Karen Borca & Paul Murphy: Entwined (Relative Pitch RPR1198)
As if there weren’t already enough bassoon and drums duos in the world (IRONY ALERT) this one consisting of Borca on the former and Murphy on the latter offers up a programme of music rich in detail and pointillistic nuance.
Both musicians are loosely informed by what might be called the ideals of Cecil Taylor, although the resulting music, by dint of the number of musicians involved, shows only tangential traces of that iconoclast’s musical density. The lengthy Snapping Turtle encapsulates the duo’s musical relationship, which is one grounded in “in the moment” spontaneity and the ability of each member to think quickly in response to the other.
In the solo passage which opens Something Borca stakes out a claim for her instrument as one able to convey much depth and many colours, her line eventually joined by percussion from Murphy at his most deft. The music is notable for the degree to which it doesn’t raise its voice, so to speak, and is all the more telling because of this as it draws in the active, receptive listener.
While it’s a little disingenuous to say that New Piece offers more of the same, not least because the same in this instance implies something pretty rarefied, the fact remains that the music, at least at the moments of greatest animation, echoes passages to be found throughout the set. But still the balance and poise which are qualities highly indicative of the duo’s understanding are to be heard in abundance.
Given the cultural conservatism that’s a mark of the present day, it’s good to know that labels such as Relative Pitch are still capturing and putting out music such as this, which is demanding of the listener and which requires some work to be properly assimilated.
Tania Grubbs Quintet: The Sound Of Love (Travlin Music)
Singer Grubbs offers up a set notable for the lack of risk. Fortunately for her we live in an era when safety and the avoidance of risks can provoke high praise from the critical fraternity. Grubbs’ voice is a sophisticated one in the sense that there’s evidence of considerable depth of interpretation, but to my cloth ear that evidence comes and goes.
Thus, But Not For Me is taken at a tempo which seems to encourage a light and breezy run-through of the lyric, and this it receives. The voice and brushed drums/bass drum duo that opens the interpretation is a nice arrangerly touch before proceedings settle down into a well-known, tried-and-trusted format, with elegant piano from David Budway.
Norman Gimbel and Henry Mancini’s Slow Hot Wind is treated with an abundance of elegance. As far as I can hear Grubbs doesn’t do much with the lyric beyond applying her imagination to titular implications, while guitarist Ron Affif ups the jazz content considerably with his solo.
Strange Meadowlark documents Grubbs dealing in a nice line in emotional ambiguity. The lyric is one of those which arguably invites a range of interpretations, and to her credit Grubbs extracts more from it in terms of interpretation than some might. This time it’s Rudway’s turn to take a solo honour.
Billy Strayhorn’s Something To Live For is for me the strongest song on the album. Grubbs shows evidence of really having digested the lyric, and her accompanying quartet show every sign of tailoring its work to fit her reading of it, resulting in a highly cohesive outing which serves notice of the fact that Grubbs might well have what it takes to stake out some territory of her own in a field that’s far from sparsely populated.
Toms Rudzinskis Quartet: Interception (Jersika Records JRD009-001-1000)
Latvian alto sax player Rudzinskis and his quartet, which includes rising star Alex Koo on piano, are shining brightly in the contemporary jazz firmament on their album, which is notable for the degree of integration between the standard sax, piano, bass and drums quartet and a small string ensemble.
The refined tension-and-release of opening track Sky neatly summarises the overall feel of the album, with the sumptuousness of the strings being counter-balanced by the slightly acidic, rhythmically busier work of the quartet.
The following Edges is a title offset by the less dense, more lyrical music it comprises, with Koo in solo avoiding a lot of the cliches of contemporary jazz piano, and in turn following the example of the leader in wearing his influences as something entirely unlike a heavy overcoat in July. As the music proceeds the strings “sing” in a manner which ensures some depth, which again is offset, this time by the leader, whose work is that of a musician who knows the value of understatement and the absence of bluster.
Notional minimalism is the order of the day on Years, so almost by default the feeling of understatement is never too far away. The bass and drums duo of Igor Spallati and Ivars Arutynyan takes a refined approach, giving the very strong impression of a pairing alert to every nuance the music has to offer.
The closing Memories is aptly both wistful and reflective. Rudzinskis gives free rein to his lyrical side, again serving notice of his individual approach to his art and thus reminding us that the album amounts to the documenting of a work very much in progress.
