Above Blue / Same River Twice [Import]

Myra Melford | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 6, 1999)
• Original Release Date: April 6, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Arabesque Recordings
• ASIN: B00000IJCC
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,861 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Two But Live

2. A White Flower Grows in the Quietness

3. Yet Can Spring (For Don Pullen)

4. Here Is Only Moment

5. Above Blue

6. Be Melting Snow

7. Through Storm's Embrace

8. Still in After's Shadow

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Myra Melford's second outing with her quintet the Same River, Twice is an impressive statement of both her stylistic range and her generosity as a bandleader. The pianist embraces the jazz avant-garde, but she also knows the value of a catchy tune. "Be Melting Snow" begins with a nimble unison articulation of an air that Chick Corea would doubtless like to call his own, then slips into a stormy, percussive piano solo that resolves into a sweet ballad statement by trumpeter Dave Douglas. Melford's writing is ambitiously varied, but also digestibly sequential. The title suite begins with a lush, near-classical exchange between Melford and Erik Friedlander's plucked cello, then launches into a gleeful two-horn steeplechase after a theme reminiscent of those Eastern European motifs that Douglas plays in his own Tiny Bell Trio. Friedlander returns to take a bluesy bowed solo that morphs into a Latin-tinged polyphony enlivened by Chris Speed's clarinet, which winds ribbons around yet another splendid trumpet solo before the composition's unabashedly melodramatic resolution. --Bill Meyer

From Jazziz

As jazz is a great river of music rushing through the 20th century into the unfolding future, pianist-composer Melford's quintet, the Same River Twice, confronts the paradoxical rapids of flux: how to retain identity, consistency, and spontaneity in view of meaningful experience being ever and always new. Just by focusing on this question, the leader and band face what's happening now, since most serious jazzers must struggle with a world of sudden and enormous change. That Melford and her band find some answers by being themselves - individualistic and original, yet also hyper-sensitive to collective sound - marks Above Blue as a work of art for seasons to come. Melford the pianist has a remarkable range, from straightforward, noble sentiment through complex, motivic development (in solos and backdrops that bespeak thought as well as feeling) to tempestuous outbreaks, and, always, a restoration of order. Melford the composer creates interlaced organic forms more akin to the supernaturalism of 19th-century Chicago architect Louis Sullivan than the geometry of his protégé Frank Lloyd Wright, whom she often cites as an inspiration. She's also extremely generous toward her fine-tuned ensemble, encouraging its members to improvise parts anew with each performance even though she's written episodes flush with chamber-group detail. Her aces respond enthusiastically with singing tones and unfailingly appropriate effusions. Trumpeter Dave Douglas and tenor saxophonist/clarinetist Chris Speed are as complementary as sparring partners; Erik Friedlander plucks and bows his cello with brio, foreground or midground or background, whatever is right; drummer Michael Sarin's touch and accents are firm but self-effacing. The music in each of the eight tracks here flows without hesitation or restraint from embodying Melford's soulful, sorrowful, and ultimately affirmative themes to interpreting them, frequently extrapolating way beyond their original design. The confidence to go so far into uncharted territory and the ability to carry listeners along then bring them back attest to Melford's vision and her team's trust in it. These attributes also signal that this tributary, merging into the mighty mainstream, has its own integrity, not to be swept aside or diffused by merely trendy tides. In the next millennium, jazz will be based on personal vocabularies like Melford's, drawing on, but also radically adapting, blues, swing, and a breadth of other "traditional" qualities. It will still be "jazz" if its players interact as they do here, closely and for singular effect, with expressive intent behind their virtuosic performances. The Same River Twice may seem twisty, even meandering, and sometimes untamed or "free." But to enjoy it, you need only lie back, settle in, and go with the flow.

REVIWER: Howard Mandel, JAZZIZ Magazine Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc. Copyright © 2000, Milor Entertainment, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this is what happens, July 18, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Above Blue / Same River Twice (Audio CD)

when you have well conceived compositions that direct the improvisations. The improvisations become purposeful and integrated with the moods and style of the compostion, which is superior to the "same changes, different chorus" mentatlity.

For all of his compositional skill, that is the problem with Wynton Marsalis's ensembles. Wynton writes clever and crafty passages, but when they come to the improvisation, nothing is retained from what was established by the composition, except the chord changes as usual. It is as if they were playing with Jamey Aebersold records.

Fortunately, we have Myra Melford.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Free love, February 7, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Above Blue / Same River Twice (Audio CD)

Like her Same River Twice bandmate Dave Douglas, Melford's compositions walk the line between structure and free with a wonderful intensity. For me, Melford is closer to a genre straddler like Don Pullen than she is to Cecil Taylor. Like that late pianist who combined the density of Taylor's explorations with the blues, Melford takes the free tradition and adds a bit of Zen synchronicity to her harmonic and rhythmic shakeups. If you like this, be sure to check out Melford's collaboration with Joseph Jarman and Leroy Jenkins in the group Equal Interest.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant release!, May 11, 2000

By 

Voice of Chunk (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Above Blue / Same River Twice (Audio CD)

Another brilliant release from Myra Melford's "Same River Twice" band. Melford's manic flourishes lean toward the more adventurous fringes of free jazz, but she also knows how to linger over a melody and let her virtuoso band take center stage. Sometimes she's the calm before the storm, sometimes she's a hurricane, but she's always brilliant. And for me, any CD featuring Dave Douglas, Erik Friedlander and Chris Speed is a must-buy for any fan of contemporary avant-jazz.