Celestial Circle (ECM)
Marilyn Mazur
Released June 10, 2011
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=8HteoCvSCdc&list=OLAK5uy_mFC-QirfgzHl6DkYnzlhlb1NfU-DeMi8Y
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0wmQnVYmiLlkdx1HMTKEQW?si=-iEDPSyjRNOh3vOE9dI7xg
About:
“Celestial Circle” is the recording debut of the band of the same name. First assembled for Marilyn Mazur’s season as artist-in-residence at Norway’s Molde Jazz Festival in 2008, the group has since become a popular institution on the concert circuit, and the present disc, recorded in Oslo’s Rainbow Studio in 2010 is issued on the eve of a European tour. It’s a band of diverse strengths and changing moods, song-oriented but also instrumentally expressive. Organically percussive, too, with Mazur’s panoply of drums and gongs and cymbals and bells a source of natural melody and evocative texture. Pianist John Taylor, in his first ECM session in several years, is keyed at all times to the inflections of Josefine Cronholm’s voice, framing it with his characteristic harmonic sophistication and elegant lyricism. Anders Jormin’s bass provides a dark undertow, anchors the music, moves freely in the improvised sections… Even in its quietest moments the group conveys a great deal of musical information.
Mazur’s work has always expressed a free-spiritedness beyond idioms and borders. Born in New York, raised in Denmark, she has contributed powerfully to improvisation on both sides of the Atlantic, and her resume has included well-documented stints with Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and Gil Evans in the late 1980s as well as 14 years on the road with the Jan Garbarek Group (an association referenced on Mazur’s “Elixir” recording of 2005).
Alongside such high-profile engagements, Mazur has maintained her own bands and projects; ECM recorded her Future Song ensemble in 1994. One such project was Percussion Paradise which included singer Josefine Cronholm – the combination of Cronholm’s and Mazur’s voices is further developed in Celestial Circle.
Mazur has received a number of awards for her music, most recently the First International EuroCore – JTI Jazz Award: Celestial Circle played at the prize-giving ceremony in Trier’s Kurfürstliches Palais last December. Other prizes have included the JazzPar Prize (Europe’s biggest jazz award), the Ben Webster Prize and the Django D’Or.
“Celestial Circle” marks an ECM debut for Swedish singer Cronholm. Since the mid-1990s, when she collaborated with Django Bates’s Human Chain group, she has been consistently singled out as one of the most original European jazz vocalists of her generation.
John Taylor’s elegant and resourceful piano playing has had a role to play in many ECM contexts including discs with Jan Garbarek, John Surman, Kenny Wheeler, Miroslav Vitous and Peter Erskine as well as Azimuth, the trio he co-founded with Wheeler and Norma Winstone, and his own ‘New York Trio’ with Marc Johnson and Joey Baron (album: “Rosslyn”). Taylor’s rapport was bassist Anders Jormin who was previously confirmed on Mark Feldman’s 2006 recording “What Exit”.
Anders Jormin also records as a leader for ECM, with recordings including “Xieyi” and “In winds, in light” (a new album is in preparation). He is a long-term member of the Bobo Stenson Trio, and appears on ECM discs by Charles Lloyd, Don Cherry, Tomasz Stanko, Mark Feldman, Jon Balke and Sinikka Langeland.
Marilyn Mazur can also be seen in the documentary film “Sounds and Silence” by Peter Guyer and Norbert, available in DVD and Blu-Ray formats.
Track Listing:
1. Your Eyes (Josefine Cronholm / John Taylor) 5:49
2. Winterspell (Marilyn Mazur) 6:11
3. Kildevæld (Marilyn Mazur) 3:53
4. Gentle Quest (Anders Jormin / Marilyn Mazur / John Taylor) 2:31
5. Secret Crystals (Marilyn Mazur / John Taylor) 2:44
6. Temple Chorus (Marilyn Mazur) 2:51
7. Antilope Arabesque (Marilyn Mazur) 6:44
8. Chosen Darkness (Josefine Cronholm / Anders Jormin / Marilyn Mazur) 2:05
9. Among the Trees (Marilyn Mazur) 4:14
10. Color Sprinkle (Anders Jormin / Marilyn Mazur / John Taylor) 2:20
11. Tour Song (Marilyn Mazur) 5:09
12. Drumrite (Marilyn Mazur) 4:33
13. Oceanique Anders Jormin / Marilyn Mazur) 2:15
14. Transcending (Marilyn Mazur) 2:07
Personnel:
Marilyn Mazur: drums, percussion, voice
John Taylor: piano
Josefine Cronholm: voice
Anders Jormin: double bass
Recorded December, 2010, at Rainbow Studio, Oslo
Produced by Manfred Eicher
Engineer Jan Erik Kongshaug
Design: Sascha Kleis
Cover Photo: Roberto Masotti
Review:
With the musical company enjoyed by Josefine Cronholm, John Taylor and Anders Jormin, percussionist Marilyn Mazur continues to amaze, building on the fetching musical intimacies found on her duet recording Elixir with reedist Jan Garbarek. Combining the signature elements of that “ECM sound” not to mention vibe, Mazur adds her own flourishes, starting with the outlandishly subtle percussives of Taylor’s opening “Your Eyes,” which comes across as about as romantic an anthem as anything I’ve heard on this label. “Winterspell” continues the trance, and the singing, by the way, which is exquisite, intimate and full. Somehow the percussionist doesn’t need to be necessarily playing to get her message across, Cronholm’s velvety smooth voice piercing but not pleading. Not that pleading wouldn’t be a bad thing here. It’s just that the music comes in so beautifully, sensuous even, that a bit of screech doesn’t seem to be needed. This is “jazz music,” but it’s really more from that romantic tradition other than the one that spawned a whole bunch of other cats who were more about the groove. Celestial Circle seems to be more about other qualities, chief among them texture and getting real close. Odd for a drummer, Mazur’s percussion has much to do with that world of groove, but her drumming’s quietly profound here. Check out her introductory interplay on “Kildevaeld,” which also includes some rapid-fire vocalisms commingling with all those bells and whistles, so to speak. This tune also swings, as Taylor’s piano and Jormin’s bass pick up steam along the way. Cronholm’s wordless vocals are the perfect driver to this upbeat confection. The same can be said for what follows: no wrong turns, with music that keeps the fires burning without burning out. In part earning her stripes with Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter and the Gil Evans Orchestra during the 1980s, Mazur has gone on to forge a more than substantial career of her own, along with Garbarek recording and performing with Bob Stenson, Palle Mikkelborg, Kenny Werner and Dino Saluzzi. And as attested by the music on Celestial Circle, what she does is fairly unique, combining different instrumental combinations with great writing (except for “Your Eyes,” her pen is everywhere on this disc, including lyrics), reinventing the role of the percussionist. Also perhaps recalling previous muses, the rocking, incantatory “Drumrite” combines both Mazur’s doubling up on vocals with her percussionist zeal, the spirits of singer Flora Purim as well as percussionist Airto Moreira somehow in the mix. One of Celestial Circle’s greatest treats is Mazur’s bringing in John Taylor, whose piano never ceases to astound, his lyrical touch and pacing, his note choices and overall genuine artistry a marvel of sonic majesty. That he and Mazur happen to be on the same page is cause for celebration. And that Josefine Cronholm and Anders Jormin are also up to the challenge makes for a real party.
John Ephland (DownBeat)
