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MP3 Connie Crothers, Bill Payne - Conversations
14 MP3 Songs
AVANT GARDE: Free Improvisation, JAZZ: Modern Free Jazz
Show all album songs: Conversations Songs
Details:
Conversations
Bill Payne, clarinet; Connie
Crothers, piano
The clarinet in jazz seems to go in and out of
fashion every couple decades. This may be in part because its subtle sounds don''t necessarily fit with the high-volume, over-miked and often heavily electronic ensembles of our contemporary music culture; and partly also, I suspect, because in its understated way the clarinet conveys emotions with directness that challenges our desensitized comfort zones.
Never mind. The CD you''re holding here is not a
fashion statement but a sequence of free-improvisation musical dialogues inviting you to listen in. To do so, you may want to take a minute to minimize the ambient background noise of your own environment. These twelve
"Conversations" tracks, sandwiched between an opening "The Desert and the City" and enigmatic closing "To Be Continued," will repay undistracted and active contemplation.
Crothers has spoken and written of "moving beyond
the separation of free improvisation from tunes," including a memorable occasion when she risked inserting a free-improvisation number in her group''s set at a
tourist-packed Blue Note night club in New York, and got the biggest ovation of the evening. Crothers was a student of the legendary Lennie Tristano,
whose playing combined the detailed knowledge of melody and "changes" with the rigorous avoidance of lapsing into well-worn bebop clichés.
On the borderline of what''s called "jazz" and a
broader avant-garde that defies boundaries and labels, Payne and Crothers share
ideas, build and extend each other''s phrases without getting in each other''s
way. Melody arises spontaneously rather than by pre-set structural design,
as generally required for larger ensembles. Happily for this listener, this is
acoustic music without electronic distortion and distraction.
Bill Payne''s range and truly beautiful sound on the
clarinet should hold your attention. There''s also enough variety in tempo and
volume to sustain interest, but don''t expect massive crescendos or
crowd-pleasing effects. It''s about playing and listening to and for each other.
But when artists of this caliber converse together, there''s always a third
participant: you, the hearer. Open your ears, listen in and join.
-- David Finkel
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