Lucian Ban / John Surman / Mat Maneri: Transylvanian Folk Songs
Sunnyside Records

A shared interest in Bartók prompted this collaboration between pianist Lucian Ban, violist Mat Maneri, and woodwinds player John Surman. Transylvanian Folk Songs isn't a set of trio interpretations of the Hungarian composer's music, however, but rather a recording that uses his work as an ethnomusicologist as a creative impetus. A major part of Bartók's story concerns the collecting of Romanian folk music he undertook when introduced to it in the early 1900s. He spent time during 1909-1917 traversing the Romanian countryside to record and transcribe the material, which eventually became six catalogs boasting more than 3000 tunes. Not surprisingly, the compositions he created thereafter reflect the profound influence of the folk material.

Fast forward 100 years to find Maneri, Surman, and Ban performing arrangements of the tunes. While it would seem an especially natural move for Ban, a native Romanian who left the country for NYC in the late ‘90s, the others share with him a deep appreciation for folk music, making the trio an ideal conduit for the folk sensibility that so attracted Bartók. The project was, in fact, the brainchild of Ban and Maneri, who as things developed determined that a third improvising voice would complete the picture and quickly realized Surman, whose music's often marked by a pastoral quality, would be an excellent fit.

The first stage involved selecting the set-list, a major challenge given the magnitude of the collection. After playing through a wealth of carols, dowry songs, laments, and love songs, Ban and Maneri settled on those that resonated most powerfully and that would lend themselves to a trio adaptation; they also listened to digitized versions of Bartók's original recordings to enhance their connection to the material. All of this culminated in a live performance on November 7th, 2018 at the Timisoara Museum of Art in Romania, the hour-plus recording an intensely focused document of the trio's intimate, impressionistic interplay. Crowd noise is almost entirely absent, with applause coming at the end but the audience otherwise silent.

Entrancement sets in early when a sinuous folk melody unspools seductively through “The Dowry Song,” Ban providing an ostinato 5/4 base for his partners' unison voicings of viola and baritone sax. The synergy between the three is wholly evident in the way they converge in certain parts but also diverge into soloist expressions, Ban's piano the element keeping the tune's structure in place. Surman switches to soprano sax for “Violin Song,” its impish character bolstered by Ban's percussive accents. Like much else on the release, the piece never sits in one place for long when the music progresses through multiple episodes, the trio remarkably adept at navigating the directional shifts involved. Sombre by comparison is “The Return,” which sees Maneri coaxing plaintive murmurs from his instrument and the others contributing haunting complementary expressions on bass clarinet and piano.

September 2020