HEINER STADLER: Jazz Alchemy

Heiner Stadler

Jazz Alchemy

© 2000 Labor Records (790987702423)

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This reissue is proof that as a composer and visionary Stadler had few equals and that his music, made for deep listening and not a mere casual encounter, is compelling." -Jazzmatazz

notes

LABOR RECORD ANNOUNCES THE Re-RELEASE OF
HEINER STADLER'S JAZZ ALCHEMY

A pioneering album of merging jazz and contemporary composition.

"...moments that could excite even the most staunch traditional jazzman."
-Billboard's Top Album Pick

Heiner Stadler's Jazz Alchemy (LAB 7024) is a transformation more than two decades in the process, comprising wide-ranging variations on two compositions which he wrote in the 60's and 70, and recorded at sessions in 1974, '75, and '88. Classical pianist JOSHUA PIERCE, the duo of MARILYN CRISPELL (piano) and REGGIE WORKMAN (bass), and the trio of trumpeter CHARLES McGHEE (who at times plays two horns at once!), bassist RICHARD DAVIS, and drummer BRIAN BRAKE take Stadler's song structures beyond genre distinction by sublime acts of musical sorcery.

Jazz Alchemy -- actually an amalgam between the 6-movement work of the same title (Still Be-Bop, The Nod, Out-Rock, Self-portrait, Brooding and Latin Gretchen) and the composer's Three Problems (inspired by a line of William Faulkner) -- takes on the traditional conflict between written-out music and jazz improvisation. With the most modern of means, it sets out to create a resolution that is as new today as it was when these works and recordings were created.

Heiner Stadler is a composer, producer, and creative artist who has worked across the borders of Europe and America, of jazz, blues, world, baroque, classical, romantic and contemporary music. Born in West Prussia (now part of Poland), brought up in Hamburg, Germany, and a resident of New York since 1965, Stadler has been in the forefront of musicians, composers and record producers to cross over between modern classical music and jazz.


Stadler has composed and arranged works ranging from solo piano to big band. His widely acclaimed "Tribute to Bird and Monk" on the Tomato label received the highest rating in Down Beat. He is the recipient of 4 jazz composition grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and 1 grant from the Creative Artists Service Program of the
State of New York.

REVIEW / jazzmatazz

Jazz sometimes bridged a gap between itself and the world of the classical avant-garde. It could straddle the two evenly, or move one side closer to the other. A decidedly jazz-heavier 'bridging' occurred in 1975 when composer Heiner Stadler released his suite titled Jazz Alchemy.

Stadler created two suites of music, "Jazz Alchemy" and "Three Problems," and interspersed the five movements from the latter with the six from "Alchemy," almost like a double helix. Beyond this methodology came his choice of instrumentation and its application. For "Alchemy" he used bass, drum and trumpet, itself a rarity in jazz trio history, and one made unique when trumpeter Charles McGhee brandished two horns at once. For "Problems" he alternated between solo piano and a jazz piano-bass duo, the latter featuring Marilyn Crispell and Reggie Workman in pieces attuned with the free jazz of Cecil Taylor but where structure was more readily discernible.

"Alchemy" especially grabs listeners with its varying rhythms, each of which-a walking bass of bebop, a 'rock' line, a double-tempo stride through the avant-garde, and some off the wall Latin-provide the foundation for skilled soloing and interplay among McGhee, bassist Richard Davis, and drummer Brian Brake. Each alchemical jazz work, in turn, is framed by the piano or piano-bass excursions of "Problems."

Musicianship, instrumentation, and the interweaving of European and jazz are the tools of Stadler's creativity. This reissue, marking the revival of "Labor Records," is proof that as a composer and visionary Stadler had few equals and that his music, made for deep listening and not a mere casual encounter, is compelling.
- Jules Epstein, jazzmatazz

REVIEW / allaboutjazz

The concept of "Third Stream" and improvised compositions (composed improvisations?) did not die in the '50s. It has matured through the last half century to the point where the line between composition and improvisation has become extremely blurred. (Witness the graphic arrangements of Morton Feldman, for example, which require the performer to specify individual notes while maintaining a calculated course of pitch or intensity.) On discs like Heiner Stadler's Jazz Alchemy, it can be a real challenge to tell exactly where the composition ends and the improv begins. To use Stadler's term, the goal with this hybrid music is to attain a special kind of "calculated inaccuracy."

Part of the reason Jazz Alchemy works so well is that Stadler has enlisted some truly outstanding improvisers for the task. The title track (and its six reincarnations) specifies only a minimal harmonic framework: it's up to trumpeter Charles McGhee and bassist Richard Davis to interpret Stadler's sparse written arrangements into melody and harmony. McGhee plays short, linear fragments which frequently alternate with bass melodies. Bassist Richard Davis, who has experience with everything from Stravinsky to Dolphy, lends a particular versatility to the suite. Drummer Brian Brake, a Stadler alumnus, plays non obtrusively but sensitively, helping along the bebop, out-rock, and Latin feels of the different sections. The original 1975 rendition of "Jazz Alchemy" specified only a trumpet part, but along the way Stadler made the welcome addition of a rhythm section.

The most piercingly brilliant performances on Jazz Alchemy are two tracks delivered by pianist Marilyn Crispell and bassist Reggie Workman, who are experienced collaborators. They approach Stadler's composition "Three Problems" (Faulkner's all-important trio of money, love, and death) with a highly ironic flair. While Workman serves up a steady series of grooves, Crispell defies the force of conformity by punching out clusters and rapid scalar runs. Just when you think you recognize regular piano work over a walking bassline, Workman or Crispell head off in a different direction. It's this constant give-and-take pull that provides so much interest for the duo portions of Jazz Alchemy.

Pianist Joshua Pierce applies a twisted, harmonically challenging approach to the solo versions of "Three Problems." He leaps from sparse, bright, punchy lines to dark, harsh, pedaled chords. His solo performances illustrate the ultimate irony: Pierce applies a free improv-based style to partially arranged material. It's hard to tell if his playing more closely resembles modern classical or free jazz. Rarely does he allow a singing melody to appear; instead, fragments and clusters pop up intermittently, leaving the listener to perform the reconstruction.

With this multiplicity of approaches, there are bound to be plenty of moments where the listener ends up scratching his head and wondering what's going on. That may be the Stadler's goal: he certainly isn't striving to reproduce any obvious jazz idiom, but instead a series of partial fragments framed within his chosen context. For this listener, Jazz Alchemy is a constant process of discovery and rediscovery: jazz transformed into something palpably different.
--Nils Jacobson / allaboutjazz

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