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Re: Julian Bliss Performs the Wayne Shorter Concerto,

Author: seabreeze
Date: 2017-11-12 05:05

All the pre-concert journalism suggested that this would be a jazz piece. But, then, there is no particular reason why a player known for jazz improvisation shouldn't write a classical piece with no improvisation. The fact that Bliss has recently taken to playing jazz in public is also no reason to expect that he would play jazz in this concerto. I was surprised too that the piece came out like someone writing music for the big cinema screen, influenced perhaps a little by Hindemith with some exotic scales thrown in.

But the "Sherwood Forest" concerto is avowedly programmatic, an evocation of Robin Hood and his merry men in days of old. In that spirit, I think it works. It is jolly and English and bit folksy--an entertaining ramble through the woods. If sometimes the pied piper gets bit covered by the foliage, maybe that is part of the fun.

You thought "soprano sax," and I though "forest flute" when I realized that the soloist was never to descend to the comfortable registers of the instrument. Perhaps, that too is intended. Bliss does a wonderful job of "liberating" the upper register of the clarinet, playing with an indefatigable lightness and leanness of tone that I have never heard equaled. At a time when many players are leaning towards a wide, covered, dark, and heavy sound, it is refreshing to hear Bliss's musical and pleasing alternative.

The Shorter piece may not be great music but is it any less worthy than some of the showpieces Martin Frost is currently presenting? From what you say, the concerto may need some re-orchestration to put the clarinet more in the foreground, but Bliss on the radio take at least shows no signs of strain and bubbles along like a singing brook. He's an extraordinary clarinetist by any measure. If he comes anywhere near me to play this, I'll buy a ticket.

I heard Frank Shorter three or four years ago at the annual Jazz and Music Heritage Festival in New Orleans. His approach to improvisation there was very free form not unlike what Michael Portal does on bass clarinet. Lovers of most types of jazz from the past might not recognize what Shorter does now as jazz. It may be a matter of semantics, but he evidently improvises and writes music in whatever style he wants and is not much given to reprise old jazz hits or play at all to the nostalgia of his audience. Neither, for that matter, was Miles Davis. That may be one way of avoiding becoming a fossilized version of one's earlier self. Fans could yell at Davis to play the old favorites from the "Kind of Blue" days and he would whisper back, "go buy the record."

Post Edited (2017-11-12 07:14)

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