Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret - The Other Side Of Air (2018)

Myra Melford’s Snowy Egret
The Other Side Of Air
2018 - Firehouse 12 Records: FH12-04-01-029
https://firehouse12records.com/album/the-other-side-of-air
http://www.myramelford.com/projects/project/display/id/4/Snowy-Egret



* Ron Miles : cornet
* Liberty Ellman : guitar
* Stomu Takeishi : bass guitar
* Tyshawn Sorey : drums
* Myra Melford : piano

https://www.ronmiles.org/
https://www.libertyellman.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stomu_Takeishi
https://www.tyshawnsorey.com/
http://www.myramelford.com/

Recorded by Nick Lloyd at Firehouse 12, New Haven,
Connecticut (CT), USA, on October 14 & 15, 2017.

Reviews

By John Fordham
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/oct/26/myra-melfords-snowy-egret-the-other-side-of-air-review-kaleidoscopic-improv-workout

When a smart musical original with a Guggenheim award and a raft of
international poll-winnings to her credit calls a band something as fanciful as
Snowy Egret, you suspect that it wasn’t out of sheer caprice. Considering the
Bay Area composer/pianist Myra Melford’s music can turn from beguiling themes
and inviting swing to dissonances and jagged anti-grooves in a blink, a snowy
egret feels like too graceful and ghostly a creature to fit. But Wikipedia
observes that snowy egrets (familiar sights in Melford’s California) “feed
while standing, walking, running, or hopping”. At that, it all makes sense.

Melford, a pianist fascinated by improvisation from childhood, was drawn toward
such key 1980s figures of the African American jazz avant garde as Anthony
Braxton and Henry Threadgill, who showed her a world of new compositional
principles often investigated by improv virtuosi just as happy with no
structures at all. Those experiences (and a technique influenced by Cecil
Tayloresque Charles Mingus pianist Don Pullen) has guided a true original’s
spirit in Melford for over 25 years. The Other Side of Air, featuring sometime
Bill Frisell partner Ron Miles on cornet and the articulate Liberty Ellman on
guitar, is a musical slideshow of ducking-and-diving trumpet/guitar themes that
the leader’s crisp piano rejoinders snap at the heels of, jostling improvised
polyphonies, wistful, faintly Keith Jarrett-like piano meditations turning to
brittle free-improv and percussive chord-themes that become bright, hoppy
tunes. Visionary drummer Tyshawn Sorey is a vital force, Ellman’s lissom long
lines and scurrying chords are constantly fresh, and the gentlest of closing
codas reveals a complex venture with a shapely story arc, despite so many of
its elements being left to chance. Melford always knows where she’s headed, but
she doesn’t need to keep talented partners on a tight leash to get there.

--

By avantscena
https://avantscena.wordpress.com/2018/12/02/myra-melfords-snowy-egret-the-other-side-of-air-firehouse-12-2018/

By Will Layman
https://www.popmatters.com/myra-melfords-snowy-egret-other-2621317148.html

By Tim Niland
https://jazzandblues.blogspot.com/2018/12/myra-melfords-snowy-egret-other-side-of.html

By Filipe Freitas
https://jazztrail.net/blog/2018/11/12/myra-melford-other-side-air-album-review

By Doug Simpson
https://www.audaud.com/myra-melfords-snowy-egret-the-other-side-of-air-firehouse-12/

Marek Dusza (pl)
https://audio.com.pl/muzyka/recenzje/jazz/26162-myra-melford-s-snowy-egret-the-other-side-of-air

Cyriel Pluimakers (nl)
http://www.jazzenzo.nl/?e=4117

Da Alessandro Manitto (it)
https://www.musicajazz.it/myra-melford-the-other-side-of-the-air/

Par France Musique (fr)
https://www.francemusique.fr/emissions/open-jazz/l-actualite-du-jazz-myra-melford-s-snowy-egret-la-face-cachee-de-l-air-67207

Por «el intruso» (es)
https://elintruso.com/myra-melfords-snowy-egret-edita-su-segundo-trabajo/

Por Salvador Catalán (es)
https://www.diariodesevilla.es/mapademusicas/other-side-air-myra-melford_0_1318968639.html