Esthesis Quartet

Sound and Fury

Sunnyside

Sound and Fury by Esthesis Quartet, their third album, doesn’t shout tribute album in the cover art or directly in the titles of the compositions but consider it such as it is dedicated to the late Ron Miles, a mentor to members Dawn Clement (piano and vocals)) and Elsa Nilsson (flute). In turn, MIles’ great friend, guitarist Bill Frisell, joins the quartet as a guest with his subtle, unobtrusive guitar work.  The bass-drum tandem of Emma Dayhuff and Tina Raymond completes the ensemble. At one point, Clement and Nilsson envisioned working together with Miles on a record but his illness prevented that. While he was in hospice, musicians, including Clement and Nilsson compiled improvisations to be shared with Miles, these eventually provided the groundwork for the seven pieces they present here. The Esthesis Quartet did originally receive a Chamber Music America Performance Plus grant to record with Miles and it was MIles who suggested that Frisell fill his role. After Miles’ passing, the Quartet members began to develop pieces with Frisell in mind as an additional voice and soloist. The album is appropriately reflective and quietly poignant.

Although not labeled “Suite for Ron Miles” on the back cover, the first four pieces composed by Clement comprise such.  Dayhuff does make reference to such in her liner notes. Opener “Where I Begin” has Clement issuing wordless vocals over bouncy piano, flute jabs, and a steady rhythmic undercurrent. As she finds her footing, lyrics emerge –”When I came to this place, it was “all love”/Endless happiness and possibility/Turn around, where’d you go?/Kicking in, reality again, I’m all alone.”  Nilsson is the principal soloist in the piece that moves through the first stage of grief, denial. “Together” represents coming to grips with the situation, accented by Raymond’s kinetic drum intro, and Frisell’s guitar blending with NIlsson’s flute in a series of vibrant passages, brought a calm resolution. “Fit of Fury” is a more freely improvised piece featuring melancholy flute tones and sprinkles of guitar notes that somehow blend so well with the piano and flute, while Raymond remains skitterish underneath and Dayhuff alternates between pizzicato and arco techniques on her bass. Though it is intended to represent anger, it may well be the best example of the kind of free improvisation that Miles favored, with each group member, including Frisell expressing themselves individually over the eight minutes. The fourth piece, “Is There a Message,” beginning with Dayhuff’s declarative bass intro, is much quieter, as if composing a letter to express the feelings of depression upon the loss. The melody is deliberate through the vocal and flute, but Clement’s piano is percussive and roaming, as if a cathartic release. She sings, “Within the silence, is there a message/A portrait of hope and heartbreak/It breaks and overflows, is there a message/In broken thoughts and fragments.”

 “Just Come Play,” by Nilsson is primarily a flute-guitar duet. It’s built on an improvisation that the flutist sent to Miles, and it builds into a more expansive ballad involving the whole ensemble. Frisell’s unmistakable guitar sound is prominent, a perfect foil to Nilsson’s melodic flute as the piece ebbs and flows with gorgeous crescendos and sublimely tranquil sequences. Dayhuff’s “Capricorn” rests on the bassist’s bowed lines and electronics from both Clement and Frisell’s signature loops. It’s a mysterious, free flowing piece, extending beyond nine minutes, that somehow launches into an infectious groove around the four minute mark, over which Frisell playfully solos, inspiring Clement to follow suit before morphing into its mysterious tones, only to emerge with a vibrancy as it closes out.  Raymond’s “Ace of Pentacles” closes. Inspired by the tarot card of the same name, it carries a simple melody with prominent bass lines from Dayhuff and a folk-like round, clearly in Frisell’s comfort zone together with lighter, more joyous flute lines from Nilsson, all to combine for a hopeful conclusion to their traversing an array of emotions throughout the album.

– Jim Hynes

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