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| 6.249 Ft
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| 1. | Rising
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| 2. | We Have Been the Victims of a Broken Promise
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| 3. | American Farewell
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| 4. | Blues Circle
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| 5. | Ceaseless Motion [Watch the Future Roll By]
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| 6. | In Memoriam: Dana Brayton
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Jazz
Recorded February 9/10 at Systems Two, Brooklyn by Michael Marciano
Joel Harrison: composer, guitarist
Violin: Todd Reynolds
Violin: Christian Howes
Viola: Caleb Burhans
Cello: Wendy Sutter
Alto saxophone: David Binney
Trumpet/ Flugelhorn: Ralph Alessi
Bass: Lindsey Horner
Drums: Dan Weiss
The Wheel, a five movement suite for double quartet and guitar, is something round: The tires are chunky and capable of taking you off the well-worn musical paths into new territory. In this case we enjoy the ride between classical and jazz worlds; it is better to travel than to arrive.
Harrison comments, "The impulse for this multi movement suite came from a longstanding determination to make music that equally represents improvisation and notation. I wanted to assemble a body of work that contained the intimacy, complexity, and beauty of acoustic concert music and merge it with the raw, grooving spontaneity of jazz. Though by no means a new idea, I felt that it was an area still ripe with possibility.
"Two classic ensembles join forces from their respective worlds: string quartet and jazz quintet. Rather than writing jazz music and then pasting on the strings, like icing on a cake, I started by writing string quartet music with Appalachian, African, and modern classical sensibilities. The improvisation stems from a bedrock of notation, and comes in a variety of forms, from more typical solos over changes, to duo improvising, to free ensemble �blowing.' Hopefully there are seamless transitions between the soul and spontaneity of improvising and the structure of written notes, resulting in a kind of music that truly IS both worlds, and does not just borrow from them."
Joel Harrison is a musical jack-of-all-trades, who is just at home with improvised music as with rock and American, Asian, and African ethnic music. Every movement establishes its own emphases and functions as an independent piece, as in jazz. And yet it is only from the totality of all the pieces that a statement emerges; that this is a true (and attractive) fusion of opposites.
hen Jazz gets tiresome (too much soloing and predictable textures and form), and classical music gets stodgy and monolithic, I dream up pieces that try to incorporate my favorite aspects of both. One of the reasons we love Duke Ellington is that he found a way to make jazz that had a huge amount of written material to back up and enhance the improvising. It’s a difficult task - the writing can overwhelm the joy of spontaneity, and conversely the solos can sound tacked on and useless. Furthermore, it is very hard to find players who are skilled enough or even willing, to straddle both worlds. Only 20 years ago this piece would have been practically inconceivable. It is only relatively recently, for instance, that classically trained string players have developed a capacity to improvise and "rock out." Particular challenges involve the balance of the instruments, blending the drums with the strings, and creating lines that sit well on both the horns and the strings.
Two classic ensembles, then, from their respective worlds - string quartet and jazz quintet. Rather than writing jazz music and then pasting on the strings, like icing on a cake, I decided to start by writing string quartet music with Appalachian, African, and modern classical sensibilities. The improvisation stems from a bedrock of notation, and comes in a variety of forms, from more typical solos over changes, to duo improvising, to free ensemble ‘blowing." Hopefully there are seamless transitions between the soul and spontaneity of improvising and the structure of written notes, resulting in a kind of music that truly IS both worlds, and does not just borrow from them.
Movement One: American Farewell
Sitting in a composer residency near the Blue Ridge Mountains a simple 4 bar melody kept nagging me. It seemed like a lament, a farewell song. It shows up in the beginning and throughout the piece; its first interval, a minor 3rd, becomes the fulcrum for the last movement. A lot of energy is generated by the bowing techniques found in Appalachian string bands. This movement seems poised between an elegy and a barfight, with the yearning of the opening giving way to buzzing, chattering rhythms. There’s a story line that I think is apparent, and does not have anything like a conclusive denouement.
Movement Two: Blues Circle
African music and the Blues have played a huge role in my life. The string music of, say, Ghana, is quite profound rhythmically. I tried to capture the circular feeling of that music, with a 5 beat pattern, and contrast it with a section that explodes into double time. The melody is very vocal, and reminds me of the type of grave testifying that Coltrane exemplified in pieces like "Alabama".
Movement Three: Rising
Here we leave behind some of the more inward looking material and really cut loose. This section reminds me of Messiaen and Weather Report with long, irregular unison lines that keep reaching higher and higher finally erupting into a jiggy vamp. The harmony uses a lot of 2nds, 4ths and 5ths, and major chords with a raised 5th. It is ridiculously hard to play.
Movement Four: We Have Been the Victims of a Broken Promise
This simple, open-hearted melody is the opposite of some of the more dense material. When I was working on it I heard that my father’s oldest friend had died, Michael Straight, someone I’d known my whole life. He helped start Amnesty International, served on the National Endowment for the Arts, and was an inquisitive, bright, good man. At the same time I was reading M.L. King’s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a monumental essay against intolerance, racism, and the hypocrisies of our country. The title, taken from a line in that essay, could mean many things depending on your perspective.
Movement Five: Ceaseless Motion (Watch the future Roll By)
The finale is a "perpetual motion" salvo. It’s supposed to create the feeling of intense, ceaseless activity, a wheel that won’t stop. It picks up on some of the energy suggested in Movement One, and blasts forth like a run-on sentence, like Jack Kerouac describing Neal Cassady, like New York on a particularly frenetic day. Most of the material is based on lines that include minor thirds, fourths, and raised fourths (material that shows up in the melody in the second movement as well.) Again, the strings are front and center, establishing the groove, and the apex is a sax solo. I figured it was important to really cut loose here.
In Memoriam: Dana Brayton
This piece was written following the death of my close friend Dana Brayton. Dana was an amazing composer, who inspired me in many ways, going back to when I met him in college and we played in my first jazz group. It is impossible to account for the void that this kind of loss brings; still, the act of making music helps the pain to migrate into something larger than one’s self.
The lonesome ascending opening gives way to an elegiac melody which leads towards a spiral of upward movement. The image in my mind was similar to the kabbalistic notion of "sparks flying upward." I imagined his spirit spinning upwards towards... (well, towards what?) Dana always loved the sound of funky blues in my guitar playing, so it seemed fitting to move into a blues-based eruption of sound from the electric slide guitar, bass, and drums. After a frenzied pinnacle there is a return to a dark reharmonisation of the opening theme. The end conjures the image of a last exhalation of breath.
CREDITS
I gratefully acknowledge the New York State Council of the Arts for a grant funding the composition of The Wheel, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust for a grant which funded its recording. Thanks to Don Palmer and Gayle Morgan in particular. Also, to the Virginia Center for Creative Arts and the Macdowell colony for refuge, and composers Dana Brayton, Carman Moore, Gunther Schuller, Alvin Singleton, and Henry Threadgill for inspiration. And to the players- their talents are unique and mighty.
Supported in part by a grant from the New York State Music Fund, established by the New York State Attorney General at Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
At the first strokes of the fiddle bow
The dancers rise from their seats...
So that even the night has its clarity, and time
Is the wheel that brings it round.
---Wendell Berry
Mixed by Todd Sickafoose
Mastered by Jody Elff
Artwork by Yvonne Pietz, www.rahlwespietz.de
Photos by Todd Chalfant
Compositions by Joel Harrison: Pure Land Publishing, BMI
Joel Harrison
Active Decades: '90s and '00s
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Post-Bop, Mainstream Jazz, Progressive Jazz
In 1999 guitarist/composer/singer/arranger Joel Harrison relocated to New York City from the West Coast, where the multi-talented musician had spent years leading various groups and ensembles, as well as freelancing as a much in-demand session player around the San Francisco area. His electrifying blend of creative jazz, modern classical, and ethnic fusion has spawned seven critically lauded albums (3+3=7, Range of Motion, Transience, Free Country, So Long 2nd Street, Harrison on Harrison, and Harbor), as well as numerous film and documentary scores.
---James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide
Published in the USA by Joel Harrison: Pure Land Publishing, BMI
Published in Europe by Intuition Music Publishing, Mainz/Germany
www.joelharrison.com
innova is supported by an endowment from the McKnight Foundation.
innova Director: Philip Blackburn
Operations Manager: Chris Campbell |
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