{"id":7877,"date":"2016-10-08T15:30:04","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T22:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=7877"},"modified":"2016-10-08T15:31:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T22:31:27","slug":"recent-listening-izabella-effenberg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2016\/10\/recent-listening-izabella-effenberg\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Izabella Effenberg"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Izabella Effenberg<\/strong>, <a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/2dVKBgX\"target=\"_blank\"><em>Cu\u00c3\u00a8ntame<\/em><\/a> (Unit Records)<\/p>\n<p>This is the debut album of the Polish vibraphonist and composer Izabella Effenberg, who lives in Germany. The CD brings together an imposing septet of European musicians in a chamber music approach that coalesces elements of jazz, modern classical music and&#8212;for lack of a better catch-all term&#8212;world music. One impression is of European jazz that has developed in the Nordic countries and Germany over the past half-century. Often attributed to the ECM label, the sound encompasses a good deal of variety. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/81oj2Z8NOKL._SX522_-e1475965251693.jpg\" alt=\"81oj2z8nokl-_sx522_\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-7878\" \/>Still, Effenberg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ensemble does not float through one boreal mood after another in the manner of many ECM ventures. Indeed, there are passages of mutual improvisation and complexity that suggest Twentieth Century pioneers of modern music such as Charles Ives and Bela Bart\u00c3\u00b3k. The quirky opening track, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dings Bums,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d contains allusions to John Coltrane and Horace Silver&#8212; just two of the album\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quick side trips into witty allusions that often verge on the subliminal. <\/p>\n<p>Israeli vocalist Efrat Alony is a powerful presence on a number of tracks. In the title piece, she is notably effective with Effenberg\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vibes counterpoint, and then paired with the low tones of clarinetist Florian Tr\u00c3\u00bcsbach. On several occasions Tr\u00c3\u00bcsbach on alto saxophone and Norbert Emminger playing baritone sax exploit the contrasting ranges of those instruments without sounding as if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re emulating Paul Desmond and Gerry Mulligan.       <\/p>\n<p>Most often, Effenberg integrates her vibraphone into the ensemble, but on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like A Child,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she employs a violin bow to draw sound from the ends of its keys. Later in the piece, using mallets, she provides silvery commentary to Alony\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s lyric as Markus Scheferdecker adds a third voice by way of his double bass line. <\/p>\n<p>In this hour of music, there are many more rewards than reveal themselves in one listening. Recommended. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Izabella Effenberg, Cu\u00c3\u00a8ntame (Unit Records) This is the debut album of the Polish vibraphonist and composer Izabella Effenberg, who lives in Germany. The CD brings together an imposing septet of European musicians in a chamber music approach that coalesces elements of jazz, modern classical music and&#8212;for lack of a better catch-all term&#8212;world music. One impression [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","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-7877","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7877","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=7877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}