The creative life of the composer Cergio Prudencio – a Guggenheim fellow and Platino Award winner for his score for the Bolivian drama Utama, an intergenerational meditation on life in the Altiplano amid drought and the fraying of old ways, and a vice minister for interculturality within the Bolivian ministry of cultures, decolonization and depatriachalization – remains inextricably linked to his work with the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos, which he founded in 1980 and continues to serve as emeritus director.
Honouring the traditional music of the Aymara and shining a spotlight on native Bolivian composition while also drawing inspiration from regional innovators like the Guatemalan instrument builder and electroacoustic stalwart Joaquín Orellana, the Orquesta Experimental de Instrumentos Nativos sought to embed not only Aymaran playing styles but aspects of their cultural, spiritual and other socio-political practises which continue to stretch from lakeside towns and rural villages to the working class neighbourhoods of El Alto and La Paz. On the bedrock of native instruments including the siku panpipe, the angular tarka blockflute, the mohoceños, pinkillu and two-headed wankara drum, Prudencio and his orchestra developed an avant-garde sound with contemporary resonance, which the independent Lima-based label Buh Records encapsulates in the form of a limited edition double-vinyl offering this week, from the martial drums, portentous lulls and bifurcating aerophones of ‘La ciudad’ to the five movements of ‘Otra ciudad’ and the ‘Cantos insurgentes’ which was composed as part of a soundtrack for a historical film on the highland struggle for sovereignty.
Swinging if not quite for the bleachers or from the rafters but in the direction of the dimmed ceiling lights of a dilapidated sixties prefabricated office block, the Preston troubadour, scabrous noisemaker and rangy choreographer Blackhaine cuts a swathe through England’s dreaming before restlessly walking away. Yaya Bey offers a treatise on time with ‘chasing the bus’ as she unveils her latest studio album on Big Dada, but whose time’s been a wasting and who’s left with a face full of dust?
‘Put it in your mouth and blow it’ was the message relayed by the researcher and interdisciplinary artist Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard to Quatuor Bozzini, the acclaimed string quartet which since 1999 has been a leading voice in new and experimental music. Fittingly for a piece entitled ‘Colliding Bubbles’, the quartet were asked to play harmonicas simultaneously with their stringed instruments in a subtle game of timbral and harmonic attraction and repulsion, swaying iridescently from surface tension to the gentle ecstasy of glistening release.
Out from under lilac skies, Arushi Jain adds cello, classical guitar, marimba, flute, saxophone and lolling or lascivious vocal strains to her stirring penchant for ambient synth ragas as she seeks to savour every aspect of delight. On the first taste from her upcoming album ‘Imagine An Orchestra’, she encourages the prospective listener to envision themselves as an extraordinary conductor where ‘pink ink and weighted paper, fine needles and shiny brocade, buckets of water and oceans of buckets, hula hoops and pom-poms all harmonize in composition’.
The guitarist and producer Dave Harrington, percussionist Max Jaffe and saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi conjure pensive vistas, caverns and crannies and gushing cascades from an improvised session on the afternoon of their first meeting. A judicious selection of material – a lyrical homage to Chick Corea by way of Stevie Wonder, a circumscribed take on the incendiary ‘Nonaah’ of Roscoe Mitchell, and the ‘Free Spirits’ of John Stubblefield as performed by Mary Lou Williams together with a reprise of Geri Allen’s ‘Drummer’s Song’ from their last album Uneasy – rounds out a typically piquant set of originals from the pianist Vijay Iyer, back with his trio featuring Linda May Han Oh on the double bass and Tyshawn Sorey on drums.
Francisco Mela and Zoh Amba continue to split the difference between the plains of Cuba, buffeted by the sudden gusts and thunderous squalls of the Bayamo wind, and the abundant forests of the Appalachian Mountains in the vicinity of northeast Tennessee. Two of the busier players on the jazz scene between Mela’s recent collaborations with Daniel Carter, Leo Genovese and William Parker and his upcoming Motions volume with Shinya Lin, while Amba has carved out a starring role in a couple of supergroups alongside Bill Orcutt and Chris Corsano as The Flower School and amid the steeped rituals and strepitus of Miserere, the duo last collaborated with Mela playing accompaniment on the second volume of O Light, O Life as Amba honoured her roots over two tracks packed full of folk melodies and spellbinding refrains. Now as they reunite for the second part of Causa y Efecto it is Mela who takes the lead as his impassioned vocals serve to introduce ‘Mundos Diversos’ where Amba plays searching and scurrying trills on the flute, and again on the provisionally spare ‘El Cisne Blanco’, a traditional song where the two artists’ sweet fusion reaches a caterwauling climax.
In the slipstream of his work with the Messthetics and For Mahalia, With Love, last fall’s stunning tribute with his Red Lily Quintet, the tenor saxophonist James Brandon Lewis still finds time to step into a familiar groove as his quartet with Aruán Ortiz, Brad Jones and Chad Taylor ready their fourth album on Intakt Records. From Brooklyn the trio of Charlotte Greve on the alto saxophone, Chris Tordini on acoustic bass and Vinnie Sperrazza on drums present their second album as The Choir Invisible, while a soulful live set from the Cleveland collective Mourning [A] BLKstar draws a ravishing curtain on the latest roundup of best new music.
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The Choir Invisible – ‘Membrane’
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Francisco Mela & Zoh Amba – ‘Mundos Diversos’
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Niels Lyhne Løkkegaard & Quatuor Bozzini – ‘Colliding Bubbles (surface tension and release)’
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Arushi Jain – ‘Imagine An Orchestra’
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James Brandon Lewis Quartet – ‘Swerve’
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Vijay Iyer, Linda May Han Oh & Tyshawn Sorey – ‘Prelude: Orison’
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Dave Harrington, Max Jaffe and Patrick Shiroishi – ‘Dance Of The White Shadow And Golden Kite’
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Blackhaine – ‘Be Right Now / We Walk Away’
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Cergio Prudencio – ‘La ciudad’
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