Cory Smythe

Accelerate Every Voice (PR08)

Accelerate Every Voice View larger

Accelerate Every Voice

Cory Smythe

Pyroclastic

020286231165

DRJ 162095

PR08

JAZZ

1

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CD 16,99 €

DIGIPACK EDITION

Pianist Cory Smythe took the stage at FIMAV in May 2019 with the Tyshawn Sorey Trio, an ensemble that gave an impressive concert in which Smythe’s very original playing literally stole the show. The recording of this disc dates from December 2018. Inspired by the work of Andrew Hill, another pianist, on his 1970 recording Lift Every Voice (in which a jazz quintet interacted with a vocal quintet), Smythe invited five singers from diverse backgrounds to join him, including Kyoko Kitamura, Michael Mayo, Raquel Acevedo Klein, Steven Hrycelak, and Kari Francis. Francis is a vocal percussionist, while Hrycelak plays bass, with the other three playing in various capacities. Smythe’s piano is augmented by a keyboard that reproduces the sound of the piano a quarter tone apart, resulting in surprising harmonies, to say the least, in which the voices also add strange spices (the opening piece, “Northern Cities Vowel Shift”, is a magnificent example of the genre). The composer’s music is very much in his own style, at the crossroads between avant-garde jazz and contemporary music. The treatment of the voices evokes the strangeness one can feel when listening to Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge (the pianist adds a little “talk box” to his instrument in one piece, to electronically “vocalize” the sound). The ensemble is a firework display of inventiveness which, as Smythe says of the Andrew Hill disc that inspired it, offers us “transcendent optimism in the face of overwhelming harm”.

PERSONNEL:

  • Steven Hrycelak - bass vocals
  • Cory Smythe - electric piano
  • Kari Francis - vocals, percussion
  • Kyoko Kitamura, Raquel Acevedo Klein - vocals

Recorded in New York, December, 2018

TRACKS:

  • 01. Northern Cities Vowel Shift
  • 02. Accelerate Every Voice
  • 03. Marl Every Voice
  • 04. Kinetic Whirlwind Sculpture 1
  • 05. Vehemently
  • 06. Kinetic Whirlwind Sculpture 2
  • 07. Knot Every Voice
  • 08. Weatherproof Song
  • 09. Piano And Ocean Waves For Deep Relaxation