Label: Pyroclastic Records, 2020
Personnel - Angelica Sanchez: piano; Marilyn Crispell: piano.
Angelica Sanchez and Marilyn Crispell, two powerful pianists and disciples of the spontaneous jazz, join forces for the first time on record. How To Turn the Moon features 10 tracks - seven short-form compositions by Sanchez, who penned them to be expanded in conjunction with Crispell, her former mentor, and three impromptu moments filled with synergistic stimulation and deep musical understanding.
The opener, “Lobe of the Fly”, accommodates both parallel and contrapuntal segments, evolving into a four-hand improvisational romp filled with chromatic developments and swift configurations that interlace splendidly. The piece was named for the intricate drawings of an optic lobe of a fly by Spanish neuroscientist Santiago Ramón y Cajal. Neuroscience was also at the base of “Calyces of Held”, whose profound introductory reflection by Sanchez falls into a nuanced arpeggiated ostinato that serves as a foil to Crispell’s harmonic dissonances and unbounded melody. An understated tension is engraved on the prevailing calmness, and a different rhythmic figure populates the final section, dissolving gradually as it is reshaped to merge with the its counterpart.
The lugubrious, well-aligned riff professed at the end of “Ceiba Portal” lingers in the mind. This piece consents convergence, but also shows off the staggering polyrhythmic adventurism of the pianists, whose circularity and interaction almost suggest a telepathic sort of connection. This is also confirmed with a trio of free improvisations - “Space Junk”, “Windfall Light” and “Rain in Web”, with the latter being the most luxuriant of them all in terms of action-reaction dynamics.
Ingenious piano layers combine on the concluding “Fires in Space” for a terrifically rhythmic effect. Under Crispell’s firmly locked balletic pulse, Sanchez’s phrasing comes in the form of strong melodic ideas and animated swoops with fair doses of abstraction.
Standing tonally apart from the rest, “Ancient Dream” provides far-ranging and detailed resonances that come from the inside of the pianos. Extended techniques with percussive purposes, silences and investigative prepared pianos create an idiosyncratic atmosphere that veers into a well-tempered classical intonation by the end.
Employing their unerring directness and showing an effortless proficiency to create in the moment, Sanchez and Crispell draw forth a range of intriguing sounds that populate this teamwork environment.
Grade B+
Favorite Tracks:
01 - Lobe of the Fly ► 05 - Ceiba Portal ► 09 - Rain in Web