Apr 25 2012
Amit Friedman Sextet – “Sunrise”
Amit Friedman Sextet’s Sunrise is one of those rare albums that I want to blast from the rooftops, convinced that if the whole damn world could just hear it, the planet would be a much happier place.
It’s a majestic album that soars without forgetting to swing.
It’s unlikely I’ll be able to contain my enthusiasm in the words of this review. Pretty sure I’m not even gonna try.
It would be nice to give an objective review, even in the context that I’m an unabashed jazz advocate. It would be nice, but it’s not gonna happen. I’m hoping that you overlook my grand statements and melodramatic metaphors, and take from this review that Sunrise is worth your time to listen to and add to your own music library. I’m hoping that you take from this review that Sunrise is an album that makes it nearly impossible for me to contain my exuberance, that this music instills in me a happiness that makes me want to go up to the rooftops and shout this album all across my wonderful new hometown. While I do often get excited about much of the music I hear these days, I want you to understand that this is one of those rare albums that transcends music, and makes me appreciate the gift of life and my opportunity to be alive to hear music like this.
Now let’s talk about that music…
Your album personnel: Amit Friedman (tenor & soprano sax, flute), Amos Hoffman (guitar, oud), Omri Mor (piano), Gilad Abro (bass), Amir Bresler (drums), Rony Iwryn (percussion), Chen Shenar (violin), Avner Kelmer (violin), Noam Haimovitz Weinschel (viola), Maya Belzitsman (cello), and guest: Tamar Eisenman (vocal on final track “Sunrise”).
Opening track “Sunrise,” begins with bass performing a slow two-step as oud enters with a sonorous melody that percolates with happy dreams. Friedman steps up on sax, rousing the tune from its sleep, eyes fluttering open, arms stretching wide. When the string trio moves in, it’s magical. Friedman builds off his repeated phrasing and joins up with the string trio’s flight. And then he solos, drums keeping a decent trot at his side. Oh man, uplifting and light as a feather… such a rare and beautiful experience when a song can give the sense of flying away and watching the world from above.
The second track “Or” starts with oud spinning in twirling circles while piano wants to waltz. Sax brings it further into a waltz, and oud joins in. It’s the sound of a heart beating. And then they start running.
Third track “Up and Down Interlude” begins with the string trio, giving way to a piano solo, with strings adding a little accompaniment. It’s a sensation of the hurricane from within the eye, and bathed in sunlight. It leads right into the fourth track, an up-tempo piece. Friedman’s soprano rises up in quick steps, then comes back down, over and over. Piano leads the charge from behind, maintaining a gallop even when it feels like their feet no longer touch the ground.
Fifth track “Bolero” is a slow dance for romantics, which teasingly lulls things to a calm just for a sudden shift up, way up, in tempo for the furious bop of “The Tales of Hoffman,” which lets Friedman just rear back and blow on tenor. Everyone gets a chance to solo here. More importantly, this tune is more straight-ahead than the others, and gives some necessary contrast to the Middle-Eastern jazz styles, and some perspective on the genuineness of their beauty.
Seventh track “La Refarela” doesn’t slow down the pace, but the Latin percussion blended with the skip & hop of piano keep things catchy and cool, and Friedman’s infusion of Middle-Eastern stylings puts a polish on the song’s complexities without letting things get muddled. The pairing of Friedman’s whirling dervish solo laid over top of the bass maniacally pacing back and forth across the room is a nifty moment.
Another high water mark on this album begins with an interlude, the eighth track “The Archeologist Interlude”, which opens with the string quartet. Using the sensation of flying as a descriptor for anything a string quartet does has become rather commonplace, but that’s for good reason. It leads right into ninth track “The Archeologist”, which has the piano repeating the phrasing of the strings, soprano sax joining in, and everyone else falling in behind. Friedman’s solo here builds up from the lofty heights attained by the strings.
“Optimism (for Sonny Rollins)” transitions back and forth between a mambo and blues. From a sound perspective, it’s a bit out of the flow of the album, but when viewed in the light that it’s likely to bring a smile to anyone who hears it, well, that sets it plum straight with the emotional perspective of Sunrise.
“You Must Go” begins gently, offering a different facet of a repeated phrasing throughout the album. Light as a feather and carried blithely away by a warm breeze, even the increasing tempos and chanting do nothing to alter the delicate trajectory this composition takes. Float, flutter, descend, and float back up all over again. Enchanting.
The album ends with a love song. A return to opening track “Sunrise”, this facet of that theme adds vocalist Tamar Eisenman to the mix. Accompanied by Friedman’s lilting soprano, Eisenman’s easy-going sonics succinctly put a casual touch on the album finale while still conveying all of the profound emotions that mark the album as something very special.
There have been some strong albums released thus far in 2012. It’s always tricky getting too definitive with this kind of statement, but I’ve got to slot Amit Friedman’s Sunrise near (or at) the top of my Best of 2012 (thus far) list. It’s outstanding simply in terms of musicianship, but add to that the recording’s transcendent emotional impact, and, well, I’m ready to shout this album from the rooftops. Compelled. Beauty has that effect on me.
Peace. And cheers.
Here’s a video of a live performance of the title track…
*****
Sunrise was released on the Origin/OA2 Records label.
Jazz from Israel.
Available on eMusic: MP3
Apr 26 2012
Recommended: Threads Orchestra – “Threads”
There’s a fiction writing style called head-hopping. It’s when a single story is told from the point of view of many different characters. The story intro begins with Character A, then the point of view shifts (or hops) over to Character B who tells the story as they see it, then Character C gets a turn, maybe a return to B, and so on. It’s a tricky style to wield, and it’s why it’s done infrequently and, often, badly. And that’s understandable… it’s a tough proposition just to take a spark of creativity, bring it to blossom, then nurture it through a story arc life all the way to its final resting place of The End. For a writer to attempt this creativity life cycle from multiple angles adds a degree of difficulty to an already difficult challenge. It’s too easy for a story to end up jumbled and incoherent. It’s really not advisable.
It’s also not a style unique to fiction writers. Musicians do it, too. But whereas the writer expresses points of view through words, musicians do it through sounds. Similar to the risk posed the story, an album can end up lacking cohesion and identity. It’s really not advisable. But, damn, when it works, the result is a thrilling ride of notes and themes. Personally, I run into very few albums that successfully pull it off, but when I do, they sit near the top of the favorite albums on my shelf.
That brings us to Threads Orchestra, and their album Threads.
Your album personnel: Adam Robinson (viola), Julian Gregory (violin), Chris Montague (guitar), Kit Downes (piano), Rus Pearson (bass), Kristoffer Wright (drums), and Semay Wu (cello).
This album is not a fusion of jazz, classical, folk, Americana, tango, and rock. This is a story told from the point of view of each of those characters.
The album opens with the avant-classical piece “Attached.” It’s a fearful beast, drawing inexorably closer. Skeletal piano lines ominously announce its arrival. Strings use harmony like sharp blades of steel. Drums are the thumps of heartbeats gone cold. What we have here is a horror story.
But that’s not how second track “Gene Wilder” sees it. Opening with sprightly piano trills and plucky strings, it’s a happy afternoon love affair. And if there were any question about this, when the strings swoop in like sunlight, the terror of track one is a distant curiosity.
However, third track “Titus Salt” elicits imagery of Big Futures and setting out on a journey of self-discovery. The melody is fragmented, and presented in escalating steps. It endows the tune with an asymmetry that is simply intoxicating, much like watching each mesmerizing step of a tightrope walker, and the exhilaration of vicariously experiencing the sudden fear of falling and the recapture of balance. Heavy on the strings, but judicious in parsing out time in the spotlight, this is a sound very reminiscent of Bill Frisell’s Disfarmer/Signs of Life bluegrass Americana. It’s also my favorite album track.
Fourth track “Jay-Zee” begins quiet as a mouse, then explodes into folk and tango, gypsy strings, a jazz piano solo, guitar rock solo, and a rhythm section that borders on both jazz and rock. It’s a tempest of a song, and its fury can make it easy to forget anything that came before.
Now, let’s talk about what’s come before and what’s still ahead. Telling the story from multiple points of view, head-hopping, is more than just switching whose eyes the story is seen from. Because, ultimately, it has to be a single story, a cohesive solitary point which the differing views are all staring at. There have to be commonalities, connecting attributes to show that this is one story as told by many people and not just a collection of vaguely interwoven stories that only share a front and back cover. On Threads, yes, the album is told as through the points of view of many characters, but each tune shares elements which bind them into a singular tale.
The heavy avant-classical of the opening track is a motif that makes appearances throughout. It may never dominate again as it does in “Attached,” but other characters/songs register its presence throughout. No different than the jazz and Americana and tango and rock in the first half of the album; they also make return appearances. For a story, it would be described as establishing the community; for an album, a cohesion of sound. But however it’s described, it has to do with tying it all together.
On fifth track “Inheritance,” it’s a quiet ballad of comforting strings, lilting piano, reassuring guitar, and the quiet ambiance of the sun setting over the horizon, street lights dotting the landscape, and a city letting down its guard as the day comes to a close.
Of course, the onset of darkness brings us back to the dangers of night. But where the opener was pure fear, there is a Halloween whimsy on sixth track “Oliver Reed.” The Norman Bates strings are juxtaposed against tango and gypsy swing, and it’s easy to chalk the willies up to the fun kind of scared, which, in the end, is no kind of scared at all. Fun wins yet again.
Album closer “T&C” has finale written all over it… a triumphant march off to the horizon after overcoming conflict and obstacles, of all the characters reveling in the moment together, as one. Piano is head held high, strings uplift the spirit, guitar is a wide grin, and drums & bass are a comforting patter of It’s Alright Now. It’s a gentle swaying tune, a stroll that feels at times like swing. It’s a happy ending and it’s the words The End.
Astonished that this excellent album didn’t hit my radar in 2011, I’m glad to have discovered it at all. Threads Orchestra will be releasing a new album in 2012, details to be reported later. You can be sure I’ll be reviewing it, and if it’s anything as wonderful as Threads, you can expect another enthusiastic recommendation.
The album is Self-Produced. It was released in 2011. Music from the UK.
You can stream the entire album, and purchase it, on their Bandcamp page.
Also, you can stream the entire album on their website, which has an embedded Soundcloud player.
Download a free album track at AllAboutJazz courtesy of the artists.
Also, I wrote a First Impressions article on this album a month or two ago for Bird is the Worm. You can read it here to see what my very first thoughts were on my very listen listen to Threads, as it was happening.
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2011 Releases, Recap: Best of 2011 • 0 • Tags: Recap: Best of 2011