Five Other Pieces (+2)
by Ellery Eskelin
"Five Other Pieces (+ 2)" marks the fourth recording by this group since our debut
in 1994. I've been writing music for the band since then and in the course of our
five years together we've only done one piece written by another composer, namely
Rahsaan Roland Kirk's 1967 classic "The Inflated Tear" on our recording "One Great Day...".
Rahsaan's musical methods (mixing of styles, sharp juxtapositions, humor, the use
of tapes and sound effects) foreshadowed many of the methods often associated with
this decade's new jazz and improvisation. I've never been one for genre hopping or jump cutting
for it's own sake however, I'm more interested in the effect that various textures
or ideas that occupy a short unit of space have on the overall shape of a phrase
or composition; my own sort of "Klangfarbenmelodie" or "melody of textures" as Schoenberg
(the Viennese mix-meister who knew a thing or two about styles and juxtapositions
as far back as 1909 with his "Five Pieces for Orchestra") put it . With "Five Other
Pieces (+ 2)" it's my turn to apply some of these concepts to what Rahsaan referred to
in his mid-seventies recording as "Other Folks Music".
The first selection, "The Dance of Maya" was recorded by the Mahavishnu Orchestra
in the early 1970's and is a seminal example of "fusion", a term that has since fallen
into deep disrepute. I was probably fifteen years old and just becoming aware of
fusion via Herbie Hancock's Headhunters band and the Mahavishnu Orchestra and I fell in
love with this tune the very first time I heard it. I came late to rock having grown
up entirely with jazz so fusion became my bridge to Jimi Hendix and the Beatles,
a process quite backwards from the line that asserted that fusion might lead kids back to
"real" jazz. Anyway, I had a band in high school and we played a pretty lame version
of this piece but I kept the music and periodically worked on it at the piano. It
may seem an unlikely choice for a band with an accordionist but in actuality it's not that
big a stretch. Some of my writing for this ensemble has elicited comparisons with
bands like Soft Machine and Van der Graf Generator (the latter I'm not even sure
I've ever heard) and in fact, several folks who have never before heard the original "Dance
of Maya" have upon hearing our version remarked that they thought it was one of my
compositions. I've always wanted to have a band that could play this. Now, nearly
twenty five years later, I've got one!
The Tristano piece "April" was introduced to me by hatOLOGY impresario Werner Uehlinger.
While driving through the Swiss countryside one afternoon Werner put on a Lee Konitz
recording that featured this piece as performed by Lee and a tenor player named Ted Brown (who was new to me). I wasn't looking for tunes yet as this was well before
"Five Other Pieces (+ 2)" but I remembered it when I began researching for this project.
The melodic line immediately caught my ear, so bizarre, weaving around itself, concentrating for a moment on a few notes, winding off in an odd direction, not belying
the shape of "I'll Remember April" (the standard on which it is based) in any overt
way, more a flight of fancy over top the whole tune. Obviously Tristano wrote this
line with the standard in mind as it fits perfectly over the harmony of that tune yet it
does not exactly describe that harmony when played without the underlying chord sequence
(as we do it here). The melody is so strong however that simply hearing the unadorned line accompanied by a nice time feel from the drums is more than enough to sustain
interest. It seems to me that Tristano used "I'll Remember April" as a shape from
which "April" is derived in order to improvise further from the original tune than
he might normally. We use Tristano's line in exactly the same way, a shape from which we
derive our own improvisations, one that propels us in directions we might not travel
otherwise.
John Coltrane's "India" was added to the lineup simply because I loved the sound of
Coltrane and Dolphy playing this melody together. What a sound and mood! Of course
after two choruses through the melody they were already extrapolating wildly into
brave new worlds. I just wanted to play this melody. I love drones and we've done pieces
based on drones before, the accordion being a natural in this regard, but this time
I wanted to shift roles and let Jim handle the drone on drums, allowing Andrea and
I to play this great melody over and over. Rather than be faced with playing a typical drum
solo, Jim had to connect his "drone/solo" to Andrea's extended introduction and
sustain it over a much longer time frame, increasing his variations incrementally
while slowly building to a release by the end.
Charlie Haden's "Song for Ché" is very simply a beautiful song that needed no other
rationale for it's inclusion except that it's a beautiful song. Period.
My announcement to Andrea and Jim that we'd be including a version of George Gershwin's
"Prelude II" nearly caused a mutiny at first. Andrea in particular had encountered
this piece as part of her early piano studies and was not eager to revisit it. I
suppose this piece has become something of a war horse and in some circles it may even
be considered a trite or hackneyed attempt at jazz. I wouldn't have thought to include
it but Karl Hereim (producer of our first recording, "Jazz Trash") brought over
an archival tape he was producing for re-release on the Nonesuch label, most of which
escaped my attention but when "Prelude II" came on I immediately recognized it. I
hadn't heard the piece in a long time and was reminded of it's simple beauty and
graceful flow. It get's roughed up a bit in this version but it was not my intention to mock
the piece nor injure it in any way. It's a durable composition that can take a licking
and it's since become one of our favorite pieces to perform. I love it.
To complete the album I composed two new pieces, theoretically parts one and two of
a single larger piece. While unrelated by any traditional formal devices (such as
key relationships, motivic development, recapitulation) these compositions deal with
the concept of overall balance of contrasting events, much in the way that a child's mobile
balances contrasting visual elements in space. In "Cause and Effect" I've introduced
a series of written events into an otherwise open group improvisation. The overriding concept of this improvisation rests on the spontaneous decisions as to when and
where these events will occur and how they will affect the flow of the piece. In
"Ways and Means" I was more concerned with the manner in which fixed events ultimately
combine and result in a totally unexpected outcome.
As with "One Great Day..." and "Kulak 29 & 30" this recording was made upon the culmination
of a combined US and European tour lasting about a month. Our 1998 tour covered New
York, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh in the US; Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Eindhoven (Holland); Cologne, Frankfurt and Leer (Germany); Stans and Berikon (Switzerland); Esch
(Luxembourg); Wels (Austria) and Bologna, Florence and Venice (Italy). It's been
a pleasure bringing our music to points far and wide and we look forward to continuing
that process. Maybe we'll meet you at a future concert, if so, please say hello...
Ellery Eskelin, New York City, June 1999
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