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Useful Music - Gebrauchsmusik
1. Music for use, in a positive sense,
ie, music to be played, for everyday life and performer's pleasure.
The Realization of a Line begins with collective improvisation
(play
excerpt 1) on the 12 tone row from which the melody is composed, eventually leading to a G
phrygian bass ostinato. The tune (play
excerpt 2) is 24 bars divided into three 8 bar sections with a 6 bar coda. One row is heard
throughout in its original form.
Quiet and Restful But Moving (ruhig bewegt) is an arrangement
of the main theme (play
excerpt 1) from Paul Hindemith's 3rd piano sonata. The title is the translation.
Wahbo uses Persichetti's mirror technique. In this case
the melody (play
excerpt 1) is mirrored in the bass. The tempo also fluctuates in mirror (play
excerpt 2) from chorus to chorus, fast/med-slow-med/fast etc. This piece began as an exercise
from Persichetti's book on 20th century harmony.
Color and Light begins with quiet free improvisation
(play
excerpt 1) on D with the time buried underneath eventually moving to a G pedal. The tune (play
excerpt 2) is a 40 bar (AABCD) form in 3/4 time with a floating lyrical melody and harmonic
background of pedal points and parallel moving chords that weave around traditional cadences.
To provide contrast between the head and solos, the metric value (play
excerpt 3) of the harmony is augmented on all sections except for (D).
Balladynia uses Paul Hindemith's gravitational order
of tonal centers backwards as a 12 tone row melody (play
excerpt 1) and then develops freely. Ironically, Hindemith was opposed to the 12 tone theory
claiming, "Music, as long as it exists, will always take its departure from the major triad and
return to it. The musician cannot escape it any more than the painter his primary colors or the
architect his three dimensions."
For D.B. also uses the 12 tone technique beginning with
collective improvisation (play
excerpt 1) on the row from which the melody is composed. When the melody (play
excerpt 2) enters, it is first heard in the original form (O) followed by the retrograde inversion
(RI) and then in retrograde (R) and ending with the inversion (I). The tune is dedicated to Dr.
Sam Bellardo, who many years ago at Bucks County Community College, introduced me to the music
of Paul Hindemith, Arnold Schoenberg and Vincent Persichetti.
 Useful Music
Jeff Baumeister Quartet | Wahbo Records
by John Kelman - All About Jazz
With the number of jazz albums released every month,
it’s becoming more and more challenging
to keep up. Add the proliferation of small independent and artist-run labels and the task becomes
nearly insurmountable. And that’s a shame, because it means that talented artists are
getting lost in the sheer mass of information out there.
Hopefully that’s not a fate in store for Philadelphia-based pianist Jeff Baumeister, whose
debut release signifies a new voice with a less-than-common set of roots. Baumeister’s
writing is conceptually complex—owing more to the advanced compositional approaches of
classical composers including Vincent Persichetti and Paul Hindemith than it does conventional
jazz tradition. But don’t let thoughts of challenging musical concepts deter you. Baumeister
and his quartet with saxophonist Greg Riley, bassist Peter Paulsen, and drummer Dan Capecchi
make these acroamatic ideas engaging and wholly accessible. Completely captivating and with
a certain aesthetic connection to classic ECM piano recordings, Useful Music has all the potential
to be a classic in its own right.
It’s easy to attribute Baumeister’s abstract impressionism to the usual suspects,
like Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans. But the truth is that his style is more rarefied. His approach
is more closely aligned with artists like Steve Kuhn, Art Lande, and Bobo Stenson—who are
fully capable of functioning within the jazz tradition when necessary, but when given free license
lean more towards harmonic ambiguity that remains wholly lyrical and provocative. Nor is Baumeister’s
unassailable technique and advanced ideation on display for its own sake. The term “musical” can
sometimes seem trite; but Baumeister’s strength at translating the sophisticated and the
cerebral into the emotionally profound makes “musical” a highly appropriate description.
And while Baumeister’s music is multilayered, finely detailed, and filled with various
thematic conceits, it’s never jagged—further linkage to ECM albums by Kuhn, Lande,
and another musical deep thinker, Richie Beirach. Capecchi’s playing is light and, in the
manner of Jon Christensen, he favors delicate cymbal work over strong pulses on the kit—although
he can present a stronger front when required. Paulsen’s approach seems informed by a Palle
Danielsson-like European aesthetic, maintaining clear forward motion through the gentle changes
of “The Realization of a Line,” but also a melodic counterpoint. Riley, on tenor
and soprano, pays the same kind of close attention to the purity of each note as does Jan Garbarek,
but with a tone that’s more about comforting warm than icy cool.
Still, while Useful Music has clear precedents, it’s not simply a retro exercise. Baumeister’s
writing, while evoking its deceptively gentle veneer, is more structurally rich than its antecedents,
making it a completely modern take on an established aesthetic. With a group concept that places
musicality ahead of ego, Useful Music establishes a new player and writer—and a new group—who,
if there’s any justice, will attract the attention of those who know the reach of modern
jazz extends well beyond the narrow confines of more traditional convention.
Reprinted with permission. © 2005 AllAboutJazz.com and John Kelman.
All material
copyright © 1996-2005 All About Jazz and contributing
writers. All rights reserved.+
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