There are a couple of music composition and performance tricks that I find particularly bothersome. The most bothersome trick for me is minimalism - the endless, sound-deadening chord; over-done micro-tonality. Second-place dishonor goes to over-done circular-breathing performances by wind players. There is music that is terribly fun to perform and not terribly fun to listen to. Recently I've developed an aversion to much of the piano music that I've been confronted with. Pianists who incorporate minimalist-composition routines in their improvising have to my ears developed a pianistic form of 'circular breathing'. Minimalist music and circular-breathing don't let any 'fresh air' out or in - it's just the same stale air. Now that I've let the reader know what I don't care for, it's time to air what I did find to my liking among the remaining EdgeFest-2011 performances (I wrote previously about the performances of Sylvie Courvoisier-Mark Feldman and the Tamarindo Trio - Tony Malaby, William Parker and Tom Rainey).
The trio composed of Andrew Bishop (saxophones), Tim Flood (bass), and Gerald Cleaver (drums) performed in the manner of free-jazz - competent improvisors who didn't arrest or distress me. In this case, as in my listening to the Tamarindo Trio, I kept attending to the rhythm section and not to the saxophones. This attention-bracketing phenomenon occurs quite often in my aural confrontations with free-jazz trio ensembles - the rhythm's on top and the tenor or soprano is on the bottom. I guess my ears have become to accustomed to the playing of the much missed Fred Anderson (R.I.P.).
Ned Rothenberg's Clarinet Quintet #1. The composer performed on clarinet with the Mivos String Quartet. This five movement work was very appealing to me. The work performed quite expertly. There were two places in the work that I found off-putting - one was the section in which the writing called for John Adam's Shaker Loops style grinding in unison by the four strings and the other was a circular breathing section performed by the clarinetist that didn't seem to fit the contour of the work in the least. In all though, the Clarinet Quintet #1 is a captivating work that was very well performed.
Enesco Re-Imagined - Lucian Ban and John Hébert. Georges Enescu (1881-1955) was a Romanian composer, virtuoso violinist, conductor, and teacher who resided in Paris. In spite of having recordings of his first and second string quartets and his opera Oedipe, I didn't know Enescu's music. So I had to take it on faith that the music that I heard was Enescu's music re-imagined. Never the less the re-imagined music that I heard was charming and interesting. It was performed by an all star ensemble - Lucian Ban, composer & piano, John Hébert, bass, Joyce Hammann and Mat Maneri, violins, Badal Roy, tabla, Andrew Bishop, saxophone, and Gerald Cleaver, drums.
James Cornish's Short Opera Project - a musical setting of poems by Philip Levine. The instrumentation consisted of baritone horn/trumpet - James Cornish, reeds - Piotr Michalowski, bass/bassoon - Marko Novachcoff, bass - Christopher Skebo, cello - Abby Alwin, and mezzo soprano - Deanna Relyea. The music touched on Kurt Weill. Deanna Relyea's voice and singing were a treat for me.
Vinny Golia & Friends - Golia (reeds), Tad Weed (piano), Alex Noice (guitar), Jon Armstrong (alto saxophone), and Andrew Lessman (drums). I was very impressed with Armstrongs playing - a lot of fire. I was not taken with the entire music experience. Golia is a very proficient saxophonist and enjoys near legendary status as the leader of west-coast free-jazz. I don't think I was up to enjoying his playing that evening. Again we had some of the marks of free-jazz: multi-instrumentalists must play all of their instruments, must do circular breathing, must begin softly to get the audience's attention - the way Miles started a set with a ballad, . . . .
Craig Taborn gave a solo piano recital on Friday evening. The audience was very into what he was up to. I wasn't up to Taborn that evening. I certainly admire his playing and his musicianship. But his playing was too dense, too minimalist, too static - I needed more space to stretch out in. I was informed by a person who knows about Taborn's music that he have changed his approach to improvising. Some may reckon that it's for the better, evolution of a new style perhaps; I found it mildly suffocating, not enough lightness, . . . .
Joel Harrison 7: Search performed Harrison's compositions. His 7 consisted of Seamus Blake, tenor saxophone; Christian Howes, violin; Dana Leong, cello; Drew Gress, bass; Jacob Sacks, piano; Dan Weiss, percussion; and Harrison, guitar. The composer suggests that his compositions touch on Olivier Messiaen, John Adams and Arvo Pärt. To my way of hearing these last two influences are to be resisted - but these professed influences were not discernable to my ears in the music on offer by Harrison's 7 that Saturday afternoon. The playing of Christian Howes, violin and Dana Leong, cello was outstanding. The compositions were not very interesting to my mind. The piano seemed out of the compositional mix, as did the guitar. I can't understand guitars in conjunction with pianos - either one or the other but not both is best. And indeed I think guitar and bass guitar are better yet. The music was performed expertly. But the compositions weren't saying much to my ears and mind. The audience was captivated once more.
Rova Saxophone Quartet. Bruce Ackley, Larry Ochs, Jon Raskin, Steve Adams. The quartet's chamber-music approach to its performances and the compositions of its members (and other composers) presents the listener with extremely precise articulation of the music-materials. The Quartet's music-material and spiritual tastes and influences are from the right places and spaces - Sun Ra, Varèse, Xenakis, AACCM, Ornette Coleman, and Coltrane. No discernible minimalist detours with Rova. The music offered was sublime. The audience that evening witnessed what was happening, and it knew it! A perfect way to end the 2011 EdgeFest.
So I'm neither a minimalist enthusiast nor gaga about circular-breathing displays. I was enthralled by much of what I heard at this year's EdgeFest. The EdgeFest director, Deanna Relyea deserves our thanks for once again making wonderful performers of serious art music available to us.
