By Don Phipps

Complexity is at occasions its personal advantage. And the music on Chad Fowler’s
Birdsong definitely is advanced. Take its instrumentation – Fowler on sax
and bass flute, Shanyse Strickland on French horn, flute and vocals, Sana
Nagano on violin, Melanie Dyer on viola – and an ordinary rhythm part (Ken
Filiano on bass and Aders Griffen on drums). French horn is most definitely
uncommon in jazz and mixed with the violin and viola traces, the result’s a
trendy however uneasy interweaving of soulful bluesy jazz with summary trendy
music.

Experimentation is a trademark of contemporary free jazz. A willingness to take
probabilities is definitely to be admired. However danger is at all times current that the
experiment might not work out. And so it’s with this album, the place Fowler
achieves uneven outcomes from his uncommon collection of voicings, bandmates,
and compositions.

Fowler pens solely two of the numbers on Birdsong. Three extra are composed
by Griffen (there are two takes of Griffen’s composition “Good and
Tomorrow”). The remaining three are group improvisations. Every of the
numbers enable Fowler to generate warmth – summary, bluesy, soulful warmth – and
this atop a string part, whose traces appear to replicate a mixture of idioms –
assume Charles Ives meets Duke Ellington.

Strickland’s French horn solo on the opening quantity “Conventional Funeral
Dance” bellows and blats exact articulation, however the piece doesn’t discover
its footing till Fowler’s highly effective sax exhortations take over.

Griffen’s Ellingtonian “Out of City,” meanders alongside like a sluggish barge on
the Mississippi. And the 2 variations of his tune “Good and Tomorrow”
discover a mild sprawling phrase, with strings and a swooping bowed bass
line. In Take Two” of this piece, Fowler enters with a bluesy soulful line
which accelerates earlier than returning to the light sprawl. Strickland gives
up lengthy legato French horn phrases whereas Filiano plucks and twists bass
notes beneath. And it’s a pleasure to listen to Fowler harmonize with Nagano’s violin
close to the finish. Likewise, “Take One” makes use of the identical light sprawling theme,
however on this model, there’s a sort of distant grandness– as if gazing at an
city panorama from a vantage level throughout a river – the orange solar
bathing the buildings in darkish and light-weight. Fowler’s solo is lighter right here,
whereas Filiano bows beneath.

Fowler definitely displays command of the saxophone. On the group
improvisation “Theme for Somebody I In all probability Would not Like,” Fowler cuts
free with robust blows atop the string part. And his and Strickland’s
duet on “Crossing the River” has a Zen high quality. Maybe essentially the most
attention-grabbing music is Griffen’s “N-Beam,” which highlights his animated and
fluid drumming and Filiano’s energetic bass. Fowler provides an elated operating
solo because the piece skips fortunately alongside.

The group definitely challenges itself on the improvisation “Turnoutbreak,”
however the odd Strickland vocals truly appear to work towards the circulation of the
piece, with its thrilling and tumbling traces. Fowler’s expertise is apparent –
for instance, the solo he delivers on “Turnoutbreak” sparkles. However total,
the combination of tunes, the odd instrumentation, and a juxtaposition of jarring
and mild phrases inside a number of of the numbers appear problematic. The music
may need been extra compelling if the preparations weren’t so dense,
permitting particular person contributions to face out extra. Because the liner notes
state: “This numerous ensemble is made up of musicians with distinctive origins
and backgrounds and some of them have been assembly for the primary time.”
However the group’s expertise, Birdsong proves that making
vital music whereas studying what makes every musician tick is a
difficult process.