Personnel:
Mara Rosenbloom (p), Anaïs Maviel (vcl, perc), Rashaan Carter (b)
Reference: FSNT-584
Bar code: 8427328435840
SOME GOOD NEWS!
"Flyways: Murmuration" has been listed in The New York Times Playlist on March 13, 2020:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/arts/music/playlist-drake-lil-yachty-ava-max.html
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"Mara Rosenbloom’s trajectory within New York’s improvisational music community has steeply and consistently pointed skyward. The pianist’s refined instrumental and compositional vision, masterful ear and derring-do has placed her in the upper echelon of accompanists, collaborators and, increasingly, into the role of ensemble leader. After considerable work with William Hooker, Vinny Golia, William Parker, Sam Newsome and her own ensembles, Flyways is built on a change best described as atmospheric. On Murmuration, recorded in 2019, Rosenbloom is the heart of a threesome with vocalist Anaïs Maviel (here also playing surdo) and bassist Rashaan Carter. As always, the pianist’s hands carve waves of sound, albeit suited to the timbers in her midst. On the lengthy foray of “I Know What I Dreamed Of” with a lyric drawn from the work of the late poet Adrienne Rich, the ensemble shines in a manner befitting the poet as well as the muses. Renowned for her feminism, LGBTQ and anti-war activism (she received the National Book Award simultaneous to Audre Lorde and Alice Walker), Rich stood as a model for lesbians and all people of conscience; see her Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Institution and Experience (1976) for an important view within. With Murmuration, Maviel’s extended range and arsenal of improvisation create suits of armor and journalistic probes, reaching skyward as Rosenbloom and Carter drop thickets of harmonies across both wordage and soundscape. The pianist, who never allows a moment to pass where a thoughtful musical passage is left undone, unspoken, revels in bass and surdo fills, which toss motifs over the edge, prompting her only to create further and beyond. This ensemble should be heard at Weill Recital Hall for full effect, its blending of postmodern classical music and organic improvisation carrying that much weight. Beyond this, other works on Murmuration are brief but telling. The opening themes as well as later pieces inspired by bird calls (some heard on the tracks), another Rich work (“Dream of a Common Language”) and, of course, the trio’s reimagining of “These Foolish Things”, long associated with Lennie Tristano and here dedicated to the beloved, late Connie Crothers. This closer is an intimate modernist statement, played solo by Rosenbloom for her late mentor and a perfect vehicle to close the recording, leaving the listener not only wanting more, but warmly, wanting Crothers."
John Pietaro (January, 2021)
The New York City Jazz Records
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"Pianist Mara Rosenbloom joins forces with the delicate voice of Anais Maviel (also on surdo drum) and bassist Rashaan Carter for a collection of originals and a single standard. Most of the pieces are short and concise tone poems, ranging form a romantic “Improvised Prelude” to a baroque-themed “Little Chick” with an angular “Bird Migration” showing rich intricacies. The centerpiece, however, is a thirty six minute journey on “I Know What I Dreamed-Our Flyaway” that features the ethereal Maviel giving personal and delicate poetic lyrics in patient and spacious settings, sometimes with Carter, other times along with the leader, and always in a reflective prism of subconscious musings. The result is an almost ambient mix of pastels to reach the backroads of your mind."
George W. Harris (May 18, 2020)
https://www.jazzweekly.com/
