Jazz and classical music have been mixed almost since there was jazz. For a while the fusion impulse seemed to have flagged, but there are signs of a revival with composer-pianist
Ethan Iverson
arguably at its forefront.
Iverson
has been around for quite a while as former music director of the Mark Morris Dance Company, and later as a member of the experimental jazz chamber group
The Bad Plus
, but it is good to have his musical thinking available in a compact personal form. The
Playfair Sonatas
are products of the COVID-19 pandemic; they were commissioned by entrepreneur
Piers Playfair
, with a few months' rent as payment. The sonatas offer fresh approaches to the jazz-classical fusion question. All are in three or four movements, and except for the delightful
Marimba Sonata
, which includes a solo cadenza, they adhere generally to clean Classical forms. Yet within this framework is a great deal of variety. Partly there's variety in the layers of jazz employed, which range from traditional boogie woogie in the
Alto Saxophone Sonata
(which seems the most "jazzy" piece until surprises kick in) to post-bop styles. And the relationships between the solo instruments and
's piano are impressively imaginative. Recommended not only for fans of this unique musician but for anyone intrigued by the age-old jazz-classical relationship. ~ James Manheim