Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor String Project: INVENTIONS (Featuring the Spring String Quartet) (OmniTone 15215)
The mellifluous sounds heard on Lee Konitz-Ohad Talmor String Project: Inventions contrast the traditional saxophone-and-brass-based "jazz" sound. Konitz's alto sax and Talmor's arrangments and reedwork interact improvisationally with four accomplished Austrian string players who are also facile improvisers, The Spring String Quartet.
Talmor's arrangements take full advantage of the wide variety of timbres possible with string instruments, melding those string sounds with reeds to span a pitch range from lows in the bass clarinet and cello to highs in the clarinet, alto saxophone, and violin. The results make the sextet sound like a "mini-orchestra" of sorts.
"The String Project is mostly about collaboration," explains Talmor, "along the lines of the one Miles had with Gil Evans, or of any in which two artists find each other and mutually compliment each other's work and creativity."
Recorded in 2004 in Kefermarkt, Austria, at a studio located in a 17th century castle, Inventions was fine tuned through countless concerts, with Konitz and Talmor talking at length about each other's role in the pieces. The result is natural, organically flowing music that is a completely original blend of written and improvised music — both in terms of sounds and colors, but also in how the improvisers react to the sonic surrounding.
- Musicians
- Lee Konitz, alto saxophone
- Ohad Talmor, tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, clarinet, arranger
- The Spring String Quartet
- Christian Wirth, violin
- Marcus Wall, violin
- Julian Gillesberger, viola
- Stephan Punderlitschek, cello
For sound samples, click on MP3 (for an MP3 sample) or WMA (for Windows Media): |
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| 1. | Qu'est-ce que c'est (Konitz, Talmor) (5:33) | MP3 | WMA |
| 2. | Pretty Peace (Ohad Talmor, Ohadsound/SESAC) (5:13) | MP3 | WMA |
| 3. | Moon (5:13) | MP3 | WMA |
| 4. | Lied im Herzen (2:16) | MP3 | WMA |
| 5. | General Cluster (2:16) | MP3 | WMA |
| 6. | Chunks (Konitz, Talmor) (5:23) | MP3 | WMA |
| 7. | FeeBeMe (Talmor) (4:21) | MP3 | WMA |
| 8. | Alone in Cologne (4:44) | MP3 | WMA |
| 9. | Struttin' with Some Barbeque (Lillian Hardin Armstrong, Don Raye/Universal-MCA Music) (4:21) | MP3 | WMA |
All compositions by Lee Konitz, Konitz Music (BMI), except as noted.
Original arrangements realized by Ohad Talmor.
Recorded 28-29 April 2004 at Studio Weinberg in Kefermarkt, Austria
Album credits
Recording Engineer: Wolfgang Schiefermair
Mastering Engineer: Katherine Miller
Album Designer: Frau Kranift
Liner notes by Frank Tafuri
Production assistance by Alicia Krueger
Producers: Ohad Talmor, Matt Balitsaris
Executive Producer: Frank Tafuri
Lee Konitz plays Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces.
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