Resistance comes in many forms. For Vancouver-based guitarist and oud player Gordon Grdina, standing up to the corruption and divisive rhetoric that dominates the political conversation today takes the form of bringing a diverse range of people together to create beauty for beauty’s sake. With Resist, due out April 10, 2020 from Irabagast Records, Grdina bridges a number of worlds with an ambitious and passionate new suite of music.
Released not long after his trio album Nomad (January 10, 2020, Skirl Records), an explosive date with pianist Matt Mitchell and drummer Jim Black, Resist reveals a very different side of Grdina’s expansive musical personality. The album’s centerpiece is the 23-minute title track, a sprawling new work that blurs the lines between forward-thinking jazz and contemporary classical approaches. It features a stellar ensemble that brings together two of the composer’s most long-running ensembles in an entirely new configuration, with the addition of the versatile multi-reedist Jon Irabagon on tenor and sopranino saxophones.
The Gordon Grdina Septet fuses the bandleader’s East Van Strings, with cellist Peggy Lee, violinist Jesse Zubot and violist Eyvind Kang; with Grdina’s triomates, bassist Tommy Babin and drummer Kenton Loewen. Both of these ensembles boast more than a decade of experience together, bringing a deep understanding of Grdina’s intricate vocabulary. Joining forces for the first time, they offer an astounding palette for Grdina’s compositions, which veer from the lush and intimate to the violently abstract. Irabagon contributes the boundless with and inventiveness that he’s become known for through his own eclectic projects as well as bands such as the Dave Douglas Quintet and Mostly Other People Do the Killing.
The music for Resist was originally composed for a special concert at the 2016 TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival. With the Brexit vote having recently stunned the world and Donald Trump rising in the polls in his native Canada’s neighbor to the south, Grdina saw the need to express his feelings over this surging global turmoil.
“It seemed like there was a huge change happening socially and politically,” Grdina says. “Xenophobia, homophobia and racism were raising their heads again, and it’s only gotten worse since then. I wondered, ‘What can I do?’ I wanted to dedicate this music to everybody that’s fighting against these ideas all the time, whether they’re doing it as a defendant or just at the dinner table. Making art is a political act; it’s important for humanity, to make our lives better and to express our resistance to these hindrances.”
The centerpiece of the album is the title track, a 23-minute suite that responds to the issues confronting artists and the public at large through a broad span of emotions, from melancholy through despair to a steely resolve. The piece opens with intricately interwoven strings, as a forlorn melody is interrupted with sudden, searing stabs. Babin eventually enters with a stealthy, rumbling undercurrent before introducing a staggered rhythmic feel in tandem with Loewen. The full ensemble breaks into an urgent lope that spawns a taut, sinuous solo from Irabagon. Babin’s low moan provides the foundation for Grdina’s oud in an evocative sequence that gives way to a barrage of agitated percussive textures. The whole reconvenes into a gorgeous, swelling finale that is equal parts mournful and cautiously optimistic.
With a life beyond a single concert in mind for his new piece, Grdina composed “Resist” with a modular vision, thinking of it as a suite of self-contained sections that could be taken on their own as vehicles for improvisation. “The Middle” isolates the minimalist abstraction of the suite’s center section, in this version becoming even more ferocious and tense in its scraping strings and knotty sopranino. “Ever Onward” revisits the oud section as the piece gains scale and momentum around Grdina’s expressive, impassioned playing.
The album is rounded out by a pair of compositions that showcase different facets of members of the ensemble. Grdina’s study of classical guitar is beautifully encapsulated in the succinct but moving solo interlude “Seeds,” while Irabagon joins the trio with Loewen and Babin for the off-kilter bop tune “Varscona.” Named for the hotel in Edmonton where it was written, “Varscona” is hard driving and tightly coiled, shining the spotlight on the muscularity of the rhythm section as well as Irabagon’s probing imagination.
“Making art is a political act,” Grdina concludes. “Writing this piece and putting it together is simply about that: it’s important in this world to stand up for what you believe in. We’re trying to create music that adds something beautiful into the world, and through that to reflect the world that we want to live in.”
Gordon Grdina is a JUNO Award winning oud player/guitarist whose career has spanned continents, decades and constant genre exploration throughout avant-garde jazz, free form improvisation, contemporary indie rock and classical Arabic music. His singular approach to the instruments has earned him recognition from the highest ranks of the jazz/improv world. Grdina has studied, composed, performed and collaborated with a wide array of field-leading artists including Colin Stetson, Gary Peacock, Paul Motion, Jerry Granelli, Mats Gustafsson, Dan Mangan, Mark Feldman, Eyvind Kang, Matt Mitchell and Jim Black.
No comments:
Post a Comment