Sara Schoenbeck has been staring at me with one eye from the cover of her newest album, which has been sitting on a pile of music. That eye (which looks like it might be green) insists that I remember her set at Winter Jazz Fest 2020 in a duo with pianist Wayne Horvitz. It was one of those sets that was great for reasons that felt hard to put into specific words. The music was all by Horvitz, an original and fascinating composer. There have been other jazz bassoonists, but Schoenbeck had a lyrical approach that was different than others I've heard before. So from the cover of her new self-titled album, her left eye has been dropping hints.
The eponymous disc features Schoenbeck in duets with nine other musicians, in moods that range from pensive to pointillist, with the added bonus of an indie rock cover (the one track not written by either of the people playing). If some of the duets feel easier to latch onto than others, the questionable ones provide enough musical intrigue to inspire return visits.
To those who hear the bassoon rarely in the setting of jazz or improvisation, the huge double-reed instrument can sound like a baritone saxophone with a head cold, rich in the low end but a bit nasal. Schoenbeck smashes such misconceptions out of the gate. "O'Saris," a duet with drummer Harris Eisenstadt, begins with her growling overtones on her axe (that slang sounds appropriate considering how she plays) while her comrade punctuates the raunchy sound with toms and gentle cymbal splashes. The melody that eventually takes shape feels simple but she keeps it dynamic, at one point singing in the back of her throat while blowing.
Together with guitarist Nels Cline, Schoenbeck interprets "Lullaby," a song originally by the slowcore band Low, who takes volume and tempo down to a very deliberate level and forces the listener to revel in the beauty of it. Jazz and indie rock can make strange bedfellows (even when one of the interpreters is the guy from Wilco who's also a free improv master) but these two know how to pull it off.
For the first half of the eight-minute track Cline plucks the lonely notes of the chords, which almost sound like a spaghetti western, while Schoenbeck blows freely over it. When the guitarist begins strumming, five minutes in, it provides a beautiful release which, in some ways might be hard to top. Contrast is everything on this album, as the following track "Chordata" features a brief improvisation with Roscoe Mitchell that Schoenbeck describes as "the contained development of granular ideas." Her attack almost sounds like smears on a brass instrument, no small feat on a double reed.
Improvisations with Horvitz (piano, electronics) and Peggy Lee (cello) feel loose but inquisitive, while "Auger Strokes" a duet with pianist Matt Mitchell (who also wrote the piece) features a lot of open space and quick stops. Ironically (or perhaps intentionally), "Suspend a Bridge," with Lee, opens with what sounds like an amplifier buzz, but it's actually Schoenbeck, again exploring the sonic qualities of her instrument.
The album closes with pianist Robin Holcomb playing piano and adding some vocals to her "Sugar." While things feels a little out-of-tempo at first, the bassoon quickly becomes as central to the melody as Holcomb's vocal. What was initially uncertain feels as welcoming as the melodies to "Sand Dune Trilogy," the engaging duet with flutist Nicole Mitchell, earlier in the set.
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