Judith Berkson, mezzo-soprano, pianist, composer and improviser returns on ECM with a compelling new album. “I view the pieces on this recording as a natural extension of my solo work,” says Judith Berkson. “This idea of songs that are quite intimate and personal, informed by jazz with pockets of improvisation but also drawing from song traditions, and avant-garde traditions in their harmonic and melodic material, embracing elements of minimalism and even conceptual art.” The 2010 album Oylam documented Berkson’s creation of her own vocal language and approach to songwriting and the idiosyncratic keyboard accompaniment to support these elements: “I worked on that concept for years.” The logical next step was to develop those ideas in a group context. “Certainly I’m tipping my hat to the classic jazz trio with piano, drums and bass. I thought that would be fun, if I had the right people.”
The right people turned out to be the drummer Gerald Cleaver, with whom Berkson has played on many occasions over the years, and bassist Trevor Dunn, with whom she had not worked previously. They share with Berkson an aversion to limiting their creativity to a single musical idiom. On Thee They Thy, she leads them through a swiftly changing programme with original songs, vocal experimentation, total improvisation, a new setting for prayer and more. As the Wall Street Journal has noted, still “more remarkable than the range of genres is Ms. Berkson’s mastery of them and her ability to weave them into a seamless program. … revealing the connections between seemingly divergent paths.”
Of the album’s ten pieces, the opener, “Slow”, and the closing “Sated” are through-composed songs, as is “Dust”, near the centre of the programme. Much information is condensed in their spare forms. “Dust’s” ultra-minimal four note melody is “sustained over chord changes which come out of 19th century harmony fused with jazz…” "Slowly Walk Into It", meanwhile, was created in the moment. Spontaneous composition, with both words and music unleashed stream-of-consciousness style, is one strand of Judith Berkson’s recent work. Heightened risk and heightened vulnerability belong to the endeavour.
Improvisation in "Torque" is sparked by 12-tone rows, Berkson intuitively “referencing ideas, or sampling them with homage and love, but placing them out of context and juxtaposing concepts, eras and genres.” Likewise, "Thee They Thy", like a dreamworld scat song, was conceived by its composer as “a playful send-up of atonal vocal lines and jazz.” An element of post-modern distancing is at work, and a sense of minimalism “that keeps it from being necessarily either of those things.”
Midway through the album Gerald Cleaver delivers a subtle piece of music for solo drums. One of the great contemporary percussionists, on “Cleav” he gives us intimate, rippling drum music, geared to the dynamics of the project, exploring texture and timbre.
On “Notice” a minimalistically-repeated vocal utterance is gradually overwhelmed by surging piano trio playing. And all three musicians have space to stretch out on the instrumental “Amerika”, with Trevor Dunn delivering a particularly poignant solo statement.
Berkson performing cantorial music is something else again. Listeners who responded to the emotional intensity of “Ahavas Oylam” on her last ECM release will be moved by the powerful “V’shamru” here. Judith: “I wanted to include an original cantorial piece as part of the album. It’s been important. Why not have these pieces sit side by side? If not now, when?” Beneath Berkson’s electrifying vocal, Cleaver’s percussion and Dunn’s bass further stir the emotions and colour the music with great sensitivity.
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Judith Berkson studied voice with Lucy Shelton and composition with Joe Maneri at the New England Conservatory.
Active on multiple artistic fronts, from solo performance and electroacoustic music to operatic works, she composed music for the film Christopher at Sea (2022), which premiered at Sundance and the Venice Biennale, and won awards at SXSW and at Outfest LA. Her chamber opera Partial Memories premiered at the NODO Festival in Ostrava, in the Czech Republic. It was dedicated to forgotten female artists Janet Sobel and Mary Gartside and featured the Ostravská Banda.
Judith is also a cantor and officiates traditional liturgical chanting. She has collaborated on Yiddish and cantorial music with Frank London, Theodore Bikel, and the Kronos Quartet. She lives in Los Angeles, and teaches at California Institute of the Arts.
Gerald Cleaver first appeared on ECM as a member of Roscoe Mitchell’s Note Factory on Nine To Get Ready in 1999, followed by recordings with Craig Taborn, Michael Formanek, Tomasz Stanko, Miroslav Vitous, Giovanni Guidi, Joe Lovano and Enrico Rava.
Trevor Dunn makes his first ECM appearance with Thee They Thy. His far-reaching discography includes work with experimental rock band Mr Bungle, numerous albums with John Zorn, recordings with his own group Trio-Convulsant, and more.
Thee They Thy was recorded in July 2021 at Oktaven Audio Studio, Mt Vernon, New York. The album was produced by Manfred Eicher.
