Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Marilyn Mazur: Celestial Circle
Marilyn Mazur: Celestial Circle
ByCelestial Circle leans further away from orthodoxy with the return of two artists who've been conspicuously absent from the ECM label in recent years. Last heard on pianist Bobo Stenson's Cantando (2009), it doesn't take long to realize just how much Swedish bassist Anders Jormin's resonant tone and singing lines have been missed. Jormin's ability to lock with Mazur into a spare but dancing groove, during pianist John Taylor's solo on "Winterspell," juxtaposes with his soaring arco and motivic harmonics earlier in this dark-hued pieceone of a handful of Mazur compositions interspersed, on Celestial Circle, with solo, duo and trio improvisations.
Continuing work with another ex-ECMer (trumpeter Kenny Wheeler) and a member of drummer Peter Erskine's seminal ECM trio throughout the 1990s, Taylor makes his first label appearance since violinist Mark Feldman's What Exit (2006), and his ability to combine trenchant lyricism and soft but angular voicings remains inescapably commanding, but in the most understated of ways. There's little overt virtuosity here, though it's never in question. Taylor contributes one composition, the opening "Your Eyes," and his expressive touch and contrapuntal interplay with Jormin and singer Josefine Cronholm are quickly established, affirming a chemistry built, despite this being the quartet's first recording, since its inception in 2008.
Mazur records relatively infrequently for the label, this being but her third as a leader following the all-improv solo/duo recording, Elixir (2008), with label staple/saxophonist Jan Garbarek, with whom the percussionist has also toured and recorded for many years. As much as her writing gives Celestial Circle its context, it's the nine improvised miniaturesmost under three minutesthat give the album its shape. Cronholm may wear the influence of Norma Winstone on her sleeve in the composed material, but in the improvs, she asserts her own voice, as rhythmical as it is melodic.
Mazur's clearly a democratic leader, but astute choices always bring her voice to the proceedings, whether it's the cymbals at the start of "Color Sprinkle," or the clay pot that gives "Temple Chorus" its pulse, as she joins Conholm in voice, as she also does on the more joyful, tuned percussion-driven "Among the Trees."
It may not follow piano trio conventions, but of Mazur's own recordings for ECM, including 1997's Future Songs, Celestial Circle stands as her most readily accessible, even as it explores roads less traveled, with a group already possessed of a distinctive and singular collective voice.
Track Listing
Your Eyes; Winterspell; Kildevaeld; Gentle Quest; Secret Crystals; Temple Chorus; Antilope Arabesque; Chosen Darkness; Among the Trees; Color Sprinkle; Tour Song; Drumrite; Oceanique; Transcending.
Personnel
Marilyn Mazur
percussionJohn Taylor: piano; Josefine Cronholm: voice; Anders Jormin: double bass; Marilyn Mazur: drums, percussion, voice.
Album information
Title: Celestial Circle | Year Released: 2011 | Record Label: ECM Records
< Previous
Art Pepper: Live In The USA And Japan
Next >
So Nice
Comments
About Marilyn Mazur
Instrument: Percussion
Related Articles | Concerts | Albums | Photos | Similar To