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Show JIM AIKIN RECORDS HORIZONTAL, VERTICAL, & DIGITAL PAUL ELLINGSON, "SOLO JAZZ PIANO." Regular readers of Keyboard's letters column will probably have at least a dim recollection of the forthright personal views about jazz and its place in the history of music expressed by Paul Ellingson. When we last heard from Mr. Elling-son, he was promising that his yet-to-be-released solo album would elucidate his point ineluctably. As indeed it does. It's a two-record set, recorded with a fullness and warmth of piano tone that would do Bill Evans proud. The liner notes, which begin on the front cover, fill the inner portion of the sleeve, and break off almost reluctantly on the back cover, offer the most complete explication to date of Ellingson's interpretation of music history. If one can summarize this briefly without doing injustice to it, he looks at all the music of the European classical tradition as an outgrowth of the four-part Bach chorale, whose polyphonic independence of voice-leading made it, in Ellingson's view, an essentially horizontal musical expression. He goes on to apply the term "horizontal" without qualification to all subsequent European (and American classical) music. In contrast, he maintains, jazz is essentially vertical music, because of its emphasis on chord voicings. He goes on to explicitly deny the importance of voice-leading from one chord to another, preferring to look at each new chord as an independent chunk that can be followed by any other independent chunk, depending on the whim of the composer or improviser. The distinction between horizontal and vertical is Ellingson's idee fixe, and in taking it to its logical conclusion he has to do violence to music history and music analysis at a couple of points. To mention only one, he insists that there is no such thing as a vertical chord in a four-part Bach chorale, that the entire chorale consists of only one chord. Ellingson's perspective is worth explaining because it animates and defines his approach to piano playing. The pieces on Solo Jazz Piano, both original compositions and well-known jazz titles like "Night In Tunisia" and "Re: Person I Knew/'arepresentedalmostentirelyin the form of vertical chord forms, sometimes broken or arpeggiated and usually held with the sustain pedal until the time arrives for the next vertical block to make its appearance. Melodic fragments are sometimes draped over the tops of the chords, but for the most part they are clearly delineated within the harmonic structure set forth by the chord rather than reaching out to suggest any broader harmonic horizons. In his essay Ellingson completely ignores the fundamental importance of rhythm in jazz; rhythm, one suspects, wouldn't fit neatly into the rigid boundaries of his scheme because it is horizontal. And as we should expect, there is little rhythmic vitality in his keyboard work. The constant fluctuations of pulse are, to be sure, derived more from free-time jazz ballad treatments than from classical rubato. Curiously,as he moves from one chord to another his voice leading is quite accomplished. Solo Jazz Piano is too far outside the mainstream to be looked at as anything more than a personal statement by a loner. But it is a very competent statement, and music history is full of beguiling examples of (oners and their eccentric visions. In his static rhythms, harmonic twists, and simple grandeur, Ellingson's piano music sounds very much like that of Eric Satie. This is a compliment, but I don't imagine Ellingson will feel flattered. After all, Satie was a European, ivy Jazz Records (2820 East 4135 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84117), IJ1-E1-2. MICHAEL McNABB, "COMPUTER MUSIC." You think you're a heavyweight in digital synthesis because you own a Synclavier? Up at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, they're composing pieces on a mainframe Foonly F-4 (which we're told is basically the same machine as a PDP-10), using hand-tailored algorithms to do luscious things you have to hear to believe. Mutating the wind by imperceptible degrees into a woman's voice. Treating the phase and amplitude of each overtone in a note individually. Things like that. And along the way, making some beautiful music. The first volume in a projected series of releases from CCRMA contains three outstanding examples - Michael McNabb's Dreamsong, Love in The Asylum, and "Orbital View. " Fragments of tonal material are frequently mixed with pure sound, as in the opening of Dreamsong, where a rising melodic fifth serves as a fanfare over a burst of crowd noise. Later, microtonal harmonies blend into one another as the various "instruments" swoop left and right, forward and back in the stereo field. McNabb's pieces are definitely symphonic as opposed to minimalist; that is, there are wide variations in the density and urgency of the texture, and dramatic gesture is frequently an important element. The final cadence of the piece is chillingly effective: After nine minutes of instrumental sound, we hear a pulse of rumbling noise that quickly resolves into Dylan Thomas' voice, reciting his line, "I may without fail suffer the first vision that set fire to the stars." Love In The Asylum begins with quiet laughter and birdsong and incorporates several musical references, including a Brahms waltz and a recording of an actual carouse!, but the bulk of the piece consists of insistently pulsing and swirling pitched sounds that break off unexpectedly, giving way to peaceful but oddly disturbing interludes which then build to new climaxes. Both composition-ally and sonically (which in computer music are more and more the same thing) McNabb shows a masterful control of this rapidly evolving vocabulary. Recommended without hesitation. 1750 Arch Records (1750 Arch St., Berkeley, CA 94709; also dist. by NMDS,500 Broadway, New York, NY 10012), S-1800. Also: Malcolm Biison & Robert Levin, Mozart: Music For Two Fortepianos, Nonesuch, 78023. The fortepiano's differences in register give new meaning to Mozart's scores in invigorating performances of the Sonata In D Major, K. 448/375a, the Fugue In C Minor, K. 426, and a fragmentary Larghetto and Allegro in f b major, for which Levin has provided his own completion. The next development in the early music scene, we imagine, will beentire new pieces composed from scratch in the style of the period. Terry Riley, Songs For The Ten Voices Of The Two Prophets, Kuckuck Schallplatten (dist. in the U.S. by Celestial Harmonies, Box 673, Wilton, CT06897, and by NMDS), 067. This is our first chance to hear Riley singing in the raga style he has been studying for the past ten years. The tunes are his own, but the melodic inflections are distinctively Indian. In this live solo performance taped in Munich, he accompanies himself on synthesizers tuned to non-equal temperament, fleshing out the exotic textures with frequent sequencer loops. 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BOX 11171 OAKLAND, CA 94611 415-547-2420 ORIGINAL MUSICAL DESIGNS BY JESSICA FELIX 94 KEYBOARD/JUNE 1984 |
