Aug 7, 2024 2:02 PM
Snarky Puppy’s Shaun Martin Dies at 45
Shaun Martin, a multifaceted, Grammy-winning pianist, keyboardist and producer who was best known for his work in the…
Devonté Hynes, of Blood Orange fame, collaborated with Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion (shown here) on Fields.
(Photo: Saverio Truglia)Berlin-based composer Joanna Bailie delivers work that masterfully collides field recordings, spoken word and old music recordings on Artificial Environments (NMC 252; 61:47 ****), a thoroughly beguiling collection of pieces performed by Plus-Minus Ensemble, a chamber group she co-founded. The tripartite “Symphony-Street-Souvenir” moves through the gradually slowing opening section of Brahms’ C minor symphony, gaining heft as its meticulous piano lines decelerate; blends distant-sounding carillon melodies from Copenhagen with sparse piano and strings; and complements a mix of music-box melodies and sine-wave tones with plummeting strings. The relationships within each section are wonderfully ambiguous, leading one to wonder, what’s pulling what?
New York electric guitar quartet Dither mixes pieces by its members and outside composers on Potential Differences (New Focus 235; 71:24 ***1/2), unveiling a panoply of possibilities for their instruments. “The Wah One” arranges damped yet lacerating chords using the titular effect to sound like a chugging engine, while “The Warped One” directs the players to detune strings through the piece, basking in queasy movement. Elsewhere, the ensemble plays frenetic rounds on the intensely pulsing “The Garden Of Cyrus,” forming dense thickets of shifting counterpoint that accelerate until the piece hydroplanes into sustained tones, while Ted Hearne’s “Candy” passes around simple phrases of interlocking melodies, increasingly interrupted by tension and noise.
Devonté Hynes, of Blood Orange fame, wrote the music on Fields (Cedille 192; 60:47 ***1/2) as a score for choreographer Emma Portner, collaborating closely with Chicago’s Third Coast Percussion, which orchestrated his works. While known for alternative pop and r&b, Hynes started out playing classical music, and the influence of minimalist Philip Glass shines through. At the same time, a penchant for woozy melodies and lush synth textures exerts itself, blending seamlessly with percussion that rings and gurgles seductively and establishes pulsing rhythms evoking the wide-open spaces evinced by the work’s title.
London-based composer Ryoko Akama typically deals in sonic abstraction, with installations and scores that explore gesture, time and space. But for Dial 45-21-95 (Another Timbre 146; 73:47 ****) she was commissioned to create a set of pieces using defined pitches, something rare in her music. She took advantage of a residency at the archive of the Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski to inspire and develop these boundless pieces—many titled after objects or things she found there—which are beautifully realized by the superb ensemble Apartment House. Delicately and quietly voiced lines on clarinet, strings, vibraphone, flute, piano and guitar coalesce in gorgeously measured harmonies that hang in the air ambiguously, each melodic fragment steeped in mystery and provoking rumination.
England’s Tim Parkinson has toggled nonchalantly between experimental performance pieces and scored music, all of it investigating the meaning of sound. Mark Knoop sensitively explores that latter material on Tim Parkinson: Piano Music 2015–2016 (All That Dust 6; 63:29 ****), a set of often-austere solo works arriving as discrete studies that still feel obliquely connected. The elusiveness of the ultra quiet “Piano Piece 2015” stands in stark contrast to the exuberant jazz-like refractions of “2016 Last Piece,” while the compositions in between somehow chart movement in Parkinson’s thinking, as if cogitating aloud. DB
In addition to his work with Snarky Puppy, Martin freelanced as a keyboardist, producer and music director with prominent gospel and R&B musicians.
Aug 7, 2024 2:02 PM
Shaun Martin, a multifaceted, Grammy-winning pianist, keyboardist and producer who was best known for his work in the…
In addition to his instrumental prowess, Malone was praised for his musical generosity and his singular sense of humor.
Aug 27, 2024 12:09 PM
Guitarist and bandleader Russell Malone died Aug. 23, while on tour in Japan, after battling end-stage kidney failure.…
The June 19 Town Hall celebration of Michael Brecker was the culmination of the 10-night Peperoncino Jazz Festival.
Aug 7, 2024 2:03 PM
Although it’s been 17 years since tenor titan Michael Brecker passed away, the memories of his towering instrumental…
“I don’t focus on the harshness of the music business,” Lloyd says. “I focus on the profundity of what we’re doing because that’s the real stuff. You can change the world with that.”
Sep 4, 2024 1:29 PM
“To get this honor at this late stage, I suppose I’m blessed. I just know that this is a sacred song, and I’m in…
A concert of duets featuring trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and bassist Dave Holland was cerebral and unhurried at this year’s Montreal Jazz Festival.
Aug 13, 2024 11:52 AM
In its third edition since rebounding from senior management changes and COVID-related disruptions, the 44th Festival…
