TITLE "Reflections" PERFORMER "Alina Bzhezhinska & HipHarpCollective" CATALOG 0196292685176 REM GENRE "Jazz" REM DATE "2022" REM DISCID 930EC20C REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_GAIN -2.87 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_ALBUM_PEAK 0.977448 FILE "01 - Soul Vibration.flac" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Soul Vibration" ISRC GBEQT2100320 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -5.30 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977448 INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "For Carrol" ISRC GBEQT2100321 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -3.75 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977417 INDEX 00 04:16:09 FILE "02 - For Carrol.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Fire" ISRC GBEQT2100322 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -3.17 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977386 INDEX 00 06:37:74 FILE "03 - Fire.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Reflections" ISRC GBEQT2100323 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN 0.13 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.924988 INDEX 00 07:10:28 FILE "04 - Reflections.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Afro Blue" ISRC GBEQT2100324 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -2.95 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977386 INDEX 00 03:44:44 FILE "05 - Afro Blue.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Alabama" ISRC GBEQT2100325 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -2.30 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.903076 INDEX 00 05:26:33 FILE "06 - Alabama.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "African Flower" ISRC GBEQT2100326 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -2.47 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977325 INDEX 00 06:04:17 FILE "07 - African Flower.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 08 AUDIO TITLE "Paris sur le toit (instrumental)" ISRC GBEQT2100327 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -3.38 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977448 INDEX 00 04:59:27 FILE "08 - Paris sur le toit (instrumental).flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 09 AUDIO TITLE "Sans End" ISRC GBEQT2100328 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -1.12 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977417 INDEX 00 03:45:08 FILE "09 - Sans End.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 10 AUDIO TITLE "Action Line" ISRC GBEQT2100329 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -2.73 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977386 INDEX 00 05:38:36 FILE "10 - Action Line.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 11 AUDIO TITLE "Paris sur le toit (feat. Sanity & Tom They/Them)" ISRC GBEQT2100330 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN -3.56 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.977386 INDEX 00 05:01:64 FILE "11 - Paris sur le toit (feat. Sanity & Tom They-Them).flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 12 AUDIO TITLE "Meditation" ISRC GBEQT2100331 REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_GAIN 1.68 dB REM REPLAYGAIN_TRACK_PEAK 0.945312 INDEX 00 03:46:08 FILE "12 - Meditation.flac" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00
Review by Thom Jurek
For several years Alina Bzhezhinska, a Ukraine-born, Warsaw Conservatoire-trained, London-based harpist and composer, has been evangelizing the harp as a perfect frontline instrument for jazz given its wide timbral, textural, and color palettes. Bzhezhinska and a quartet evidenced her argument on 2018's excellent Inspiration. Reflection marks the debut of her HipHarpCollective. Over a dozen tracks, she celebrates the jazz harp by interpreting modal music, building on the primary influences of jazz harp innovators Alice Coltrane and Dorothy Ashby. Bzhezhinska integrates their contributions in a modern sound rife with the sonic and rhythmic adventurousness of London's 21st century jazz scene. Her band includes saxophonist Tony Kofi, trumpeter Jay Phelps, bassists Mikele Montolli and Julie Walkington, violinist Ying Xue, drummer Adam Teixeira, and percussionist Joel Prime.
The set opens with a bumping, steamy version of Ashby's "Soul Vibrations" led by a rumbling, funk bassline and frontline violin, buoyed by sweeping illuminating harp. Framed by drummer and percussionist, she begins soloing on the melody, then returns for a head-to-head with the violin. The original "For Carrol" commences impressionistically before Phelps adds bluesy trumpet to a silky, funky shuffle by Teixeira. The harpist bridges, contrasts, and juxtaposes their conversation with hovering colors, sweeping asides and hip fills as an electric bassline cooks underneath. "Fire," co-composed by Joe Henderson and Coltrane, first appeared on 1974's The Elements. Kofi's tenor is punchy in the swinging head with Phelps in this Afro-Latin groover. The tenor exchanges lines with Bzhezhinska in a flowing conversation underscored by massive chords and poignant arpeggios framed by wrangling bass, hand percussion, and drums. The title cut is a lush, temperate ballad with Debussy-ian overtones. A reading of Mongo Santamaria's "Afro Blue" features a guest vocal by Vimala Rowe that rivals Dee Dee Bridgewater's 1974 version. The improvisational interplay between singer, Prime, and harpist unfolds organically yet mysteriously before the horns interject a tough, swinging, hard bop theme. The HipHarpCollective dig into John Coltrane's modal bag with a drifting, somber read of "Alabama," featuring Kofi's moaning tenor above cymbal washes and resonant, crystalline harp fills. The spirit of Duke Ellington's "African Flower" remains intact, yet Bzhezhinska expands its harmonic palette with Kofi's soprano, whispering percussion, and her harp in place of a piano. While the instrumental version of "Paris Sur le Toit" illustrates the band's masterful injection of hip-hop and trip-hop beats inside post-bop, the vocal take with rappers Lady Sanity and Tom TheyThem brings the heat with the harp's rhythmic accents and the violin's atmospheric tension. "Action Line" makes use of blues and spidery, funky neo-soul. Bzhezhinska's gutbucket theme and tight, canny solo hang above the rumbling rhythm section's interplay -- complete with Teixeira's killer cowbell. (Cadet arrangers/producers Richard Evans and Charles Stepney likely grinned in heaven after hearing it.) Reflections is a seamless whole. Bzhezhinska and her band craft a music equating timeless tradition and future vision without sacrificing emotion or taste.
Состав
Alina Bzhezhinska - harp
Tony Kofi - tenor saxophone and soprano saxophones (#3,5-7)
Jay Phelps - trumpet (#2,3,5)
Mikele Montolli - electric bass and double bass (#1-3,5,7-9,11,12)
Julie Walkington - double bass (#4,12)
Ying Xue - violin and viola (#1,8,11)
Adam Teixeira - drums (#1-5,7-12)
Joel Prime - percussion (#1-3,5-12)
Vimala Rowe - vocals (#5)
Sanity, Tom They - rap (#11) Recorded at First Factory, London.
Алина Бжежинска - арфистка (чрезвычайно модный сейчас инструмент на современной джазовой сцене), и ее альбом Reflection, вышедший в сентябре прошлого года, произвел фурор в джазовых кругах. Алина родилась во Львове в украино-польской семье, получила классическое музыкальное образование в Польше и США. Позже переехала в Великобританию, преподавала в Шотландской Королевской консерватории. Всерьез заинтересовавшись современным джазом, она переехала в Лондон (безусловно, один из главных городов на карте контемпорари джаза), где и записала свой первый альбом Inspiration в 2018 году, получивший восторженные отзывы от слушателей и прессы.
Reflection - второй альбом Алины, который она записала с группой HipHarpCollective. И это прекрасная запись, по духу очень близкая к соул-джазу, который в 60-70-х в промышленных масштабах поставлял лейбл Blue Note. Что хорошо на этой записи? Минимум продюсерской работы. Очевидно, что большая часть материала записана живьем, поэтому здесь жизнь бьет через край - все звучит слегка расхлябанно, ритм-секция выдает прекрасные фанки-грувы с богатой перкуссионной работой, солирующие труба и саксофон передают друг другу эстафету нот и чувств, и, конечно же, блестящая игра и саунд Алины, которая, будучи музыкантом с классическим образованием, применяет к арфе современные эмоциональные исполнительские штуки, работая со звукоизвлечением и импровизацией.
