The Voices of the Composer, His Wife, & His Ensemble

 Many albums are released in the final three months of every year and 2021 was no exception.  Among the recordings this reviewer had anticipated and yet failed to review was the latest from a composer whose work never fails to catch my ear, make me laugh and think, music that crosses numerous barriers, is "Galeanthropology" (JCA Recordings).   

Composer, arranger, guitarist, and educator Darrell Katz organized the Jazz Composers Alliance in Boston, MA, in 1985, creating a place for New England-based composers and musicians to make music, present concerts, and to work with musicians from throughout the country. The JCA Orchestra commissioned works from artists such as Marty Ehrlich and Muhal Richard Abrams and played concerts that featured their large ensemble (as many as 21 musicians and singers) with guest artists that included Sam Rivers, Julius Hemphill, Henry Threadgill, Tim Berne, and others.  Over the decades, Katz has emerged as the primary composer, producing 10 albums with the Orchestra as well as a Saxophone Quartet and another drummer-less ensemble known as OddSong. For that group's first album, "Jailhouse Doc With Holes in Her Socks", Katz created music for poetry composed by his wife Paula Tatarunis (1952-2015) as one piece with text by Sherwood Anderson by the album's titular septet plus a sextet known as JCA Winds and Strings as the 19-member JCA Orchestra, all ensembles featuring the lead voice of Rebecca Shrimpton. 

The new album belongs to OddSong (personnel below). Nine of the 14 songs are Katz compositions and there are pieces by Jimi Hendrix, The Standells, James Taylor, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington, and one traditional piece ("I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger").  That last piece is a highlight of an album filled with fascinating music.  Katz's arrangement for the saxophones plus the fascinating work of Vessela Stoyanova on marimba and Helen Sherrah-Davies on five-string violin. Ms. Shrimpton's vocals are stunning, her range (and her clarity) are impressive as is her depth of conviction. Other pieces such as the title track (in case you wondered galeanthropology is defined as a condition when a person believes he or she is a cat) and "Outta Horn", a Tatarunis poem that takes its inspiration from a story about John Coltrane and one night how he removed the saxophone from his mouth and sang into the mouth because he had already played all the notes he knew. Paired with a poet who has writer's block, the piece has a little bit of loud sax, dancing violin, inside-outside music, playful, loud, and, at times, profane.  

Rebecca Shrimpton

Later in the program, there's a lovely take on Taylor's "Sweet Baby James"; listen to how Katz frames Ms. Shrimpton's voice and how pure her tones are. Hendrix's "Belly Button Window" shows off the vocalist's blues chops with the four saxophones as her accompaniment. Each of the musicians––Rick Stone, Lihi Haruvi, Phil Scarff, and Melanie Howell Brooks––gets to solo in the big improv in the middle but it's their work behind the vocal that is most impressive.  Ms. Shrimpton goes it alone on Mingus's "Duke Ellington's Sound of Love"; it's a tour-de-force for the singer whose impressive range and clarity stands out.

Ms. Tatarunis's poetry for her husband's piece "Microtonal" sets a film noir mood for a funky take of The Standell's "Dirty Water"...yes, that "Dirty Water"! The great arrangement for the four saxophones––dig Ms. Brook's delightful baritone work–– is as playful as Ms. Shrimpton's vocal.  "Galeanthropology" closes with the short "New Prayer", a piece for wordless vocal and the entire ensemble.  In 1:35, each saxophone, the marimba, and the high-pitched violin frame the vocal without detracting from her quiet intensity.

While the music Darrell Katz creates for most of his ensembles can be labeled "jazz", what OddSong does is mess around with the idea of music needing a label. Should that lack of a definitive genre push prospective listeners away?  It just might but curious listeners will find a lot to like on "Galeanthropology", not the least of which is the wondrous sounds of Rebecca Shrimpton.  Take a chance––it's worth your time!

For more information about the composer, go to www.darrellkatz.com/ (although this site needs to be updated, you'll find a lot of information about his groups). 

Hear "Guiding Narrative": 

Braithwaite & Katz · Guiding Narrative - Darrell Katz & Oddsong

Personnel:

Rebecca Shrimpton –– voice

Rick Stone –– alto and tenor saxophones

Lihi Haruvi –– alto and soprano saxophones

Phil Scarff –– tenor, soprano, and sopranino saxophones

Melanie Howell Brooks –– baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, background vocal on "Guiding Nar-

rative" + spoken word on "Women Talking" 

Helen Sherrah-Davies –– five-string violin on seven tracks, backing vocal on "Guiding Narrative" + 

spoken word on "Women Talking" 

Vessela Stoyanova –– marimba and vibraphone on eight tracks + spoken word on "Women Talking"

+

Mimi Rabson –– five-string violin on "I am a Poor Wayfaring Stranger"

Darrell Katz –– narration on "Outta Horn"

The Composer's Voices

The Jazz Composers Alliance was founded in Boston, MA, in 1985 to create a public forum for new jazz compositions. Over the course of its existence, the JCA has created a home for area-based composers such as Darrell Katz, David Harris, Ken Schaphorst, Laura Andel, and others as well as sponsoring artists-in-residence programs in the Greater Boston area. The organizations has brought artists such as Julius Hemphill, Sam Rivers, Michael Gibbs, Maria Schneider, and many more to work with composers and musicians.  To play the music, there is the JCA Orchestra composed of many of the finest musicians/ educators in the area.  Albums have been issued on Innova, Leo Records, CIMP, Cadence Jazz Records, and its own JCA Recordings.  

The JCA Orchestra's latest is "Live at the BPC" (JCA Recordings) –– recorded on October 4, 2018 at the Berklee Performance Center, the program features six original works; two by David Harris and Mimi Rabson plus one each from Bob Pilkington and Darrell Katz.  Ms. Rabson's exciting "Romanople" opens the proceedings and its an exciting blend of Turkish rhythms, semi-formal "Roman" marching band music, and the score for a war movie, not unlike Nino Rota's screen scores for Federico Fellini.  Ms. Rabson also contributed the final track, the tongue-in-cheek "Super Eyes-Private Heroes".  The music blends the bombastic approach of themes from James Bond movies with the soundtracks of television shows like "Mannix" (Lalo Schifrin), "The Rockford Files" (Mike Post), and "I Spy" (Earle Hagen).  Solos from Ms. Howell-Brooks (bari sax), Ms. Davies (violin), and Harris (trombonist) enliven the already over-the-top proceedings.  

Katz's "A Wallflower in the Amazon" (the composer is pictured left), the title track of his 2010 Accurate Record recording, is the longest (18:53) and most episodic of the pieces. Ms. Shrimpton sings the words of the late Paula Tatarunis, Katz's wife, her voice leaping and hopping through the story while saxophonists Stone, Ms. Haruvi, and Scarff intertwines lines around Sabattini's trumpet, the rocking drums and tumbling marimba lines.  After a raucous climax, Ms. Shrimpton returns to the "story" while the brass, reeds, and electric guitar groan sans rhythm (although drummer Smith joins the building fray). After another climax, the piece moves gently to its close, the lyrics serving as an epilogue. 

The other tracks include "The Sixth Snake", "The Latest", and "Yellow, Orange, Blue".  "....Snake", composed by trombonist Pilkington (pictured left) is another long (15:49) episodic piece that moves from full ensemble playing to solos (with and without accompaniment), and closes with a powerful and swinging final section –– watch and listen below.  "The Latest", composed by trombonist Harris, opens with a slinky melody line that drops into a delightful, Latin-influenced, rhythm.  The composer writes that the piece is inspired by McCoy Tyner's "Fly Like the Wind" as well as traditional Thai music.  Ms. Howell-Brooks creates a delightful bass clarinet solo and, after a break where the voice, strings, brass, and reeds move through the lengthy melody (reminiscent of the music of guitarist Pierre Dørge), guitarist Zocher steps forward producing a "hot" solo.   "Yellow..." is the second of Harris's compositions; while the rhythm is reminiscent of his other song, the solos roar out of the mix with group improvisations, splendid percussion from Smith. Ms. Stoyanova (vibraphone), and Mansour, plus excellent section writing.

"Live at The BPC" was issued in early November of last year but I am just catching up to it now.  The JCA Orchestra sounds great, the music is exciting, involving, emotionally rich, and my recommendation is to bask in the glory of this large ensemble.  

For more information, go to https://jazzcomposersalliance.org/. 

As promised, "The Sixth Snake":

Personnel:

Tina D'Agostino: conductor

David Harris: conductor

Darrell Katz: conductor

Rebecca Shrimpton:  voice

Reeds:

Hiro Honshuko: flute, EWI

Rick Stone: alto saxophone

Lihi Haruvi: alto and soprano saxophones

Phil Scarff: tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet

Melanie Howell-Brooks: baritone saxophone, bass clarinet

Brass:

Mike Peipman: trumpet

Dan Rosenthal: trumpet

Jerry Sabatini: trumpet

Jim Mosher: French horn

Jason Camelio: trombone

Bob Pilkington: trombone

David Harris: trombone, tuba

Strings Theory Trio:

Mimi Rabson: 5-string violin

Sherrah Davies: 5-string violin

Junko Fujiwara: cello

Maxim Lubarsky: piano

Tony "Thunder" Smith: drums

Gilbert Mansour: percussion

Vessela Stoyanova: vibraphone, marimba

Jesse Williams: bass

Norm Zocher: electric guitar

2017, What a Year! (Pt 3 - Love Those Large Ensembles)

For someone as disorganized as a human being can be, my love of large ensemble music might not make sense.  Yet, I am continually blown away at how the different voices mix, how melodies are passed from section to section, and his the rhythm section is so important.  It's hard not to fascinated how composers and arrangers take the sounds they hear in their head, turin them into notes, and then back into notes.  It's the adding back of the human element that thrills.  Modern big bands are often filled with the most talented musicians who subsume their egos for the better of their collective. Each one of the albums listed below includes songs with great solos but, for this listener, it's often the "amazing swirls of sounds" that remain long after the album is over.


Pianist, composer, and arranger Frank Carlberg released "Monk Dreams, Hallucinations and Nightmares" (Red Piano Records) early in 2017, the centennial year of Thelonious Sphere Monk's birth.  The music sparkles with inventiveness, Monk melodies weaving in and out of intelligent arrangements, powerful solos on every song, etc.  The album culminates with an amazing take on "'Round Midnight", an 11-minute meditation on the classic song with Kirk Knuffke's cornet in front the entire time (perhaps the finest recorded solo of a great year of solos.)  Like the music that inspired it, this collection sounds fresh each time you listen.

"How To Say Goodbye" (JCA Recordings) was issued in late 2016 (as was the album above)  - a star-studded large ensemble (powered by drummer Matt Wilson, no less), it was the first Big Band  album composer, arranger, and educator Ken Schaphorst in 18 years.  It's such a treat to hear how the sections work together and independently, how the melodies lead to exhilarating solos, how the myriad of influences in the composer's life helped shape such original music. The results live and breathe, entertain, challenge, without pushing the listener away - in fact, more than once after the last track ended, I would go back to the beginning and listen again.

Took me a while to come around to appreciate just how good "The Better Angels of Our Nature" (Truth Revolution Records) is. A long-time project of saxophonist and arranger Brian McCarthy, the music inspired by the first Inaugural Address of President Abraham Lincoln (1861) was created for nonet, an ensemble that allows the arranger to plays with his aural palette in so many creative ways.  In a year of such turmoil as 2017 has been, this album serves to remind one that the United States has seen such roiling times in the past and survived, fresh scars each time but with the desire for improvement. Music can help; it cannot change the world but does often remind us that our "better angels" are often close-by.

Yet another album issued in late 2016, "Jailhouse Doc With Holes in Her Socks" (JCA Records) is the latest aural adventure from composer and arranger Darrell Katz. Dedicated to his late wife,  Paula Tatarunis (1962-2015), much of the music uses her poetry as a stepping stone to fascinating melodies and creative arrangements - Katz has always been influenced by Julius Hemphill and the long version of "The Red Blues/Red Blues (Live)" that closes the disk shows how that influence has evolved into Katz's "personal" sound (also features the unique voice of saxophonist Oliver Lake.  Utilizing various sized ensembles as well as the expressive voice of Rebecca Shrimpton, this music is quite powerful and rewarding.

If this was saxophonist, composer, and arranger Chelsea McBride's debut recording, it would easily be one of the debut albums of 2017.  A young veteran of the Toronto music scene, Ms. McBride is quite busy, leading several different ensembles and member of several others.  "The Twilight Fall" (Brontosauras Records) is the full-length debut of her Socialist Night School, a 19-piece aggregation complete with a vocalist, powerful electric guitar, plus the oft-rampaging drums of Geoff Bruce. Alex Samaras adds emotionally rich vocals to a number of tunes but, for these ears, it's how Ms. McBride uses the various sections of the band to enhance the narrative and to keep the music moving forward.  There are various influences from the jazz and blues side but also nods to rock music, Latin and much more. Attractive music that shows vitality and maturity as well as the desire to go in different directions.

Trombonist, composer, and arranger Alan Ferber created "Jigsaw" (Sunnyside Records) for his Big Band. It's that ensemble's second album and shines so bright with originality, solos, intelligent and challenging material as well as being emotionally rich (in that way, reminiscent of the work of Maria Schneider and Bob Brookmeyer). The seven pieces are just "vehicles for blowing", although there are no shortage of impressive solos.  Yes, this band can roar but it's the blend of the quiet moments, the introspective melodies and harmonies, and those moments when the musician let loose that gives the music its humanity.

Kenny Wheeler's big band music is held in high regard by music scholars but is not in the repertoire of many large ensembles. "Sweet  Ruby Suite"(UofT Jazz) comes from the University of Toronto Jazz Orchestra, Gordon Foote director, and finds the student ensemble interpreting the Canadian native's music alongside saxophonist Dave Liebman and Wheeler's long-time associate, vocalist Norma Winstone.  To the band's credit, they hew closely to the original Wheeler arrangements.  What stands out to this listener is how well the ensemble plays, how the soloists give it their all each solo, and the timeless quality of Kenny Wheeler's work.

Right around Thanksgiving, I received a huge package from the University of North Texas as the program is celebrating its 70th anniversary.  Slowly but surely, I am making my way through recordings that show the strength of the program's various ensembles, the different arrangers, and numerous fine young soloists.  Those recordings and the one from the University of Toronto serve to remind us that jazz has not disappeared, that there are people who want to learn more and play for audiences, that if you stop worrying about the commercial intent of certain art forms, they can and will survive.  .

In the final chapter of these four posts, I'll look at smaller group recordings, solo and duo albums, and more. Be well all!