Misha Alperin suggested once that “Year by year, the technical potential of jazz performances grows, but the philosophical, individual potential declines.” This chamber music release counters any such reservation with a sequence of surpassing performances mostly featuring Richard and Copland, two of the most lyrically aware musicians in contemporary jazz.
This is one of a welcome number of distinctive sessions on the new La Buissonne label – named after the French studio which has seen so many fine ECM productions in recent years, and marketed by ECM. In the old days it would have been called Third Stream music but the confluence of jazz and classical sensibilities here is such as to render irrelevant all such matters of definition.
The French Richard (born 1974) and the American Copland (born 1948) are vastly experienced musicians: the former has a distinguished background in both classical and jazz saxophone – relish the trio reading of Messiaen’s O Sacrum Convivium – while the latter is one of the most sensitive and accomplished pianists in jazz. Their most thoughtful collaboration features quietly resonant contributions in French and English from vocalist Solal (daughter of Martial Solal) and cellist Segal (chiefly pizzicato).
Texts from Rimbaud (Ophélie) and Shakespeare (Ophelia’s Death from Hamlet and L’Étoffe Des Rêves, the concluding “Our revels now are ended” soliloquy from The Tempest) elicit finely pitched readings from Solal, with Segal’s pianissimo bowed cello present on Ophélie (hear his spare pizzicato figures on, e.g., Feodor or the brief and solo Light Flight).
Poetry is the overall ethos, whether delivered by Richard’s pellucid soprano and sublimely projected baritone (sample Giverny and Weeping Brook) or the spare and limpid, rhythmically subtle pianism of Copland (hear Giverny, once more). For the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard (1884-1962) the affirmative heart of life revealed itself best to humanity in what Bachelard called “the poetics of space”. Here, in this exquisitely wrought music, is just such a precious entity.
Discography
(1) Feodor; (2) Giverny; (3) Ophelia’s Death; (4) Russian Prince; (5) Ophélie; (6) Desquartes; (1) Le Lettre D’Isaac Babel; (7) Light Flight; (8) O Sacrum Convivium; (9) L’Étoffe Des Rêves; (10) Weeping Brook (37.31)
(1) Richard (bar); Vincens Segal (clo). (2) as (1) but Richard (ss); Copland (p); Segal out. (3) Richard (ss); Copland (p); Claudia Solal (v). (4) as (3) but Solal out. (5) as (3) but Richard out; Segal (clo). (6) as (2) but Richard (ss). (7) Segal (clo). (8) Richard (ss); Copland (p); Segal (clo). (9) Richard (ss); Solal (v). (10) Richard (bar). Pernes-les-Fontaines, January 2022.
La Buissonne RJAL 397042
