.
Another Yeager piece Mother Earth is a more contemporary composition dominated by a long
declamatory trumpet solo from Boni and a workout from the composer himself
whose next song, In Search Of Truth, has
Malek speaking the writers uncomfortable lyrics – “Do you deny the past? Do you
deny the truth? Do you deny the warming planet? We must be better than this!”
This piece is reminiscent of a George Russell composition – avant-garde in
conception with a challenging format. A calm start increasingly becomes more
agitated – a disturbing listen indeed which also includes a “conversation”
between wordless vocal and piano as its finale. A second solo piano solo Interlude: Resistance is an
improvisation over a two-chord vamp, leading us to a stunning track Cinco Sylos Igual where again Erini
handles the vocal. A mournful minor theme – the words came from songwriter
Victor Jara just before he and thousands of other Chilean intelligentsia were
murdered by Pinochet in 1973 in the Santiago Stadium. Protest has the background noise of a crowd ‘protest march’ and the
piano/bass/drums trio incorporates stabbing, clashing chords in a short but
effective track.
Reckoning
has a cold, word-less
vocal from Malek setting the scene for clarinet, piano and drum solos. The last
solo piano interlude Interlude:Factitudes
has a brooding, sombre intensity
with Yeager’s very effective use of the whole of the piano range giving it
dissonance.The album ends on a cheerful note with a Samba-style Apesar de Voce with Mirella Costa taking
her only featured vocal in a more
overtly ‘jazzy’ offering. The leader provides a melodically appropriate solo
which gives this final track an optimistic feel – pointing to better days
ahead.
“New Songs of Resistance” is on Outside In
Music OIM 1924 and is available now from
– outsideinmusic.com or
Dave
Brownlow
Jason Yeager (piano/leader/writer/arranger); Fernando Huergo (electric bass); Mark Walker (drums/perc) + Milena Casado (flugel 1,5,9.); Cosimo Boni (trumpet 2,6,); Matthew Stubbs (clarinet & bass clarinet 1,2,5,9,11); Naseem Alatrash (cello 1,3,5,9); Erini, Mirella Costa, Farayi Malek (voices).
No comments :
Post a Comment