Irish Times writers review the latest offerings from the arts world
White Rocket, Project, Dublin
White Rocket - made up of Seán Carpio (drums), Greg Felton (piano) and Jacob Wick (trumpet) - got their Dublin launch with an outstanding concert at the Project. Part of the Contemporaries series from Note Productions, the concert also served notice that this trio is one which, given the chance, could make its mark on the international jazz scene.
Their music, while containing strong improvisational elements and clearly deriving from a jazz milieu, is also nourished by a variety of sources and cultures. Besides the originals by the band's members, which embrace jazz, contemporary classical devices and, for example, Carnatic rhythmic structures from southern India, the trio has also raided the music of Kodàly and Stravinsky for repertoire and musical sustenance.
If this suggests eclecticism for eclecticism's sake, nothing could be further from the truth. Such is the rapport between the three musicians, and the shared understanding of the potential of the disparate repertoire, that what emerges is full of surprise and variety, yet bears its own sense of unity. Whether written or used as a basis for improvisation, it's complex and challenging music. One piece, Wick's Symptoms, for example, got its bar structure from a phone number in his native US. Another, Felton's Suas an Staighre, is a multilayered, playful, witty piece with changes of mood and pace that were handled with dazzling aplomb.
A more overt lyricism was evident in the two contrasting Kodàly sight-reading singing exercises (No 4 from Book 33 and No 9 from Book 55, for those concerned about such things), the second of which was especially striking, with beautifully nuanced trumpet and gorgeous piano support. And Stravinsky's The Fisherman's Song, arranged by Wick, got a desolate, effective, understated treatment from the trio; it was notable, too, for the fact that Wick managed to produce chords of a sort on the trumpet.
Of the group's originals, Felton also contributed Tierra and His Story, with Mutatis Mutandis and Recent Events coming from Wick, while Carpio composed Sung Once and The Indian Hum. All displayed the trio's concern with the unusual and demanding: compositions marked by odd interval leaps and harmonies, unexpected time signatures, changes of tempo and, at times, unusual bar lengths.
The effect of all this was not of an academic exercise. Instead, to anyone familiar with the work of Felton and Carpio, it was abundantly clear that the context had a liberating impact on their work. It's doubtful if either of these talented musicians has ever been heard here to better effect.
And Wick, who arrived as an unknown quantity, proved to be a remarkable performer in the mould of Dave Douglas - audacious, imaginative and technically impressive.
Finally, despite the trio's dazzle, the exuberance was always tempered by a sure sense of the dramatic shape and resolution of each performance, the concentrated focus of the trio's work virtually eliminating anything redundant or superfluous, even on those occasions when they played free.
Ray Comiskey
Canzona, OSC/Murphy St Ann's Church, Dublin
The Orchestra of St Cecilia cantata series turned this week to the strongly pious Lutheran theme of yearning for eternal salvation, a theme that elicited some of Bach's most deeply reflective and strongly atmospheric creations.
Under conductor Blánaid Murphy, the orchestra arrived at tempos slow enough for spiritual reflection, though not always quick enough to maintain the music's sense of direction. There was thus a particularly dirge-like quality to the funeral motet, O Jesu Christ, meins Lebens Licht (O Jesus Christ, light of my life, BWV 118). Yet the well-balanced forces of Murphy's Canzona Chamber Choir proved their ability to sustain and gently colour the distended phrases.
Generally, a uniform staccato from the strings and continuo, with no extra weight on the downbeat, impeded the music's flow. But some exquisitely shaped oboe and flute playing consistently helped it along.
Taking all three recitatives in Es ist das Heil uns kommen her (Salvation has come to us, BWV 9), bass Jeffrey Ledwidge attended to individual notes more than to entire phrases. Passage work, however, was the strong point in his aria from Barmherziges Herze der ewigen Liebe (O compassionate heart of eternal love, BWV 185).
In the tenor aria of BWV 9, the singing of Robin Tritschler was a model of phrasing, breath control and agility. In an ensuing duet, soprano Lynda Lee and contralto Alison Browner matched the canonic structure of the music by closely echoing each other's intentions.
If Browner was a little overshadowed here, nothing could eclipse her in the alto solo cantata, Vergnügte Ruh, beliebte Seelenlust (O happy rest, beloved spiritual delight, BWV 170).
Fluent, insightful, sustained and charming, this was Bach-singing as delicious as it gets.
Andrew Johnstone
Fleischer-Jünemann Quartet, JJ Smyth's, Dublin
JJ Smyth's was packed for the visit, courtesy of the Improvised Music Company, of the little-known German Fleischer-Jünemann Quartet. The reason? The presence in the group of the great American drummer, Adam Nussbaum. He certainly didn't disappoint, even though the band as a whole did.
Or, perhaps more correctly, it was the co-leaders, Ulli Jünemann (alto/soprano) and Markus Fleischer (guitar), who disappointed. They were both competent players, but by the standards established as the norm here by the Buckley brothers, Brendan Doyle and Len McCarthy, along with Karl Rooney and some of the younger generation among saxophonists, and Stewart, Nielsen, Hugh Buckley, Halferty and several of the younger guitarists, it has to be said they were very ordinary. It's a tough comparison, but not an unfair one.
Moreover, for what was apparently a working group, the arranged ensembles were surprisingly untidy at times. What the band did have going for it was the skilled, technically secure and impressive bass playing of Ulli Glassmann and, above all, the remarkable drumming of Nussbaum.
With Nussbaum driving them like a force of nature on the opening Played Twice, by Thelonious Monk, and Jünemann's uptempo BBKing, it seemed that things were off to a promising start. It didn't build from there. Discomfort was evident on a ballad, Gemini Sleep, where the soprano was out of tune, although a brilliant bass solo made an impact. The remainder of the set was hesitant and off the boil, despite Nussbaum's superb musicianship, aided by Glassmann.
A curiously flat second set followed, epitomised by somewhat untogether ensembles on 3/4 Skidoo and, especially, Lennie Tristano's Ablution, another challenging line based on the changes of All the Things You Are.
Paradoxically, Jünemann produced probably his best solo of the night on this, his alto strongly revealing the influence of Lee Konitz.
To be fair, the audience response was very positive, but one suspects this was more due to the great work of Nussbaum, a player whose abundance of ideas, taste, fire and technique could have held interest all night and sparked a dozen bands, and to the good impression made by the bassist, Ulli Glassmann.
Ray Comiskey
