HALL/KOENIG/IDZERDA – Three Way Conversations
SLAMCD 580
Glen Hall, Tenor and Soprano Saxes, Flute and Bass Flute; M.J Idzerda, Electric Keyboard; Bernie Koenig, Vibraphone and Drums
Recorded in London, South Western Ontario, Canada
The album starts off with the drummer seemingly talking to himself for a short while until the tenor decides to comment on this when a duo conversation does get underway, and so it goes. Duets and triplets between instruments may often be represented as conversations, but I don’t find it significant because I see it as reducing the high art of the language of music to something at a baser level. Why not just call them duets and triplets or duos and trios?
More importantly, the musical interchange grows into something essentially calming and perceptive, though it does at times languish into near silence. Yet in every piece there comes something new, due perhaps to the ever-changing constructions, whether in duo or trio.
The tone from the tenor is large and robust, but by contrast the soprano is eel-like in its game of ‘Tick’ with Idzerda’s electrics. All three might create a mêlée, all improvising together and with many a giggle, as they fashion such entertainment from their new sounds. Glen Hall’s wide-ranging involvement with the genre shows and the spontaneity is nigh-on inflammable.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
SLAMCD 580
Glen Hall, Tenor and Soprano Saxes, Flute and Bass Flute; M.J Idzerda, Electric Keyboard; Bernie Koenig, Vibraphone and Drums
Recorded in London, South Western Ontario, Canada
The album starts off with the drummer seemingly talking to himself for a short while until the tenor decides to comment on this when a duo conversation does get underway, and so it goes. Duets and triplets between instruments may often be represented as conversations, but I don’t find it significant because I see it as reducing the high art of the language of music to something at a baser level. Why not just call them duets and triplets or duos and trios?
More importantly, the musical interchange grows into something essentially calming and perceptive, though it does at times languish into near silence. Yet in every piece there comes something new, due perhaps to the ever-changing constructions, whether in duo or trio.
The tone from the tenor is large and robust, but by contrast the soprano is eel-like in its game of ‘Tick’ with Idzerda’s electrics. All three might create a mêlée, all improvising together and with many a giggle, as they fashion such entertainment from their new sounds. Glen Hall’s wide-ranging involvement with the genre shows and the spontaneity is nigh-on inflammable.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
