- Bryan Murray
- Myra Melford
The final concert of the season in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNow series happens on Monday night, marking the end of the curatorial efforts here by Anna Clyne and Mason Bates. The pair have functioned as Mead Composers-in-Residence at the CSO for the past five years, and part of the job involves programming this new-music series—they’re going out on a high note, with work by some composers who deftly straddle the worlds of jazz, improvised music, and new music.
For Monday’s program, however, Melford goes back into the past, including an epic work from the eponymous debut album of another superb quintet, The Same River Twice (Gramavision). That band featured trumpeter Dave Douglas, cellist Erik Friedlander, drummer Michael Sarin, and reedist Chris Speed. “The Large Ends the Way,” the closer from the same album, will be performed here with a band consisting of cellist Tomeka Reid, trumpeter Russ Johnson, drummer Mike Reed, bassist Larry Gray, and a violist, violinist, and clarinetist from the CSO. The piece was inspired by Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., and a bit of text from 12th-century Japanese samurai Kiichi Hogen. The second Melford piece is the title track from her 2010 album The Whole Tree Gone (Firehouse 12) by her sextet Be Bread—with Takeishi, trumpeter Cuong Vu, guitarist Brandon Ross, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and drummer Matt Wilson. The piece, drawn from a quote by Sufi mystic poet Rumi, is propelled forward in violent yet lyrical fits—hurtling, simmering, and pushing—to create an exquisite tension ameliorated by meditative swaths of melody. You can check out the original recording below.
Drew Gress, The Sky Inside (Pirouet)David Berkman, Live at Smalls (Smalls Live)Various artists, Boogaloo Pow Wow: Dancefloor Rendez-Vous in Young Nuyorica (Honest Jon’s)Dai Fujikura, Ice (Kairos)Chalachew Ashenafi & Ililta Band, Fano (Terp)
