{"id":10985,"date":"2019-03-12T21:51:21","date_gmt":"2019-03-13T04:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=10985"},"modified":"2019-03-12T21:58:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-13T04:58:48","slug":"recent-listening-in-brief-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2019\/03\/recent-listening-in-brief-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening, In Brief"},"content":{"rendered":"

Albums are arriving for consideration in batches that have my poor postlady groaning down the sidewalk toward the mailbox. Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s review is intended to be the start of the latest Rifftides<\/em> attempt to catch up. (If the jazz record business is dying, it has a funny way of showing it.)<\/p>\n

Daniel Szabo<\/strong>, Visionary<\/a> (Fuzzy Music)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The liner essay in pianist and composer Szabo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s album, and the publicity surrounding its release, stress the music\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eclecticism. It is true that Szabo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work reflects influences of jazz, classical and modern European music. But more striking is that the music has coherence and\u00e2\u20ac\u201dfor lack of a more exact term\u00e2\u20ac\u201da distinct personality. Szabo combines his piano, a woodwind sextet and a string quartet in scores that have consistent spirit and a point of view. The voicings across and within the horn and string sections, and the variety of rhythmic displacements, are advanced by a rhythm section sparked by the remarkable drummer Peter Erskine. Erskine\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cymbal splashes and brush work in the final extension of the Szabo composition \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Floating\u00e2\u20ac\u009d are at once compelling and relaxing. That is just one instance of his ability to imbue the character of a performance. Among the other stars in Szabo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s galaxy are saxophonist Kim Richmond, who shines on soprano sax in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cosmic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and on alto in Szabo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arrangement of Wayne Shorter\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Infant Eyes,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the only composition in the album not by Szabo. Another Los Angeles veteran reedman, Bob Sheppard, solos with notable spirit elsewhere\"\"<\/a> in the album on both flute and tenor saxophone. Sara Andon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s flute is an essential lead voice in several pieces, stunningly in the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s closing piece, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Underwater.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Szabo (pictured right) discloses in his liner information that his \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Cosmic\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Inspired by the adagio movement of Bela Bartok\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 2nd Piano concerto. That is an acknowledgement of the importance in Szabo\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life of the Hungarian homeland where he began his musical journey. He studied in the US at the New England Conservatory. His doctorate in music is from the University of Southern California. Now a thoroughgoing Californian, he teaches at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Albums are arriving for consideration in batches that have my poor postlady groaning down the sidewalk toward the mailbox. Today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s review is intended to be the start of the latest Rifftides attempt to catch up. (If the jazz record business is dying, it has a funny way of showing it.) Daniel Szabo, Visionary (Fuzzy Music) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-main","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}