GAËL
MAEVEL TRIO
Danses Parallèles
Leo
LE-376-CD
BRUNO
ANGELINI
Empreintes
Sketch
SKE 333037
Core
sounds that are so deliberate as to verge on stasis and so subdued that
they're nearly soundless, French pianists Gaël Mevel and Bruno Angelini
helm two trio sessions that are technically impressive, but cry out for
variations in time and tempo.
One book written on Britain's New Romantic Movement in pop music is entitled
"As if Punk Never Happened," and you can create a similar slogan
for the piano music here. Mevel and Angelini seem to exist in a world
where Cecil Taylor, Thelonious Monk and even Oscar Peterson never happened.
It's a polite world where clean, to the point playing is produced without
telltale sweat stains and nothing is ever askew or out of place. But it
creates output that's so laid back and low key that it makes some of Bill
Evans' or Keith Jarrett's more restrained efforts sound like the boogie
woogie output of Albert Ammons or Pete Johnson.
Unsurprisingly
both pianists are about the same age -- in their late thirties -- have
classical grounding and prefer similar prim and gentle sounds. One of
Blanc-Mesnil-based Angelini's sideman gigs was accompanying singer Thierry
Peala interpreting the moody timbres of Canadian trumpeter Kenny Wheeler's
music. Mevel's introduction to improvisation came from studies with American
pianist Eric Watson, who in his work with Steve Lacy and others has shown
an excessively formal approach to improvisation. Mevel, who has also improvised
scores for classic silent films, seems to draw on the fragile, legit branch
of French improv.
Luckily both
Danses Parallèles and Empreintes do have a few saving graces. Mevel
plays a wheezy, German-style button accordion called the bandoneon on
one track, and throughout has the invaluable aid of bassist Jean-Jacques
Avenel, who has worked in Lacy 's band for more than 20 years. Angelini
features a bassist, Roman-born Riccardo Del Fra, who recorded 12 albums
with trumpeter Chet Baker, and thus should know a thing or do about delicate
sounds. Del Fra helps vary the textures on some tracks. Drummers Ichiro
Onde (Angelini) and Thierry Waziniak (Mevel), are similarly unprepossessing
to the extent that it appears that they're often MIA here.
In fact, on tracks like "Le pencheur de balance" and elsewhere,
Waziniak almost appears to be hitting a toy drum with modest clink clanks
rather than challenging a real kit. With the pianist building up cadences
of high intensity crossed lines only to subside into hesitant single notes,
it's up to Avenel's ringing, full-bodied bass line to guide the tune at
an adagio pace without losing momentum. Accompanying piano stylists like
Mal Waldron and Bobby Few probably helped the bassist with this concept.
Just as Mevel conceives of the rest of the CD made up of waltzes that
"seem at times to vanish," his methodical bandoneon playing
on "La valse naturelle," ("the natural waltz") brings
with it no joyous echoes of tarantellas, czardas or freylach melodies.
Neither do his low-intensity harmonic vibrations when he moves back to
piano. The only time he seems to forget himself enough to pile on soundboard-altering
octaves is after Avenel's spectacular bass solo. Although per the occasion,
it too resembles a showpiece at a legato classical bass recital than anything
more jazzy, at points he creates simultaneous treble and bass lines, resonating
double stopping and speedy octave jumps up the scale almost into viola
territory.
On "Autour de Sammy" on the other disc however, Del Fra's accompaniment
doesn't move much past restrained single stopping, with Onde's cymbal
smacks and continuos ratamacues as circumscribed as Jack DeJohnette's
work with Jarrett. Also, listening to the disconnected piano finger glisses
and low frequency vibrations from the pianist it's obvious that the "Sammy"
of the composition isn't the late blues piano specialist Sammy Price.
Price, who was a masterful swinger, knew all about silence, but unlike
this one his tunes never moved on a soft single note touch that gets quieter
and quieter until it fades into silence.
Empreintes' stand out track is "(Bokhyo)," which is also titled
with some unreproducible oriental characters. Using a bright, Far Eastern-styled
tone, the pianist gets more intense and varies his touch as he plays.
De Fra contributes scraping, aviary arco lines and Onde snare drum pressure
and a final ceremonial cymbal crash.
Most of the other tunes sound like ballads performed at half-speed. If
a piece like "K Particular" begins with what seems to be a forearm
smash across the keyboard, split-second build ups of flashing arpeggios
quickly give way to late night harmonies. Finally the performance builds
up to a climax, but subsides before resolution, sort of keyboardus interruptus.
Proficient
enough in realizing their desires on the piano, it's evident that the
ideas of both Angelini and Mevel could be more in evidence if their CDs
were a little warmer in execution. Perhaps a strategically placed alarm
clock or a handful of wake-up pills could get both of them to put a little
more "oomph" in their output.
--
Ken Waxman
Track
Listing: Danses: 1. Un oiseau sur l'épaule; 2. Le pencheur de balance;
3. La marchande speculoos; 4. Valse soudaine; 5. Judex; 6. La valse naturelle;
7. Perlude; 8. Le temps est à l'orange; 10. Un autre oiseau
Track Listing: Empreintes: 1. Aurores; 2. Autour de Sammy; 3. Confidences;
4. (Bokhyo); 5. Morceau de Sable; 6. Une Longue Traversée; 7. Caprices;
8. K Particular; 9. Valentin Danse
Personnel:
Danses: Gaël Mevel, piano, bandoneon; Jean-Jacques Avenel, bass;
Thierry Waziniak, drums
Personnel:
Empreintes: Bruno Angelini, piano; Riccardo Del Fra, bass; Ichiro Onoe,
drums