The latest releases reviewed.
STEFANO BATTAGLIA Re: Pasolini ECM****
This two-CD hommage to Pier Paolo Pasolini can be divided into two parts. In one, Battaglia, with trumpet, clarinets, cello, bass, drums and piano, crafts his reactions to Pasolini's film and literary work; the pieces are beautiful, impressionistic, ineffably Italian and strikingly homogenous - a tribute to the pianist's composer's instincts and his sense of Pasolini. The second, using combinations of violin and cello (Dominique Pifarély and Vincent Courtois, no less), with piano- bass-percussion, is more classical in feel, focusing on Pasolini's social, philosophical and political concerns. Among some extraordinary responses are the solo piano pieces, including the controlled outrage of the improvised Meditazione orale and two emotionally complex group performances: Ostia, a dark evocation of Pasolini's brutal murder, and Pasolini, a moving funeral march. Compelling. www.musicconnection.org.uk
RAY COMISKEY
ILMILIEKKI QUARTET Take It with Me TUM ****
This fine Finnish group is led by Verneri Pohjola, surely one of the great European trumpeters in the making, reminiscent of Arve Henriksen in tonal flexibility and Tomasz Stanko in his ability to marry freedom with form. But the others - Tuomo Prättälä (piano), Antti Lötjönen (bass) and Olavi Louhivuori (drums) - are also superb contributors to an outstanding group aesthetic. There's a freshness and a kind of collective cerebral and emotional verve to what they do, be it wide- ranging originals by the band or pieces by Tom Waits, Suzanne Vega, and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Pohjola uncannily evokes Waits on the title track, yet sounds utterly personal, while the rigorous, inner-sprung tension of the quartet's rubato playing is evident everywhere, particularly on the beautiful Askisto, In Wood and the untethered expansiveness of Hatchi. www.tumrecords.com
RAY COMISKEY
KCP 5 Many Ways Double Moon ***
The Karnataka College of Percussion and the work of vocalist RA Ramamani and instrumentalists TAS. Mani and Ramesh Shotham are familiar for their collaborations with Irish jazz and traditional musicians. In this instance they're joined by great jazz altoist Charlie Mariano and keyboardist Mike Herting for a programme of originals by Ramamani, with two from Mariano. The dominant flavour is Indian, with much incredibly complex (rhythmically and in terms of line) unison voice and alto and/or keyboards carried off with amazing aplomb. Paradoxically, in this exotic setting, Mariano moves closer to his Parker roots when soloing, but both he and Herting are overshadowed as soloists by the remarkable Ramamani, as unfazed by the "western" material as she is soaring over the drones of her own idiom. www.musicconnection.org.uk
RAY COMISKEY
