Concert Review: Joe Lovano, Marilyn Crispell and Carmen Castaldi at Wigmore Hall

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I’ve addressed numerous items on my proverbial bucket list during a whirlwind visit to London. Yesterday, I sat in the top front seat of a red double-decker bus after taking in my first Premier League match. Attending a concert at the world’s premier venue for chamber music meant even more to me. Given my predilections, it’s apropos that I heard a jazz trio on my first visit to Wigmore Hall.

I relish the three albums the grouping of saxophonist Joe Lovano, pianist Marilyn Crispell and drummer Carmen Castaldi recorded for ECM Records. Hearing them in perfect clarity amid an audience of about 500 was dreamy. Suffering from jet lag, displeased with Lovano’s sartorial choices and unwilling to continually crane my neck to watch Crispell’s fingering from my $50 seat in the center of the room, I occasionally closed my eyes.

With torrents of improvised sound akin to spray from a fire hose, the musicians’ lack of inhibition often overwhelmed me. Once or twice, I was reluctant to open my eyes for fear I had somehow slipped out of my chair and had passed out on the floor of Wigmore Hall. Three days later, I’m still reeling.

Concert Review: Parker Quartet at Polsky Theatre

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

The members of Parker Quartet were positioned 15 feet from my third-row seat at Polsky Theatre on Wednesday, August 3. Yet I was initially befuddled by the unamplified sound of the elite string quartet.

My primary reference point for Parker Quartet is its sublime 2021 album György Kurtág and Antonin Dvořák. Released by ECM Records, the recording is imbued with the storied label’s characteristic sonic sauce.

What I heard last night was shockingly dry. It took me more than five minutes to reorient myself to Parker Quartet’s true sound characterized by antiphonal violins.

The expressive face of cellist Kee-Hyun Kim helped me get my bearings. He grieved during mournful passages, exhibited elation while playing celebratory segments and chuckled at the humor in three contemporary pieces and a pair of Beethoven's masterworks.

The $10 ticket for the concert by the Boston based group may be the year’s biggest bargain. The maxim about getting what you pay for is usually true, but in this instance I felt like an accomplice in a brazen theft- even if the unprocessed sound threw me for a loop.

Album Review: Tord Gustavsen Trio- Opening

The Books of Jacob is likely to stymie my goal of reading 100 books in 2022.  Not only is Olga Tokarczuk’s novel 965 pages (numbered in reverse order, incidentally), I’m compelled to take regular pauses to contemplate the theological constructs it poses.  The previously unfamiliar tenets of Jewish mysticism- along with the cross-pollination of Christian and Moslem doctrines- demand quiet reflection.

Opening, the latest ECM Records release by the trio led by Tord Gustavensen, matches the somber speculative musings of Tokarczuk’s characters.  Only the pastoral “Shepherd Song” possesses a defined structure and conventional resolution.  The remainder of Opening evokes the novel’s depiction of catechistic uncertainty in eighteenth-century Istanbul.

Gustavsen spooked me at a concert in London in 2012. The Norwegian pianist bears a striking resemblance to Nosferatu. Opening is correspondingly otherworldly. A character in The Books of Jacob suggests “those of us who think God addresses us by means of external events are wrong, as naive as children. For He whispers directly into our innermost souls.” Opening is one such divine whisper.

Late Night Confession

I’m often exhausted as midnight draws near on Thursdays.  Weariness sometimes primes me for a sublime experience.  When circumstances and the release schedule of ECM Records allow the luxury, I lie in bed with headphones and surrender to a new album by the famed German kompanie. Vermillion, a gorgeous recording featuring Kit Downes (piano), Petter Eldh (bass) and James Meddren (drums), serenaded me last week. I found myself concentrating on a cymbal placed in a remote corner of the sonic expanse as I nodded off. The distinctive ECM sound is among my favorite natural intoxicants.

Album Review: Mathias Eick- When We Leave

The 18-year-old sensation Olivia Rodrigo is the most popular star in the latest wave of prodigiously talented hitmakers specializing in giddy odes of heartbreak geared to sensitive young women.  Believe it or not, I’m not a member of the target audience.  What would a bespoke album catering to my current sensibilities sound like?  My wish list would include:

• wordless jazz based on European chamber music and America’s improvised avant-garde tradition

• the earthy shadings of a pedal steel guitar 

• an expansive sound field

• an intimation of spirituality with a tacit acknowledgement of mortality

When We Leave, Mathias Eick latest release on ECM Records, meets each of my specifications. I’m deeply indebted to the Norwegian and his collaborators for obliging my persnickety inclinations.

Album Review: Anja Lechner and François Couturier- Lontano

Original image by There Stands the Glass.

I wondered if I was on my deathbed four hours after receiving a seasonal flu shot three days ago.  Thankfully, the alarming diminishment of my lifeblood quickly dissipated.  The tone of Lontano, the new album by German cellist Anja Lechner and French pianist François Couturier, matches the weary sense of resignation I experienced.  Fluttering between planes of existence, I was overcome by bittersweet reflections of my time on Earth.  A recent 82-minute concert by the duo exudes a similar otherworldliness even without the signature ethereal ECM Records ambiance enhancing Lontano.