Pianist Aruán Ortiz recalls the cacaphony of ritmas that pervaded his everyday life growing up in Santiago de Cuba on Inside the Rhythmic Falls. Joining with master drummer Andrew Cyrille and percussionist Mauricio Herrera, Ortiz descends into a deeply feeling state on these 10 tracks, each one the personalization of some aspect of his musical life. In the two parts of the title cut alone—“Sacred Codes” and “Echoes”—one hears the firm imprint of Cuba’s rich musical heritage on Ortiz’s compositional style: the pulse of African-derived beats, the modern vocabulary of classical pianism, and the abandon of free improvisation.
Seven years ago, pianist Thollem McDonas and electric guitarist Nels Cline recorded a lengthy jam at a studio in the hip Gowanus Arts Building in Brooklyn, N.Y., with bassist William Parker sitting in. They released one album from that date, The Gowanus Session (Porter) in 2012, before moving on to three other duo-plus-guest-artist albums. This past January, with the release of Gowanus Sessions II ; the second part of that 2012 session, the original group concludes this palindrome of improvised experimental recordings. The two extended tracks on the album speak more to impulse-driven expression than to group cohesion, but driven by anodic effects, the trio covers all sonic ground, from the subatomic to the otherworldly.
Composer/pianist Brian Marsella’s latest album, Gatos Do Sul , got its start with a commission from celebrated composer/producer John Zorn. The group that gives the album its title—made up of woodwinds, violin, percussion, and rhythm section—premiered these new compositions at National Sawdust in Brooklyn in 2017. At the time, Marsella was burrowing into popular Brazilian idioms like the choro and tango, finding ways to channel them through his own modern jazz compositions. His talent for syncretism led to many exhilirating performances on this disc: avant-garde improvisations alternating with charging flute sections on “O Balanco das Corredeiras”; funny classical allusions on “Fire the Pandeiro Player”; fervent vocals on “Lamento.”But most noteworthy is Marsella’s nimble writing throughout.
Chicago-based pianist Lara Driscoll developed the tunes that would become her debut release, Woven Dreams, as a graduate student in the jazz department at Montréal’s McGill University. She led a trio then and, clearly, came to excel at the format. The album is satisfyingly lengthy at 14 tracks; most of these are straight-ahead originals with smooth grooves, understated arrangements, and meltingly delicious voicings. The standout composition is Driscoll’s three-part suite, “Forgiving—Black Dog Skirts Away,” inspired by a Fred Hersch composition. Its judicious use of space, subtle shifts in time, and complementary feels reveal the depths of Driscoll’s talent as both a player and leader.
On Joie De Vivre, the Eric Lilley Trio moves bracingly through the album’s set of heady swing tunes (“Twirler”), charming jazz waltzes (“Tournesol”), and adrenalized bop revelations (“Rouac”). Colorado pianist Lilley wrote the nine originals here, a collection as refreshing as its title suggests. As with many acoustic trios of long association, the group’s repertoire trips easily off their fingers; the listener can relax into the ride because the players are doing all the work. Even so, Lilley (with bassist Mark Diamond and drummer Paul Romaine) makes the heavy lifting seem easy, suggesting that these tunes are as exciting to play as they are to listen to.
Visually and viscerally evocative, the new music of Israeli pianist/composer Nuphar Fey, Serenity Island, captivates utterly. The album comprises 10 impressionistic pieces that take water and other ephemera (imagination, dreams) as their theme; these slippery things serve as apt metaphors for Fey’s artistry itself. Her sparkling, liquid playing lies at the center of each of the compositions as she leads her trio from one mesmeric soundscape to the next; beyond this, the musical circuitry (jazz textures, classical forms, rhythmic perspicacity) remains hidden behind a wash of gorgeous sound. A major accomplishment.
(Reprinted from the May 2020 issue of Downbeat magazine)