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Ms. Christie is
one of the most distinctive avant/jazz vocalists to emerge from the
downtown network over the past two decades and is featured on a handful
of recordings with William Parker and Jemeel Moondoc. Gary Hassay plays
alto sax and I only know him from a couple of recordings on this same
label, one with William Parker and Toshi Makihara. We were fortunate to
hear Ellen doing her unique style of vocalizing this past weekend at the
Vision series with Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Henry Grimes and Rashied
Bakr, since her live appearances are so rare. 'Tribute to Paradise'
finds this duo quietly exploring their unique sounds together in an
exquisite balance.
Both voices have a similar range and caress each
other gracefully, bending their notes around one another. By the second
piece, "3 Deuces Three", they start to sailing and swerving together,
again twisting their voices together as they explore similar terrain.
Gary also vocalizes on three pieces and does a fine job of interweaving
his voice with Ellen's is a special, connected way. It sounds like there
are few layers of vocals on these tracks, creating some marvelous,
mysterious ghost-like disembodied voices and a bit of throat singing as
well. This fine duo creates a very personal story or journey that
unfolds slowly and takes us along with them to new places. Indeed, a
very special and intimate experience. |
Downtown Music Gallery
Bruce
Gallanter |
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Most
improvisations are intrinsically doomed to vanish, but what was created
by Christi and Hassay in this session goes much further than the short
distance of a vague reminiscence. This music can scream or sigh, most of
all it pants while holding for dear life; Gary takes his alto sax away
from a meditative line and puts it around a chain of melodic oddities,
all the way through spinning phrases hovering like a bee intoxicated by
the barbecue fumes of a garden party. Ellen has a commanding vocal
authority that makes her able to choose the right path in every context;
you get free-style stutterings, (Meredith) Monkish hommages and in
general a display of genuine virtuosity going after new dialects rather
than post-bebop littlenesses. Pursing their lips, staring each other,
armed with a deep-rooted love for what they do, this couple conceived
one of the best duets you can hope for, the greatness of which - if what
I just wrote is not enough - is demonstrated by the three all-vocal
beauties they dedicated to mouthpiece craftsman Jon Van Wie, really
thrilling stuff in an already considerable album. |
Touching Extremes
Massimo Ricci |
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Tras
Blackwater Bridge (Gary Hassay y Anne LeBaron, 2002), disco que mostró
nuevos caminos de confluencia entre el saxo alto y el arpa y que ayudó a
redefinir las relaciones entre los instrumentos de viento y de cuerda,
elevándolos a un nuevo nivel discursivo cuyos ecos perduran en la
memoria del oyente, ahora Drimala Records ha decidido invertir
nuevamente en el talento de Gary Hassay, saxofonista y creador del
excepcional Another Shining Path, del trío Ye Ren, con William Parker y
Toshi Makihara – uno de los mejores discos de 1999, a todas luces más
que recomendable.
La gran
noticia es pues que Gary Hassay vuelve a hacer discos. Y ahora en
compañía de la cantante Ellen Christi, señora de una elegancia vocal
intachable que, de este modo, se presenta en esta propuesta de dúo
resultante de la combinación sonora de las voces de dos artistas
absolutamente fuera de lo común y que se inscribe en la serie de obras
con las que el sello de Hampton, Virginia, profundiza paulatinamente en
la esencia de este formato.
En este
sentido, la articulación vocal de Ellen Christi, fantástica cantante de
free form, se ajusta como un guante a la sonoridad de madera del saxo
alto del pintor abstracto Gary Hassay. Dos casos extremos de
subexposición, en un mundo en el que la música improvisada de este
calibre se ve condenada inexorable y progresivamente a quedar recluida
en un gueto, en favor de productos y subproductos de menor valor
estético y musical que inundan el mercado. Pero ese es otro tema.
Volviendo a Tribute To Paradise, lo he escucharlo varias veces, con el
placer renovado que se experimenta en cada nueva escucha gracias a la
empatía, intimidad, armonía y voluntad de comunicación de los dos
creadores. Christi canta con swing y sin palabras, en una sucesión de
onomatopeyas (scat) de definición brillante y limpia. Hassay controla
cada intervención con una intensidad impresionante, utilizando
tonalidades y texturas poco usuales, desafiando al oyente en cada curva.
Sobre Christi el diario The New York Times escribió: “Canta en un estilo
fuerte y cristalino, improvisando con el fraseo de Albert Ayler y la
intensidad de John Coltrane”. Esto queda igualmente patente en los tres
temas en que el sonido de Christi se funde con la voz de Gary Hassay en
un canto a capella de muy buen gusto.
Vale la
pena que el oyente haga el sencillo esfuerzo de intentar penetrar en el
amago de sonido puro, dejarse mecer por los cambios de la coloración
vocal de Christi, envolverse en los constantes meandros del saxo alto
que enamora a la voz de Christi y se explaya en múltiples y sinuosas
líneas melódicas. Parte del encanto de esta grabación radica en
descubrir progresivamente los misterios de la creación musical
espontánea, en el arte de descifrar estructuras complejas que al final
se traducen en líneas melódicas de fácil comprensión. Conquista cuyo
placer está felizmente al alcance de cualquiera de nosotros, desde el
momento en que nos dispongamos a escucharlo con profundidad. La paz de
espíritu que queda al final es la mejor recompensa que se puede esperar
de esta promesa de “Nuevo Paraíso”. |
Toma
Jazz
Eduardo Chagas |
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On
“Outside the Box”, the longest and penultimate track on Tribute to
Paradise, a collaboration between vocalist Ellen Christi and
saxophonist Gary Hassay, the two musicians enter from opposite sides of
the soundstage. First Hassay wanders on, blowing atonal lines of
approximate 8th notes, and then Christi arrives chortling carefree
high-pitched flurries of approximate 16th notes. The notes float in
their own tempi, and the artists seem to exist in his or her own
world—two musical actors declaiming interior monologues in the same
space. Yet as they continue, they take note of each other more and more
until they join in a kind of emotional hiccupping that leads to a little
bluesy ending. Such is the interaction of these musical adventurers.
They
open the recital with a melancholy lullaby. Christi punctuates her
wistful melody with a soft “tet-tet” sound and Hassay harmonizes with
air blown tunelessly through his alto. “3 Deuces Three” begins with
Christi evoking a hip bop song and Hassay scampering as if to avoid the
bebop clichés her line seems to invite. Instead her minor pitched
scatting grows in intensity, as do the saxophonist’s skittering lines.
“Mystery Within” starts with light jangling percussion that may just be
jewelry shaken about. Christi intones a lament in a scale that, with its
jangle of minor thirds and minor seconds on the fringes of conventional
tuning, could originate in the Baltics or any number of places to the
east. The keening sentiment is universal no matter how exotic it may
sound to some ears. Hassay complements it with spare playing, providing
comfort yet allowing Christi space. Only when she steps aside does he
release his own song that softens the contour of the scale. Christi
returns in full voice to resolve the track.
On
three tracks Hassay sets his horn down to sing with Christi. On two,
“Episteme” and “Anodyne”, the droning long tones, including overdubbed
tracks, are reminiscent of throat singing mixed with Laurie Anderson.
The harmonies are resonant, but not enough happens to sustain the
seven-plus minutes of “Episteme” and then “Anodyne”, which sounds like a
reprise. Christi adds a melody over the overdubbed voices on “Circle of
Life”, realizing the potential of their vocal collaboration. With
“Fireweed”, Hassay and Christi close the session in full flight, darting
and dancing around each other with lines that elude resolution and push
their technique toward its limits. Yet all the while they hint at the
limitless imagination they tap, both as individuals and in concert.
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One Final Note
David Dupont |
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While
the young thrushes with nice legs get the major-label contracts and the
magazine covers, Ellen Christi keeps making fine records that too few
will notice. She's an authentic jazz singer, an improvising
musician with a flexible instrument that shows surprising power when she
needs it. Sometimes she is a second horn duetting with alto
saxophonist Gary Hassay and at other times, shes' clearly in the
spotlight.
Christi
shows great versatility using mouth noises on "Mystery Within" and
building to almost operatic intervallic leaps. "From the
Beginning" is an excursion into long tones and "Anodyne" is an
overdubbed tour-de-force that sounds like a virtual Hi-Los singing
Ligeti. Hassay joins her on vocals on this cut and drops in a
little throat singing, to startling effect. A richly satisfying
effort that's just right in every way.
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Signal to Noise
John Chacona |
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