Trumpeter-composer Cuong Vu has established himself as a
distinctive voice on the new music/improvising scene for his adventurous work
over the past 20 years with the likes of guitarist Bill Frisell, Pat Metheny
and Laurie Anderson as well as his four recordings as leader.
Composer
Richard Karpen has earned accolades for his work in the classical field as well
as for being a cutting edge sonic experimenter of the highest order. Joined by
innovative bassist Luke Bergman (their faculty colleague at the University of
Washington) and Vu's longstanding bandmate, drummer Ted Poor, these two kindred
spirits push the envelope in a myriad of provocative ways on That The Days Go
By And Never Come Again. An extended suite that pays tribute to the indelible
composing team of Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn in a most uncompromising
fashion, their extraordinary RareNoiseRecords debut under the collective name
of Indigo Mist is unlike any Ellingtonia you've ever heard."
Says Vu,
"The whole record, to me, is a tone poem that is deeply affected by their
music, even to the point where as we were at the apex of experimenting, Duke
and Billy were always in the room with us and we had to come to terms with
their presence. I feel that we've respectfully paid homage to them by taking
our own connection to them and sprinkled that all over the record like a
mist."
The
unlikely duo of New York-based improviser-bandleader Vu and Seattle academician
Karpen crystallized when they met at the University of Washington. As Vu
explains, "One of the things that I did when I became a new faculty here
was to research my colleagues, mainly just to get to know about the various
interests of the School of Music faculty and get a feel for how I would move
about within that musical community. Once I started reading about Richard, I
was immediately interested because his work was on the forefront of
electro-acoustic music as well as being a composer from the Western Classical
Art Music tradition. Much of classical
music had such an impact on how I interfaced with music while I was doing my
bachelors of music that I've always been interested in working with a serious
composer at some point. Then when I heard his music I was completely blown away
and knew that I had to work with him, if not to just make music together
somehow, then to at least learn from him."
Adds
Karpen, "It is very unusual for a 'classically' trained composer like me,
with my particular background and continued interest in experimental music and
several decades of very deep involvement in the development of computer music
both as a composer and as a programmer, to be head of such a School of Music.
And it seems to me to be just as unusual for someone coming from a jazz
background like Cuong, who is deeply involved in breaking through artificial
boundaries through many kinds of experimentation, would be on the a faculty of
such a school. The chance that both of us would be at the same place at the
same time, and with one of us heading this school, seems to be one chance in
millions!
The
provocative tone poem kicks off with a torrent of drums from Ted Poor entitled
"L'Heure bleue." While traversing the kit with power and precision,
Poor's drumming is sonically enhanced to give it the effect of rolling thunder,
gently falling rain or a phalanx of drummers.
Poor
then switches to mallets for the evocative title track as Karpen and Vu make
their entrance into the mysterious soundscape, beginning with Karpen's sparsely
plucked notes from inside the piano and continuing with Vu's electronically
treated trumpet and Luke Bergman's sparse bass lines. The piece builds to a
thunderous crescendo with Karpen's throbbing bass notes and Cecil Tayloresque
cascading in the high register of the piano. Poor's potent free drumming fuels
the track while Vu's intuitive keening trumpet wails over the top of the fray.
This urgent piece gradually morphs into a haunting treatment of Strayhorn's
"A Flower is a Lovesome Thing" that has Vu remaining close to the
melody as Karpen pushes the harmonic envelope with his probing piano work. It
then flows organically into a thoughtful but uncompromising meditation on
Strayhorn entitled "Billy."
An
element of swing enters the picture on "Duke," which opens with
Poor's hip, syncopated playing on the kit in intimate conversation with Vu's
unaffected trumpet worked, Bergman and Karpen enter the conversation near the
midway mark and extrapolation ensues until they build up to extreme layers of
density and dissonance with Vu reaching into his bag of extended techniques on
the trumpet to match the pitch of the turbulent proceedings. At their
tumultuous peak, Vu and Bergman lay out and Karpen gradually settles into
zen-like repose on the piano, setting up for a sublime reading of Ellington's
gorgeous "In a Sentimental Mood," which is played beautifully by Vu
and underscored with tastefully restraint by Karpen, Bergman and Poor. This
gentle but brief bit of Ellingtonia then morphs into the more mysterioso
excursion "Charles" (for Mingus), which in turn leads into a highly
impressionistic take on Strayhorn's "Lush Life."
Karpen's
furious, rolling bass notes and aggressive stabs at the keyboard next come into
play on "The Electric Mist," a frenzied improvisation which has the
pianist going toe-to-toe in full-out Cecil Taylor mode with drummer Poor
augmenting his urgent attack with some powerhouse playing of his own. The piece
ends with an electronic barrage that is purely of the 21st century. The album
concludes with a spacious, abstract rendition of Ellington's "Mood Indigo"
that begins with the sounds of a gong (or singing bowl) and plucked piano
strings penetrating the silence before Bergman and Vu enter with a
walking-on-eggshells approach. The familiar theme of this final nod to
Ellington is hinted at throughout the course of the piece but not truly
revealed until near the end of its eight-minutes in the beautifully warm tones
of Vu's trumpet. It's definitely the most challenging music I've been engaged
in our musical interests and curiosities, I'm at a place in my life right now where
it's crucially important for me to make music that is completely honest and
without any external pressures.
"We're
trying to do something new and different while flipping the whole idea of
playing 'jazz' upside down," says Vu of this Indigo Mist project.
"And by choosing this music as our primary subject matter or subject of
inspiration, we are addressing jazz in a way that I feel is in reverence and
trying to add our own perspective of the greatness what jazz really means to me
along with the greatness of these two masters."
Musicians: Cuong Vu (trumpet), Richard Karpen (piano), Luke Berman (bass), Ted Poor (
drums)
Tracks: L'Heure Bleue / Indigo Mist / A Flower Is A Lovesome Thing / Billy / Duke / In A Sentimental Mood / Charles / Lush Life / The Electric Mist / Mood Indigo.
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