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Kaleidoscope of Rainbows
by Max Harrison
(Reproduced by kind permission, from ...Essential Jazz Records - Vol. 2
Modernism to Postmodernism” by Max Harrison, Eric Thacker and Stuart
Nicholson. Published by Mansell, 1999.)
'Kaleidoscope of Rainbows' is the final part of a trilogy, the other
segments of which are 'Greek Variations' (1969) and 'A Symphony of
Amaranths' (1971), and they are most advantageously heard in sequence.
Quite
apart from his listing Stravinsky, Ellington and Gil Evans as his main
influences, the fact that the middle panel of his trilogy is dedicated
to the two latter already tells us a lot about Ardley as a musician.
In his
quiet way, he was almost subversive. For each of these pieces draws much
out of little: before our ears, small seeds grow into substantial trees,
and such economy, not to mention such logical ordering of musical
material, is highly unusual in the jazz sphere, where verbosity all too
often reigns.
Inevitably, some people have argued that the results, particularly
because of the care and detailed planning in relating written and
improvised aspects, are 'not jazz.'
Yet the
precedents for what Ardley in fact did are obvious in Ellington and
before that in Morton; and in any case only authentic jazz musicians
could give idiomatic performances of these works.
'Greek
Variations' illustrates both the sort of compositional control exercised
by Ardley and the amount of freedom he gave his musicians. Employing a
nine-piece jazz ensemble plus string quintet, this piece is a sequence
of variations on a Greek folksong and as these unfold they gradually
shift further away from that source and provide a progressively freer
basis for improvisation.
The
nature of the compositional craft involved is such that while thoroughly
exploiting the potential of the chosen material the soloists' scope is
nowhere inhibited. Indeed the fact that one element can be heard as
enhancing the other is precisely what makes this an important
achievement in jazz composition. Similar comments are invited by 'A
Symphony of Amaranths', which uses a large orchestra including string
sextet.
In the
'Variations' there is improvisation both on Greek scales and on the
intervals of the folksong, this practice being taken further, in another
direction, by 'A Symphony'. Here the initials of the two dedicatees, GE
and DE, with some help from ACGB (because the Arts Council of Great
Britain helped finance the recording) provided motives and chords that
are sources of both composing and the improvising it enfolds.
Elemental building blocks are also at the root of 'Kaleidoscope of
Rainbows' yet the fact these derive from Balinese music indicates that
here is another piece that follows a path of its own. In its initial
version this was first heard in 1974, was scored for a large band of
conventional instrumentation, and was companioned by a group of dances
for two cellos.
'Biformal
from Bali' was the collective title of these two works but Ardley
recomposed the 'Rainbows', incorporating some of the cello material and
now employing a smaller and more flexible ensemble of acoustic
instruments but with some electricity used by pianos, synthesisers,
guitar and bass. At that stage the piece occupied a whole concert but it
is here recorded in a shortened version though still lasting almost 55
minutes.
The
fundamental musical elements in 'Kaleidoscope of Rainbows' are simple
Balinese scales of five notes, one known as pelog being the
characteristic scale of Indonesia while the other, slendro, is a
pentatonic scale occurring throughout eastern music. These are employed
as the sources of a variety of patterns.
Each
pattern has a certain combination of colours - a specific colour of
rhythm, another of order in its composition, and of feeling in the
improvising to which it gives rise. This work matches the range of
colours, if not quite of textures, found in 'Amaranths'.
Colour
patterns are made from the hues of the rainbow and it is as if aural
rainbows - the notes of the scales or the instruments of the ensemble or
of some particular rhythm - are chopped into fragments and swirled
repeatedly as in a kaleidoscope, resulting in ever-new patchworks of
sounds.
It was
originally intended to record this piece in quadraphonic sound so that
the sounds of the instruments would in effect gyrate around the listener
before settling into slow and stately yet still moving patterns. The
results do not seem Balinese, the ensemble could hardly sound less like
a gamelan, and there is no trace of 'ethnic exploitation.'
At the
same time while the music does sound very much Ardley's, there is a lot
of improvisation in the textures, some of this following Balinese
manners of procedure while evidently being perfectly natural to the
players.
In
Prologue the musicians enter one by one, each going through a series of
overlapping fragments using pelog notes but in different rhythms. Then
Rainbow 1 is a dialogue of linear phrases again employing pelog notes.
Almost from the first moment one's impression is of motion, of colour:
the textures are tightly packed yet everything dances.
While
there is much repetition of small rapid patterns here the result is
quite different from the products of minimalism - that village idiot
among contemporary schools of composition. Rather is there a unified
variety of endeavour from all the players, not least because although
the basic tempo is held, emphasis in other respects changes, with
various small ensembles of instruments briefly emerging and leading into
quite other kinds of event including a fairly wild Carr solo. Note also
the slowly fading coda.
The
becalmed Rainbow 2 could scarcely be more different from most of Rainbow
1, singing quietly to itself with beautiful choirs of voices, for
example flute, soprano saxophone, alto flute and bass clarinet.
Another
striking contrast is provided by the energetic Rainbow 3, with its
rapid-fire gestures. The shortest of these movements, this is a
collective improvisation developed over several performances in public
before the recording. After such activity, Rainbow 4, apart from its
opening repeated-note ideas, restores calm though in a way quite
different from Rainbow 2.
Included is a lovely rhapsodic soprano saxophone solo from Barbara
Thompson. Rainbow 5 is quick again, or rather it at first sets a
relatively slow melody against a much faster accompaniment. Later Coe is
exceedingly agile with his clarinet, offering a more daring, even
abandoned, echo of the bird-like flight of Rainbow 4's soprano saxophone
solo.
A
particularly atmospheric piece, Rainbow 6 is conjured out of initial
trills and tremolos, which recur at the end. It is made up of diverse
elements which seem, deliberately, never to come altogether into focus.
There is no particular solo voice and the music is somehow diffused
within the ensemble.
This is
shaped by the work's most original thinking and it is perhaps
unsurprising that Rainbow 7, the longest movement, is in comparison less
interesting despite good solo playing by Castle, Smith, Shaw and Bertles.
In
Epilogue, the themes reappear one by one over the opening bass figure,
this being reminiscent of the varied recapitulation of the finale to
'Greek Variations'. These lead in 'Kaleidoscope of Rainbows' to a
briefly rhetorical ending which confirms the impression made by Rainbow
7 that there is a certain lessening of inspiration as this work
approaches its close.
It
remains, however, Ardley's finest single work.
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