Ethan Iverson: Playfair Sonatas (CD Review)

by Karl Nehring

(CD1) Fanfare; Violin Sonata – I. Andante-Allegro Moderato II. Blues (for Ornette Coleman) III. Rondo. Allegro; Marimba Sonata – I. Allegro II. Blues (for Eric Dolphy) III. Cadenza IV. Rondo. Presto; Clarinet Sonata – I. Allegro II. Music Hall (for Carla Bley) III. Scherzo-Minuet IV. Rondo. Allegro moderato; (CD2) Trombone Sonata – I. Allegro moderato II. Hymn (for Roswell Rudd) III. Rondo; Alto Saxophone Sonata – I. Allegro II. Melody (for Paul Desmond) III. Allegro; Trumpet Sonata – I. Allegro II. Theme (for Joe Wilder) III. Rondo; Recessional. Ethan Iverson, piano; Miranda Cuckson, violin; Makoto Nakura, marimba; Carol McGonnell, clarinet; Mike Lormand, trombone; Taimur Sullivan, alto saxophone; Tim Leopold, trumpet. Urlicht AudioVisual UAV-5960

 

Although Classical Candor didn’t see the light of Internet day until 2009, its roots go back much farther, with founder John Puccio and current contributor Karl Nehring getting involved in the early days (late 1970s) of an audio magazine that also featured an abundance of music reviews, The $ensible Sound, now sadly but inevitably out of print. John was the magazine’s Classical Music Editor, while Karl started as an equipment and music reviewer and a few years later became Editor. Meanwhile, in the late 1990s pianist Ethan Iverson (b. 1973) was serving as music director for the Mark Morris Dance Group, playing all sorts of classical repertoire for large audiences, including Robert Schumann’s Fünf Stücke im Volkston with Yo-Yo Ma onstage with dancers including Mikhail Baryshnikov. During this era Iverson also met the tenor Mark Padmore; eventually Iverson accompanied Padmore in several performances of Schubert’s Winterreise. He has long been interested in the intersection of jazz and classical music, and his career has been marked by significant milestones in both idioms.

 

In 2002 Iverson left Morris and formed the progressive jazz trio The Bad Plus along with bassist Reid Anderson and drummer Dave King. Iverson first came to my attention as the pianist in the jazz trio The Bad Plus back around 2003 when I heaped praise on their major label debut album These Are the Vistas in my “More Jazz Than Not” column in The $ensible Sound. (Could that really have been more than 20 years ago? I can imagine Iverson asking himself the same question from time to time…) I was less enamored of the group’s subsequent albums and did not think that much of it when I read about Iverson leaving the group in 2017. In 2018, I enjoyed an ECM album he recorded as part of a quartet with trumpeter Tom Harrell (Common Practice, ECM 2643). However, one of the Bad Plus’s most celebrated projects during Iverson’s time with them was a version of Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring wherein Iverson essentially played the Stravinsky piano part "straight." Their recording for Sony Masterworks garnered a rare five-star review in the jazz magazine DownBeat – not only that, it got a favorable review in Classical Candor back in 2014 from none other than our own John Puccio, which you can read here.

More recently, we have reviewed more albums by Iverson. In February, 2022, we reviewed Every Note Is True, a trio album with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jack DeJohnette for the venerable Blue Note label (you can read our review here). Then earlier this year, we reviewed  Technically Acceptable (see review here), an album on which he plays not only jazz, but also a classical piece, his own Piano Sonata No. 1. On a personal note, in my review of that album, I noted that a highlight was the track Killing Me Softly with His Song – a huge 1970s hit for Roberta Flack – on which Iverson is joined by Simón Willson on bass and Vinnie Sperrazza on drums. On Halloween night 2024 I was able to drive down to Cincinnati, Ohio, to join my son Isaac in attending a performance by the Ethan Iverson Trio in which the highlight of the show was having these same three musicians kill us convincingly with their performance of that very tune. 

Sometime over the past few years I started following Iverson Twitter, where I discovered that in addition to his talents as a musician, he has blossomed into a writer, critic, interviewer, and blogger of note.  I would strongly suggest those with an interest in jazz, classical music, or culture in general to check out his website at ethaniverson.com. We recently posted a portion of an interview that he did with a European publication on the topic of the relationship between jazz and classical music, which you can find here. 

 

Iverson’s background in and love for both jazz and classical music is evident throughout Playfair Sonatas. As you can see from the track listings above, each of the sonatas includes movements designated by the typical European classical terms such as Allegro or Rondo; however, each also contains a movement featuring the name of a prominent jazz figure, such as Blues (for Ornette Coleman) or Hymn (for Roswell Rudd). In the liner notes, Iverson explains, "These dedications came about late in the game. I had scrapped a previous Adagio for clarinet, and wrote a new middle movement I really liked. However, was this ‘oom-pah' rhythm too much like one of Carla Bley's amusing ‘music hall’ pieces? Well, what if I dedicated the movement to her? That would fix the issue of appropriation. As it turned out, Carla passed away the same day I finished ‘Music Hall’ and devised the ‘dedications’ stratagem. The other five salutations to Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Paul Desmond, Joe Wilder, and Roswell Rudd came easily, for they had been in the back of my mind the whole time."

 

After a brief, playful, fanfare by the entire ensemble, the program proper begins with the longest movement of the entire album, the first movement of the Violin Sonata.  What is especially interesting to hear is the interaction between violin and piano, characteristic of both chamber music and jazz, of course. (The dedication of the second movement to the iconoclastic saxophone legend Ornette Coleman reminded me that he also took up the violin later in his career.) It’s a lively piece, informed by the blues but sprightly in spirit. It is followed by what seems at first blush an unlikely candidate for a sonata, the Marimba Sonata. Any doubts I might have had about the aesthetic appeal of sonata for marimba and piano were instantly swept away the first time I heard a preview track on Amazon Music. What fun! Iverson’s piano and Nakura’s marimba combine with exuberant effect. CD1 closes with the Clarinet Sonata, certainly a contrast in sonority to the marimba. The overall mood, though, still has that underlying feeling of playful interaction that feels so jazz-like; indeed, as you listen, you can imagine the two players looking at each other for inspiration and feeding off each other’s energy as they play music that at some moments sounds as though it is flowing spontaneously from them.

 

CD2 continues in much the same way A special highlight is the second movement of the Trombone Sonata, designated Hymn (for Roswell Rudd). The movement evokes a late-night bluesy melancholic atmosphere that slows down time. Iverson writes, “Mahler said the trombone was the voice of God. The orchestral palette requires trombone for climactic passages but solo repertoire is uncommon. However, jazz musicians have made the most of this epic and unwieldy instrument. All three movements of my Trombone Sonata address the blues and the preach; the last movement has some old-time train boogie as well. The middle dedication movement is Hymn (for Roswell Rudd). I have a special affection for Roswell Rudd… in addition to being a wonderful trombonist, Rudd practiced ethnomusicology, assisted Alan Lomax, and wrote the definitive essay on his friend Herbie Nichols, the pianist who may have done the most of anyone in the 1950s to combine classical and jazz tropes. I did not really know Mr. Rudd but I met him briefly and thanked him not just for his music but for his writing, for there is no doubt my own scribbling follows his example.” In the Alto Saxophone Sonata that follows, the sound that saxophonist Taimur Sullivan produces from his instrument is more mellifluous than what listeners accustomed to the sound of the alto sax from old bebop LPs might expect. The piece is structured in traditional fast-slow-fast three-movement form, as is the concluding sonata on the album, the Trumpet Sonata, which features a playful opening movement, a reflective second movement at a much slower tempo, closing with a final Rondo in which Iverson’s piano and Leopold’s trumpet seem to be engaged in an exhilarating dance of delight. 

 

Why are they called the “Playfair” sonatas? It turns out that like Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, they are named for an actual person – in this case, Piers Playfair (left), an entrepeneur with a long history of curating, producing, and commissioning new works, especially at the intersection of jazz and classical music. When Playfair and Iverson became acquainted, they realized that they shared many common ideals about music. When the COVID pandemic forced Iverson to downsize and move his grand piano into a cheap studio space, Playfair asked Iverson if he needed help, and when Iverson admitted that he did, Playfair responded that he would cover six months of studio rent in exchange for six sonatas for various instruments of his choosing. 

 The end result is what we have on this two-disc set: the Playfair Sonatas. Making the physical package particularly attractive is the quirky and delightful cover art by the famed New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast. Delightful art, informative booklet, and rewarding music that brings a dash of jazz seasoning to chamber music make Playfair Sonatas an irresistible release for music lovers of the jazz and classical persuasions alike.