Joe Lovano (tenor/soprano sax, tarogato, gongs), Marilyn Crispell (piano),
Carmen Castaldi (percussion) If this album were a flower, it would surely
be an orchid; fragile and with great beauty, but with great
intensity of emotion and colour. This
is Lovano’s second ECM album of
originals with this trio,
the first was well received in 2019 (review in BSH here.
This format offers a
different outlet for Lovano’s expression in
a free, textural
context rather than his
more familiar straight-ahead work, such as with Enrico Rava in 2019
(reviewed here in BSH).
In 2014 I was lucky enough to hear his tumultuous tenor voice with Jack DeJohnette's Spring
Quartet at GIJF. Even more standout
that night was DeJohnette - my
son’s first live experience of such seemingly unstructured drumming - he recalls
he had no idea what he was hearing, it was so far removed from his
then experience! (Perhaps that night lit
the blue touch paper for subsequent study
of jazz drums at Leeds?)
The drumming here is even further removed from conventional time-keeping and
palette, as Castaldi subtly conjures
and complements the mood with a textural and rhythmic soundscape spanning
gentle bells and brushes through
to sonorous toms and sniping snare.
Crispell’s piano
moves from melodic lead through cascading chordal washes – sometimes leading, more
often showcasing Lovano’s, by
turns, breathy and
yearning lines.
Chapel breaks
us in gently with a languorous falling tenor line,
gently caressed and worked over with
piano. Night Creatures carries
on in the same language, a rarefied dialect of whispers and hints, occasionally coalescing
– sound and texture not structure – free in
line and time, but rooted in harmony.
The title track is more direct, with a wholesome repeated motif, falling into a
free section with roiling percussion, before restatement and
resolution. Treasured
Moments and The Sacred
Chant are more serene - slow, minimal and
potentially soporific! Dream on That is
more playful, with all three trading, swapping and circling with more urgency. The
closing Zen Like opens
with Lovano’s gong collection, and is a
well named ten minutes of
dreamy ambiance.
Gorgeous, intense but relaxing, and awash with subtle ideas and playing. No
doubt too ethereal for many listeners’ taste and too ambient for many listening
slots, but perhaps the soothing and
meditative balm we need for these times?
Chris K
Try/buy.
Released 29.01.21 Recording made in Auditorio Stelio Molo
RSI in Lugano and produced by Manfred Eicher.
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