Dedicated to aleatoric music, American composer Christian Wolff is also unafraid to write for instruments rarely featured in concert halls. The live performances on Sveglia consist of works performed by Angelica Orchestra (consisting of seven Italian electric guitarists), a percussionist, a drummer, and Wolff on piano. Other tracks feature solos or dialogues from veteran American percussionists Robyn Schulkowsky, who moves between modern notated and improvised music, and Joey Baron, best known as a jazz stylist with the likes of John Zorn.
Wolff’s two pieces for guitar ensemble harmonize and disperse the interpretations of the forty-two strings with elevated tickles and low-pitched strums. Among its distinctive twangs and frails, Sveglia crucially includes a slower mid-section where the group attains jazz-like syncopation. The conclusion is more processional than progressive, though. Striking wood blocks, metal, and marimba, Schulkowsky’s idiophone variations are cerebral and unique, while Baron’s distinctive slaps, ruffs, and press rolls confirm his improvisational smarts. Still, the disc’s highlights are the two tracks joining the percussionists and Wolff. Strumming and scratching his instrument’s internal strings and resonating a pedal point, Wolff produces intonation as percussive as the others, while interjecting shrill whistles into the expositions. Baron’s cymbal slaps maintain cadences, while Schulkowsky’s marimba smacks accompany Wolff’s textures.
Wolff, who is now ninety, proves with this disc that his music is as vital as ever—when performed by and with the right associates, of course.
Ken Waxman is a Toronto-based journalist who has written about improvised and other musics for many years. Many of his articles on music can be accessed at <www.jazzword.com>.