Myra Melford Extended Ensemble: Even the Sounds Shine

For this International Women's Day, this post highlights the vastly underappreciated pianist and bandleader Myra Melford, whose extended ensemble's recording of Even the Sounds Shine, recorded in 1994 and re-released on Hat Hut Records in 2003, is astounding in its compositional complexity, richness and diversity and in the playing by a remarkable quintent, including trumpeter Dave Douglas, alto saxophonist and clarinetist Marty Ehrlich, bassist Lindsey Horner and drummer Reggie Nicholson.

The title is taken fom a poem by Fernando Pessoa and Myford wrote in her liner notes that "I have this habit of collecting seemingly unrelated buts of information: a title, a texture, a melody or phrase, that somehow in my subconscious belong together.  It's through creation that the different elements become juxtaposed or integrated into a whole."  She was in Portugal just prior to recording the album and came across Pessoa's reference to "in broad daylight even the sounds shine," though it went beyond an apt title to some thing that struck Melford "as an idea that expresses music and as an idea that I'd like to express through my music."

She was later in Austria for a music festival and heard a bird singing in such a way that is sounded like a melding of Ornette Coleman and another underappreciated master, violinist Leroy Jenkins, and Melford transcribed what she heard.  She added that the next morning "I awoke to the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard" and that the bird and other animals were singing and making other sounds so that "the texture had a clarity, vitality and gentleness to it that was very moving."

There is an abundance of all three of those attributes on this amazing album and her trio of the time is enriched and diversified by the stunning playing of Douglas (whose work in John Zorn's Masada project has been featured here before) and Ehrlich (who has also been mentioned through his association with the great Julius Hemphill.) Nicholson, too, has appeared in this blog through the appreciation of two recordings by the sublime Henry Threadgill.  As for Melford, her incredible solo work, reminiscent of Cecil Taylor and Marilyn Crispell, but definitely with her own imprint, and her compositional brilliance, are wonders to behold.

There are few women in jazz who get the credit they deserve and Myra Melford is one of those who should have far more recognition for her achievements.

Masada: Live in Sevilla

John Zorn has often been called an enfant terrible of the New York downtown music scene.  Wildly unpredictable, ambitious, provocative, Zorn has made records that mix cartoon soundtracks, classical, hardcore punk, jazz and other sounds, often within the same 27-second track.  He is truly uncategorizable, which is one of his greatest attributes.

Occasionally, however, he takes on a project that makes him . . . well, nearly accessible.  This might be disappointing to some people who enjoy his more experimental works, but when it came to Masada, the jazz quartet that existed for about fifteen or so years, he and his cohorts created one of great ensembles of that form of music to be found anywhere in recent decades.  In this remarkable quarter, Zorn also gets to show that he is a truly great alto sax player, above and beyond the notoriety he receives for his experimentalism (and upper register pyrotechnics.)

Zorn has always professed openly his admiration for the great Ornette Coleman and especially his amazing quartets of the late 1950s and early 1960s and demonstrated this with his Spy vs. Spy recording of Coleman tunes done in speed-metal-like tempos!  Consequently, the alto sax player formed Masada with that structure, including Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass, and drummer Joey Baron.

As with the classic Coleman quartets, the interplay between the frontline alto sax and trumpet get plenty of attention, as it should.  To hear Zorn and Douglas harmonize and then play off each other's inventive and stunning lines is a wonder to behold.  However, ears should also be focused, as with the Coleman rhythm section of bassist Charlie Haden and drummers Ed Blackwell and Billy Higgins, on Masada's remarkable pairing of Cohen and Baron, who keep the propulsion going at the highest levels during the faster tunes, but also show great sensitivity and support on the ballads and slower pieces.

What makes Masada further intriguing is the concept of melding that Coleman-inspired format with the emphasis of Jewish folk melodies but with an emphasis on what Zorn calls "radical Jewish culture" where he explores the traditions of his heritage infused with the modernism that has been his forte.  Because of the stellar improvisational skills of the band, the many live albums can sound as fresh and distinctive as the versions from the studio recordings and, as a truly awesome outfit in concert, Masada is likely at its best on these live recordings.

Probably, Live in Sevilla, recorded in that venerable Spanish city in 2000 and released on Zorn's label Tzadik with typically beautiful packaging, is the most impressive from the standpoint of sound quality.  The clarity, crispness and separation are tremendous and each instrument can be heard with phenomenal richness.  As noted above, the telepathy between the four members is a wonder, especially with Cohen and Baron being as "front line" as a rhythm section can be, and then Zorn and Douglas are a formidable improvisatory duo whose work complements and balances one another.  Indeed, Masada is a truly balanced ensemble, as remarkable for the slower-tempo and balladic pieces as the faster, powerful and propulsive workouts.

It is also intriguing to hear Zorn's Klezmer-inspired melodies as launching pads for these excursions into group interplay and otherwordly soloing.  It is hard to imagine that anything could be done to further expand the Masada sound, and Zorn ended the jazz ensemble's fantastic run a few years back, but there are other ensembles, including Electric Masada, the Masada String Trio and the awesome Bar Kokhba Sextet, that bring the songbook into different formulations and give new dimensions that show that Zorn has created a project that will almost certainly stand as his greatest achievement.

Masada: Live in Sevilla (Tzadik, 2000)

1.  Ne'eman  12:36
2.  Katzatz  4:56
3.  Hadasha  10:53
4.  Beeroth  7:06
5.  Yoreh  9:49
6.  Hazor  6:27
7.  Nashon  10:08
Encores:
8.  Lakom  5:06
9.  Bith Aneth  9:33