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Jazzfest Berlin
(Numerous venues in Berlin. 3-5 November. Competition Spherical up by Tony Dudley-Evans)
One of many strengths of JazzFest Berlin – this yr presenting its sixtieth version – is that it offers a perception into lots of the ley developments in modern jazz, and a assured number of a few of the most artistic teams taking part in at present.
Lots of the teams on the pageant had been in post-free jazz mode by which sure buildings and notated passages had been built-in into the free improvisation. It was additionally obvious that many teams, together with these taking part in a very improvised set, had been adopting a minimalist method with repetition as a means of build up rigidity and of main as much as a climax.
The mixing of composition and free taking part in was a function of the joint challenge between Henry Threadgill’s Zooid from the USA and Silke Eberhard’s Potsa Lotsa XL from Germany. A fee for Threadgill to jot down for the joint ensemble had arisen from a earlier contact between him and Eberhard, and concerned a number of days in Berlin of rehearsal and figuring out of the music. The ensuing piece with the title Merely Present Circus allowed loads of house for particular person soloists, but additionally alternated between the solos and structured passages for the entire 15-piece ensemble. Each the structured passages and the accompaniment to the solos featured the very distinctive harmonic and textural components attribute of Threadgill’s writing for his varied teams. By way of the motion between the soloists and the joint ensemble, the entire group developed an id of its personal, subtly totally different from the identities of Zooid and Potsa Lotsa XL on their very own. This flagship challenge was a triumph for the pageant and the event of an vital new work.
One other triumph for the pageant got here with the presentation of Eve Risser’s Purple Desert Orchestra whose music has developed from a collection of workshop periods, and retains the environment of spontaneous interplay. Risser spoke in a pre-concert interview of her want to combine academically skilled musicians with musicians from different traditions, on this case percussionists from West Africa. The mixture of the percussionists’ rhythmic pulse and the improvisations of the remainder of the group made this a joyful set that confirmed the potential of bringing collectively totally different musical traditions alive in France.
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One other integration of traditions got here within the set presenting a movie about Egyptian singers from the interval between 1918 and the Nineteen Thirties to which Egyptian composer Nancy Mounir has added a rating performed on the pageant by a stay group with each Egyptian and German gamers. Regardless of sure difficulties with the audibility of the soundtrack on the movie and the subtitles for the Arabic, this was a transferring efficiency that gave an perception into a really totally different interval of Egyptian historical past.
A give attention to the modern Chicago scene featured three key teams, Mike Reed’s Separatist Society, Bitchin Bajas and Joshua Abrams’ Pure Data Society, plus brief casual units from combined teams drawn from these ensembles. It was good to listen to the Separatist Society stay after reviewing their album (see assessment printed on Monday sixth November on LJN). Marvin Tate’s hollering got here throughout effectively with its highly effective supply and witty traces comparable to ‘your soul is a mosh pit’ on Your Soul, and on One Of Us an outline of a neighbour whose hand gestures all the time gave away the truth that she was mendacity.
Tate builds up rigidity in his vocals by the repetition of key traces, and this use of repetition, albeit in a way more minimalist fashion, was a function of the set by the Pure data Society led by Joshua Abrams on the guimbri string instrument. This set grew gently by this minimalist repetition right into a extra intense climax that includes solos by band member Jason Stein on bass clarinet and company Axel Dörner on slide trumpet and Mia Dyberg on alto saxophone.
This set and a brief trio set with Mike Reed and Joshua Abrams launched me to the taking part in of 79 previous tenor saxophonist Ari Brown, whose mixing of boppish traces and extra religious free taking part in was a revelation.
This method of a gradual minimalistic construct as much as a strong maximal climax was additionally there within the spectacular solo piano set by Marlies Debacker. She revels within the totally different sounds that may be drawn from the piano, each on the keys and contained in the piano, taking part in rigorously chosen single notes and clusters as she builds as much as the climax. It was additionally obvious within the superb piano trio set on the A-Trane membership given by the Omawi trio, a key a part of the Dutch scene with Marta Warelis on piano, Wilbert de Joode on bass and Onno Govaert on drums.
There’s a lot extra to say: a set by Paal Nilssen-Love’s Circus with its line up of younger improvising Norwegian gamers, a set that includes the mild, seemingly unhappy vocals of Swedish singer Ellen Arkbro. There have been a few glorious trio performances, one a strong freely improvised set by Fred Frith on guitar and results, Susana Santos Silva on trumpet, and Maria Portugal on drums, the second, a extremely rhythmic set by Clay Kin, a trio with Julian Sartorius on drums, Dan Nicholls on keys and Lou Zon on visuals. There was additionally a duo set rooted within the jazz custom given by Invoice McHenry on tenor saxophone and Andrew Cyrille on drums.
Dan Nicholls was one in all solely two British gamers taking part in on the pageant, the opposite being cellist Lucy Railton who’s a member of Ellen Arkbro’s group.
Tony Dudley-Evans was a visitor of the pageant
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