1. Hi-Lee
2. Rubato
3. Baby Suite
4. Starry-Eyed
5. Marshmallow
6. Farewell to Arms
7. Featherbed
8. Beautiful You
9. Hi-Lee (reprise)
Lena Bloch – Tenor sax
Dave Miller – Guitar
Cameron Brown – Bass
Billy Mintz – Drums
When I was a teenager, my father brought home a record by a pianist
called Lennie Tristano. The music sounded unusual, complex, intriguing.
Tristano was forging a new style, which depended on precision and
technical assurance. It was “cool” and even embraced free improvisation
years before the arrival of such improvisers as Ornette Coleman. Tristano
frequently recorded with his closest pupils, who included Lee Konitz,
Warne Marsh and Billy Bauer.
What has this got to do with Lena Bloch, a Russian tenor-saxist who now lives in Brooklyn? Well, altoist Lee Konitz was one of her mentors, and Lena often
makes the tenor sax sound like Konitz’s alto. Konitz introduced her to the music of Warne Marsh. And this debut album reveals an artist who is revisiting
some of the characteristics of the Tristano school. This means that Lena’s music is exploratory and often difficult to follow, especially as it includes
free improvisation.
The CD opens with Hi-Lee, a tribute to Lee Konitz. It has the saxophone twisting contrapuntally against the bass and then the guitar. Rubato is listed as a composition by guitarist Dave Miller but it consists mainly of disjointed free improvisation, plus a drum solo which mainly
relies on Billy Mintz striking one cymbal after another.
Starry Eyed
is virtually a gently exploratory version of Gene DePaul’s tune Star Eyes, with some unexpected voicings from the guitar. Lena Bloch says she was
“intensely thinking of Warne Marsh” when she wrote it (or rather adapted it), and her saxophone sounds like a cross between Warne Marsh and Lee Konitz.
Warne Marsh’s Marshmallow is very much in the Tristano style, as the guitar shadows the tenor sax in the way that Billy Bauer used to do with
Warne Marsh.
Farewell to Arms
is a serpentine piece on which the sax and the guitar interweave mysteriously. Featherbed opens with another disorderly drum solo leading into an
up-tempo number with echoes of You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To. The similarity to the chord sequence of that song gives the track an intelligible
structure which makes it approachable. Billy Mintz’s Beautiful You is a pensive ballad which features different instruments providing their own
interpretations.
Lennie Tristano’s music never really attracted a large audience, possibly
because it was intellectually rigorous and made no attempt to be readily
accessible. But it is interesting that an artist like Lena Bloch thinks
the style is worth exploring, as it is. Her debut CD is partly successful
in this, although some tracks are more coherent than others.
Tony Augarde
www.augardebooks.co.uk
CD Reviews
Thirteenth Note TNR 006
