Parisien, Emile Les Metanuits

180gr.

1-LP Holland

Jazz

High Quality

Improvisations by Emile Parisien and Roberto Negro. 100 Years of Ligeti: Duo Improvisations Inspired by György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1 "Métamorphoses nocturnes".

28 May 2023 marks the centenary of the birth of composer György Ligeti. Film director Stanley Kubrick gave the cosmopolitan avant-gardist a brief moment of fame when he appropriated pieces of the composer’s music for the soundtrack of "2001: A Space Odyssey". With that exception, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Ligeti’s challenging and complex music has seldom reached appeal among the broader public. Among musicians, however, his standing and the influence of his music are immense. Ligeti’s lifelong search for new paths, from sound-surface music to micropolyphony and microtonality has left its defining, long-term mark on jazz musicians too. So, when French soprano saxophonist supreme, Emile Parisien and Italian pianist Roberto Negro – widely considered to be one of the most exciting pianists in Europe, on account of his own projects and his collaboration with the Ceccaldi brothers – now choose to focus on Ligeti in their duo album "Les Métanuits", this is not just a flash-in-the-pan or some kind of quick centenary fix. For both musicians, this new venture has a long history.

"Métanuits" is a fascinating endeavour: a wonderful piece of craftsmanship in which everything seems to interlock. There is high-wire virtuosic playing, exploration of all the tonal possibilities of the instruments by both players. Tempi tend to be on the fast side: (with the indications on the sections ‘allegro’, ‘presto’ or ‘prestissimo’ setting the pace), but with a 'largo' to catch breath at the end. There is also a surprising lyrical warmth, as the pair follow each other through constantly changing re-framings of the theme, which as is re-heard takes on an irresistible expressiveness. "The overlaps between classical music and jazz are particularly close to my heart. The boundaries between these genres no longer have to exist" is Roberto Negro’s view. And this is something he and Emile Parisien prove through the natural flow and the surprising approachability of "Les Métanuits". In their homage to Ligeti, they don't even bother with the historicising conventions and barriers of an old, abstract or arcane avant-garde. Instead, they let this beguilingly contemporary music resound - and reveal its astonishing communicative strengths.