The Constant Flame

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Percussionist Alex Cline's professional career stretches back to 1976 and his curriculum vitae as jazz sideman, solo artist and bandleader is a bit more than merely impressive. He's got some sixty albums to his credit, has been commissioned to write for dance companies and compose film soundtracks, and received stipends from the American National Endowment for the Arts, among others.

This recording by his ensemble, a sextet augmented by more than a dozen additional musicians strewn liberally throughout its eight tracks, has been designed as a tribute to men and women - filmmakers, musicians and poets - who have won Cline's admiration through their work. In this beautifully-packaged Cryptogramophone CD, he explains the album's title as standing for "an inner flame, emotional/spiritual fire - the fire of creativity, passion, love".

The inner sleeve and CD disc are imprinted with the Japanese kanji character for flame, thus linking two important elements characterizing this release - burning artistic passion, as mentioned, and a deep interest in the philosophy, poetry and aesthetics of the Far East. Three Japanese citizens are among the eight individuals celebrated here; quotes from the Tibetan Book of the Dead feature prominently on "Paramita", the exciting, propulsive opening track dedicated to the memory of trumpeter Don Cherry; Tibetan chant is woven into the gongscape of "Evening Bell"; and track seven sets to music "Six Poems by Akiko Yosano", a twentieth-century author and women's rights activist.

More Westerly resources are also called upon, including Gaelic prayer on the final track, "Benediction", dedicated to Aina Kermanis, the album's primary vocalist. Her talents come fully to the fore on "Bridge", written in the early nineties by Cline in honour of David Sylvian. In its own way, the music in this piece comes closest to resembling the work of the artist to whom it is dedicated. "Bridge" is not only the longest track on the album by a nose, but without a doubt its most beautiful.

Though thoroughly composed, 'The Constant Flame' features numerous tracks which could be mistaken for meandering improvisation. How the listener will react to these tracks in comparison with the more flowing, song-centred tracks is, as always, a matter of taste and inclination. In the final analysis, Cline has produced a worthy tribute to the art informing his own.