Reviews of the Week

UK reactions to the freshly released album Tramonto by the John Taylor Trio

This engrossing trio recording, recorded live in Birmingham in 2002, reveals the strong musical personality at his music’s core. Taylor combined the harmonic mists of impressionism with focused single-note lines, delivering that blend with a freewheeling imagination and firm pianist’s touch. His American accompanists here are Marc Johnson on bass and Joey Baron on drums, who were recent collaborators on a short Contemporary Music Network tour — the trio would record the well-received ECM studio album ‘Rosslyn’ later that year. Quick-witted, dynamic and technically astute, Johnson and Baron confidently expand and fine-tune the mood-swings of Taylor’s fast-moving aesthetic. For nearly an hour, the trio stride purposefully, twist into fury and deliver tender asides. […] Packed with detail and with solos for all, the music’s grasp never lets up.

Mike Hobart, Financial Times

An album that reignites a passion for the music of the great pianist John Taylor whose melancholic, bespoke romantic touch and road less travelled journeyings cloaked in Evansiana are utterly unforgettable. Imagine hearing his music for the first time if you weren’t born when these pieces were recorded. It’s a January 2002 archival release recorded live in Birmingham at the CBSO Centre during a Contemporary Music Network tour. […] The album title takes its name from a Ralph Towner piece and is the penultimate track of 5. The word ‘Tramonto’ comes from the Italian and means ‘sunset’ in English. That work goes back to the 1990s and a first recording by American guitarist Towner and his compatriot, the Keith Jarrett Standards trio bassist Gary Peacock. It appeared on the Rainbow, Oslo studio recording, ‘Oracle’ issued in 1994. Taylor himself recorded this tender, balladic piece on an earlier recording of his own called ‘Rosslyn’ issued in 2003 by ECM with the great Bass Desires bassist Marc Johnson and the Frisellian drummer Joey Baron who turned 70 earlier this summer. […] ‘Tramonto’ also has a treatment of ‘Between Moons,’ again a piece of Taylor’s that was included on ‘Rosslyn’, a rightfully acclaimed album that is the key companion listen for context and added value.

Stephen Graham, Marlbank

UK and Swiss media welcome the new album And I heard a voice by Vox Clamantis with works of Arvo Pärt

Released to celebrate the Estonian composer’s 90th birthday, this beautiful recording is not just a wonderful way to celebrate but is a celebration in itself. Bringing together some of Pärt’s more recent compositions, the oldest ‘Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen’ having been written in 1988, the choir Vox Clamantis under the direction of their leader Jaan-Eik Tulve breathe life into the music in an enlightening and uplifting manner. […] Vox Clamantis have been working with Pärt for over a quarter of a century and their depth of understanding for the music is staggering. Working from scriptural verses the composer is able to bring to the choir the same feeling of calm and space that is an integral part of his works for orchestra. Vox Clamantis in turn bring their mastery of plainchant and early polyphony along with a feeling for contemporary composition that permits the music to inhabit its own unique space. […] Having immersed oneself in the luxurious sounds of Vox Clamantis, a surprise quietly creeps up with the addition of another voice with the sound of the organ played by Ene Salumäe. As delightful as it is unexpected. The integration of organ and choir is so delicately and masterfully done that it immediately pulls at the ear, yet the new voice becomes at one, while paradoxically enhancing the textures within the choir. This superb collection of music for choir composed by Pärt concludes with ‘And I heard a voice’, notable as the only composition by the Estonian composer in which he has set sacred text in his native language, using a translation into Estonian of the Book of Revelation. To the text Pärt has written music that perfectly blends the past with the present, and to which Vox Clamantis bring a gravitas that acknowledges both the compositions and the composer.

Nick Lea, Jazz Views

Le compositeur estonien Arvo Pärt a fêté ses 90 ans en septembre. Le label ECM, qui a fidèlement gravé ses oeuvres, publie un nouveau recueil choral. L’ensemble Vox Clamantis de Jaan-Eik Tulve, spécialiste de son répertoire, est formidable de précision et d’intensité dans les pièces ‘Nunc Dimittis’, ‘O Holy Father Nicholas’, ‘Sieben Magnificat-Antiphonen’, ‘Für Jan van Eyck’, ‘Kleine Litanei’, ‘And I heard a voice’… La musique s’élève, dans une forme de dépouillement, d’épure, de recueillement mystique (les textes sont d’inspiration religieuse). Elle est tendue entre les origines de la polyphonie et des harmonies contemporaines et entre l’assise d’une basse profonde et l’envolée aiguë des sopranos. C’est une musique qui pose, qui pousse à l’intériorité, à la communion, à supporter l’insoutenable vacarme du monde.

Elisabeth Haas, La Liberté

The limited vinyl box set At The Deer Head Inn – Complete Recordings by Keith Jarrett with Gary Peacock and Paul Motian is acclaimed in a German music magazine

Beim Termin im Der Head Inn war der fantastisch spielende Jack DeJohnette verhindert, sodas Jarrett zum ersten Mal seit 16 Jahren wieder mit dem kaum weniger großartigen Modern-Jazz-Drummer Motian spielte. Mit Peacock war es sowieso ausgemachte Sache, dass – wie bei Jarretts Solokonzerten – kein Auftritt wie der andere klang. So hatte auch das Konzert im völlig überfüllten Deer Head Inn fast etwas von einer Session. Wobei alle drei Beteiligten mit den Songs oder Themen von Miles Davis, Rogers & Hart, Mort Dixon, Cole Porter, Nat Adderley oder Thelonious Monk natürlich bestens vertraut waren.  Die musikalische Interaktion spielt in Sphären, die Normalsterblichen wohl für immer verschlossen bleiben. Traumhaft. […] sein Spiel verfügt über außergewöhnlichen Fluss und Ideenreichtum. Wenn man möchte, kann man die Auseinandersetzung mit Bach oder Händel in den herrlichen Ornamenten hören, kann man die Einflüsse der ‘ernsten’ Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts hören. Doch im Grunde ist das hier Jazz. Peacock nimmt viele Bälle virtuos auf, um sie nach kurzem Dribbling wieder virtuos zurückzuspielen – ein Weltklasse-Bassist ohne die geringsten Ermüdungserscheinungen oder routiniertes Walking. Motian legt etwas mehr fließenden Puls unter die Stücke als von DeJohnette gewohnt. […] Klanglich haben die alten Bänder (oder Festplatten) kein bisschen gelitten. Es lässt sich beim besten Willen kein Höhenabfall oder Dynamikverlust gegenüber den CDs ausmachen. So kann man nach dem Hören aller acht Plattenseiten Jarretts eigenem Kommentar nur aus vollem Herzen zustimmen: ‘I think you can hear on this tape what jazz is all about.’

Lothar Brandt, Mint

The album Æris with works by Erkki-Sven Tüür fascinates a UK reviewer

Manfred Eicher and ECM have been diligent in their endeavours to bring the expressive and evocative compositions of Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tüür to wider attention, and this is the ninth New Series album to feature the composer’s work. For this latest release, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Olari Elts perform three pieces by Tüür, joined for the long title track by the German Hornsound featuring the unusual ensemble of four French horns, in contrasting pieces that all have their moments of drama and intensely focused ensemble passages that sweep the listener along. […] The centrepiece of the album and the longest work is Symphony No. 10 ‘ÆRIS’ that is perhaps the most intense and energetic composition with the layers of sound from woodwinds and the Hornsound quartet. The sound of the orchestra appears intensely magnified by the addition of the French horns, and this is down to the way in which Tüür cleverly deploys the horns. At times they seem to disappear anonymously into the orchestra while at others their presence is keenly felt and heard as they interact in dialogue as the composer introduces soloists and ensembles from within the ensemble. Each individual composition stands alone as an epic narrative whether free roam and interpret freely as on ‘Phantasma’, working within the more confined area of interest in ‘De Profundis’ or simply letting the imagination run in the spectacular ‘ÆRIS’, this is a deeply satisfying programme of music that is constantly stimulating.

Nick Lea, Jazz Views

The album El Viejo Caminante by Dino Saluzzi with Jacob Young and José Maria Saluzzi is reviewed in a German monthly

Gleich zu Beginn von Dino Saluzzis Album gibt es eine Überraschung: Das reizende ‘La Ciudad De Los Aires Buenos’ stammt von dem Sohn des Bandoneon-Maestros, José Maria, der seinen Vater auf der Konzertgitarre begleitet. Als dritter im Bunde ergänzt Jacob Young auf seiner E- und Stahlsaitengitarre die bildschönen musikalischen Wanderungen des Trios. In dem Original des Leaders ‘Tiempos De Ausencias’, aber auch in dem Evergreen ‘Someday My Prince Will Come’ kreiert Saluzzi fein dosierte Tonfolgen zwischen Melancholie und Freude, die durch die Improvisationen der Gitarristen aufgehellt werden.

Gerd Filtgen, Stereo

A US reaction to the album A Dark Flaring by the Signum Quartett

Just one work, Mokale Koapeng’s ‘Komeng’ (2002), is predominantly African in style, but even Rainier’s ‘Quartet for Strings’ of 1939 has repeated, trance-like passages that likely derived from her upbringing in Zulu country. Arguably the most interesting is Péter Louis van Dijk’s ‘iinyembezi’ (he’s apparently unrelated to Matthijs). The title means ‘tears’ in Xhosa, but the work draws on the opening motive of John Dowland’s ‘Flow, my tears’, in a fusion that arguably goes deeper than the more obvious African mannerisms that have been present in other works. This release is something of a departure from the European and American modernism that characterizes much of the ECM label’s catalog, but it is typically well-recorded, with top-notch sound from the Sendesaal in Bremen, and it will offer genuinely new experiences for many hearers.

James Manheim, All Music