Latest releases reviewed
BILL CARROTHERS
Civil War Diaries
Illusions
*****
Carrothers, who starts an Irish tour tomorrow, made this superb solo piano recording of American Civil War songs before a studio audience in 2004 (he had recorded some of them 15 years ago in The Blues and The Greys). Of the later recording you can write about the exquisite reharmonising of the more familiar pieces, the freedom and authority everywhere evident in his imaginative responses to these old songs, and the sheer beauty that results. But this does little justice to the range of moods and colours he draws from them, sometimes reinforced by cross-referencing, nor does it convey just how moving these performances are, their beauty suffused with a kind of sorrowful honouring of the past. One of those occasions when thought, emotion, experience and skill fuse in a miraculous balance. www.bridgeboy music.com.
STEVE SWALLOW/ROBERT CREELEY
So There
XtraWATT
****
For this oddly compelling homage to Robert Creeley, Swallow wrote the music, using Steve Kuhn (piano), himself on bass, the Cikada String Quartet and the late poet's previously recorded readings from his work. Creeley's parchment-dry voice and meticulously uninflected reading seem perfect for the deceptively simple, studiously unshowy words, as meaningful for what they leave out as for what they include; his poems are cryptic, elliptical, ironic, funny, full of sad wisdom and defiant acceptance. The challenge for the music is to function much as Creeley's readings do. That means to support, not to comment on, or compete with them or to lead the listener into any particular understanding of the poems; the audience must find that from their own response. For the most part, it works. Beautifully. www.musicconnection.org.uk
SCOTT HAMILTON
Our Delight!
Woodville
*****
Hamilton and his regular John Pearce-Dave Green-Steve Brown rhythm section are joined by Mark Nightingale (trombone) and Dave Cliff (guitar) for this superior example of mainstream jazz. The groove is almost euphoric at times, and with Nightingale's trombone recalling Frank Rosolino's facility and offering a brusque, almost raucous contrast to Hamilton's more measured, vocalised delivery, the tenor delivers one of his finest recorded performances. Some unusual options help; Mary Lou Williams's lovely Lonely Moments, Ellington's Serenade to Sweden, Dameron's Our Delight, Monk's In Walked Bud, Clark Terry's blues-with-a-bridge Tee Pee Time, and the Ellington-Strayhorn Isfahan are hardly standard mainstream fare, and the choice clearly stimulates the band. Most of all, the chemistry just worked.
