Chromaticity Trio
Deb comes in as I'm watching this for the third time, and stands riveted. "Beautiful," she says. "And sad."
Angelenos know Chromaticity Trio separately: pianist Vardan Ovsepian, cellist Artyom Manukyan and violist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, each of whom has collaborated with a wide range of jazz, world and fusion artists, and each of whom leads his own ensembles. This sensitive, soulful trio embraces elements of classical music, European-Eastern folk music, melodic jazz, avant-garde jazz and even a hint of blues -- not because the three are trying to fuse genres, but because their emotions flow best through a combination of the many expressions they know so intimately.
The opening composition of this year's all-remote Angel City Festival is a 35-minute suite that slides between tautly arranged setpieces and vigorous solos, often employing alternate techniques such as plucking inside the piano and pinging harmonics on the viola or cello. The chroma-factor includes a broad color spectrum as well as dense chordal hues.
Beauty does rule here in service to sadness -- moments when we can't stand it anymore, then catch a breath when we look at the sky or hear flowing water. Chromaticity Trio could be offering a soundtrack for an Armenian genocide memorial; it's the kind of balm that resonates with Native American funeral rhythms, Jewish plaints or Arabic melismas. But whatever your wounds, there's something for you.
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Anthony Fung
Toronto drummer Fung presented the premiere of "The Chinese Immigration Suite," commissioned by the L.A. Jazz Society's New Note program. To realize his 25-minute composition, Fung collected a supersharp octet featuring a string trio (Megan Shun, Elizabeth Baba, Marza Wilks) plus trumpet killer Dan Rosenboom, clean-toned alto saxist Braxton Cook, keyboardist John Escreet, and bassist Luca Alemanno, the last benefiting significantly from the netcast's generous low end.
The suite was slow to anger and high in diversity, its segments supporting one another with easy balance. The welcoming, rather Ellingtonian string introduction could have stretched out further, but Fung allotted elbow room to highlights such as the dissonant street fight between Escreet and Rosenboom, the gentle violin solo of Shun, and a yearning group crescendo.
The melodic, temperate score found its best ally in Fung himself, who bumped the momentum along with assertive tomtom work (much as he did with David Binney's Future Philosophy at last year's Angel City Fest), and permitted himself a most musical solo. We should all have a landlord that good.
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Deal of the decade: You can watch all 12 of this year's Angel City presentations for $20 by ordering here. Each becomes available on a different day, but all are watchable at any time for weeks after purchase. The concerts can be streamed in "360-degree video," which means that, much as when you're in a club, you can look wherever you want at any given time; your trackpad or mouse guides your eyes.