# From roots to branches: Betty Carter, Rhiannon Giddens, David Berkman and more: Photos, Videos, Sounds
- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2019/03/26/from-roots-to-branches-betty-carter-rhiannon-giddens-david-berkman-and-more-photos-videos-sounds/
- Published: 2019-03-26T13:33:30+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU
**Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi, “I’m On My Way”**
The Big Ears Festival, which wrapped up its 2019 edition over the weekend, is a
feast of sound and spirit, with the promise of discovery around every corner. I
heard a fantastic array of music — everything from breakout British electro-jazz
trio The Comet is Coming to a solo bass recital by Larry Grenadier. Jazz Night in
America will devote a forthcoming episode to Big Ears, with an emphasis on the ECM
Records artists convened to celebrate the label’s 50th anniversary. (The Jazz Night
video team also shot a couple of concerts; I won’t spoil the surprise.)
But the very first thing I saw at Big Ears this year was a special highlight, and
a perfect way to hit the ground running. _Lucy Negro, Redux_ — an acclaimed new
collaboration between the Nashville Ballet, poet Caroline Randall Williams, and
composer-instrumentalists Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi — explores the
idea that Shakespeare’s “Dark Lady of the Sonnets” was in fact a black woman. With
brilliant choreography (by Paul Vasterling) and spectacular dancing (especially
by Kayla Rowser), the performance is a balletic tour de force and a cultural provocation.
It’s also a contemplative musical experience, featuring a “folk score” performed
onstage.
Giddens, a MacArthur Fellow and acclaimed singer-songwriter, plays an assortment
of stringed instruments in the piece (including minstrel banjo and octave violin).
Turrisi attends to a frame drum, lute and piano, to name just a few. The music,
so intimate in scale for such a grand kinetic production, has the effect of further
personalizing Williams’ narrative, and underscoring the folk traditions that flow
through our history like a stream underground.
A few of the songs in _Lucy Negro, Redux _were familiar to me, as traditional folk
material or previously recorded work by Giddens. One, “I’m On My Way,” was just
released as the first single from _there is no Other_, which Nonesuch will release
on May 3. Produced by Joe Henry, it’s a spare yet fully fleshed showcase for Giddens
and Turrisi, whose musical rapport feels as natural as breath.
Giddens and Turrisi will be on tour in the fall; they’ll also appear with Wynton
Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra from April 25-27, as part of a
celebration for Ken Burns’ upcoming series _Country Music._
**David Berkman Sextet, “Cynical Episode”**
An alert pianist and a resourceful composer, David Berkman has long been drawn to
the dimensions of a midsize combo. His new album features a number of longtime associates,
with saxophonists Tim Armacost, Adam Kolker and Billy Drewes forming a knockout
front line. Holding down the engine room are Chris Lightcap on bass, Kenneth Salters
on drums and a guest, Rogerio Boccato, on percussion.
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The punchier side of this band’s rapport is a central attraction of “Cynical Episode,”
which has its premiere here. (That far-out synth solo is by Stephens, playing an
EWI; he’s followed by Berkman and then Drewes, on bass clarinet.)
**Lage Lund, “Brasilia”**
_Terrible Animals_ is the excellent new album by guitarist Lage Lund, recently released
on the Criss Cross label. An assured outing that pushes against the constraints
of post-bop, it features Lund’s compositions for an ace band with pianist Sullivan
Fortner, bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Tyshawn Sorey. The album’s mood ranges
from introspective to explosive, but always with a firm sense of control.
You can hear that restraint on a piece like “Brasilia,” which rides a strong current
in an irregular meter (5/4, with an occasional bar of 6). Lund’s solo is characteristically
fluid, and Fortner’s, which begins just after two minutes into the track, strikes
an appealing tone of quizzical grace. This quartet, with Justin Faulkner filling
in for Sorey, will appear at the Jazz Standard on Tuesday night.
**Stephan Crump, Ingrid Laubrock, Cory Smythe, “Medium”**
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Bassist Stephan Crump, tenor saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock and pianist Cory Smythe
each inhabit slightly different coordinates on the avant-garde landscape, but with
enough overlap that they can easily find common ground.
That’s certainly the case on _Channels_, a concert recording made at a European
festival in 2017. Recently released on Intakt Records, the album is divided into
four longish tracks, the third of which is “Medium,” a freely improvised piece that’s
especially worth hearing for the delicate yet probing interplay between Laubrock
and Smythe.
**Betty Carter, “Social Call”**
Finally, a second helping of some good stuff. Perhaps you saw our album announcement
for Betty Carter’s _The Music Never Stops_, a dazzling live album that will be released
this Friday on Blue Engine Records. When we published that post, in late January,
it came with an exclusive premiere of “Tight!” — one of Carter’s signature tunes.
WBGO now has another track premiere from the album, featuring another calling card.
“Social Call,” composed by Gigi Gryce with lyrics by Jon Hendricks, is a tune that
Carter recorded with a Gryce-led big band in the mid-1950s. Decades later it provided
the title for an album of archival material, and made a big impression; Carter did
as much as anyone to turn the song into a jazz standard. Here, backed by a guest-
laden iteration of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, she sings it with the windborne
insouciance of a kite pulling at the end of a string.
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