Benjamin Koppel: Anna's Dollhouse
Cowbell Music
There are many reasons why the recording of Mulberry Street Symphony, Anders Koppel's ambitious long-form work for jazz ensemble and orchestra, was so well received upon its release in early 2022, one of them being the alto saxophone of the Danish composer's son, Benjamin. Let's be clear: this was no case of misguided nepotism. His playing elevates the work whenever it appears, and it does the same on his own Anna's Dollhouse. His stellar song cycle strikes an artful balance between jazz and singer-songwriter genres in a manner vaguely reminiscent of Joni Mitchell's The Hissing of Summer Lawns and Don Juan's Reckless Daughter. Song structures are firmly in place, yet the performances are permeated by a jazz sensibility and marked by spontaneity.
Anders is credited with string arrangements on the release, but this one's issued under Benjamin's name and rightfully so. All of the music was composed by him, with vocalist Caecilie Norby penning lyrics. Rounding out the players are pianist Kenny Werner, drummer Peter Erskine, bassist Johannes Weidenmueller, and percussionist Jacob Andersen, with strings courtesy of Duen (Danish National Youth Ensemble) and conductor Morten Ryelund. Stylistically, the nine songs range from dramatic, Weill-esque theatricality to sultry jazz and pop, their character fashioned in accordance with the lyrical content of the songs.
What lends Anna's Dollhouse additional resonance is its personal dimension. Anna, you see, was Benjamin's aunt, and though Norby wrote the lyrics she did so based on talks he had with Anna across many years at her home. Born in 1921 as one of five children to a Jewish tailor and his young wife, she and her family fled in October 1943 from Nazi-occupied Denmark to Sweden. After returning home, she married the man her parents had earlier arranged for her to wed, the son of a Jewish French tailor, despite being in love with another man, a gentile. That loveless union lasted sixty years until her husband's death in 2007, at which point Anna, who'd played piano as a teenager, began playing again at the age of eighty-six and performed concerts at her house, located sixty kilometres outside of Paris. After she died in 2019, Benjamin vowed to tell her story, resulting in the recording but also the May 2022 publication of a novel treatment, Anna's Song.
Naturally the lyrics focus on the fulness of her experiences, not just the final period. Whereas “Mes Quatre Hercules,” for example, looks back decades to a time when the young girl felt protected by her four brothers, “Black Water” captures the desperation of a family abandoning its home country during wartime in the hope of obtaining shelter in another. “Dying,” on the other hand, alludes to the recovery Anna experienced when widowhood brought with it a return to music-making (“Melodies that lift my wings / My medical aid, my fingers destined to play”).
Benjamin's soaring alto and Norby's attractive voice are a splendid match and make for eloquent music. As a singer, she hews closely to the lyrics—no indulgent runs here—and infuses her fluid delivery with soulful inflections. Koppel's incredible facility on the horn is evident in his soloing, but it's always used to give articulate voice to genuine inner expression (see, for instance, his terrific solo in “Sketches of Life and Death”). Werner, Erskine, Weidenmueller, and Andersen likewise enhance the project with circumspect and inspired contributions. The pianist elevates the music with his lyrical presence, Erskine's as responsive as always, the bassist distinguishes himself with sensitive playing, and the percussionist artfully ornaments the music. Ample space is worked into the arrangements for the instrumentalists' individual gifts to show themselves (e.g., the drummer's spotlight on “The Neighbour”). With Mulberry Street Symphony and Anna's Dollhouse both 2022 standouts, the Koppels are clearly having quite a year.August 2022