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Don Byron
A Fine Line
(Blue Note)
On clarinetist Don Byron's inventive and surprising new recording, A Fine Line: Arias and Lieder, he examines the art of the song, exploring the divide between high and low art by looking at the linkages between pop, classical music and jazz. Byron isn't satisfied with rehashing hard bop. He seems to delight in examining the music in the area broadly defined as jazz in new ways—it's always interesting to see what area he'll explore next.
Byron has had an eclectic career—he played clarinet in the Klezmer Conservatory Band in the late 1980s/early 1990s and was a sideman with many New York downtown musicians such as Uri Caine, Bill Frisell and Bobby Previte (many of whom also delight in mixing genres), as well as Anthony Braxton and David Murray. Some of his earlier albums explored his wide-ranging interests: Plays The Music of Mickey Katz explored Katz's post-WWII take on mixing klezmer, jazz & humor; Bug Music looked at early jazz from the 1920s/30s; and Nu Blaxploitation explored rap & funk.
On his new CD, Byron continues to make you hear old music in a new way. He wants to show that modern pop and theatre songs can be compared to classical arias (solos in an opera), and lieder (classical art songs). He does a good job at programming the music. The only actual classical arias and lieder on the album are done without vocals: Byron plays bass clarinet in a duet with pianist Uri Caine on Schumann's 1840 lied "Zwielicht" and performs another duet with Caine on Puccini's aria "Nessun Dorma." Byron plays Chopin's "Larghetto" solo and has another duet on his own composition "Basquiat," for the painter who died in 1988 at the age of twenty-seven.
The duet/solo pieces are interspersed amongst the ensemble pieces—performed by Caine, bassist Jerome Harris, drummer Paulo Braga and a variety of vocalists. Frequent Byron collaborator Uri Caine is well-suited for this project—he's a sensitive accompanist and can play both classical and jazz. And like Byron, Caine is interested in mixing genres (see his takes on Mahler and Bach on the Winter & Winter label).
The one bonafide jazz piece on the album is Ornette Coleman's "Check Up." Ornette's music isn't usually thought of has being vocally oriented (except for "Lonely Women"), but Byron's version works well. It has a wordless vocal by Mark Ledford, some beautiful piano from Caine and the feeling of samba from Brazilian drummer Braga.
There are two songs from the theatre: Leonard Bernstein's "Glitter and Be Gay" from the Broadway play "Candide" with vocals by classically trained Patricia O'Callaghan. The song starts in a classical style, and then alternates with a jazzier style. Stephan Sondheim's sarcastic "Ladies Who Lunch" from "Company," is sung by Cassandra Wilson.
The remaining four songs were originally pop songs: Roy Orbison's "It's Over" is done as an art song, witt the warm sound of Byron's bass clarinet and dramatic deep vocals from Mark Ledford. Stevie Wonder's "Creepin'" from Fulfillingness First Finale is performed with an intimate vocal by Patricia O'Callaghan, backed by Ledford. Henri Mancini's "Soldier in the Rain" is performed as a wordless vocal by all four vocalists. The Four Tops's "Reach out I'll Be There" (penned by Dozier/Holland/Holland) is done as a duet.
There's been a growing interest recently, expressed both on recordings and in writing, on the influence and relationships of classical music, and African-american musics to tin pan alley, theatre songs, jazz and pop songs. Don Byron's beautiful album A Fine Line should add to the debate.
— Alan Lankin, March 2001
Release Date: 14 November 2000
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last update 15 March 2001