COMPOSERS: Marilyn Mazur
LABELS: ECM
WORKS: Celestial Circle
PERFORMER: John Taylor (pno), Josefine Cronholm (voice), Anders Jormin (bass), Marilyn Mazur (perc, voice)
CATALOGUE NO: ECM 276 8056
In the UK, at least, Marilyn Mazur is probably underrated, arguably underexposed and certainly under discussed, so a new CD is welcome. This quartet was convened for the 2008 Molde Jazz Festival and its relative longevity in a world of ad hoc groupings is understandable. Mazur is a refreshingly complete percussionist who has long since scooped up the idea of jazz drumming in its entirety and stirred it into her polystylistic approach; the effect of this on what could otherwise be just another ECM piano trio with a guest singer is puckishly subversive.
Taylor is attuned to Mazur’s detailed thinking, responding with (and proposing) provocative melodic fragments and knotty chordal statements, while Cronholm manages to be both assertive and sensitive. Overall, this is a disciplined take on a music, which tends towards the intuitive and abstract; the results (impeccably recorded as is the label’s wont) are highly compelling. Roger Thomas