I Went This Way

Avant Jazz / Free Improvisation / Avant-Garde
premiera polska: 2020-10-26
kontynent: Ameryka Północna
kraj: USA
opakowanie: digipackowe etui
opis:
multikulti.com * * * * 1/2:
Kolejne pokolenie brytyjskich outsiderów kreatywnego jazzu coraz bardziej się rozpycha. Wszyscy znają takie nazwiska jak Evan Parker, Steve Beresford, Trevor Watts, Eddie Prevost czy młodszy od nich o pokolenie Alex Ward. Teraz przyszedł czas na pokolenie Rachel Musson, saksofonistki, kompozytorki i improwizatorki, mającej już za sobą współpracę z Hanem Benninkiem, Liamem Noble'm, Eddie Prevostem, Olie'm Brice'm, Federico Ughi'm, Mary Halvorson, Johnem Russellem, Louisem Moholo-Moholo ... Patem Thomasem. Z tym ostatnim tworzy doskonałe trio Shifa. Skład Shify uzupełnia perkusista Mark Sanders. Głównym żywiołem muzyki Shify jest zbiorowa improwizacja, w danym wypadku oznaczająca nie tyle graniczącą z chaosem swobodę, ile raczej podążanie własnymi ścieżkami do wspólnego celu muzycznej podróży.

Jej nowa płyta, wydana w barwach nowojorskiej 577 Records to album ze wszech miar wyjątkowy, drażniąco niejednoznaczny, pełen zaskakujących zwrotów akcji, zagadek i podtekstów. Jest przy tym niełatwy w odbiorze, potrzeba wiele czasu, aby docenić kunszt tego dziewięcioosobowego składu. Jesteśmy w trakcie ponurych, listopadowo-pandemicznych dni, czasu, więc nie powinno zabraknąć, a zapewniam, że warto!

Pięć kompozycji (Start, Matched Up, Syncope, For Pauline, A Note), dziewięciu muzyków (Rachel Musson: saxophone, tenor, Mark Sanders: drums, Chris Mapp: bass, Xhosa Cole: flute, Debbie Sanders: voice / vocals, Sarah Farmer: violin, Richard Scott: piano, Hannah Marshall: cello, Lee Griffiths: saxophone, alto),
jedna scena w kultowej londyńskiej Cafe Oto.

Wypadkowa polistylistycznych kompozycji, które ukrywają zaskakujące słuchaczów niuanse, potencjału doskonałych improwizatorów i czujnej dyrygenturze liderki to muzyka, obok której nie da się przejść obojętnie. Zapis nutowy oczywiście dopuszcza znaczący poziom wolności dla muzyków w zakresie rytmu i dynamiki wykonania, mamy w końcu na scenie kwiat londyńskich improwizatorów średniego i młodego pokolenia, z których część zna się z pracy w London Improvisers Orchestra.
W otwierającym płytę "Start" nasycony kameralny minimalizm Arvo Parta spotyka się z ekspresją Meredith Monk. Przez większą część tego 12-minutowego utworu narracja prowadzona jest przez skrzypaczkę Sarah Farmer, altowiolistę Richarda Scotta i wiolonczelistkę Hannah Marshall.
"Matched Up" to pełnokrwisty free jazzu, kwintet bez smyczków eksploduje niezwykle efektownie. Mnóstwo ciekawych, niebanalnych rozwiązań dźwiękowych.
Kolejny utwór to dwudziestominutowy "For Pauline" przenoszący słuchacza w świat współczesnej kameralistyki, z wyeksponowanym kontrabasem Chrisa Mappa i fletem doskonałego Xhosy Cole'a.
Na koniec półgodzinny "A Note", o labiryntowej strukturze, co rusz mylący tropy, zaskakuje i zniewala.
Można tylko zazdrościć zgromadzonej w Cafe Oto, w czerwcowy wieczór publiczności.
Brawa dla wszystkich!
autor: Witek Leśniak
Copyright © 1996-2020 Multikulti Project. All rights reserved
Editor's info:
With her upcoming album, I Went This Way (due October 23, 2020), Musson debuts her own ambitious compositions, incorporating spoken word text and daring instrumental experimentation, alongside eight other accomplished musicians. The ensemble was built around the close working relationship between saxophonist Rachel Musson and drummer Mark Sanders. The music, a blend of compositions and improvisation designed to highlight all of the different musical voices in the ensemble, is suspended from a through-composed text written by Musson that explores the process of improvisation, and her reflections on the experiential process of making music. Showcasing her own directorial ability, this project also draws from a long career in experimental collaboration, including previous projects at 577 Records like ‘SHIFA’ alongside Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders, and a feature on Federico Ughi’s ‘Transoceanico LP.’ While much of this album has its roots in free jazz, the semi-notated score and spoken word text allow for semi-orchestral influences to reach the fore, ranging from delicate chamber-size string sections to a more upfront horn section and simmering percussions throughout.

About Rachel Musson:
Rachel Musson is a London-based saxophonist renowned for her bold and incredibly fluid playing. Drawing from a relatively young but impressively collaborative career, she has played with a diverse array of ensembles and has been especially involved with a number of 577-produced projects. Performing on Pat Thomas and Mark Sanders ‘Shifa’ (due to release their second album on 577 Records this year), and on Federico Ughi’s Transoceanico’s vinyl (577 Records), Musson consistently lends her own signature assured style to her collaborations—which includes a diverse range of musicians on the European improvisational jazz scene, like Han Bennink, Eddie Prevost, Sebastian Rochford, Louis Moholo, among many others. With her upcoming album, ‘I Went This Way’ (due October 23, 2020), Musson will debut her own ambitious compositions, incorporating spoken word text and the instrumental experimentation of eight other supporting musicians. Musson has played festivals worldwide, including the Forward Festival in New York alongside legendary musicians such as William Parker and Daniel Carter. One of the most creative and accomplished musicians to come from the European Jazz scene in recent years, Musson is an incredibly versatile improviser, pushing the boundaries of music forward with a steady hand and a deeply imaginative sound.

allaboutjazz.com:
Let's agree that, by a consensus of one, Debbie Sanders recital of saxophonist Rachel Musson's thought-through and through-read play-by- metaphoric-play/lecture on improvisation gets annoying as all hell so quickly that one may find oneself searching madly for a bonus instrumental version. But the music on saxophonist Musson's I Went This Way is an ambitious, teasingly ambiguous album, all shift, riddle, and hijinks. And that's a really good thing because it takes a lot for anyone to be so sure of her path and her vision these dreary days.

A questing tenor, Musson, one of London's pioneering jazz outsiders and thus a practitioner of the multi-phonic narrative, is never satisfied with freedom.There is always more freedom somewhere, and that somewhere is the core of Musson's often ragged, often lilting compositions. Sure they dance but they cringe too. Don't we all?

Recorded live in June 2019 at Cafe Oto in London, Musson directs, conducts, and double dares her shape-shifting nonet to move where perhaps they hadn't thought of moving then find a circuitous route back from where they started. It is a head game for sure but Musson is built that way. You can hear it on such free-falling structures as those found on such recordings as drummer Federico Ughi's The Space Within (577 Records, 2000) and this year's howl fest with Shifa Live In Oslo with fellow vanguardists pianist Pat Thomas and drummer Mark Sanders. She likes to stretch and reach, then reach further.

Her players are well toned too, ready to expatiate and formulate around the leader's yoga-like idiosyncrasies. "Start" does just that with the seriousness of a hushed opera, as an intimate calligraphy of violinist Sarah Farmer, violist Richard Scott, and cellist Hannah Marshall readily and hauntingly establishes Musson's firm grip on larger compositional equations and how she adds, subtracts, and divides her chosen variables into oddly curved familiars. "Matched Up" is your more traditional free jazz Musson style—quintet sans strings darting and dinging like glancing meteors sharing some internal, gravitational understanding. The twenty-minute "For Pauline" tones in with a sawing menace courtesy of bassist Chris Mapp and Xhosa Cole's trapped butterfly flute, gives way to the half-hour-plus purring labyrinth "A Note" and I Went This Way certainly does go where it will.
By Mike Jurkovic

muzycy:
Debbie Sanders - Voice
Sarah Farmer - Violin
Richard Scott - Viola
Hannah Marshall - Cello
Xhosa Cole - Flute and Tenor Sax
Lee Griffiths - Alto Sax
Rachel Musson - Tenor Sax
Chris Mapp - Bass
Mark Sanders - Drums

utwory:
1. Start 12:21
2. Matched Up 8:21
3. Syncope 01:35
4. For Pauline 20:46
5. A Note 36:16

wydano: October 23, 2020
nagrano: Recorded at Cafe Oto, London, England on June 19, 2019 by James Dunn

more info: www.577records.com
more info2: www.rachelmusson.com