John Fordham 

Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman: Birdies for Lulu review – composition and improv in balance

Violin-and-piano duo Sylvie Courvoisier and Mark Feldman join a great rhythm section for a set that balances improv and composition brilliantly, writes John Fordham
  
  

Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman, Billy Mintz and Scott Colley
Maestros of the game … (from left) Sylvie Courvoisier, Mark Feldman, Billy Mintz and Scott Colley Photograph: PR

Husband-and-wife team of former Nashville violinist Feldman and French pianist Courvoisier are so closely attuned as composers and improvisers that they virtually amount to a single instrument; but the changes that come from working with different rhythm sections consistently vary their fine albums. They are joined here by bassist Scott Colley and drummer Billy Mintz, in a virtuosic quartet that feels part contemporary-classical chamber-group and part progressive jazz band. Cards for Capitaine passes through rugged piano poundings, nimble pizzicato pluckings, percussive sounds and high-end whistles, then fast Ornette Coleman-like free swing, to a lyrical and meditative finale. Shmear features dazzling uptempo free jazz; the frosty, moonlit Natarajasana is mostly hypnotically quiet; and Travesuras keeps sounding as if it's going to be You and the Night and the Music, but jolts off into angular Monkishness. Composition and improv held in balance by maestros of the game.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*