ARUAN ORTIZ TRIO - Hidden Voices
Intakt CD 258 / 2016
Aruan Ortiz: piano; Eric Revis: bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums; with Arturo Stable and Enildo Rasua: claves (on track 3)
The CD opens with a simple piano figure that rises and falls before stabbed chords push it off centre. The drums and bass then join to further dislocate the rhythm. After a pause for breath midway through, the piece gallops to gloriously frenetic finish. The piece is called ‘Fractal Sketches’. While the ‘fractal’ part of the title makes sense, with the impression of repeated patterns, the term ‘sketches’ (implying rough drafts of a piece) is not entirely appropriate. As with all the pieces on this CD, this is a well formed, accomplished (if challenging), example of contemporary jazz composition. There is, across the pieces, a strong emphasis on the piano as a member of the rhythm section with the percussive attack from Ortiz’s struck chords pushing and pulling the music. Gerald Cleaver, a major force in avant garde drumming, sets up swirling drum patterns that provide a perfect foil for the piano. Eric Revis, on bass, blends the ‘Joyful Noises’ (to use a title from another of the tracks) of the trio with lines that reflect the tumbling arpeggios and thundered chords of the Ortiz.
There is, in the titles in hint of exploring and distorting (mathematical) structures, e.g., ‘Fractal Sketches’, ‘Analytical Symmetry’, ‘Arabesques of a Geometrical Rose (Spring, Summer)’. The pieces feel as if they have taken themes and rhythmically pulled these apart to reveal unusual and unfamiliar aspects. In his liner notes, Ted Panken quotes Ortiz, saying that he has been “flirting with atonal and serial music…finding harmonic movements that might not be familiar to some ears and adding some Cuban Cubism to the palette.” Ortiz credits this approach to his work with mentor Muhal Richard Abrams. This notion of Cuban Cubism neatly encapsulates the tone of the set. The cubism reflects the sense of decomposition of the familiar into the jarringly confusing. The Cuban reflects Ortiz’s Cuban-Haitian heritage. Born in Cuba, Ortiz recorded his first CD in Spain in 1996, and then attended the Berklee School of Music. Throughout the pieces, you get the sense of Cuban rhythms being recast through the lens of a composer comfortable with modern classical music and familiar with the traditions of jazz. The closing track, ‘Uno, dos y tres, que paso mas chevere’, is a popular tune in Cuba. But rather than playing this as a straight Cuban piece, Ortiz draws out the opening notes and pulls the tune into less familiar territory.
Given the style of playing, it is no surprise to find tunes from Ornette Coleman (Open and Close / The Sphinx) and Thelonious Monk (Skippy) in the set. What is interesting is the way these pieces are decomposed into their rhythmic essence; where other players might seek to play the surface tunes, Ortiz find depth in the structure of the rhythms they imply.
ReviewdChris Baber
Intakt CD 258 / 2016
Aruan Ortiz: piano; Eric Revis: bass; Gerald Cleaver: drums; with Arturo Stable and Enildo Rasua: claves (on track 3)
The CD opens with a simple piano figure that rises and falls before stabbed chords push it off centre. The drums and bass then join to further dislocate the rhythm. After a pause for breath midway through, the piece gallops to gloriously frenetic finish. The piece is called ‘Fractal Sketches’. While the ‘fractal’ part of the title makes sense, with the impression of repeated patterns, the term ‘sketches’ (implying rough drafts of a piece) is not entirely appropriate. As with all the pieces on this CD, this is a well formed, accomplished (if challenging), example of contemporary jazz composition. There is, across the pieces, a strong emphasis on the piano as a member of the rhythm section with the percussive attack from Ortiz’s struck chords pushing and pulling the music. Gerald Cleaver, a major force in avant garde drumming, sets up swirling drum patterns that provide a perfect foil for the piano. Eric Revis, on bass, blends the ‘Joyful Noises’ (to use a title from another of the tracks) of the trio with lines that reflect the tumbling arpeggios and thundered chords of the Ortiz.
There is, in the titles in hint of exploring and distorting (mathematical) structures, e.g., ‘Fractal Sketches’, ‘Analytical Symmetry’, ‘Arabesques of a Geometrical Rose (Spring, Summer)’. The pieces feel as if they have taken themes and rhythmically pulled these apart to reveal unusual and unfamiliar aspects. In his liner notes, Ted Panken quotes Ortiz, saying that he has been “flirting with atonal and serial music…finding harmonic movements that might not be familiar to some ears and adding some Cuban Cubism to the palette.” Ortiz credits this approach to his work with mentor Muhal Richard Abrams. This notion of Cuban Cubism neatly encapsulates the tone of the set. The cubism reflects the sense of decomposition of the familiar into the jarringly confusing. The Cuban reflects Ortiz’s Cuban-Haitian heritage. Born in Cuba, Ortiz recorded his first CD in Spain in 1996, and then attended the Berklee School of Music. Throughout the pieces, you get the sense of Cuban rhythms being recast through the lens of a composer comfortable with modern classical music and familiar with the traditions of jazz. The closing track, ‘Uno, dos y tres, que paso mas chevere’, is a popular tune in Cuba. But rather than playing this as a straight Cuban piece, Ortiz draws out the opening notes and pulls the tune into less familiar territory.
Given the style of playing, it is no surprise to find tunes from Ornette Coleman (Open and Close / The Sphinx) and Thelonious Monk (Skippy) in the set. What is interesting is the way these pieces are decomposed into their rhythmic essence; where other players might seek to play the surface tunes, Ortiz find depth in the structure of the rhythms they imply.
ReviewdChris Baber
