Canada Day Quartet Live
| Canada Day Quartet Live | ||||
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| Harris Eisenstadt's live album | ||||
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Publication |
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| Label (s) | Clean Feed Records | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
8th |
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running time |
60:04 |
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Pedro Costa |
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Location (s) |
AJMi Jazz Club - La Manutention |
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Canada Day Quartet Live is a jazz album by Harris Eisenstadt with his Canada Day Quartet . The recordings made during a European tour on March 23, 2018 at the AJMi Jazz Club - La Manutention in Avignon were released on Clean Feed Records in September 2019 .
background
The formation Canada Day of the drummer and composer Harris Eisenstadt existed for six years before this recording, mainly as a quintet or larger ensemble ( Canada Day Octet 2012); The Canada Day Quartet had already released the album On Parade in Parede (with Matt Bauder , Nate Wooley , Pascal Niggenkemper ) in 2017 and therefore made its debut with a new line-up, for the first time with a piano. Eisenstadt and the British pianist Alexander Hawkins had previously worked with the clarinetist François Houle ( You Have Options ), then in the Convergence Quartet. According to Bill Meyer, this was the first time that Eisenstadt gave so much space to a harmony instrument in its flagship band. This was also Canada Day's second album with a formation that had been put together for a tour of Europe.
Ironically, many of the pieces Eisenstadt brought to the group for this tour are uniquely suited to be played without the piano, said Bill Meyer. He wrote them all at once during a stay in Poschiavo , and many of them are "one-line unison compositions" that are independent of the size of the ensemble.
Track list
- Harris Eisenstadt: Canada Day Quartet Live (Clean Feed CF535CD)
- Poschiavo 35 - 5:09
- Poschiavo Four-Voice 3 - 8:36
- Poschiavo Four-Voice 1 - 6:27
- Poschiavo 36 - 12:29
- Poschiavo Four-Voice 4 - 8:15
- Poschiavo 8 - 6:42
- Poschiavo Four-Voice 2 - 5:39
- Poschiavo 9 - 6:37
- All compositions are by Harris Eisenstadt. The titles all refer to Poschiavo (Switzerland), where the music was composed during an artistic stay in Eisenstadt in 2017.
reception
According to Bill Meyer, who reviewed the album in Dusted , trumpeter Nate Wooley, who was with Canada Day from the start, and returning bassist Pascal Niggenkemper “could play expressively and convincingly within the traditions of their instruments, and they can also play very, very far outside of them. ”The newcomer Alexander Hawkins succeeded in drawing attention to the breadth of his stylistic mastery and the structural basis of the music being played. “Although the performance of streamlined structures through focused musical intelligence leads to music that becomes more surprising as it goes beyond the more familiar components, these recognizable elements give the listener something to hold on to. The constant change between the poles keeps the Quartet Live alive, ”the author sums up.
"Relaxed, but with a powerful, if restrained, rhythmic pulse," noted Ken Waxman in The Whole Note , the tracks Nate Wooley often contain passages played with the mute or a Clarion rasping with the open horn. These are driven in double counterpoint with the quick shading and slightly voiced textures of Hawkins. Comfortable or accelerated percussion frizzing, rolling, and rasping promoted this interaction, Waxman continued. "Meanwhile, 'Poschiavo Four-Voice 4' is the only time that Niggenkemper has stepped forward with creaky sul-tasto extensions and later col legno recoils that initiate moderato keyboard animation and a final lyrical brass mix." Most outstanding, however, is the extended piece “Poschiavo 36”. While Wooley's unobtrusive animal barking from the trumpet's innards, double bass stops and expressive piano pasters illuminated the story, says Waxman. The climax is a melodic groove , supported by the backbeats of the drums and expressed by the trumpeter in warm heraldic tones.
Stefano Merrighi wrote in the Italian edition of All About Jazz that Harris Eisenstadt's percussive, but also more compositional talent was confirmed by this live recording. Although Eisenstadt has dealt with both African and Central American percussive traditions, he prefers the lingua franca of contemporary international jazz, where a synthetic but solid spelling opens up the backdrop for individual improvisations with powerful counterpoints. "Together they give shape to a complex, but in their own way really legible music that appears strict and sometimes archaic, but melts into compelling melodies that border on lyricism," noted Merrighi. One will never be bored, however, also because Wooley's trumpet often climbs on the chair and flashes both in the free gallop and in the more “theatrical” interventions, for example in the three minutes a cappella of “Poschiavo 36”. This can be understood as a beautiful homage to Lester Bowie , without this being explicitly named. The author praises Eisenstadt's playing style, who never puts his drums in front of the collective and thus promotes the success of the ensemble's music.
Web links
- Listing of the album on Allmusic (English). Accessed January 1, 2020.
- Information about the album at Clean Feed
- Video
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Bill Meyer: Harris Eisenstadt - Canada Day Quartet Live (Clean Feed). Dusted, January 15, 2020, accessed May 18, 2020 .
- ^ Harris Eisenstadt: Canada Day Quartet Live at Discogs
- ↑ Ken Waxman: Harris Eisenstadt - Canada Day Quartet Live (Clean Feed). The Whole Note, March 24, 2020, accessed May 19, 2020 .
- ↑ Stefano Me3righi: Harris Eisenstadt - Canada Day Quartet Live (Clean Feed). All About Jazz, February 26, 2020, accessed May 18, 2020 (Italian).