August 17, 2010

Imani Winds: Straight Across Borders

Imani Winds has me confused. Its latest CD, Terra Incognita, reflects its preference for new music that pushes boundaries. But while the jazz composers it has commissioned — Jason Moran, Wayne Shorter, and one of its favorites, Paquito D’Rivera — most definitely write new music that crosses the line between jazz and classical, the Imanis for the most part play it straight.

It’s not as though crossover-with-class repertoire is new to the ensemble. When I initially interviewed clarinetist/composer Valerie Coleman in 2008, over 10 years after she had founded the all–people of color wind quintet whose name signifies faith in Swahili, she emphasized that the quintet’s members are all classically trained musicians who are intentionally branching out while retaining their classical roots.

Oboist Toyin Spellman-Diaz helped explain their motivation. “We really try to take music from as many cultures as possible,” she said. “Not just jazz. … It’s just necessary for music to try to branch out a bit while retaining its roots. We also play the standard classical woodwind repertoire, and love it. It’s just when you’re concertizing throughout the year, you can’t play Barber every single little frickin’ day. It’s just not going to work.”

Neither is the group’s present technique. If, as part of its Legacy Commissioning Project, it will continue to commission new works from established jazz composers, as it has done with all three pieces on Terra Incognita, the players need to loosen up. The difference is immense between their playing and the swinging sound of the great D’Rivera’s clarinet on his delicious composition Kites.

It’s not as though the well-trained Imanis can’t play fast. But for the most part, where D’Rivera and pianist Alex Brown play licks, they play notes. Nor can they speak their lines about kites with any sense of freedom.

This is not what you’d expect after reading the pretentious, adulatory, over-the-top liner notes, which proclaim that the “exemplary” quintet “go [sic] where few have been before.” So, few classically trained musicians have branched out into jazz and amalgamated the two? I think not.

Jason Moran’s four-movement Cane depicts episodes in the life of Marie-Therese Coin-Coin (1742-1816), an African-born American slave who was freed in Louisiana after bearing 10 children by the man who “owned” her. The music is meant to reflect the horrors of passage, the contradictions between Coin-Coin’s oppression and ennoblement, her establishment of the first free people of color (“Gens Libre de Couleur”) church in St. Augustine Parish, and Moran’s delight in New Orleans and Creole culture. Shostakovich’s horror I get; Moran’s, I don’t.

Wayne Shorter intentionally leaves his Terra Incognita shorn of dynamic and expressive markings, allowing the Imanis to make it their own. To my ears, the 9-minute version, available only on iTunes, works better than the 15-minute version on the CD.

As those who know Cuban-born D’Rivera’s artistry might expect, Kites is a delight. The first part, “Kites Over Havana,” conveys the joy the composer experienced flying kites as a child. The second part, “Wind Chimes,” is meant to extol the purity and innocence he associates with wind instruments. It’s no wonder that this is the third work by D’Rivera the Imanis have recorded — it’s that good. It also best suits their technique and collective spirit.