Dec 11 2015
Recommended: Adam Baldych & Helge Lien Trio – “Bridges”
It’s been fun watching the career of violinist Adam Baldych develop over time. Of particular interest has been the number of collaborative projects he’s involved himself in that feature different pianists. I first became acquainted with his music back in 2011 and his excellent recording Magical Theatre. It’s an album with immense melodic depth and some well-placed dramatic surges to really get those melodies to shine brightly. It also saw Baldych in a piano-less quintet. But since that recording, Baldych had joined forces with pianists Iiro Rantala, Yaron Herman and Jacob Karlzon , and each instance has resulted in Baldych wielding tighter lyrical control. His expressions have become more concise, and the dramatic intensity he dished out so generously on Magical Theatre is now served up with a sharper clarity. His newest recording, Bridges, matches him up with another pianist, Helge Lien, and the Helge Lien Trio for a delightful storybook session.
The title-track opens the album with thin filaments of melody that slowly intertwine into a woven pattern that is quite striking. The song is firmly in the modern jazz-folk music territory that both artists have camped out in previously, where ambiance and atmospherics are the driving forces. It’s typical of about half of the recording, and it’s nicely complemented by a series of tunes that hone the melodies as a way of crafting song structures that rival the catchiness of pop tunes while retaining the intricacies and flavor of music of a finer vintage.
“Polesie” is the first statement of intent to chart this course, and subsequent track “Mosaic” expands on it with a more textured, and effusive, interplay between the melodic and rhythmic elements. It’s also the first real show of the quartet’s method of allowing both the jazz and folk influences to express themselves with greater individual authority, and not get so caught up in maintaining level ratios of one to the other. In fact, those wild swings from jazz influence to folk to a midway point are a nifty indirect method of bringing some drama to the affair.
“Riese” is a bit amorphous, but it does make regular pit stops at the melody. “Requiem,” on the other hand, is a thick wall of mist that gives the impression of motion. It’s not dissimilar to the effect of “Karina,” though in this instance, the melody is the emergent factor in fueling the song with a huge burst of propulsion.
“Dreamer” has a melody that’s plenty addictive and a cadence as welcoming as a warm smile that means it. “Missing You” doesn’t dial it back much either, though it provides Baldych and Lien some space to take flight with a couple fitting solos. “Up” jacks up the voltage big time, and though it often feels ready to burst at the seams, the layering across of solos with tiny emphases of the melody elicits a surging momentum that is as much about cohesion as it does intensity.
The album ends a bit flat. The tune “Lovers” teases with melodic intent, but never really commits to it, and then the finale, a by-the-numbers rendition of Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” that doesn’t really possesses any kind of notable personality that would indicate why it was even included on the album in the first place. But these are small criticisms of an album that has plenty enjoyment to offer.
Your album personnel: Adam Bałdych (violin), Helge Lien (piano), Frode Berg (bass) and Per Oddvar Johansen (drums).
Released on ACT Music.
Available at: Amazon
Dec 12 2015
Recommended: Olivier Boge – “Expanded Places”
The dreamy lyricism of saxophonist Olivier Bogé typically gets told with the comforting allure of bedtime stories. Though, like any good story told on the borders of sleep, it possesses qualities that aren’t always conducive to sweet dreams: Bits of edginess to give intoxicating melodies a little bite, rhythmic surges that threaten to wash lush harmonies out of the picture and sudden shifts in emotional tone that sweep the floor right out from under. Both 2012’s Imaginary Traveler and 2013’s The World Begins Today worked those qualities to great effect, and, undeservedly, both recordings flew under the radar. Bogé’s newest album, Expanded Places, is a fuller, more confident vision of what has come previously, and it’s not nearly as likely to pass people by this time around.
Representative of the album is “Icarus’ Dream” and how it rolls out a thick melody and then just keeps wrapping it around the shape of the song. And even as the harmonies rise and the percussion becomes more pronounced, the effect is one of genial beauty and gentle light. Opening track “Red Petals Disorder” charts a similar course, but hangs its hat, instead, on the harmonic qualities.
“The Fairy & the Beard Man” and title-track “Expanded Places” have Bogé switching over to, respectively, acoustic guitar and piano, and the change in instrumentation, if anything, leads to imagery even more vivid than that which preceded it. The addition of a cellist on “Sound of the Endless River” has the same effect on a song with a more conventional structure.
“What People Say” and “Wings of Desire” are nice examples of how Bogé and crew are able to instill a heavy moodiness upon a tune without bogging it down in somber introspection. It’s an approach that led to seriously addictive effects on bassist Nicolas Moreaux‘s excellent 2013 recording Fall Somewhere… on which both Bogé and drummer Karl Jannuska also contributed to. With Expanded Places, it’s a formula they continue to mine for sonic diamonds like these.
Just a gorgeous album.
Your album personnel: Olivier Bogé (alto sax, piano, guitars, Fender Rhodes, vocals), Nicolas Moreaux (bass), Karl Jannuska (drums) and guests: Manon Ponsot (cello) and Guillaume Bégni (French horn).
Released on Naive Records.
Jazz from the Paris scene.
Available at: eMusic | Amazon
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By davesumner • Jazz Recommendations, Jazz Recommendations - 2015 Releases • 0