Some of The Ticket's music reviewers look back at 2009
JAZZ:Consistently imteresting and varied recordings marked a jazz year led by exceptional piantists, writes
RAY COMISKY
FOR RECORDED jazz, 2009 was a good year, particularly on European labels. And some of the best albums were led by exceptional pianists.
ECM, celebrating 40 years, issued Keith Jarrett ( Yesterdays, Testament) and Tord Gustavsen ( Restored, Returned); CamJazz had John Taylor ( Phases), Enrico Pieranunzi ( Dream Dance) and Edward Simon ( Poesia); Pirouet released Marc Copland ( Night Whispers, Alone) and Jürgen Friedrich ( Pollock); and Act featured Joachim Kühn and Michael Wollny in duo (Live at Schloss Elmau).
Only Lynne Arriale, of the better piano-led albums, with Nuance ( In+Out) was on a US label.
Among the larger groups, perhaps, the most consistently interesting and varied recorded work appeared. Several married jazz improvisers with superior string writing and performance.
Michael Mantler's Concertos (ECM) and saxophonist/composer Tim Garland's Libra(Global Mix) successfully combined jazz improv with orchestral writing.
Norwegian pianist/composer Jon Balke, Moroccan singer Amina Aloui, with trumpeter Jon Hassell, Algerian violinist Kheir Eddine M'Kechiche and the early music ensemble, Barokksolistene, set the standard with the superb Siwan(ECM).
In more traditional big band instrumentation, drummer John Hollenbeck, among the finest writers on the current scene, emphasised his originality with Eternal Interlude(Sunnyside).
Scotland's great saxophonist, Tommy Smith, adapted and arranged Gershwin's most celebrated "jazz" piece, Rhapsody in Blue Live(Spartacus).
Most memorable were Norwegian Geir Lysne's The Grieg Code(ACT), an imaginative response to the composer's music, and Julian Argüelles's Iberian-flavoured Momenta(Basho).
Among small groups, an old master shaped live sampling and electronics to musical ends; Last night the moon came dropping its clothes in the street, Jon Hassell's first ECM album in 25 years, was sheer beauty from a pioneer in electronics and jazz.
Other fine small group albums included Steve Kuhn and Joe Lovano's Mostly Coltrane, Enrico Rava's New York Days(both ECM) and, on Challenge, the Eric Vloiemans trio Live and the Jim Hall-Bob Brookmeyer duo, also Live.
Best of all was the meeting of jazz and Indian classical music on Rudresh Mahanthappa's Kinsmen(Pi Recordings).
TRADITIONAL:Studio output stepped up in 2009 with some impressive debuts, writes SIOBHÁN LONG
WHAT DISTINGUISHED 2009 in the traditional music firmament was the brio with which a number of bands made their debut. With an ear cocked as much to the future as to the past, the five-piece Guidewires (featuring Pádraig Rynne and Tola Custy) lobbed a hand grenade into the mix with their Livedebut.
A torrent of tunes whispered of musicians hungry to push their own musical boundaries, yet the sheer breadth of their musicianship guaranteed their credibility in trad circles too. Roscommon accordionist, Alan Kelly returned to the studio, with a humdinger of a collection, After The Morning, laden with original compositions and a mix of traditional tunes.
Danny Ellis' searing 800 Voiceshit the high water mark in confessional storytelling, his account of his experience at the Artane Industrial School a compelling addendum to both the Ryan and Murphy reports.
The David Munnelly Band finally did justice to their formidable live reputation with their fiery Tight Spaceand Sliabh Luachra box player Dónal Murphy released a mesmerising solo debut, Happy Hour.
The trio of Fidil produced their, the trio that is Ciarán Ó Maonaigh, Damien McGeehan and Aidan O'Donnell hurtled into our line of sight late this year with their genre-defying collection, 3: an exercise in musical invention shot through with a deep affection for what came before them. The biggest surprise though, was the dearth of challenging output from women musicians (bar Liz Carroll, Cathy Jordan and Kathleen Loughnane). Where are they?
CLASSICAL:Megaset madness, rising stars of the solo violin and unforgettable imitations - it was a busy year on the classical music scene, writes
MICHAEL DERVAN
IT WOULDN’T have been high on my wishlist. But, then, Haydn’s complete music for that obsolete, stringed instrument, the baryton, which so fascinated his aristocratic employer, was long caught in a Catch 22 situation. Not any more. The Esterházy Ensemble’s complete recording on a bargain-basement 21-CD set (Brilliant Classics 93907) offers insight into a world that fascinatingly presents lightweight music with sombre colouring.
Brilliant Classics specialise in megaset bargains. It’s the label that brought you the complete Bach and Mozart – and more – at ridiculous prices. They’ve been scouring former Soviet archives for a while now, but some of the majors have been hitting back.
Last year EMI issued sets of all their recordings of Rostropovich and Richter, and this year Deutsche Grammophon collected all their Richter recordings (477 8122) into a nine-CD a set which includes the extraordinary Schumann performances which earned the great pianist instant cult status in the 1950s.
You can expect cult status to attach to Russian violinist Alina Ibragimova's rivettingly pure account of Bach's solo violin music (Hyperion 67691/2, 2 CDs). And, still in the area of the solo violin, Thomas Zehetmair's sometimes rough-edged playing of Paganini's Caprices(ECM New Series 476 3318) is full of genuinely musical thrills.
Paganini's Caprices provided other composers with fruitful material, but you'll rarely find an imitation to rival Gérard Pesson's Wunderblock (Nebenstück II), a ghostly "attempt at the erasure" of the opening of Bruckner's Fifth Symphony (Aeon AECD 0876). It's unforgettable stuff.
Equally unforgettable, in very different ways, are Harmonia Mundi's issue of a 2004 Ravinia Festival recital by a singer at the height of her powers, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson (HMU 907500), a Shostakovich collection on Naxos that includes the original opening of Ninth Symphony (8.572138), a thoroughly splendid Verdi Requiem from Antonio Pappano (EMI Classics 689 9362, 2 CDs), a breezy first approach to Bach's BrandenburgConcertos from John Eliot Gardiner and his English Baroque Soloists (SDG 707, 2 CDs), a thoroughly digestible Bach Art of Fuguefrom Il Suonar Parlante (Winter Winter 910 153-2), and a grandly small-scale Mass in B minor from La Petite Bande under Sigiswald Kuijken (Challenge Classics CC 72316, 2 CDs).
