Patrick Zimmerli

Songs of Innocence

 EMP (Emergence Music Productions)

If you are familiar with the iconic English poet, William Blake, you recognize the title of composer-saxophonist Patrick Zimmerli’s 14^th album as a leader. Zimmerli’s trio features pianist Kevin Hays and percussionist Satoshi Takeishi. As Zimmerli mostly plays soprano saxophone throughout and there is no bassist present, the sound is relatively light, yet intense and dynamically shifting. The romantic poet Blake’s work are poems verging on nursery rhymes, influencing these five original Zimmerli composition. Blake though is a bit deceptive when ascribing ‘innocence’ to poems as they can also have a darker side that deals with corruption and the loss of innocence as childhood moves toward adulthood.  To that end, Zimmerli embraced some of the darker side but mostly stayed to the sunnier side,  finding the simplicity of the writing appealing and a change to his usual bent for complexity.

Opener “60 Morningside” is certainly on the bright side, with Zimmerli riding above the pulsating rhythmic pulse laid down by his trio mates.  Zimmerli establishes the head, improvises vigorously before passing to Hays, who delivers a percussive solo.The title takes its name from a building that is the house of the Columbia University president, which Zimmerli was at first unaware of, writing in the liners, “…running up to a little perch over Morningside Park in Manhattan to take in the sunrise. Opposite this perch was a beautiful building in red brick that took on a gorgeous rich hue with the rising sun.”

 “Crow of Dove” is a far more reflective, yearning piece with underlying romanticism. It’s inspired by a line from a Shakespeare Sonnet about missing a loved one from afar,and seeing them in every image that comes to the eye. The piece builds from its contemplative beginning to a very joyous section before receding to the opening strains. Takeishi sets the danceable rhythm for the upbeat “Wedding Song,” with the trio again reveling in lucent, glimmering tones.

“Dreamscape” plays to a rather ragged rhythm representing the disorienting state of dreaming. One can easily envision the twisting and turning that comes along with it along with scary thoughts that once one wakes asks ‘where did that come from?’ Zimmerli’s elongated notes in the next to last section read practically like screams while the definitve ending exclaims, ‘oh, thankfully I’m awake.’ The trio takes this notion of ‘twisting’ even further in “Torsion,” set in an odd time signature. Although the credits imply that Zimmerli is exxclusively on soprano, these ears hear tenor in this piece. The term describes a twisitng deformation of an object, a form that further deforms as it goes along. Zimmerli claims the piece would sound more upbeat a more conventional time signature, but it sounds plenty powerful and inspired in its current form, with Takeishi fiercely pounding his drum kit as the trio hits the closing bar emphatically.

Clocking in at well under 30 minutes, Zimmerli and his trio say more than what many artists say in twice the time. Simplicity may be the overriding inspiration but there’s plenty of mood changes and sheer power as well.

– Jim Hynes

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