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| Page 4 | Music - Light | December 2003 |
Special
Angel, Marilyn Lerner on piano, Sonny Greenwich on guitar
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By Alidė Kohlhaas Jazz is one of the great forms of music that enriches us with its various forms. Its roots lie in Storyville, a part of New Orleans where black musicians first played a music that had an insistent syncopation and, because many of the players could not read music, featured improvisation. It was played in whorehouses as background music, but it very soon left those places as the 20th Century progressed. Then, after WWI, jazz became the property of more schooled musicians, scores were written down carefully, and only featured soloists used improvisation on a theme. But, regardless of the nature of the jazz, the different schools of thought, it always had a driving energy. Even the blues, which wove a kind of dark, melancholy threat through the brightly and variedly colored tapestry of jazz, never lacked energy. Today, jazz seems to be following a new path if one is to judge by a new CD that features the well known and greatly respected guitarist, Sonny Greenwich, and the accomplished pianist, Marilyn Lerner. Called Special Angel and produced by CBC Records, it features 10 tracks of music that can at best be described as "elegant" jazz. The music is languorous, melancholy without having the slightest relationship to the blues, and despite some occasionally upbeat riffs produced by Greenwich, lacks excitement. Lerner's improvisations are mostly slender threads that are more background noise than serious creative inventions. Jazz, no matter which label it has, should never leave one feel bored. Special Angel, unfortunately, induces boredom by only the third track. By the end, one feels one has heard the same theme over and over again, even though the tunes are varied in name, and sometimes feature Lerner and at other times Greenwich. Of course, Greenwich is known for his writing of music and so he has had a compositional hand in most of the pieces. This might account for the sameness throughout, but not quite. It has to be more than that. It has to be attitude, not just of the players, but of the audiences for whom these musicians play. Today's adult audiences, those who might describe themselves as sophisticated, as we know from the prevalence of baroque music in the classical field, seem to be unable to deal with energetic, gutsy music. It cannot be denied that the two musicians play well together. They seem to sense where each is going and so they link up easily. But, what comes out this reviewer would describe more as music intended for barroom or dining room background music. Ah, you say, it is going back to its roots. No. Not at all. It has left its roots far behind. It is soothing, popsicle music, full of manner and empty of soul. To someone of the old school, in which one either danced to the music, or listened to it intently, and without ever daring to clink glasses and speak in raised voices while it was played, this album is a disappointment. Jazz just ain't what it used to be, at least not here. Elegant and languorous just doesn't do it for me. |
