Alexander von Schlippenbach and Rudi Mahall - So Far (Relative Pitch, 2018) ****

By Paul Acquaro

Pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach's position in jazz is well secured. He was a founding/integral part of the development of the European avant-garde, leader of the highly regarded and long standing Schlippenbach Trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens/Paul Lytton, leader of the Globe Unity Orchestra, and a dedicated interpreter of the music of Thelonius Monk.

Clarinetist Rudi Mahall is another force to be reckoned with. Like Schlippenbach, Mahall lives in Berlin, is a member of the Globe Unity Orchestra, plays with Schlippenbach in Monk's Casino, and is a member of the wonderful Die Enttäuschung piano-less quartet. Mahall has released collaborations as a duo with pianist Aki Takasi (who is married to Schlippenbach), but to my knowledge, this is the first recording of Mahall and Schlippenbach alone together - so kudos to Relative Pitch for making this a reality because the results are fantastic!

The duo kicks off with 'all Jazz is free' - a title which is a quote whose origin Evan Parker, in the liner notes, tries to trace. Apparently it has been attributed to himself, but he believes it was from something he once read … regardless, what Parker ends up providing is a very succinct summation of the development of Free Jazz, naming names and explaining the inexplicable. In the end, he states “AvS has retained an affection for the ‘j-word’, insisting that there remains some however hard to define attitude which distinguishes his approach from the totally open improvisation often associated with other European developments …” And from the moment the track begins, it’s obvious that Parker is spot on. We first hear Mahall’s bass clarinet with a loopimg mid-register melody shadowed by rhythmic and, mostly consonant, comping by Schlippenbach. Soon, it isn't Mahall leading but Schlippenbach's jazz inflected streams of consciousness darting about. The duo proceeds in a good natured pursuit - handing off leads and supporting roles, intensifying as they go. Schlippenbach's rhythms get punchy, giving Mahall something to run into and bounce off in a new direction. The slow down at the end is simply to end the track, not out of a lack of ideas.

A couple of stand out tracks - among an album full of them - are 'knockemstiff can can' which begins stiffly, with some randomly assembled arpeggios from the piano juxtaposed with an oscillating bass clarinet line. The piano playing gets denser as the bass clarinet continues to jumps octaves, eventually leading into some heated 'discussion' between the heavy rhythmic chords and obtuse melody. 'boiling desire' is a ballad of sorts, Schlippenbach's romantic side comes to the fore in the opening measures. Mahall eventually joins the slowly unwrapping tune on, I assume, the Bb clarinet. The higher timbre wind instrument weaves an evolving melody over the deliberately paced track, leaving many ellipses and open questions.

Overall, the album is well balanced and quite approachable. This egalitarian outing is a great addition to either your Schlippenbach or Mahall discography.

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Udo Schindler & Ingrid Schmoliner - Blaublatt (Creative Sources, 2016) ****½

By Stef

Free improvisation is the art of close listening. It is the art of intense concentration on the part of the musicians to hear what the other one is doing, understand intentions, sentiments, pauses, room to interact, time to take a step back, time to challenge, time to encourage and expand on new ideas. The basic condition is that you, as the musician, have to know your own instrument inside out to be able to keep all these things in mind while performing. It requires openness of mind and the ability to decide.

The interaction between German clarinettist Udo Schindler and Austrian pianist Ingrid Schmoliner is exceptional in this respect. Schmoliner often sets the tone on these nine pieces that were taken from a live concert in April 2014 at the 44th Salon für Klang+Kunst in Krailling, Munich. 

Both Schmoliner and Schindler are true acoustic sound sculptors. The former uses all kinds of materials to prepare her piano, with changing percussive or scraping effects as a result, but she is as comfortable in playing the keys unaltered, and still managing to surprise us. The latter is her true companion in this. His clarinet multiphonics vibrate, oscillate and create deep murmuring sounds, sometimes accompanied by Schmoliners undulating voice, sometimes resulting in amazing effects as on the fifth track, "Münda-ichsagedir", when the clarinet manages some animal-like deep howl, amazingly enough immediately followed by a similar bending tone on a piano string.

Their pallet is broad, and single notes, silence, lyrical phrases, hammered keys, yodeling, dampened sounds, sustained notes, and well, yes, even chords on the piano. Despite all the avant-garde, and their willingness to go even beyond what that crowd expects, there is a kind of return to primitive folklore and deeper foundation of being that is brought to the surface, that is presented here, with beauty.

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Myra Melford and Ben Goldberg – Dialogue (BAG Productions, 2016) ****

By Troy Dostert

For those wanting to hear an expertly crafted, meticulously performed set of intimate improvisations, here you have it.  Pianist Myra Melford and clarinetist Ben Goldberg, who’ve collaborated in the past several years in Melford’s Be Bread ensemble and Goldberg’s Orphic Machine, work together here to produce thirteen remarkably diverse, carefully structured pieces that bear ample testimony to the players’ ability to coalesce in producing a shared musical vision.

Melford has for years distinguished herself as a pianist capable of stunning technical feats on the piano while also offering a sensitive, yearning melodic voice; she can switch instantly from fiery onslaughts to delicate, clarion-like passages.  Here she sticks mostly to a more understated approach, without as many overtly show-stopping gestures, in an effort to seek out points of contact with Goldberg, who is a dynamic and inventive presence on clarinet.  While there seem to be a few freely improvised moments on the record, the overall emphasis is on the players’ compositions.  Five are Goldberg’s, the other eight Melford’s.  It is perhaps a sign of the musicians’ close rapport that the pieces really have the same characteristics: a strong melodic core, with abundant opportunities for Melford and Goldberg to tease out the implications of each tune, but without any wasted notes. There’s no meandering here, waiting for something to emerge; the strong compositions result in pieces that are tightly focused and purposive.

For an album that is so cohesive, there are a number of contrasting stylistic touches.  “Your Life Here” starts with a subtle, almost danceable rhythmic structure just underneath the surface, with Melford’s single-note passages keeping the pulse going throughout and Goldberg offering rhythmic counterpoint, until gradually tapering into a quieter section with Melford’s crystalline arpeggios supporting Goldberg, who develops a beautiful melodic figure to bring the piece to a close.  “The Kitchen” is a more unfettered exploration, displaying Melford’s keyboard scampering and Goldberg’s ability to float above the flurries, in the process getting a chance to develop his own impressive runs.  “Chorale” is a gorgeous, deliberately-paced hymn, showcasing the lyrical side of Melford’s composing.  And for those seeking out examples of each player’s dazzling reach on their instruments, look no further than “City of Illusion,” with razor-sharp upper-register passages from Goldberg and some mighty impressive runs from Melford, with just a bit of that percussive punch that she can offer up whenever she wants to.

For two improvisers who’ve been devoting a lot of their creative energy to group work, this is a potent reminder of the value of scaling things down every once in a while.  There’s much to admire and to savor in this first-rate record.  

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Matthew Shipp and Mat Walerian Duo - Live in Okuden (ESP-Disk, 2015) ****

By Paul Acquaro

I began listening to Matthew Shipp in the early 2000s, drawn in by the ambient and electronics on albums like NuBop and Harmony and Abyss, I soon discovered that there was little of Shipp's output that I did not enjoy. Whether solo, in a  duo or with his long standing trio with Whit Dickey and Michael Bisio, his playing is always striking, and the same it true here in this duo with bass clarinetist Mat Walerian.

Walerian hails from Poland and is a part of the strong improvisation scene that has developed there (see Martin's great 'Polish Week') and has studied with Shipp.  Live in Okuden is his first on ESP-Disk and was recorded in 2012 at the Orkuden Jazz Festival in Poland.

I find the recording both relaxing and invigorating - Shipp's piano playing is rich and supportive - whether comping out chords, angular lines or something else entirely, his ideas are always solid and delivered with intensity. Walerian's lines are often short and precise, offering ideas, sketches, and suggestions.

Some of the more intense moments, like on 'Free Bop Statement One' or the post-Coltrane expression on 'It's Sick Out There' reveals the duo's comfort with the many guises of 'jazz'. As Parker suggests in his liner notes, this is not music of a certain style, but rather honest music making. 

Parker writes: 

As the music progresses from clarinets to alto sax to flute, you can hear sound and space disrobe to reveal villages with beautiful clouds over trees laced with seraphic hues and birds dancing. The musicians are never concerned about style or genre.  

 Live in Okuden exemplifies the possibilities of the duo. Shipp is in great form and the album is a nice introduction to Walerian's imaginative playing.

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Elisabeth Harnik & Udo Schindler - Empty Pigeonhole (Creative Sources, 2013) ****

By Stef

Elisabeth Harnik plays piano and Udo Schindler plays bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone and cornet, in a strange but always fascinating dialogue, starting with hesitating explorations of empty space, changing into confident and fully voiced piano which fades away for quiet moaning clarinet.

Sounds are fragile and shifting, played cautiously in different ways by the same instruments, in long stretched phrases, or in percussive plucking, and then contrasted by the original and full-blown sound of either piano or clarinet, offering a moment of recognition and home-coming, yet even then the deep emotions expressed keep their sense of agony and distress, and the first long piece ends at full volume, with the cornet and the piano interacting nervously and agitatedly.

The second track is more homogeneous, with the clarinet taking the first part as the lead instrument, with the piano being plucked sparingly and lightly to accentuate, yet the mood shifts in the second part, when the piano takes the lead, coercing the clarinet into a more intense dialogue, with higher density of the sounds, becoming more frenetic as it develops, with maddening phrases played by Harnik, with a slightly shifting and halting repetitive pattern that completely drowns the clarinet at first until it gets a second breath.

This album will not be for everybody's ears, but the quality and the variety of the improvisation is sufficient to make this fascinating music that you will want to listen to again.

A great listening experience.

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Jean-Marc Foltz & Stephan Oliva - Visions Fugitives (Visions Fugitives, 2012) ****

By Stef

Serguei Prokoviev, Alban Berg, Francis Poulenc, Witold Lutoslawski and Johannes Brahms are not a jazz quintet, but classical composers who inspired the great French duo of Jean-Marc Foltz on clarinet and Stephan Oliva on piano. But they are not the only composers here. John Coltrane's "Naima" and "Lonnie's Lament" also figure among the covered pieces, as well as some of their own compositions.

The pieces were apparently all chosen for their abstract beauty, all slow and elusive, full of melancholy and fragile tension. Despite the breadth of source material, and the time-span of their compositions - more than a century apart - the thirteen tracks are all fit well within the duo's musical vision.

Boundaries of genres are transgressed, or rendered futile, yet the tone and the technique are entirely classical. There are no extended techniques, no iconoclast excursions into today's world of distress. It all floats, beautifully, respectfully and if there is intensity, it is it because jazz expressivity enters somehow, by stretching tones, and leaving more space by changing the classical pieces' original tempo, or by actual improvisations as in the two variations on Alban Berg.

The album comes with a 30-page booklet with drawings of trees by French painter Emmanuel Guibert. You can watch them too in the video below.

Great music for quiet and introspective moments.

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Duets with Delbecq

French pianist Benoît Delbecq fits in a musical category of his own, with last year's "Circles And Calligrams" so far his best album in my opinion. His great gift is that he looks at his instrument as more than a keyboard and he thinks as music as more than genre or fashion. His approach is his own, with jazz, classical, African and new music as his influences, demonstrating incredible rhythmic inventiveness, sonic novelties and lyricism throughout. The latter is the result of his almost obsessive sense of openness, with sonic textures that weigh little, in stark contrast to their musical solidity.

Not suprisingly we find him back in small ensembles mostly, lately with "Silencers", and now - equally not suprisingly, although by coincidence - in two duo setting with a clarinet player.

Benoît Delbecq & François Houle - Because She Hoped (Songlines - 2011) *****

On the first recording, Delbecq plays with Canadian clarinettist François Houle, with whom he's been performing and recording since 1995, and that can be heard on these ten pieces, all composed, with tunes by Ellington ("The Mystery Song") and Steve Lacy ("Clichés"), but mostly by Delbecq and Houle.

Both artists create silk-like music, soft to the touch, natural and warm and shiny, with an ease of interaction and joy of interplay that is fantastic to listen to. Delbecq can make his piano play odd-rhythmed percussive parts by plucking the strings while playing fluent unision lines with his other hand, as on "Ando", or "Nancali", incredibly captivating, and keeping a safe distance from the often bland sweetness of romantic piano music.

Both musicians have this light touch to their instrument, full of sensitivity and deep emotion, clever in the musical inventiveness and effortless, as if every note bubbles up from a common well, forming nice patterns when rising to the surface.

Compare it to silk, to a warm breeze, to champagne, ...

Incredibly beautiful music.

Listen and download from eMusic.

Antonin Tri-Hoang & Benoît Delbecq - Aéroplanes (Bee Jazz - 2011) ****

Delbecq also teams up with 22-year old French clarinettist and alto saxophonist Antonin Tri-Hoang, for what is without a doubt the debut album of the year. Tri-Hoang is member of the French Orchestre National De Jazz, and without a doubt one of the most promising young musicians to arise in the past years.

He had the chance to be able to work with Delbecq for this album, and even if all the compositions are Tri-Hoang's, the pianist's influence is very present, both in the overall sound as in the created texture. Comparing both albums is not entirely fair, but incredibly enough they can be listened to side-by-side. The music is a little more abstract, as light-footed and equally genre-defying, with the young reedist demonstrating his fantastic breadth of timbral explorations, fully controlled and with a musical accuracy - it sounds as it should sound at the right moment - that is highly unusual for someone of such a young age.

Not all the compositions are of the same high level, but the coherence is strong.

Recommended!

Listen and download from eMusic.

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Giancarlo Locatelli & Alberto Braida - The Big Margotta (Brokenresearch, 2010) ****

Pianist Alberto Braida and clarinetist Giancarlo Locatelli have played a lot together before, and I think this is their third duo album, just released on vinyl LP. The album consists of two long improvisations of very abstract and intense interaction.

Their music is made "in-the-moment", yet with a lyricism that is omnipresent. There is no noise, no use of extended techniques, just notes entering into often sensitive and hesitant dialogues, flowing into the next approach, releasing tension, adding some soft timbral shifts over equally shifting harmonics, once with short rhythmic undertones, often without, moving together, slowly forward, intensely forward, without sense of urgency yet eager for the next note, curious how the other player will move along, with once in a while vague phrases from jazz history piercing through yet more often than not the notes are new, fresh, full of surprise of being born, here on the spot, and not alone, but together, here, with this other instrument that joins them on the journey, slowly, hesitantly, but full of character and ideas.

This music will require repeated listens to reveal its true power, yet because of its universal nature, it's relatively accessible from the start, despite its level of abstraction.

© stef

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Piano and reeds

The duet is a pure format for joint improvisation, especially with two melodic instruments, and even more with a harmonic and solo instrument, like here, the piano and clarinet or soprano: sound and melody become a thing to play with, to jointly create, to nurture and make grow together, drive it in one direction, or back, or sideways. Possibilities for the next note are infinite, yet shaping it together coherently requires tremendous listening and instrumental skills, of the Steve Lacy and Mal Waldron level. It also requires this element of intimacy : you need to open yourself for the other, with your vulnerabilities on a silver plate, and that's possibly the hardest part. Here are some great recent examples.

Marilyn Crispell & David Rothenberg - One Dark Night I Left My Silent House (ECM, 2010) ****

Pianist Marilyn Crispell has played duets before with reedists, such as Tim Berne, Stefano Maltese. The approach on this album is a little different, primarily because of the nature of David Rothenberg's playing. His recent work, playing and evoking the sound of nature (whales, birds, ...) might give him a certain "new-agey" quality, yet my fear seems to be largely unfounded when I hear him play on this album. Crispell is relatively quiet, sparse, sensitive, romantic, moving into Rothenberg's style of playing, giving him ample space to improvise, and he does so with lots of skills, without falling back on patterns or cheap sentiment, with my personal preference going to his use of the bass clarinet. Sure, the music is romantic in essence, as so often on ECM, but then of the kind that is genuine in its emotional delivery, not there to please the audience. The end result is quite accessible, light and fresh, influenced by nature, and the pieces have this spontaneous and organic quality of development you can expect from evoking a pristine habitat. The album also shows another side of two excellent musicians.

Gianni Lenoci & Gianni Mimmo - Reciprocal Uncles (Amirani, 2010) ****

The two Italians, the two Giannis are an almost perfect match for each other: sensitive, lyrical and abstract, a rare combination. Their music is one of story-telling, with themes that come up and change, evolve, sometimes light-footed, as on "Consideration", sometimes dark and foreboding, as on "One Or More", and listen how Mimmo's soprano lifts Lenoci out of his deep rumbling sounds, injects hope into despair, making the pianist even sing at the end, single-toned and pure. They can leave the beaten track and explore just sound, as on the long "What The Truth Is Made For", fragile and vulnerable, creating a glass monument out of shattered pieces.
Jazzy playfulness in "Steppin' Elements", and modern classical permeate all pieces. It is not easy listening, yet very rewarding.

Niko Meinhold & Noel Taylor - Border Patrol (Self Published, 2010) ****

Noel Taylor is the clarinetist of the recently reviewed "Splatter" CD, here forming a duet with German pianist Niko Meinhold. The intro of the first piece already gives a great sense of direction: this duo can create suspense : sparse clarinet tones, and the use of extended techniques on the piano strings, make you want to know what is coming next, how these otherworldly sounds will evolve, merge, bounce back. Without working with themes or even recognisable patterns, the two musicians master and integrate the legacy of their training : from classical music, jazz, blues to more modern aspects of new music and avant-garde, nicely navigating between romantic lyricism and abstract tension and discovery, this is music with character and vision. Both are also great at using silence and pace in the development of their improvisations. Their lack of urgency gives most pieces a very careful, even cautious feeling, with the quality of the notes getting preference over their quantity or even of the complexity of the interaction.

Listen and buy from CDBaby.


Watch a visual artist's impression of "Invocation" by Crispell and Rothenberg (possibly the most romantic piece on the album)

Buy from Instantjazz.

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Burton Greene & Perry Robinson - Two Voices In The Desert (Tzadik, 2009) ****

Far away from the avant-garde, yet very modern in its approach, two musical masters play full of pleasure, enjoying each other's skills, technical possibilities, and improvisational brilliance. They dance, they sing, they waltz around each other, interlocking notes, phrases, rhythmical complexities, playing jazz mixed with klezmer, but there is something of Mozart as well, and all this with music that is accessible, that sounds simple, yet that is in reality full of ear-candy, sophistication, expressivity, technical inventiveness. The masters are Burton Greene on piano, and Perry Robinson on clarinet. The music is lyrical, fresh, creative, ... everything you would need in the desert to get through it, after water this would be the next best thing. One great aspect of their music is that they keep far away from the usual Radical Jewish Culture series' increasingly boring repetition of using klezmer scales and rhythms for yet another style mix exercise. No, this is real music. No gimmicks. Really beautiful stuff.

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Stéphan Oliva & Jean-Marc Foltz - Pandore (SansBruit, 2008) ****½

I already appreciated Stéphan Oliva's and Jean-Marc Foltz's "Soffio Di Scelsi" last year, now they continue this collaboration, but then without a bass, limiting the interaction to piano and clarinet. The music is as ethereal, as aesthetically beautiful and sensitive as on the previous album, but a little more accessible. It has jazz connotations, but it could as easily be classified as modern classical music, and once in a while some other influences come through, like middle-eastern scales on "Vestiges". The mood is intimate, introspective and meditative, or dark and gloomy as on "L'Imprévue". These two masters never raise their voices, but carefully develop the themes, meticulously, with lots of precision, lots of attention to detail, to silence, to space and pace, and to a balanced delivery. The often abstract themes are fragile and sensitive, and despite their intrinsic romantic angle, they shy away from sentimentality and mellowness, bringing a rich and innovative style of music with lots of emotional depth. All tracks are beautiful, but the last piece, with Foltz's clarinet bending notes in wailing plaintive sorrow over the slow piano chords are absolutely heartrending.

You can download this album from SansBruit at the cost of 6€. You can't be offered more democratic prices than this.

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