CD Review: Andrew Cyrille & Haitian Fascination - Route De Freres

Year: 2011

Style: Haitian Music/Jazz

Label: TUM Records

Musicians: Hamiet Bluiett - baritone saxophone; Alix Pascal - acoustic guitar; Lisle Atkinson - double bass; Andrew Cyrille - drums; Frisner Augustin - percussion and vocals. 

 

Andrew Cyrille &
Haitian Fascination
"Route de Freres" CD cover

CD Review: Now and then a CD's cover design and graphic art are so aesthetically arresting as to require comment. Such is the case with TUM Records art work and photographs displayed on Andrew Cyrille & Haitian Fascination - "Route De Freres" debut CD. The jacket design by Juha Lokstrom of art work photographed by Jussi Tiainen, courtesy of Finnish artist Paul Ostipow/Gallery Riis, speaks eloquently and presciently through the abstract red and blue hues from the Haitian flag, mixed quietly with the gold and green tones of its coat of arms, thoughtfully depicting the elegantly vibrant 'collective spirit' contained in the beautiful music of this recording. In addition, poet Amiri Baraka's liner notes are insightful and inspiring; and the musicians' biographies contained in the CD booklet, provide a level of information that adds significantly to listening pleasure.


 A debut album naturally accrues certain expectations; originality and modernity at least; innovation and a fair amount of excitement to be sure. In the case of Andrew Cyrille and Haitian Fascination, these expectations are heightened considerably by a sense of restless anticipation upon review of his career resume, that of baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett, and bassist Lisle Atkinson.

Drummer Andrew Cyrille

Cyrille is generally regarded as "one of the most versatile drummers in modern jazz." His musical footprints indelibly track back to the heyday of saxophone masters Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Roland Kirk, trumpeter Kenny Dorham, the influential pianist Mary Lou Williams, and were sunk deeply in avant-garde jazz during his stature-building decade (1960s and early 1970s) performing with the ground breaking, freely improvising pianist Cecil Taylor. Cyrille is very comfortable working in a modern mainstream setting or with more complex avant-garde music, he is currently a faculty member of The New School of Jazz in New York City.

Hamiet Bluiett has worked with the incomparable bassist Charles Mingus, saxophonist Sam Rivers, Soul Queen Aretha Franklin, R&B giant Marvin Gaye, pianist Abdullah Ibrahim (Dollar Brand), and is co-founder of the respected World Saxophone Quartet.

Bassist Lisle Atkinson

Bassist Lisle Atkinson has done impressive work with acclaimed vocalists Betty Carter, Nina Simone, Billy Eckstine, Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, preeminent trumpeter Clark Terry, be-bop co-founder Dizzy Gillespie, and pianist extraordinaire Wynton Kelly. Throughout "Route de Freres," Atkinson's bass reaches down into the rhythm of the drums and percussion and cavorts melodically, with clear, strainless, resonant, highs and lows, that are the hallmarks of a master musician.

Intended or not, this "debut" album possesses an undeniable, fascinating subtitle that is as explicit as its theme, "Road of the Brothers." It is indeed, also a captivating representative of a "Road Traversed By Giants."

Baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett

The CD is in essence, a musical coming home for Cyrille, to the country of his parents. As he describes it, "it is a cultural odyssey dedicated to the island country of Haiti, rich in music and culture, but plagued by poverty and environmental disaster." It opens with an expression of the roots of folk and vodou traditions (Marinet) with the 'spirit descending' through the ritual maman drumming and singing of master drummer Frisner Augustin. Bluiett's baritone saxophone applies an iridescent burst of swirling musical colors to the ceremonial rhythms of the drums like a large multi-hued dancing sea, encircling an island nation.

Since there is such inherent richness about Haitian music on the whole, having its expressions accented with the dynamism, spontaneity, and innovation of the jazz idiom, opens several appealing musical possibilities in terms of versatility, stylistic range, imagination, lyricism and energy. A sense of urgency is evident in the combined lyricism of Blueitt's saxophone and Alix Pascal's acoustic guitar (Deblozay) remonstrating "Haitians to speak out their frustrations against the chaotic situation in Haiti." The hope being that this beautiful, wounded country will "prosper in all aspects of its humanity" (Hope Springs Eternal).                                                                  
                                                                               
Even in chaos and hopelessness, or better, in spite of these debilitating conditions, love in its deepest form manages to exist and blossom, and it flows through the stylistic range of Pascal's guitar (Isaura), echoing the sensual tone of Brazil's legendary guitarist Laurindo Almeida, and the seductive majesty of Haitian classical guitarist Frantz Casseus.

Guitarist Alix Pascal

The centerpiece of the work is the triptych "Routes de Freres" ("Road of the Brothers"). A three-part composition by Cyrille that traces his Haitian legacy, seeking to capture his experiences and remembrances from his first visit to the island as a seven-year-old; exploring images of later visits with his family; and finally painting a musical composite of what "Manhattan could have felt like" musically, when his parents landed (by boat) in the United States in the early 1920s.

What appears on the surface, to be an individualistic cultural look backward, becomes instead a conscious search for life's landmarks and guideposts (Route de Freres, Part 1 - Hills of Anjubeau); with bouts of nostalgia resurfacing from deeply formed childhood memories (Route de Freres, Part 2 - Memories of Port-au-Prince Afternoons); finding exhilarating surprises in the cultural gap between an island nation and a continent, over which Cyrille constructs a musical bridge (Route de Freres, Part 3 - Manhattan Swing), running counter to the predominant theory that "you can't go home again." In the triptych, Cyrille's true genius extends backward from his versatile drums, through the wondering lens of a seven-year-old, free of polluting biases, to produce music that, at its core is so pristinely, wonderfully uncontaminated, as to be almost perfect. Essentially, Cyrille succeeds in clearing a 'spirit path' for his accompanying players to add their own experiences and remembrances that imbue the music with an added richness of jazz and authentic Haitian rhythms, that is hard to describe.

Drummer/percussionist Frisner Augustin

The band collectively displays a broad stylistic range, incorporating jazz, Latin and Caribbean rhythms on bassist Lisle Atkinson's melodic composition (C'mon Baby), changing the tempo with increased rhythmic drumming and percussive energy on Bluiett's freely improvising, thought-composing, avant-garde composition (Sankofo), then effortlessly executing the less harmonically complex Cyrille composition (Spirit Music). The climax of this exciting sequence of styles comes as Cyrille and percussionist Frisner Augustin engage in a heated percussion and drums exchange on their composition (Mais). Overall, Andrew Cyrille & Haitian Fascination  not only display a extremely high caliber of musicianship, but they are also excellent composers and arrangers who have compiled an album of exciting, appealing music with the potential to become landmark in the genre.

Track Listing: Marinet; Deblozay; Hope Springs Eternal; Isaura; Route de Freres, Part 1 - Hills of Anjubeau; Route de Freres, Part 2 - Memories of Port-au-Prince Afternoons; Route de Freres, Part 3 - Manhattan Swing); C'mon Baby; Sankofa; Spirit Music; Mais (Percussion Duo); Ti Kawol.

Recorded by Robert Musso at Clinton Studios, New York City
Assistant Engineer: Justin Kessler
Mixed and Mastered by Henrik Otto Donner, Esa Santonen and Janne Malen at DER in Tammisaari, Finland

Produced by Petri Haussila

Andrew Cyrille uses Ludwig drums and Zildjian cymbals.

Email: info@tumrecords.com
http://www.tumrecords.com/