Hommage à Bartók (Silkheart)
Steve Swell’s Kende Dream
Released June 20, 2016
DownBeat Four-and-a-Half-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nv35hcjGLEcFg2p0BoOg7r-LIvAfNcE_k
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3gHuZtGKNrYV5sOUvYouly?si=3p-Hr_bPQEiEAnKttDe4qg&dl_branch=1
About:
“Trombonist Steve Swell’s approach to a Bartok homage on Kende Dreams is a synthesis as well, and it advisably leaves the encounter with the Hungarian a relatively loose and oblique affair, with specific points of convergence but an end product that feels more like it was inspired by the composer than obliged to adopt his methods. The seven tracks are creative music pitched at the highest level; as is that music’s unalienable right, it absorbs and transforms things that it comes into contact with.
So, unlike Milhaud’s attempts to quote or characterize jazz, this is jazz eating and fully digesting modern classical music, turning it into something else completely. The band is a very special configuration, pianist Connie Crothers adding a wild card element to the underground New York crew. On “Bartok Screams” and in a long unaccompanied stretch of “Lent-Oh!,” her playing conjures a Bartok sensibility rather directly, pummeled clusters and dark pedal reminding how dissonant and forward thinking the composer could be.
But the playing is open and spontaneous, William Parker and Chad Taylor establishing a buoyant, floating matrix for free interplay. Taylor kicks off “After SQ4” – a piece inspired by the fourth string quartet – eventually hitting the funky groove. The band draws on the imagined traditional music of a town very close to the little-known burg of Ruddville on “Roswellian Folk Song.” Swell’s trombone is the appropriate feature here, his big, smeary solo tipping a hat to fellow sackbut master Roswell Rudd. Rob Brown spars with Parker on the angular, Steve Lacy-esque “Attack of the Mikrokosmos,” his tart alto shooting off sparks; Crothers meets Taylor’s (thumb) piano later in the track, exploring a more indirect energy, before Brown and Swell complete the round robin duets.
The usual thing to say about a tribute project dedicated to a deceased artist is that the subject would have liked it. I think that’s beside the point. The question isn’t whether Bartok would have enjoyed Kende Dreams or even recognized himself in it. It’s more important that this is music he would never have imagined, a producer’s idea that encouraged Swell to germinate new material and inspired the band to record a CD with a unique character that B.B. couldn’t have foreseen.”
John Corbett (April, 2015)
Track Listing:
1. Roswellian Folk Song (Steve Swell) 07:57
2. For Will Connell Jr. (Steve Swell) 07:51
3. After SQ4 (Steve Swell) 09:59
4. Attack of the Mikrokosmos (Steve Swell) 08:12
5. Bartók Screams (Steve Swell) 13:40
6. Lent-Oh! (Steve Swell) 14:09
7. Ultima (Steve Swell) 08:34
Personnel:
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Steve Swell: trombone
Connie Crothers: piano
William Parker: bass
Chad Taylor: drums
Recorded December 5, 2014, at Park West Studios, Brooklyn, New York
Mixed and Mastered by Jim Clouse
Produced by Steve Swell and Lars-Olof Gustavsson
Cover Artwork by Iñaki Bonillas
Layout by Stéphane Berland
Executive Producers: Lars-Olof Gustavsson and Stéphane Berland
Review:
Early stints with Buddy Rich and Lionel Hampton helped trombonist Steve Swell build a foundation, but it is as a contributor to the New York Downtown scene that he found and pursued his own path. In 2015, he celebrated his 61st birthday with a series of recordings, including a new quintet, Kende Dreams, and his first ever solo recording. Swedish label owner and producer LarsOlof Gustafsson came up with the concept for Hommage À Bartók. In many ways, the music is typical Swell: the catchy melody line used as a springboard for unfettered improvisation or the intensity of group interplay. However, he had a eureka moment in inviting pianist Connie Crothers to join an already stellar group of long time collaborators (alto saxophonist Rob Brown, bassist William Parker, and drummer Chad Taylor). Her simple comping on “Bartók Screams” has the power to transform the composition, and Swell credits her for being the “Bartókian” element. She can also assume different roles, an asset that frees up the other musicians and allows them to let their creative juices flow. Full of improvisational highlights, Hommage À Bartók is a mature work that ranks high in the trombonist’s discography.
Alain Drouot (DownBeat)
