By John McDonough | Published September 2018
Rolf Kühn is one of the few performers who has made a small place for the clarinet in contemporary jazz, when all genres seem obliged to attach the prefix “post-.” Yellow + Blue is an asymmetrical package that divides between five jazz standards and six Kühn originals. The latter particularly suggest the narrow niche into which the clarinet has been typecast.
The standards are very nicely chosen. “I’m Through With Love” and “Angel Eyes” are tunes as natural to the jazz spirit as they are rarely heard; Kühn is in no hurry with them. The tempos are slow, the introductions leisurely and abstract, and Kühn’s tone is submerged mostly in the instrument’s intimate chalumeau depths. His sonority has a fine, classical propriety about it.
Kühn’s originals exude a brainy austerity, full of clipped, staccato angularity that has become a trademark of modern—sorry, make that postmodern—clarinet. Without the muscle of the tenor or trumpet, the clarinet fell into a more chilly and dainty place when it lost the heat of swing. The transition was amazingly abrupt. Kühn, 89, began his career under the sway of Benny Goodman in the ’50s. About that same time, though, the Jimmy Giuffre Trio already was experimenting with much of the prickly brittleness that inspires Kühn here. One could say he’s come a long way. But not really. His clarinet tiptoes about in a hunt-and-peck manner, finding odd notes that suggest a serial randomness. But the elegant precision of the interplay belies a firm compositional hand.
Yellow + Blue: Both Sides Now; Angel Eyes; Yellow And Blue; Impulse; The Second Time; Train To Norway; I’m Through With Love; Conversation III; Mela’s Interplay; Body And Soul; What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life? (61:50)
Personnel: Rolf Kühn, clarinet; Frank Chastenier, piano; Lisa Wulff, bass; Tupac Mantilla, drums, percussion.
