June 21, 2019

  • Hevreh Ensemble Debuts on Ansonica

     

    A Path of Light
    Hevreh Ensemble: Jeff Adler, bass clarinet/Native American flutes; Judith Dansker, oboe/Native American flute; Laurie Friedman, clarinet/Native American flute; Adam Morrison, piano/keyboards.
    ETHEL: Ralph Farris, viola/vocals/minimoog; Kip Jones and Corin Lee, violins. Dorothy Lawson, cello.
    Shane Shanahan, percussion. George Rush, double bass. Naren Budhkar, tabla.
    Ansonica Records 0013
    Total Time:  49:13
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Ansonica tends to pull together a blend of global music with connections often to both the classical and jazz worlds.  This new release featuring the Hevreh Ensemble fits perfectly with that mission.  The group makes its debut here on the label.  They have traveled throughout Europe to audience and critical acclaim for their unique blend of global musical traditions.  The compositions on this release are by Jeff Adler.

    The listener is invited to come along on a musical journey that explores a few unique global traditions while also offering moments for reflection and deeper contemplation along the way.  The album opens with the jazzier rhythms of Sima de los Huesos which features a gentle lyric line against a jagged propulsive bass line.  The ensembles interesting blend of Native instruments with traditional sounds is rather refreshing and the organ adds an almost 60’s vibe to the opening of the album.  “A Path of Light” moves from a moment of subtlety to a klezmer-like dance which then adds an Indian table for a real ethnic musical fusion.  The music here, as elsewhere, blends engaging melodies with a variety of gentle percussion and mallets creating a sound that has an ancient folk feel that is very much modern in its harmonic and rhythmic funkiness.  From this to a the poignant “A Thousand Questions” with its dark bass clarinet tone against mallet percussion and a plaintive oboe that opens the work.  The primary melodic idea is then continuously transformed as new instrumental colors are added.  Each of the pieces that follow craft fascinating journeys of melody and timbre with beautiful results.  Once in a while the melody takes a rather unusual turn which makes the music ever more interesting.  The use of different keyboards often adds an additional unique color and jazzier reference to the style.  Each track moves through these moments of reflection and dance-like rhythms that create engaging music.  Some of the central pieces begin to move us toward more classical expression with a variety of repeated motifs that often come together with extended harmonies in tracks like “Hacked”.

    Hevreh Ensemble is a distant cousin to the Frederic Hand Jazzantiqua.  What Hand’s group did in blending ancient modes and melodic styles with jazz, Adler’s music does with global musical instruments and gestures.  The use of electronic keyboards adds that modern jazz vibe from time to time with the melodies lending themselves to interpretation that is enhanced by the shifts in instrumental color.  A Path of Light thus creates a steady stream of invitations to explore the ancient and the present.  The result is a very engaging album that is about as unique as one can get as it blurs the lines of New Age, Jazz, Classical, and Global music.