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Roland Dahinden: Talking with Charlie - An Imaginary Talk with Charlie Parker
ByIn case anyone is wondering, this is not casual listening fabricated with easy-to-grasp storylines. It's more like an undulating ebb and flow via disparate perspectives and strident outbreaks. And the musicians' imagery projects a musical vernacular that is devoid of a formal language, which of course is the realism behind it all. But these aspects are driven home amid the artists' telepathic discourses. It is perhaps the most interesting aspect of the entire program, as the musical content is seemingly a process, where the listener is given an opportunity to delve into Dahinden's fertile imaginative powers.
"Phonological Extension" assumes a happenstance and casual gait, escalated by the quartet's explosive intervals and bass clarinetist Gareth Davis' swirling lines and trombonist Koen Kaptijn's brusque responses. Here, percussionist Peppe Garcia sprinkles a thin layer of mallet tonalities across the vibrant horns parts. Whereas, "Free Morphenes" is a tad more intimate, paced by bassist Dario Calderone's poignant and timely notes, where the band continues emulating conversations with variances in pitch and an irregular pulse.
Dahinden's gyrating currents include perplexing micro-themes, edgy upsurges and moaning horns, aligned with a surfeit of emotive aspects, leading us to believe that not all these imaginary conversations are serene or amiable. However, the quartet turns the temperature down on the low-key "Drift," although the clarinetist's spry choruses initiate a bit of mayhem, aided by Garcia's flickering drum patterns.
Call it what you will: Avant-supernatural, esoteric, or loosely structured chaos and so on, yet it's an album that invites the listener into Dahinden's somewhat phantasmagorical excursion, lucidly portrayed by the quartet's perceptive enactment of the program's core theme.
Track Listing
Phonological Extension; Free Morphenes; All - O - Phones; Morphological Drift; Semantic Crossings.
Personnel
Charlie Parker
saxophone, altoDario Calderone: double bass; Gareth Davis: bass clarinet; Koen Kaptijn: trombone; Peppe Garcia: percussion.
Album information
Title: Talking with Charlie - An Imaginary Talk with Charlie Parker | Year Released: 2018 | Record Label: Hat Hut Records