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A Tribute to Jelly Roll Morton Last year FREDERIC RZEWSKI gave a notable recital to a small Purcell Room audience on the opening night of the London Jazz Festival. This year, on the closing night of the Festival, Rzewski came onto the platform to turn the pages of a new piece specially written for Ian Pace and for this occasion. Composer/writer Philip Clark had brought together a group of versatile experts in avant-garde jazz and free improvisation for an undeniably interesting, but overloaded programme. Clark's own protracted Ad Libby, Ad Lippy in the first 'half' tried listening patience (as had Radulesu's lengthy Animae moret carent in Ian Pace's chamber concert earlier in the month), driving a few away and skewing the balance of the concert. This was given in the dark and only when the interval came did some of us discover that we hadn't been listening to Finnissy as programmed. A second interval became necessary for an event which stretched to 2¾ hours. On the way, there was a great deal to enjoy, with exuberant and expansive arrangements of Morton standards by Finnissy and others, and an affectionate new work by Matthew Bourne, framed by recordings of the great man talking at the piano. Violinist Mary Oliver compered the proceedings to put us straight after the first interval, and with clarinet/guitar virtuoso Alex Ward, provided an 'almost completely improvised accompaniment' for Bourne's 'sort of a miniature piano Concerto'. And Didn't I Fall In Love Again gave Ian Pace scope to display sensitivity to keyboard colouration and more conventional pianistic virtuosity than elsewhere in the programme. Black Bottom Stomp (MORTON/PACE) was a disturbing reminder of the less savoury side of the early jazz scene - Morton the pimp and brothel-keeper, under whose patronage sadomasochism regularly occurred; a recording of which underpinned Pace's musical arrangement - it sounded too true for comfort and caused another departure from the audience! No problems with Rzewski's Spells, which incorporated Morton references and required Ian Pace to use the piano case and his own body for percussive effects, as are to be heard in the composer's own recordings of his Piano Works (1975-1999), strongly recommended [Nonesuch]. That extension of the piano was nicely mirrored in the final item, Jelly Roll Morton's The Pearls, when Hans Bennink went down with his drumsticks to find new timbres on the platform floor and on his trainers. Composers Bourne, Clark, Finnissy and Rzewski were all present to acknowledge applause, and those who stayed the course had a rewarding and thought-provoking evening which was greeted with deserved enthusiasm; the concert was being recorded and should make a worth-while CD (or two!). |
