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| 1. | Othello's Victory
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| 2. | Fire Song
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| 3. | Drinking Song
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| 4. | Love Duet with Othello and Desdemona
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| 5. | Introduction to Act II
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| 6. | Iago's Credo
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| 7. | She's the only one I love
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| 8. | Iago's Web
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| 9. | Desdemona's Lament
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| 10. | Am I a Fool?
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| 11. | The Lion of Venice
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| 12. | Othello's Confession
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| 13. | The Willow Song/Ave Maria
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| 14. | Murder
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| 15. | The Death of Othello
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Jazz
Uri Caine Ensemble
Ralph Alessi [trumpet]
Stefano Bassanese [electronics]
Sadiq Bey [voice]
Jim Black [drums]
Uri Caine [piano, keyboards]
Zach Danziger [drums]
Joyce Hammann [violin]
John Hebert [acoustic bass]
Nguyên Lê [guitar]
Tim Lefebvre [acoustic and electric bass]
Josefine Lindstrand [vocals]
Marco Paolini [voice]
Julie Patton [voice]
Bunny Sigler [vocals]
Brundo Fabrizio Sorba [electronics]
Chris Speed [clarinet]
Achille Succi [clarinet]
Dhafer Youssef [vocals]
Music composed and adapted by Uri Caine after Giuseppe Verdi
The Othello Syndrome
In 2003, the American composer and jazz musician Uri Caine is director of the music festival at the Biennale di Venezia. For more than 100 years - ever since Gabriele d'Annunzio gives his address "Allegory of Autumn" at the first Biennale in 1895 - Venice has held a regional display of the arts every two years, and since 1930 a music festival too. Here, in 1995, Luciano Berio is given the Leone d'Oro (Golden Lion), and - shortly before his death - he brings Caine to Venice for the Biennale, and Uri Caine is named Artistic Director of the Biennale for 2003.
Caine's programme for 2003, the 47th Biennale music festival, is entitled "Remix - Structures and Improvisations", and brings not only artists engaged in new and electronic music to the lagoon city, but jazz musicians too: a novelty in the Biennale's history, but a venture crowned with success. At the Teatro alle Tese, the Teatro Piccolo Arsenale and in abandoned workshops at the Arsenale, groups and musicians like Speculum Musicae, Bang on a Can, Fred Frith/Han Bennink, Gary Lucas, Ursula Oppens, the Amsterdam String Trio with Ernst Reijseger, the Ethel Quartet, David Krakauer with Klezmer Madness!, David Moss, Emanuele Arciuli, Otomo Yoshihide, Dave Douglas and many others celebrate not the coexistence of composed and improvised performances, but the combination of them that has come about quite naturally since the end of the 20th century. Caine dedicates these performances to the Italian composer Luciano Berio: "He was an innovator and a great lover of the many musical traditions, past and present that coexist today. (...) A great man and a great artist passed away this year (2003) but will not be forgotten - he will be sorely missed by those of us who loved him and his wonderful music."
Caine himself develops a completely new project for this Biennale. A seemingly incidental factor has inspired Uri Caine to engage with Giuseppe Verdi; not far away from his apartment, he meets Verdi almost every day, since a statue of the composer stands in the heart of Manhattan. Performances and the chance to experience the most varied musical styles can occur in New York within a very small area; so at the same time as Gustav Mahler is working with Enrico Caruso at the Metropolitan Opera, the young Israel Isidore Beilin (Irving Berlin) is writing songs at his specially redesigned piano in Tin Pan Alley, for sale as sheet music. But they probably don't hear one another, and this is what has changed basically over the past 100 years. "The music of the New York of today has a unique characteristic: it is a mosaic of currents reflecting the city's thousand ethnic groups, a power station of musical energy open to every type of influence. Perhaps for this reason I'm not so interested in trying to circumscribe the music to a precise current (which would clearly be restrictive), so much as to celebrate the vitality of the many musical traditions that live alongside each other today." The task of shaping the music programme for the Venice Biennale inspires Uri Caine to engage with one of Verdi's most important works, adapting it and recomposing it in terms of his 21st century musical mentality. Verdi's "Otello" becomes Uri Caine's »The Othello Syndrome« (Winter&Winter Nº910 135-2).
The Venetian Stefano Bassanese, who developed the electronics for Mauricio Kagel's "Kidnapping in the Concert Hall", and Bruno Fabrizio, who took parting the premiere of Reginald Smith Brindle's "Le Chant du Monde", open the singspiel with electronically distorted sounds. Within this sonic overture, Dhafer Youssef, born in Tunisia but now living in Paris, an artist and - not just on geographical grounds - border-crosser between the cultural worlds of North Africa and the West, presents the tragedy of the Moor of Venice, written (after Giraldi Cinthio's Hecatommithi) by Shakespeare (The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice) 400 years ago, then adapted, on commission from the publisher Giulio Ricordi, by Arrigo Boito (Otello) so as to stimulate Giuseppe Verdi to resume composition after a break of ten years forced by the shadow of Richard Wagner. Uri Caine's musical interpretation of this chess match of power and love begins; with great verve, the ensemble with Joyce Hammann on violin, Achille Succi on clarinet and Ralph Alessi on trumpet, sets up "Othello's Victory", the victorious return of the hero after war against the Turks, sung by songwriter and producer Bunny Sigler, who produced Patti Labelle's million-seller "Somebody loves you Baby" back in the 80s. The "Fire Song" (Fuoco die gioia), within Nguyên Lê on guitar, leads into the "Drinking Song", Iago's intrigue against Cassio, aimed to disgrace the latter. The first part ends with "Love Duet with Othello and Desdemona". Desdemona is spoken by the New York poet Julie Patton and sung by the Swedish Josefine Lindstrand, who Uri Caine got to know through the British composer Django Bates.
"Introduction to Act II", with Uri Caine's jazz piano solo, leads into "Iago's Credo" (Credo in un Dio crudel), which reveals his villainy. Arrigo Boito's original text is spoken by the Italian actor, poet and director Marco Paolini, and Iago's ego is personified by the New York poet Sadiq Bey, who lays bare his (and thus Iago's) character in a text collage. Tim Lefebvre on e-bass and Zach Danziger on percussion - together they form the innovative Drum'n' Bass-project "Boomish" - and Nguyên Lê on e-guitar form the excellently attuned rhythm group for "She's the Only One I Love", Othello's almost blind declaration of love for Desdemona, with Bunny Sigler, the unmistakeable R&B and Soul voice that set its stamp on the Philly Sound. "Iago's Web" - Iago is probably the most interesting and striking character in this play. With calculated chess moves, he manipulates others to do things that only benefit him and bring him closer to his goal of seizing power. He is the accursed force that drives Othello and those around him to a tragic end, but he is no standard rogue: he plays his part uniquely, he is sophisticated and clever, an astute observer able to assess people perfectly, and use them to his own ends. "Desdemona's Lament" - with Chris Speed on clarinet, his close travelling companion Jim Black on percussion, and John Hebert, bass player from New Jersey, born in New Orleans and raised in Louisiana - is Desdemona's (Josefine Lindstrand) hopeless attempt to plead Cassio's innocence, after Iago has discredited him with Othello. Othello seems to suspect he is being mocked and abused; Bunny Sigler sings "Am I a Fool?", and Caine stages a rousing Rhythm and Blues Show for the supposed cuckold. "The Lion of Venice" leads into "Othello's Confession" (by Sadiq Bey). Othello's jealousy, which Iago has aroused so immaculately through his intrigues, leads at last to the grim Finale. Desdemona draws back and sings "The Willow Song/Ave Maria", convinced of Cassio's innocence and with a certain premonition of what threatens. The voice of the Moor of Venice (Dhafer Youssef) returns, and Othello kills his beloved Desdemona ("Murder"), but Iago's victory is short-lived, for his devious machinations are exposed. But the game is over, the queen has fallen, and all that is left for Othello is suicide.
In this work, created for the Venice Biennale, Uri Caine adapts Verdi's "Otello" using elements of jazz, Philly Sound, R&B, and electronic and experimental music. Caine remains true to Verdi; William Shakespeare's plot interests him only here and there - he wants to create his own musical world, engaging with Verdi's score and the sounds of Italian opera. Caine's investigation of the Othello Syndrome is a work that would hardly be conceivable without the influence of the current New York music scene, especially in Manhattan, where Verdi's statue stands and, at the start of the 21st century, very different, formerly incompatible musical worlds meet and unite. And in the booklet for the Biennale, Uri Caine writes: "There are forms of music that draw from the past and those that are inspired by more recent traditions. I listen to all of them freely without feeling myself bound to a particular style. Perhaps the public will not agree with my opinion concerning so many traditions, but it is just this debate that for us is vital for the evolution of music."
--- Stefan Winter (Translation by Richard Toop)
Uri Caine
Active Decades: '90s and '00s
Born: Jun 08, 1956
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Modern Creative, Chamber Jazz, Fusion, Post-Bop, Avant-Garde Jazz
Jazz pianist/composer Uri Caine brings an eclectic array of disciplines and influences to his music. His own Jewish heritage, his classical and jazz training, and his interest in electronics combine in ambitious hybrids that are often challenging but always inventive.
Caine grew up in an intellectual, open-minded family in Philadelphia. His father, a law professor at Temple University, and his mother, a poet and professor at Drexel, ensured the best musical education possible for their son, having him study with French expatriate pianist Bernard Peiffer.
Over their four years of study together, Peiffer taught Caine not only piano technique but the possibilities of music. Each week, Caine brought a new composition to his lesson; teacher and pupil then deconstructed and reformed its melody, harmonies, and structure into entirely different directions. Along with listening to Herbie Hancock and Oscar Peterson, this rigorous study with Peiffer introduced Caine to jazz theory.
Caine was already performing at jazz clubs around Philadelphia with artists like Mickey Roker and Bootsie Barnes when he began studies with composer George Rochberg in Penn State's University Scholars Program. Choosing his own path of study, Caine took classes in music, literature, and other interests for a diverse-but-grounded program.
This well-rounded approach to music culminated in the aptly named debut album Sphere Music, released in 1992. Caine's spontaneity and technical prowess as a musician and composer combine on the album, making it a jazzy tour of moods and styles. Sphere Music also inaugurates Caine's collaboration with clarinetist Don Byron. Together, the two have played everything from Thelonious Monk's "Round Midnight" to klezmer music to modern classical, with Byron's ensemble Semaphore.
Caine followed Sphere Music with 1996's Toys, 1997's Primal Light, and 1999's I Went Out This Morning Over the Countryside, all of which feature his signature blend of fluid, visionary postmodernism. The late '90s brought international attention to Caine's projects reworking, reinterpreting, and reinventing the works of classical composers for the Winter & Winter label.
---Heather Phares, All Music Guide |
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