Colette Michaan: Earth Rebirth

Colette Michaan's bamboo flute calls out over a looming drone as Earth Rebirth opens. Instruments emerge out of time to create a watery soundscape that becomes increasingly lush as John Benitez's bass brings in the tempo, with Yusnier Sánchez Bustamante's percussion chattering behind Luisito Quintero's swirling cymbals and Leo Genovese's fluid piano. Michaan mapped the composition minimally. The flute is a suling she acquired in her travels in Indonesia, so she sketched out its scale and gave some harmonic context. She discussed major time changes with the band; no chart. The imagery she held in mind includes a descent through the darkness of a birth canal, releasing into a bright present. "Earth Rebirth," a six-minute collective improvisation, is the captivating result.

Michaan is a native New Yorker of Egyptian-Syrian descent, a self-described "traveler" who is "crosscultural in my origins, history, identity, relations, and resonances." She has played with rural musicians in northern Thailand, Minangkabau saluang flutists in Sumatra, Iban musicians in Borneo, Rajastani desert and classical players in India, suling flutists in Indonesia, mbalax bands in Senegal, Gnawa and Andalusian players in Morocco, calypso and soca musicians in the Caribbean, and son bands in Cuba.

Earth Rebirth, Michaan's fifth album as a leader, reveals her deep roots in jazz. At age twelve, it was Eric Dolphy's voice on flute that first called her to the instrument and the idiom. In the late 1970s, she waited tables at the venerated Village Vanguard. "My three and a half years at the Vanguard were a wonderful time for me," she affirms. "Working there was a great musical education, as night after night I heard music that inspired me." Later, in the mid-1980s, she fell in love with the Cuban charanga and son traditions with which she has since been associated. Her releases reflect her depth and breadth as a flutist in the Latin jazz field and on global stages. (The YouTube below provides a taste.)

The album's outstanding penultimate track, Charles Mingus' "Reincarnation of a Lovebird," harks back to her childhood fascination with Dolphy. Mingus recorded the piece numerous times, often quite fast. Here, Michaan and her ensemble take metronome markings equivalent to his first recording of it (The Clown, Atlantic, 1957), albeit with a very different vibe. After an exploratory group improvisation, they adopt a medium Latin jazz feel, slowing down for a languorous interlude, then returning to the initial tempo. Following an inventive solo by Genovese, a son montuno is introduced and the flute takes a commanding flight, leading to a wonderfully warbling (bird)call-and-response.

Earth Rebirth is a beautiful mixture of jazz and Latin pieces, with a composition by Irakere flutist Orlando "Maraca" Valle, a lovely John Benitez arrangement of "El Raton," and a Concha Buika-inspired take on José Manuel Ortega Heredia's "Ni Contigo Ni Sin Ti." Abbey Lincoln's "Throw it Away," which has become a jazz standard, is particularly striking. Michaan heard Lincoln many times at the Vanguard, and seems to sing the lyric through her flute. Highly recommended.

Comments