Though their journeys began in different countries and their
stars rose a generation apart, pianist Aruán Ortiz and clarinetist/saxophonist
Don Byron share a sweeping curiosity about the scope and history of music as
well as a bold adventurousness that has allowed them to explore that
wide-ranging soundscape with keen invention and incisive wit. Their debut
outing as a duo, Random Dances and (A)tonalities, finds the pair engaged in a
series of scintillating musical dialogues that entrance with the compelling
interplay and intellectual spark of the best conversations.
Unsurprisingly given both artists' expansive tastes, the
repertoire they take on together runs the gamut from reverent investigations of
beloved classics to radical transformations of jazz standards; rigorous but
nuanced renditions of classical compositions along with freewheeling
improvisatory ventures; inspired original pieces and heartfelt tributes to
mentors and influences. As the title encapsulates, Random Dances and (A)tonalities
(out October 19 via Intakt Records) contains multitudes, alternately (sometimes
simultaneously) enchanting and challenging, harmonious and fractious, stark and
sublime.
"I'm from Santiago de Cuba and Don's from the Bronx and
his family's from the Caribbean," Ortiz says. "The element of dancing
is always there in our music, even if we're not playing salsa or calypso.
That's why they're Random Dances: we expand the idea of dance beyond the dance
floor to whenever you hear something that moves you. What does dance really
mean? And (A)tonalities comes from the fact that we move freely in and out of a
tonal zone, but we always come back."
The Cuban-born, Brooklyn-based Ortiz connected with Byron
through a meeting of the minds long before the two were ever introduced.
Playing with longtime Byron collaborator Ralph Peterson, Ortiz was fascinated
by the harmonic movement and intricate architecture of the drummer's
compositions. Asked for some insight, Peterson simply responded, "I got
all that from Don Byron."
Over the next several years Ortiz became highly regarded in
the jazz world for his daring pianism and profound originality, whether
combining his Cuban roots with progressive jazz concepts or combining his
improvisatory language with stunning chamber music compositions. He's
collaborated with many of the most advanced thinkers across a range of creative
musics: Wadada Leo Smith, Esperanza Spalding, Wallace Roney, Nicole Mitchell,
William Parker, Oliver Lake, Terri Lyne Carrington, the Milena Zullo Ballet, DJ
Logic, The Last Poets' Abiodun Oyewole, and countless others.
It's difficult to summarize the divergent paths that Byron's
music has taken. Having studied with Third Stream innovator George Russell at
New England Conservatory, Byron personalized that compositional vocabulary to
devise his own unique approach. An avid music historian, he's focused his
attentions on everything from klezmer to cartoon music, the soul fire of Junior
Walker and the heavy sounds of the Black Rock Coalition, along the way playing
with everyone from Living Colour to Bill Frisell, Cassandra Wilson to Steve
Coleman, Allen Toussaint to Uri Caine.
In 2014, Ortiz invited Byron to take part in "Music
& Architecture," a series of concerts inspired by the composer Iannis
Xenakis. Soon the clarinetist was calling on the pianist for regular gigs with
a variety of ensembles, until finally they decided to try a duo outing.
"Don is well versed in so many musical styles and languages," Ortiz
says. "The music for this duo came very naturally."
The album opens with Ortiz's "Tete's Blues,"
written in honor of his oldest son, who he nicknamed "Tete" after the
great Spanish pianist Tete Montoliu, a major influence. As Byron's questing
lines navigate Ortiz's strident keyboard surges, tempos collide in elusive ways
inspired by the pianist's studies with Muhal Richard Abrams. The late AACM
founder's concepts also fueled Ortiz's shadowy "Numbers," while his
"Arabesque of a Geometrical Rose (Spring)" is the full realization of
a piece originally recorded on the pianist's album Hidden Voices, expressing
the tune's interwoven counter-melodies in a way impossible in the piano trio
setting.
Byron's stunning compositional imagination can be heard on
"Joe Btfsplk," a cubist abstraction of the bebop standard "Donna
Lee" named for the bearer of bad luck from Al Capp's classic comic strip
"Li'l Abner." The darkly moving "Delphian Nuptials" was
originally penned as part of Byron's score for a documentary on playwright
Lorraine Hansberry, though the duo fully communicates its complex moods without
the aid of visuals.
Ortiz became familiar with "Black and Tan Fantasy"
through the famed Thelonious Monk rendition, while Byron grew up hearing the
Duke Ellington original; those two disparate approaches fuel the intriguing
tension in this new version. The later Geri Allen was another formative
influence on Ortiz, who set out to transcribe "Dolphy's Dance" from
her 1992 album Maroons; as it turned out Byron, who had played often with
Allen, had the original chart. The pair undertook this tribute, capturing
Allen's boundary-less artistry.
"It was a great feeling to realize that Don's career
has been connected to someone I have admired for such a long time," Ortiz
says of Allen. "She spans many styles of music; her playing is very solid
and rooted yet very avant-garde at the same time. I hold her in very high
regard."
Byron's clarinet floats airily through Ortiz's crystalline
arrangement of Federico Mompou's "Música Callada: Book 1, No. 5." The
clarinetist goes it alone for a captivating reading of Bach's "Violin
Partita No. 1 in B Minor," which Ortiz was always thrilled to witness on
the bandstand. "Seeing a so-called 'jazz musician' in the middle of a
so-called 'jazz concert' playing a classical piece solo -- that made a big
impact on me," Ortiz marvels. "I play and compose classical music as
well, but for me it's just music - and for Don, too."
The two composers join forces on the album's final track, in
spiritual collaboration with a third composer, the legendary Benny Golson.
"Impressions of a Golden Theme," with its echo of Golson's name, is a
fantasia on the theme of the saxophonist's "Along Came Betty,"
departing in filigreed flights from any suggestion of the original. While on
tour they originally performed the tune but over time, Ortiz recalls, "it
evolved and evolved, going to a different place every time. So we decided to
just sit down and had a musical conversation, not worry what the result would
be."
Pianist and composer Aruán Ortiz - born in Santiago de Cuba,
and resident of Brooklyn, NY - has been an acclaimed figure in the progressive
jazz and avant-garde scene in the US for more than 15 years. Named "one of
the most creative and original composers in the world" (Lynn René Bayley,
The Art Music Lounge), he has written music for jazz ensembles, orchestras,
dance companies, chamber groups, and feature films, incorporating influences
from contemporary classical music, Cuban Haitian rhythms, and avant-garde
improvisation. He has received multiple accolades including Mid-Atlantic
Foundation US Artists International (2017), Composer Fellowship Award at
Vermont College of Fine Arts (2016); and the Doris Duke Impact Award (2014);
the Composers Now Creative Residency at Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller
Brothers Fund (2014). His 2016 trio album Hidden Voices (Intakt 2016) was
lauded as "a solid and unique new sound in today's jazz world" by
Matthew Fiander in PopMatters, while his solo piano effort Cub(an)ism (2017)
was called "a genius exercise in the exploration of depth and perception
that reveals a bright new wrinkle in the relationship between music and mathematics,
reimagining Afro-Haitian Gaga rhythms, Afro-Cuban rumba and Yambú into heavily
improvised meditations on modernism that recall John Cage and Paul Bley,"
(Ron Hart, The Observer). Aruán has played, toured, or recorded with jazz
luminaries such as Wadada Leo Smith, Don Byron, Greg Osby, Wallace Roney,
Nicole Mitchell, William Parker, Adam Rudolph, Andrew Cyrille, Henry Grimes,
Oliver Lake, Rufus Reid, Terri Lyne Carrington, and collaborated with
choreographer José Mateo; filmmaker Ben Chace; poet Abiodun Oyewole from The
Last Poets; DJ Logic and Val Jeanty; and German writers Angelika Hentschel and
Anna Breitenbach.
An inspired eclectic, clarinetist, saxophonist and composer
Don Byron has performed an array of musical styles with great success. Byron
first attained a measure of notoriety for playing Klezmer, specifically the
music of the late Mickey Katz. While the novelty of a black man playing Jewish
music was enough to grab the attention of critics, it was Byron's jazz-related
work that ultimately made him a major figure. Byron is at heart a
conceptualist, possessing a profound imagination that best manifests itself in
his multifarious compositions. He is a Rome Prize Recipient, a Pulitzer Prize
Finalist, and a 2007 Guggenheim Fellow.
Each of his albums seems based on a different stylistic
approach, from the free jazz/classical leanings of his first album, Tuskegee
Experiments (Nonesuch, 1992), to the hip-hop/funk of Nu Blaxpoitation (Blue
Note, 1998). Byron's composition "There Goes the Neighborhood" was
commissioned by the Kronos Quartet and premiered in London in 1994. He's also
composed for silent film, served as the director of jazz for the Brooklyn
Academy of Music, and scored for television.
