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I, Claudia

by Claudia Quintet
Cuneiform, Silver Springs, MD, 2004
Audio CD, Rune 187, $13
Distributor’s website: http://cunieformrecords.com

Semi-Formal

by Claudia Quintet
Cuneiform, Silver Springs, MD, 2004
Audio CD, Rune 217, $13
Distributor’s website: http://cunieformrecords.com

Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University

mosher@svsu.edu

One standard by which I judge music these days is how well it inspires art students in my Drawing and Design classes. The opinions of these young people matter, for I recall unjaded (though stridently judgmental) reactions to what I heard as an undergraduate. So in composing this review, I mix their reactions in with my own.

I, Claudia is the 2004 CD by the Claudia Quintet, a combo led by drummer John Hollenbeck (www.johnhollenbeck.com) is which percussion is often given primacy. The beat that propels "Just Like Him" then wears an infectious four-note riff Matt Moran’s vibes pitted against Chris Speed’s Roxy Music reeds for some bracing breakfast music. A weird klaxon or air raid siren––then an accordion––transitions the piece to a mellower mood. There is a similar, busy urbanity to " . . . can you get through this life with a good heart?"

"Opening" suggests Brian Eno’s ambient theatricality, perhaps Tangerine Dream playing a dutiful elves’ workshop march. In other cuts Hollenbeck’s beat is less insistent. "Couch" is quiet and contemplative, evocative of foghorns and nocturnal seacoast waves. "The Cloud of Unknowing", appropriately named, meanders a bit aimlessly. And this reviewer is still trying to figure out if the song title "arabic" alludes to orientalia or to the gum.

The 2005 CD called Semi-Formal seems to be better artmaking work music, at least for my classes. "Major Nelson" is fun Carl Stallings cartoon music, with tinkling sixteenth notes in what becomes almost a xylophonic take on the Batman theme. "Drewslate" has a middle eastern feel, a bubbling hookah full of notes that dissolves into a phone message, inviting a flautist to burst in; its insistent action-items beat marches towards a decisive ending.

The Quintet likes to speed up, or to each play in different rhythms, so their moments together feel as if they happened by chance. Easy to achieve through multitrack recording, it must be difficult for them to play live with each musician counting time in his head, blocking out the others. This is music for math majors, a sort of "Math Jazz".

"Limp mint" piles vibes atop a pleasantly off-kilter rhythm. "Susan" gives us daybreak revealing itself in a manner pleasing to Erik Satie, maybe Benjamin Britten, a faun’s fateful afternoon or 1950s serious TV drama soundtrack. "They point . . . glance . . . whisper . . . then snicker . . . " is more drummer-led jazz, this time made up of urbane snare and vibes, insouciant organ and lively sax. In contrast, "Kord" uses awestruck open chords at long intervals that chime like Big Ben on a foggy night, then fade into silence. The waterfront is then covered by nice jazz saxophone in the tradition of Pharoah Sanders' bleat or Lol Coxhill improvisations.

Though no vocalist is listed on the CD cover, my Midwestern art students laughed at what they called the "dying puppies" cut near the end. I found the organ workout "Two teachers" appropriate for the classroom, a sophisticated bossa nova with fine sax and rippling accordion working towards an ominous buildup. Nevertheless, an older, European-born student chose that moment to comment on how she preferred drawing to the accompaniment of classical music, rather than to jazz.

 

 




Updated 1st December 2005


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