Sonority

The Curtis Counce Group - Sonority (1958) {Contemporary CCD-7655-2 rel 1989}
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© 1956-58, 1989 Contemporary Records / Fantasy | CCD-7655-2
Jazz / Hard Bop / West Coast Jazz / Bass

This CD, which adds "Drum Conversation" (a Frank Butler feature) to the earlier LP, contains material taken from bassist Curtis Counce's Contemporary sessions which resulted in three other albums but these particular performances were not released until 1989. Half of the program features Counce's 1956 quintet (which includes trumpeter Jack Sheldon, tenor saxophonist Harold Land, pianist Carl Perkins and drummer Frank Butler) while the remainding selections are from 1958 when the group had Gerald Wilson on trumpet and pianist Elmo Hope (who contributed three originals). "Sonor" and "Landslide" are heard in alternate versions and "Woody'n You" has also been since reissued as a "bonus" cut on the CD You Get More Bounce with Curtis Counce. The playing is quite rewarding, and all four of the Counce reissues are easily recommended to hard bop collectors.

Orpheus Variations is a new composition by Alvin Lucier for solo cello and seven wind instruments. It is based on a particular sonority from the first movement of Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score, Orpheus; a sonority that has haunted Lucier for decades. Orpheus Variations is one of eight large-scale compositions made expressly for Charles Curtis by Alvin Lucier in the last 15 years. This performance was conducted by Petr Kotik, with Charles Curtis playing solo cello alongside members of the SEM Ensemble.

Despite the title, this is some very warm and friendly early jazz-rock work from the brilliant Norwegian guitarist/composer. (This album originates from prior to Rypdal joining ECM, and is on Polydor Norway.) Recorded in 1968 with longtime collaborator Jan Garberek on sax & flute, this music features a large horn section, excellent bass work, and lots of rich/tasteful Hammond playing. Though only 21 at the time, Rypdal was already making incredibly mature, smooth and sophisticated music which - though sounding very 60's - still plays well today. Light-Latin and blues influences are heard; along with big-band arrangements that are by turns tightly arranged and charmingly loose.

These are hardly the Hagen Quartett's first recordings of Beethoven's quartets. The group made its first Beethoven recordings back in 1997 with the Fugue for String Quartet, Op. 137, and the original version of Opus 18/6 for DG's Complete Beethoven Edition. But those early recordings, while breathtakingly good, cannot compare with later recordings of Beethoven's canonical quartets, climaxing with this coupling of Opus 127 and Opus 132, except in the sense that the same excellent ensemble made all of them.

The music on this disc is about sonority, about the brilliance of trumpets and strings in a live, reverberant acoustic such as that of Salzburg cathedral, for which at least some of these works were conceived. And Andrew Manze and his English Concert unequivocally deliver (albeit in the less-opulent confines of London’s Temple Church), from the opening fanfare through the vibrant, tuneful, richly scored sonatas that periodically spice this thoughtfully organized program. The featured work is a Mass, the Missa Christi Resurgentis, likely written for Easter in 1764. It’s a lavish celebration scored for two four-part choirs, an added bass singer, plus two instrumental ensembles, designed to be performed antiphonally in a grand display.

With the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet we can be sure of highly polished, stylish playing and a determination to push the expressive potential of the recorder consort as far as possible. Despite this, and even with the benefit of superior recorded sound, there’s a clear limit to what these instruments, with their characteristic sound and narrow dynamic range, can achieve.