There is more to jazz strings than Stuff Smith and Stephan Grappelli. Here are a couple recent releases that offer a variant of what the bow can do.
Mat Maneri’s viola teams up with Ches Smith on drums, timpani and vibes along with Craig Taborn on the piano for this album of quietude. The trio specialize in soft ambience with telepathic interplay as on “I Think” where the artists weave in and out like the sun setting through a stained glass window. Smith and Taborn chime on the meditative title track, and the Maneri’s viola delivers impressionistic sounds of spontaneity on “Isn’t It Over.” Like haze on a misty morning.
The lyra is a Greek version of the violin; a little more earthy and folk sounding than its high stepping brother. Sokratis Sinopoulos teams his up with Yann Keerim/p, Dimitris Tsekouras/b and Dimitris Emanouil/dr for a dozen originals that bring together the exotic harmonies and mourning moods from Greece with the improvisations from jazz. The atmosphere is almost monastic, with Byzantine brooding on “Aegean Sea” and “Stillness” that will make you think you’re spending a day in Mt. Athos. Sinopoulos’ lyra sighs like Melina Mercouri on the two versions of “21st March” and takes you to a smoky night club at 3 am on “Street Dance.” Not all Greek music is for breaking plates, for as my Greek dad used to say, “Don’t forget, we invented tragedy!” Aegean ambience of stillness and meditation.
ECM Records