IRENE SCHWEIZER / JOEY BARON - Live!
Intakt: Intakt CD293
Irene Schweizer: piano; Joey Baron: drums
Recorded November 27th 2015 at unerhort!-Festival Rote Fabrik Zurich
This release is a welcome addition to the series that Schweizer has released on Intakt where she plays duets with drummers. Given that this series has included Louis Moholo, Han Bennink, Andre Cyrille, Gunter Sommer, Pierre Favre, you can see that she has a taste for only the most refined musicians – and New York drum-master, Joey Baron clearly belongs in this pantheon.
The set, recorded live, credits 3 of the tracks to Baron and 4 to Schweizer; given the spontaneous composition at work here, it is not always clear whether the credits should belong to both players. The set opens with ‘Free for All’. This is a title that was used in her set with Han Bennink, but it is not easy to hear to many similarities between these two ‘versions’. On this set, the title surprising in that the piece isn’t particularly ‘free’, in a jazz sense. It begins with some gentle arpeggios that have a clear melodic basis, with Baron playing soft cymbals to underline the almost bucolic feeling. Then the real piano playing kicks in, with Schweizer’s characteristic scuttling patterns of discordant notes delivered with verve against Baron’s rolling toms and rim shots. Then the piece twists into something with a vamping left hand that almost nodes to boogie-woogie, with glistening right hand work. Baron pulls out a galloping drum solo and then the piece closes with repeats of a simple piano pattern. On other tracks, like ‘String Fever’, track 3, Schweizer plucks the strings inside the piano or plays damped notes, all the while conscious of the atmosphere that the music is building and offering opportunities for Baron to juxtapose drum patterns with the sounds that she is making.
It can be easy to forget the breadth of piano styles that Schweizer employs. There are, in her solos, whole histories of jazz piano, as well as sizable hints of folk-inspired Classical piano suites. But, above all, it is the lightening fast wit and imagination that she evolves completely defined pattern of kaleidoscopic notes that defines her playing and makes her contribution to the art of jazz piano so unique. What makes this is recording a classic in the improvised playing is the wonderful rapport that she strikes with Baron, whose playing is every bit as inventive and invigorating as Schweizer’s.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Intakt: Intakt CD293
Irene Schweizer: piano; Joey Baron: drums
Recorded November 27th 2015 at unerhort!-Festival Rote Fabrik Zurich
This release is a welcome addition to the series that Schweizer has released on Intakt where she plays duets with drummers. Given that this series has included Louis Moholo, Han Bennink, Andre Cyrille, Gunter Sommer, Pierre Favre, you can see that she has a taste for only the most refined musicians – and New York drum-master, Joey Baron clearly belongs in this pantheon.
The set, recorded live, credits 3 of the tracks to Baron and 4 to Schweizer; given the spontaneous composition at work here, it is not always clear whether the credits should belong to both players. The set opens with ‘Free for All’. This is a title that was used in her set with Han Bennink, but it is not easy to hear to many similarities between these two ‘versions’. On this set, the title surprising in that the piece isn’t particularly ‘free’, in a jazz sense. It begins with some gentle arpeggios that have a clear melodic basis, with Baron playing soft cymbals to underline the almost bucolic feeling. Then the real piano playing kicks in, with Schweizer’s characteristic scuttling patterns of discordant notes delivered with verve against Baron’s rolling toms and rim shots. Then the piece twists into something with a vamping left hand that almost nodes to boogie-woogie, with glistening right hand work. Baron pulls out a galloping drum solo and then the piece closes with repeats of a simple piano pattern. On other tracks, like ‘String Fever’, track 3, Schweizer plucks the strings inside the piano or plays damped notes, all the while conscious of the atmosphere that the music is building and offering opportunities for Baron to juxtapose drum patterns with the sounds that she is making.
It can be easy to forget the breadth of piano styles that Schweizer employs. There are, in her solos, whole histories of jazz piano, as well as sizable hints of folk-inspired Classical piano suites. But, above all, it is the lightening fast wit and imagination that she evolves completely defined pattern of kaleidoscopic notes that defines her playing and makes her contribution to the art of jazz piano so unique. What makes this is recording a classic in the improvised playing is the wonderful rapport that she strikes with Baron, whose playing is every bit as inventive and invigorating as Schweizer’s.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
