Sahara von Hattenberger: 1Q84
ODD SOUND

Give Montreal cellist Sahara von Hattenberger full marks for ambition. Not only does 1Q84 (titled, of course, after the Haruki Murakami novel) comprise two discs of material, its first is an hour-long treatment of Claude Bolling's Suite for Cello and Jazz Piano Trio. The exceptional calibre of playing she and partners Joanne Kang (piano), Adrian Vedady (bass), and Jim Doxas (drums) sustain for the full measure of the performance is remarkable. Performing a work of such scope isn't for the weak of heart, but von Hattenberger never falters in scaling this chamber jazz mountain. It's one of those genre-transcending works that weds classical and jazz and blurs the lines so thoroughly that it's impossible to label it one or the other—a fusion in the truest sense. The French composer created the work in 1984, twenty-seven years after Gunther Schuller coined the ‘Third stream' label, and consistent with the term integrates through-composed writing and improvisation into a towering statement.

While a track on the second disc does directly reference Murakami's novel (Remy LeBoeuf titled his composition Air Chrysalis after a story detail abut clone-hatching cocoons), a parallel also can be drawn between the book's Aomame, a young woman who travels to a universe similar to our own but with a few key differences, and the time-traveling undertaken by Hattenberger for the Bolling performance and her rendition of Kate Bush's “Running up that hill,” also, coincidentally, written in 1984. The three other pieces on disc two are intended to evoke the discombobulating, AI-emergent world we're in today and thus constitute a parallel reality to 1984's, which, coloured by out-of-control inflation, AIDS, and burgeoning technology, was as tumultuous for its citizens as ours is now.

Bolling wrote his six-movement cello suite for Yo-Yo Ma and recorded it in the country where Ma was born, France, at Paris's Studio Davout. The participation of Vedady and Doxas on von Hattenberger's re-imagining is especially meaningful as they were professors at McGill University when she was studying there and have been long-time mentors of hers. The cellist invited the New York-based Kang to perform with her after hearing her playing but without ever having met. A single listen to this totally enrapturing suite is all that's needed, however, to recognize the special chemistry the four achieved.

In “Baroque in Rhythm,” the cellist initiates the marathon with an unaccompanied, Bach-like statement, after which the pianist and von Hattenberger entwine gloriously before Vedady and a brushes-wielding Doxas join to twist the music into swinging jazz shape. The tone is radiant and the playing exuberant as the four make their collective way through this rousing opening movement, the bassist delivering a punchy solo and the cellist leading the dynamic charge. Each of the six parts is a study in contrast, and the work is all the richer for the multiple directions it takes. Tinged with blues and lyrical shadings, “Concertante” is a graceful, almost Gershwin-esque part highlighted by expressive solos from the leader and King and buoyant walking grooves. At thirteen-plus minutes, it naturally ventures down multiple pathways, all expertly handled by the players. Whereas “Galop” races at maximum intensity and with the leader riding the music's waves like a champion surfboarder, “Ballade” brings the suite's tender and bluesier sides to the fore. As aptly titled is the elegant “Romantique,” which is jazzy too (see the solo trade-offs between Vedady and Doxas). As the hour-long performance nears its end, “Cello Fan” caps the suite with an effervescent movement that swings with delight.

If the second disc's twenty-four minutes play like an addendum to the suite, it's not because the four pieces are less worthy of attention but more because the longform work casts such a large shadow. LeBoeuf's Air Chrysalis follows Bolling's stylistic fusion with a concise throwdown that's as much rock as classical or jazz (a little bit of drum'n'bass even works its way into Doxas's muscular groove). “Running Up That Hill” became a hit all over again for Bush when Stranger Things featured it prominently in its fourth season. In LeBoeuf's arrangement, the cellist hews closely to the song's melodies, and you'd be a fool not to when they're so strong. Plucking the tune's melody first, von Hattenberger bows thereafter, with the others supporting her with sparkling accompaniment. Something of a shape-shifter, Night Path by Canadian composer Malcolm Sailor alternates between solemn and sunny episodes without losing its spooky quality in the process. Concluding the album is Rondo Squilibrato by Montreal-based Jeffrey Fong, which, no surprise, combines classical “rondo” form with a wild “squilibrato” attack in keeping with the Italian word for deranged.

November 2024