Sam Sadigursky - The Words Project
.------------------------------------------------------------------------- -
|
| 01. after paradise [08:01]
| 02. still life [04:37]
| 03. im glad your sickness [05:50]
| 04. water, aspirin, you [09:22]
| 05. love [08:05]
| 06. in the kitchen [06:49]
| 07. gardener and flower too [05:54]
| 08. you are [06:00]
| 09. epitath for a pair of old shoes [09:28]
| 10. after love [05:02]
|
| .. [69:08]
|
| >> 86,7MB
|
|
| Musical settings of poetry remain rare in jazz. Pianist Ketil BjA~╢
| rnstadΓÇÖs accessible readings of John DonneΓÇÖs metaphysical poems and
| bassist Steve SwallowΓÇÖs longtime affair with Robert Creeley have
| replenished the genre to a degree, but few artists have braved the
| near-stigmatized art form, let alone on their first album as leader.
| With The Words Project, however, reedman Sam SadigurskyΓÇÖs well
| tailored musical atmospheres reveal a sensitive approach to musical
| prosody.
|
| Drawn from the serious and not so serious pages of Penelope Shuttle,
| Donald Justice, Maxine Kumin, Czeslaw Milosz and Osip Mandelshtam, the
| more upbeat and uplifting texts here become a set of vaporous,
| modernist scenescapes. Marked contrasts are achieved with one of Marina
| TsvetaevaΓÇÖs uneasy missives, a Sylvia Plath surrealist riddle and
| Mark BoogΓÇÖs rather violent and deranging ΓÇoeWater, Aspirin, You.ΓÇ?
| Throughout, SadigurskyΓÇÖs flowing phraseology empathetically follows
| the free versed and, oftentimes, tricky meters.
|
| For example, in MiloszΓÇÖs inspirational ΓÇoeAfter Paradise,ΓÇ? he has
| Heather MasseΓÇÖs Joni Mitchell-inflected voice go down to the extreme
| lower range on the pentasyllabic ΓÇoesubterreneanΓÇ? and follows with a
| repeated, majestic melody solemnly anchored by a backbeat. The malaise
| of BoogΓÇÖs verse finds a compositional echo in the melodyΓÇÖs
| psychotic intervallic leaps and disturbing, repeated high notes (that
| certainly do ΓÇoetick onto the tympanumsΓÇ?), until guest guitarist
| Nate Radley enters with a delay-drenched, Kurt Rosenwinkel-tinged solo.
|
| SadigurskyΓÇÖs emphasis of the female voiceΓÇÖs high register on this
| track may turn off some listeners. By the same token, a half or whole
| step down transposition in the arrangement of ΓÇoeStill LifeΓÇ? would
| have yielded less strained vocal pitches. Inversely, Noam WeinsteinΓÇÖs
| low murmur on KuminΓÇÖs ΓÇoeAfter LoveΓÇ? succeeds, despite its
| shakiness and approximate pitch, in bringing the listener into the
| narratorΓÇÖs domestic intimacy.
|
| TsvetaevaΓÇÖs confessional poem ΓÇoeIΓÇÖm Glad Your Sickness,ΓÇ? is
| equally intimate. The trackΓÇÖs spare arrangement puts focus on Monika
| HeidemannΓÇÖs fragile, BjA~╢rk-influenced interpretation. But the
| programΓÇÖs high point is Nobel Prize laureate MiloszΓÇÖs ΓÇoeLove,ΓÇ?
| a powerful call for an unegotistical transformation of humanity through
| love, detachment and humility. Perfectly matched with Becca StevensΓÇÖ
| tone, the profoundly meaningful textΓÇÖs second exposition sees
| Heidemann singing the lines in a fugue and culminating with
| SadigurskyΓÇÖs Coltrane-ish modal excursion.
|
| Also surprisingly attractive is MendelshtamΓÇÖs ΓÇoeGardener And Flower
| Too,ΓÇ? whose word field relates to the traumatic concept of
| physiological entrapment (the poet establishes a metaphor between his
| body and what appears to be a greenhouse), and is supported by a fast,
| nervous ride cymbal pattern that finds release in the ΓÇoechorus.ΓÇ?
| Looser is ShuttleΓÇÖs ΓÇoeIn The Kitchen,ΓÇ? an ode to kitchen
| appliances that takes the form of a ludic tango.
|
| The ProjectΓÇÖs more challenging moments, enlivened by its instigator's
| elaborate melodies, fare very well, and are given a unity despite the
| multifarious sweep of the original material.
|
|
| Tracks: After Paradise; Still Life; I'm Glad Your Sickness; Water,
| Aspirin, You; Love; In The Kitchen; Gardener And Flower Too; You're;
| Epitaph For A Pair Of Old Shoes; After Love.
|
| Personnel: Heather Masse, Becca Stevens, Monika Heidemann, Noam
| Weinstein: vocals; Pete Rende: piano; Eivind Opsvik: bass; Tommy Crane:
| drums; Nate Radley: guitar; Robert Burkhart: cello; Sam Sadigursky:
| tenor and soprano saxophones, flute and alto flute, clarinet and bass
| clarinet, percussion.
|
| http://samsadigursky.com/
|
.------------------------------------------------------------------------- +
Please, if you like the music, buy the CD.