Ray Commiskeyon three new releases.
KETIL BJORNSTAD
The Light
ECM
****
After the rock and classical flavours of his Life in Leipzigwith Terje Rypdal, Norwegian pianist, composer and writer Ketil Bjornstad veers more to the classical side of his artistry in this exquisite recital.
With him on a programme of love songs, for which he wrote the music, are his gifted compatriots, mezzo-soprano Randi Stene and violist Lars Anders Tomter. It's not jazz, of course, but its rhythmic pulses derive more from Bjornstad's jazz background and piano than classical music. What results is gorgeous.
Stene is wonderful in her handling of Bjornstad's own Four Nordic Songsand his settings of John Donne's wry, sage, complex, yet strikingly contemporary Jacobean love poems, while Tomter provides the expressive instrumental equivalent of her glorious singing.
It's neither jazz nor undilutedly classical. Just good music.
www.musicconnectionorg.uk
RAY COMISKEY
MIKE WESTBROOK / KATE WESTBROOK
London Bridge Is Broken Down
BGO
*****
This digitally remastered double reissues Mike Westbrook's great musical journey through the insanity of 20th-century European history. The section titles - London Bridge, Wenceslas Square, Berlin Wall, Viennaand, above all, Picardie- resonate with that history.
So does the music, which, though rooted in the allegorical particularity of the German, French and English texts used, also resists facile suggestiveness; the general resides in the individual and colours even the purely instrumental episodes.
And Westbrook's integration of his jazz nonet with the 22-piece Le Sinfonietta de Picardie, of improv with scored, and his range and control of orchestral colour, are breathtaking.
The music's sublime tumult is by turns mocking, ironic, sardonic, satirical, gentle, romantic, melancholic, triumphant, superbly played and very moving. And, in transcending both jazz and classical influences, it's beyond category.
RAY COMISKEY
CLARK TRACEY
Given Time
Tentoten
***
The second volume in Clark Tracey's British Composers series is a mix of standards by Charlie Chaplin, Ray Noble and Lesley Bricusse, alongside works by Vic Feldman, Django Bates, Bobby Wellins, Tony Crombie, Dave Newton and Tim Garland.
Resting on the solid piano/bass/drums rhythm section of Gareth Williams, Arnie Somogyi and Tracey, with a fine tenor (Brandon Allen) in on five tracks, the group delivers a reminder of the perennial pleasures of straight-ahead jazz. Despite the occasional hints of Trane and Joe Henderson from Allen, the lingua franca is bop, fluently handled.
On a very consistent album, the trio performances maintain a slight edge over the quartet's, with Newton's ballad, Given Time, a bit special, but the whole band grooves persuasively on Wellins's C.U.C.B.and, in particular, on Bates's wittily titled I Can't Get Started Either.
[ www.tentotenrecords.comOpens in new window ]
RAY COMISKEY
