Sight Reading
"Musical thoughts and afterthoughts"
Marco Bertoli
Nome: Marco Bertoli
Italian journalist, translator and music writer for italian Musica Jazz magazine, based in Milano, Italy.
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Benoît Delbecq: Phonetics / Nu-Turn
Le même jour / Multikulta / Zao Wou-ki / Pointe de la courte dune / The Elbow Room, Vancouver / 4MalW / Yompa / Au Louvre.
Mark Turner (ten.), Oene Van Geel (viola), Benoît Delbecq (p., elettronica), Mark Helias (cb.), Emile Biayenda (batt.). Francia, 2003.
SONGLINES SA1552-2, distr. Ird.
«Nu-Turn»: In Rainbows / In Lilac / On Ne Dit Pas Regarder La Lune, On Dit «Luner» / On Laterite / Into Neon / On Embers / Nu-Turn (Étude De Nu) / In Funfairs / Into White.
Benoît Delbecq (p., p. preparato). Vancouver, 11 e 12-12-2001.
SONGLINES SGL SA1543-2, distr. Ird.
40 year-old Frenchman Benoît Delbecq, a long-time collaborator of Michael Moore and François Houle, is that rarest of things— an original musical thinker. His 2005 CD “Phonetics” picks up where “Nu-Turn” (2001), left off. As is his mode, Delbecq assembled the lineup for “Phonetics” from different continents: America (USA - Turner and Helias), Africa (Cameroon - Biayenda), Europe (Holland - Van Geel).
The main focus of “Phonetics” is on rhythm. Delbecq devised rhythmic cycles based on an African style, made up of additive metres (Biayenda articulates them in a marvellous, loose way) which in turn, give shape to centripetal melodies, also African in character. The speed and articulation of these sequences, which lack a recursive pulse, are left to sax and piano to illuminate with the viola mostly confined to harmonic support. Turner and Delbecq display a remarkable interplay over Helias’ flexible ostinato.
In the end, listening to this music is much easier and more rewarding than any attempt to describe it might be. We find ourselves drawn into a world of sound, both very personal yet oddly familiar in an ‘ancestral’ sense. Hypnotic sounds without the narcotic quality often found in contemporary music where recursion is used to evoke stasis or trance. On the contrary, with Delbecq’s compositions the music is infused with forward momentum.
What precedents can we invoke for this music? “…How Time Passes… “ (Don Ellis, 1961) is where we first find a twelve-tone-row used as basis for improvisation, the same technique used in Zao Wou-Ki. Ellis’ style is also summoned up by some odd time signatures, such as 14 in Au Louvre, but in both pieces the processes are much less demonstrative and strained. Elsewhere in the recording, the harmonic framework loses ground to melody and rhythm, diluted in simple polymodal structures (F and F sharp Lydian in Multikulta).
All in all, the overall sound is one of jazz — what with Mark Turner’s glacial tenor sound and Biayenda integration of African meters with jazz licks and funk grooves (The Elbow Room, Vancouver), which can be reminiscent of Ed Blackwell. As a pianist, Delbecq’s timing and use of space owes much to Paul Bley and Mal Waldron and, by his own admission, to Ligeti’s Études (even though in “Phonetics” we hear traces of the earlier Musica Ricercata).
Ligeti (the Études and the harpsichord pieces) is a much more palpable presence in “Nu-Turn”, an austere recording whose stark music sounds as if it were waiting for other instrumental colors to light it up as the balafon-sounding prepared piano makes clear. In other places, the experiments on meter recall a comparison with Lennie Tristano’s Turkish Mambo.
Mark Turner (ten.), Oene Van Geel (viola), Benoît Delbecq (p., elettronica), Mark Helias (cb.), Emile Biayenda (batt.). Francia, 2003.
SONGLINES SA1552-2, distr. Ird.
«Nu-Turn»: In Rainbows / In Lilac / On Ne Dit Pas Regarder La Lune, On Dit «Luner» / On Laterite / Into Neon / On Embers / Nu-Turn (Étude De Nu) / In Funfairs / Into White.
Benoît Delbecq (p., p. preparato). Vancouver, 11 e 12-12-2001.
SONGLINES SGL SA1543-2, distr. Ird.
40 year-old Frenchman Benoît Delbecq, a long-time collaborator of Michael Moore and François Houle, is that rarest of things— an original musical thinker. His 2005 CD “Phonetics” picks up where “Nu-Turn” (2001), left off. As is his mode, Delbecq assembled the lineup for “Phonetics” from different continents: America (USA - Turner and Helias), Africa (Cameroon - Biayenda), Europe (Holland - Van Geel).
The main focus of “Phonetics” is on rhythm. Delbecq devised rhythmic cycles based on an African style, made up of additive metres (Biayenda articulates them in a marvellous, loose way) which in turn, give shape to centripetal melodies, also African in character. The speed and articulation of these sequences, which lack a recursive pulse, are left to sax and piano to illuminate with the viola mostly confined to harmonic support. Turner and Delbecq display a remarkable interplay over Helias’ flexible ostinato.
In the end, listening to this music is much easier and more rewarding than any attempt to describe it might be. We find ourselves drawn into a world of sound, both very personal yet oddly familiar in an ‘ancestral’ sense. Hypnotic sounds without the narcotic quality often found in contemporary music where recursion is used to evoke stasis or trance. On the contrary, with Delbecq’s compositions the music is infused with forward momentum.
What precedents can we invoke for this music? “…How Time Passes… “ (Don Ellis, 1961) is where we first find a twelve-tone-row used as basis for improvisation, the same technique used in Zao Wou-Ki. Ellis’ style is also summoned up by some odd time signatures, such as 14 in Au Louvre, but in both pieces the processes are much less demonstrative and strained. Elsewhere in the recording, the harmonic framework loses ground to melody and rhythm, diluted in simple polymodal structures (F and F sharp Lydian in Multikulta).
All in all, the overall sound is one of jazz — what with Mark Turner’s glacial tenor sound and Biayenda integration of African meters with jazz licks and funk grooves (The Elbow Room, Vancouver), which can be reminiscent of Ed Blackwell. As a pianist, Delbecq’s timing and use of space owes much to Paul Bley and Mal Waldron and, by his own admission, to Ligeti’s Études (even though in “Phonetics” we hear traces of the earlier Musica Ricercata).
Ligeti (the Études and the harpsichord pieces) is a much more palpable presence in “Nu-Turn”, an austere recording whose stark music sounds as if it were waiting for other instrumental colors to light it up as the balafon-sounding prepared piano makes clear. In other places, the experiments on meter recall a comparison with Lennie Tristano’s Turkish Mambo.
( Musica Jazz, April 2005)
• Benoît Delbecq's interview
postato da: Counterpoint alle ore 14:05 | link | commenti (164)
categorie: africa, turner, ligeti, ellis, delbecq
categorie: africa, turner, ligeti, ellis, delbecq
