Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Myra Melford: Snowy Egret

14

Myra Melford: Snowy Egret

By

Sign in to view read count
Myra Melford: Snowy Egret
Restlessly innovative pianist and composer Myra Melford brings her exploratory approach and her adventurous melodic sense to her 2015 release Snowy Egret with her new ensemble of the same name. The inspiration for this intriguing album is Uruguayan author Eduardo Galleano's Memory of Fire trilogy. Originally part of a multimedia performance called the "Language of Dreams" the music, full of provocative harmonic ideas and a cinematic ambience, plays as a soundtrack of an art film.

The haunting and wistful "The Virgin of Guadalupe" for instance opens with trumpeter Ron Miles' unaccompanied soaring cornet. Miles constructs a poetic song over Melford's cascading notes and drummer Tyshawn Sorey's martial, exacting beats. Guitarist Liberty Ellman's Spanish tinged, mellifluous monologue is tempered by the band's delightfully dissonant exchanges.

Melford blends together Latin-esque lyricism with the blues and a stimulatingly free improvisational style. On "Ching, Ching/For the Love of Fruit" for instance her plaintiff melodica engages Miles' horn in a lilting duet. Bass guitarist Stomu Takeishi and Sorey create a mystical backdrop for this soulful dialogue. Ellman and Sorey bring a rock & roll vibe to the second part of the tune.

Elsewhere on "The Kitchen" Melford abandons herself to thrilling and angular unfettered flights of fancy. Sorey opens with his thundering polyrhythms over which, passionate group refrains expand. Miles' free flowing, spontaneous phrases complement Takeishi's deep pensive reverberations. Flamenco tinged fragments pepper Melford's percussive solo with its circular, mordent chords and inventive lines.

A viscerally moving and bluesy mood marks "Little Pockets / Everyone Pays Taxes." Miles and Ellman contribute refreshingly atonal and intricately crafted extemporizations over the band's percolating flourishes. This contrast between the piece's cyclical structure and its contemplative and engagingly discordant content is what makes both this track and the album intellectually captivating as well as sensuously satisfying.

Always the bold artist Melford "scores" again with her new quintet. Even without the dance and spoken word segments that originally accompanied its content, the record stands as testament of her ingenuity and is a superlative work in its own right.

Track Listing

Language; Night of Sorrow; Promised Land; Ching Ching/For Love of Fruit; The Kitchen; Times of Sleep and Fate; Little Pockets/Everybody Pays Taxes; First Protest; The Virgin of Guadalupe; The Strawberry.

Personnel

Liberty Ellman: guitar; Ron Miles: trumpet; Stomu Takeishi: acoustic bass guitar; Tyshawn Sorey: drums; Myra Melford: piano, harmonium.

Album information

Title: Snowy Egret | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Enja Records

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

What Was Happening
Bobby Wellins Quartet
Laugh Ash
Ches Smith
A New Beat
Ulysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y

Popular

Eagle's Point
Chris Potter
Light Streams
John Donegan - The Irish Sextet

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.