MARCUS VERGNETTE - The Marsyas Suite
Leo Records CD LR 791
Tom Unwin: piano; Roz Harding: alto sax; Janna Bulmer: violoncello; Lucy Welsman: violoncello; Marcus Vergette: contrabasso.
There is an earlier Marsyas Suite recorded 5 October 2012 at Jazz Brugge, Belgium, on the El Negocito label, released May 28, 2015 and performed by Evan Parker, soprano & tenor saxophone, with Peter Jacquemyn, double bass & voice, so if you are tempted by the current album, you may like that one too. The Parker recording is of course entirely improvised while the Vergette album is a dexterous combination of improv and composition.
The two albums refer to the same mythology, but I won’t bother you with it just now; it is easily looked-up on line. Interestingly though, the myth has a musical introduction. The goddess Athena invented the double-reed flute, the first ever reed instrument. She was very pleased with her playing and the sound of the instrument. It happened that she saw the reflection of her face in water and observing the distortion of her features (her ballooned cheeks) she threw the instrument away. Ah, vanity! The myth is also the subject of a 1907 musical symphonic poem, Marsyas, by Alfonso Castaldi and a painting by Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas, circa 1575.
Marcus Vergette is a composer and working musician (double bass), film-maker, and sculptor. He and his collaborators have produced here a virtual piece of chamber jazz music, actually quite exquisite. It really deserves the soubriquet ‘Suite’ as that is exactly how it is arranged, as an uninterrupted recital, in spite of the fact that each segment is given a name, like an album track. I can tell you that the story, the myth of Marsyas is horrible, quite. What this music achieves in its complete form is liberation from and purgation of that horror. It is restorative.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
Leo Records CD LR 791
Tom Unwin: piano; Roz Harding: alto sax; Janna Bulmer: violoncello; Lucy Welsman: violoncello; Marcus Vergette: contrabasso.
There is an earlier Marsyas Suite recorded 5 October 2012 at Jazz Brugge, Belgium, on the El Negocito label, released May 28, 2015 and performed by Evan Parker, soprano & tenor saxophone, with Peter Jacquemyn, double bass & voice, so if you are tempted by the current album, you may like that one too. The Parker recording is of course entirely improvised while the Vergette album is a dexterous combination of improv and composition.
The two albums refer to the same mythology, but I won’t bother you with it just now; it is easily looked-up on line. Interestingly though, the myth has a musical introduction. The goddess Athena invented the double-reed flute, the first ever reed instrument. She was very pleased with her playing and the sound of the instrument. It happened that she saw the reflection of her face in water and observing the distortion of her features (her ballooned cheeks) she threw the instrument away. Ah, vanity! The myth is also the subject of a 1907 musical symphonic poem, Marsyas, by Alfonso Castaldi and a painting by Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas, circa 1575.
Marcus Vergette is a composer and working musician (double bass), film-maker, and sculptor. He and his collaborators have produced here a virtual piece of chamber jazz music, actually quite exquisite. It really deserves the soubriquet ‘Suite’ as that is exactly how it is arranged, as an uninterrupted recital, in spite of the fact that each segment is given a name, like an album track. I can tell you that the story, the myth of Marsyas is horrible, quite. What this music achieves in its complete form is liberation from and purgation of that horror. It is restorative.
Reviewed by Ken Cheetham
