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Stefano Pastor
Transmutations Liner Notes |
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Transmutations
is my second disc and, unlike the former, which was meant as a project
founded on Italian popular song, is mainly based on writing. Transmutation of
musical elements (melodic or other) and their decontextualization
suggested to me these six compositions which originate from very
different materials to become something else. To transform into
something else everything it meets seems to be a peculiarity of jazz.
Songs, for example, gathered from many sources become jazz standards. The manipulation of
musical material in composition is a very fascinating practice and an
extraordinary source of inspiration to me. As a result these
transfigurations share the approach to modern jazz compositions,
including several experiences where Afro-American language has developed
in its history. A kind of jazz certainly transversal but, I guess,
authentic. In this recording I
also to pay homage to some giants of jazz who have deeply influenced me.
The music of Ornette Coleman undoubtedly represents a key point in my
musical experience and particularly in this work, that’s why the tale
begins with Bird Food, a starting point for most things to come
out lately. Seul B.
is the first transmutation originating from the manipulation of archaic
material. The main theme is built on a tetrachord descending from the
origin of blues. My use of this material is also a tribute to the music
of Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus who frequently used it in a superb
way. The second
transmutation named Nel Blu Dipinto di Blues, vaguely
conceived in Coleman’s style, is a free jazz piece founded on be-bop
harmonic, melodic and rhythmic material. It’s a sort of paraphrase of
the famous Domenico Modugno’s song called Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu.
I like to keep some legacy with previously album, that’s why I choose
to play again on Italian songs. The theme has a twelve bar structure,
suggesting a vague blues connection. Don Juan
is a composition based on Mozart’s Don Giovanni fragments. The
second time “A” section theme flows on the 2nd violins
“ostinato” exposed in the Ouverture and in the 4th Act of
Mozart’s masterpiece. This melodic fragment represents the terrific
apparition of the dead “Commendatore” statue. The “B” section
theme is built on that mysterious line who gives voice to the terrible
warning “Non si pasce di cibo mortale chi si pasce di cibo celeste”
(He who dines on Two rhythmic cells
and two harmonic patterns, different and recognizable, run after each
other dance “samba” in the forty bars structure Quarenta,
fourth transmutation. Bop, post-bop and latin elements collide to create
a stylistic short circuit over a typical Brazilian backdrop. Crescent,
by John Coltrane, is one of my favourites jazz discs ever since my
adolescence. To play this beautiful composition is an ambitious dream I
always wanted. This piece always creates great tension within me, so
different from the lyricism of Coltrane in that recording. The rest of
the group abandon their typical loud sound, however the hidden action of
Elvin Jones and the explosive strength of Rudy Van Gelder recording can
communicate to me feelings of tension and anxiety which I tried to
re-propose in this session. The double identity
of blues and free remark the fifth transmutation called Dimorfismo.
Here the more archaic meets bop and latin fragments, in a game strongly
polyrhythmic and polyharmonic. Even if the complete track highlights a
big ambiguity in styles, the historical vanguards often converging, I
guess the blues side definitely prevails. The Jule Styne
and Sammy Cahn beautiful song named I Fall in Love Too Easily is
a moment of lyricism and relaxation in a disc full of tension elements.
A tuneful interval entrusted, in the begin, to the first-rate of Piero. With its prolonged
polyrhythms and intense lyricisms, the sixth Transmutation Vucciria,
represents the dizzy contrasts of the historical market of Palermo, with
its frenetic life, to today’s crumbling state of this great
Mediterranean city. The melodic content is created exclusively on the
natural and altered pentatonics changing continuously during the theme. Another element of
continuity with my first disc: a Brazilian song to close the work. Some
time ago someone asked me who were the most influencing jazz musicians
to me. I think that a question like this deserves at least one hundred
names in answer. Without thinking too much I choose three names: John
Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Chet Baker. With this in mind I meant to
pay homage to these great Masters and Esquecendo Voce, by the
immense Tom Jobim, is my tribute to Chet and his revolutionary mode on
singing and thinking melody. Interpreting this song I was influenced by
intimate atmosphere of Joao Gilberto, Caetano Veloso or Eliane Elias. I
choose to use seven violins for accompaniment, so to treat the harmony
in a more explicit way than a quartet devoid of harmonic instruments. In
arranging I tried to express the pain of parting by a harmonization that
becomes progressively more abstract and ethereal in an interior and deep
suffering atmosphere, which destroys and prevents any external display
of such sentiments. Stefano Pastor
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