Play French Impressionist Music from the 20th Century

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Jazz/Classical crossovers have historically been patchy affairs - the collison of formalism and freedom implicit in such fusions has only occasionally yielded much of value, and has often resulted in horrors such as Jacques Loussier's jazzed up Bach or the worthy but dull third stream of Gunther Schuller. Alto saxophonist Lee Konitz's meeting with the Axis String Quartet is an exception to the general rule. Konitz is a rarity - a musician equally at home with the standard jazz repertoire as in the impermenance of free improvisation and whose career has included stints with Lennie Tristano, Miles Davis, Paul Bley, and Derek Bailey's Company amongst many others. As is often the case with more 'cerebral' players like Warne Marsh, Jimmy Guiffre and Paul Desmond, Konitz has fallen victim to the usual accusations of intellectualism and inability to swing, which are heinous crimes in some jazz circles (particularly if you're black - ask Anthony Braxton and George Lewis). While this record won't change anybody's mind and may indeed reinforce some of those prejudices, nevertheless Konitz's playing is imbued with an innate swing, a limpid tone and a vocabulary that owes little to Charlie Parker (who was pretty much the blueprint for the majority of alto players of Konitz's generation). In fact Konitz's tone is so pure and devoid of vibrato that it caused Pierre Boulez to remark that his was the perfect classical saxophone sound. Still, to transpose that sensibility into the world of 20th century French Impressionist music (ie the likes of Ravel, Debussy, Satie and Faure). may seem a bit of a potential misjudgement, but it works.

Not being familiar enough with the repertoire Konitz and the quartet tackle I am unable to make direct comparisons with the 'originals', but I'm not sure it would aid my enjoyment of what is an often stunningly beautiful and affecting record. However, there does seem a clear link between the music played here and the chamber jazz of someone like Bill Evans (for whom I'm pretty sure the music of someone like Debussy must have been an influence). or some of Gil Evans' arrangements for Miles Davis - some of the descending, plangent chording and the vague, meandering melodics could be out of either man's songbook. All of which maybe brings it close to ECM territory perhaps, but Ohad Talmor's sensitive arrangements and remodelling (most of this music was originally written for piano), the commited playing of the Axis Quartet and the use of a live, roomy acoustic recording steer the project away from the sometimes overly vaporous ambience characteristic of Manfred Eicher's label. The formalism/freedom problem is solved both by the arrangements which allow for improvisations by Konitz and occasionally members of the quartet, and by the players' easy incorporation of their extemporisations in and around the written material. Konitz's aim was to make his variations sound as though they may have been written, almost as if he was playing a continuo part, and he manages it seemingly effortlessly. There is some great material to work with; as well as the names mentioned above, there's a smattering of pieces by less well known composers; the opening 'Les Bandar-Log' by Charles Koechlin is particularly gorgeous, and pretty much sets the tone for the whole record. It's easy to forget what a difficult trick this is to pull off; the success of this project lies in persuading the listener to forget all the cultural baggage that comes with such stylistic collisions and just listen to the music. Not a record that will change your life perhaps, but one that will make it a lot more palatable.